Dear community,
[I’ve sent this message via email but I think it might be good to have it here as well]
Because this is an important message, I would like to start with a story:
- Knock knock!
- Who’s there?
- Control chain*.
- Control chain who?
- Control chain controllers that are gonna rock your world!
As you well know, the MOD Duo is constantly improving, with regular software updates bringing about new functionalities and an enhanced overall experience. For our next big evolutionary step forward, we’re expanding the MOD family and introducing two new members: the External Footswitch extension and the Arduino Shield.
However, thanks to our prior experience with the Duo launch and our improved release system for software updates, we’ve learned that a pilot batch (consisting of approx. 100 units) for Beta testing is always welcome so as to deliver only smooth-running products.
We’re only announcing this to the community of MOD users and will be selling these units at cost price, aiming to get real-world tests in order to be able to properly launch to the general market. This intermediate phase will enable us to run these tests while in a limited and controlled sample group that is wide enough to provide “real case scenarios”.
In terms of price, the testing Beta units will cost US$85 (shipping included) and in the near future, when we’re open to the general market, the External Footswitch cost will be US$159. You can get on this bandwagon by purchasing the Footswitches via this link.
You will then be added to the hardware tester group on the forum.
Please bear in mind that Beta testing the peripherals has two major technical requirements (in addition to be willing to face bugs and report them to us):
- the user must know how to manually upgrade the Duo
- the user must know how to upgrade Control Chain devices
You can check if you are able to proceed with the manual update by reading this: Releases - MOD Wiki
And here is the link to our Control Chain section: http://wiki.moddevices.com/wiki/Control_Chain
As for the Arduino Shields, they won’t go through the same process of the footswitches because we expect Arduino users to be naturally more inclined to coding, debugging, etc. You can purchase yours here. These pretty little things will allow you to create any type of controller you can imagine if you’re into that.
We’re really excited to open this new chapter and expand the Duo’s controls!
And we’re looking forward to having your feedback on the new peripherals 
All the best from everyone at MOD HQ,
Dwek
*Control Chain is an open standard, including hardware, communication protocol, cables and connectors, developed to connect external controllers to the MOD. For example, footswitch extensions, expression pedals and so on.
Comparing to MIDI, Control Chain is way more powerful. For example, instead of using hard-coded values as MIDI does, Control Chain has what is called device descriptor and its assignment (or mapping) message contains the full information about the parameter being assigned, such as parameter name, absolute value, range and any other data. Having all that information on the device side allows developers to create powerful peripherals that can, for example, show the absolute parameter value on a display, use different LED colors to indicate a specific state, etc. Pretty neat, right?
PS: Also, we’ll be hosting our second Webinar session this week on the different controllers you can use with the MOD Duo, so book your seat here and let’s meet on Thursday 30 March at 18:00 if you want to know more and ask questions!
):