Anybody seen this? Pretty cool looking product. Not as cool as my Dwarf but cool nonetheless.
Thoughts?
It uses a teensy microcontroller and the effects are quite barebones. Capability wise it doesn’t come close to a Dwarf, but it’s an interesting project none the less.
Imo it’s nice that there is a bit of competition in this space, which I think will make the Dwarf stand out even more 
3 Likes
mixed feelings.
expensive for the vibe it gives me
a weird journey of expecations and after browsing and thinking…still a lot of questions.
as a “geek” I like the idea of creating your own effects but why should I bother.
As soon as you want more specific stuff, you need to be digging quite deep. I think MOD takes a better position there, where the platform is a meeting place for developers and “players that don’t mind a bit of tinkering”.
Both MOD and this party need to work on the casual audience though.
and even so, the “packaging” on the MOD products/universe is more professional.
Aviate audio will need to up their graphics and marketing game a bit; it has a bit of a “student” feel to me when it comes to the interface, the shop, the effects…
Where’s the content? Where is the sales ptich?
Why this and not the competitor?
Also, the journey for me, the uninitiated, is …confusing. The first think I need to know is: what separates this product from the rest? What are the USP’s? (unique selling points)
Advice to the MOD people: check out the Aviate audio site and product video and write down what you felt and which questions you got. Aviate is doing quite some misses on the marketing side here and it could inspire you to do (even) better!
The video got me all wrong when it comes to expectation. I needed a video that was going to SELL me the product. I got a video on “how fast it is to create a generic tremolo”.
There is focus on the means but far too little on the GOAL.
What “hole” is it filling?
What question is it answering?
It is an ideal experience to test those questions and feelings as a complete outsider and imagine how MOD outsiders could feel when coming in?
There are no thought of journeys to follow.
- new and dicovering; creating the actual need while you might not even know you actually needed this product
- lighting up the strongest features
- drafting a rough idea of what the product means and how it compares to others for its price
- some deeper paths to explore the spefic feature that tickled the visitor
etc.
Conclusion: While MOD doesn’t offer the slickes experience and journeys (yet), it shows that MOD is more mature on both tech and experience level. The “create your own effects” is a fun gimmick but I wonder if it still has value as soon as you need specific things and you depend on a unique effects format, even more exotic than LV2?
5 Likes
Totally agree about MOD needing to market to the casual audience.
I’m a worship pastor, music instructor, sound engineer, and lead guitarist so my Dwarf is super essential to get my job done and I can advertise it to more casual audience. It’s the Helix killer, the do everything pedal, the Swiss Army knife. The problem…selling it to someone who just wants to plug and play.
4 Likes
but we can help!
We can learn from the world of computer games: Every complex game has a smooth remp up thanks to an (interactive) tutorial. 
3 Likes