Hi there everyone, another major release is here - v1.8.0-RC1 aka “They don’t make 'em like they used to”.
This is a new feature release, with focus on bringing the features that were developed during the past few months but had to be disabled in order to get Duo X with a stable release (and shipping of course).
Please note that this is a release candidate.
That means it might be stable, but needs more testing first to make sure.
If no issues are found in around 2 weeks we’ll release it as stable, otherwise we’ll do a RC2.
So, what’s new?
Actuator groups
Lists can now be addressed to multiple device footswitches/buttons in a group, one going up and the other down.
The idea here is to make it easier to navigate through a list, as before we had to reach the end in order to wrap-around and get back to the initial item.
MIDI separated mode is back
The previous way used on the MOD Duo to manage MIDI devices is now back as a MIDI port mode option (default mode is aggregated).
This means each individual MIDI device port gets its own MIDI jack in the web GUI.
Pedalboards that were made in v1.6 or older will load in separated MIDI mode, in order to keep backwards compatibility.
Press the “MIDI Ports” button in the bottom bar to open a small dialog where you can switch between the two.
Tempo divider addressings
We have added a new feature that makes it possible to sync time-based parameters of a plugin to the master tempo of the unit.
This can be used to sync (multiple) plugins to the host clock, even if the plugin itself doesn’t have a host sync feature built-in.
When this feature is available for the parameter, you will see an option to “Translate value to musical tempo” in the assign menu.
Beneath that you will see a list of dividers for the tempo e.g “1/4”, “1/8”, “1/16”.
This will allow you to sync the tempo to a musical subdivision, like quarter notes or sixteenth notes etc.
You can also select an actuator to map the full list of musical subdivisions to your device controls.
This new feature is supported on controls with the units: Hz, MHz, kHz, seconds, milliseconds and minutes.
Actuator lists pagination
When assigning a list-type control to a device actuator, the contents are now paginated.
In less technical terms, we can now send parts of the list instead of the full thing (which is not possible if it is too big).
This allows to have an infinite number of items in the list, no longer limited by a few initial items. 
Very soon we will enable this for the banks and pedalboards too, and at some time later for Control Chain devices.
Device settings menu option (Duo X specific)
The Duo X now has a few options to customize its behaviour.
Find these in the menu under system → device → device settings:
- brightness
- hide/show unassigned actuators
- grab & direct knob mode (grab mode is default)
There’s also quite a few more changes and tweaks.
You can read the full changelog below.
Because this release is still under testing, it won’t appear as an update in the web interface just yet.
You’ll have to manually download and apply the update file if you wish to try it out.
(Release testers, also known as ‘group 1’, will receive this update as usual)
Here’s the manual download link:
Duo: http://download.moddevices.com/releases/testing/modduo-v1.8.0.833-RC1.tar
Duo X: http://download.moddevices.com/releases/testing/modduox-v1.8.0.832-RC1.tar
The upgrade procedure is explained at the top of our releases page, here:
http://wiki.moddevices.com/wiki/Releases
Here’s the main changelog:
- NEW: Actuator groups
- NEW: MIDI separated mode (is back)
- NEW: Tempo divider addressings
- NEW: Device options in device menu (Duo X only)
- NEW: Paginated list-style controls
- Allow reinstalls and downgrades to any valid version
- Disable ping/check device every 2 seconds (as it may cause more issues than it solves)
- Do not display sensitivity options for Duo X potentiometers
- Improve cache strategy for plugin resources (makes loading of web GUI under load much better)
- Fix loading pedalboard snapshot referencing a plugin that has been removed
- Fix webgui becoming sluggish when midi sync is on (properly throttle events from audio host side)
- Fully update parameters and device actuators when transport changes from audio host
- Workarounds for Duo X firmware issues with i2c (issue still being investigated)
- Minor miscellaneous fixes and tweaks
We hope you’re enjoying your MOD Duo and/or MOD Duo X.
Let us know if you find any issues.
If you haven’t received your Duo X yet, please be patient and hopefully it is dispatched and arrives soon.
Thanks for understanding.
