Hi all! I’m a guitar player and I’ve been thinking of getting the Dwarf for a few months now. I really love the ecosystem and I’m glad Mod Audio made it real.
I joined the community days ago searching for info and advice and it’s been great. Thanks all!
The thing is I told a guitar friend about it and he told me there’s a chance to buy a Mod Duo and also a Mod Duo X online as used gear.
It seems like these units have more processing power than the Dwarf? The price for the Duo is really good and the Duo X is also at an interesting price.
Does it make sense to get a Duo in 2024? Any compatibility problems with the new plugins? Does it get support? Same questions about the Duo X…
Still thinking about the Dwarf as main option tho…
MDX is noticably more powerful. Considering new CPU hungry neural processing stuff, it becomes important. I see that Dwarf users have to switch to 256 samples latency to make use of these new shiny toys, while on MDX I can use 128 buffer, use NAM or AIDAX and still have cpu headroom for other effects. A even run two AIDAX in parallel, which I doubt I could do with Dwarf.
Therefore, even considering that they are not produced anymore, and new features may not been ported to it at all, or ported later, I do not regret owning MDX, and still consider it as a good investment, especially for a good price.
However, I would not buy MDX Limited Edition (the early model, the one without power switch), seems like there are multiple issues with new firmware updates specific to LE. Also it has weaker CPU, as far as I understand - it would be problematic and not better than Dwarf in terms of power.
As for original Duo, I would not consider getting it, unless you are getting it really cheap. Seems like it is even weaker than Dwarf in terms of CPU , and is even less likely to get updates than MDX. It’s unlikely to make real use of neural processing on old Duo.
P.S. My point of view is very biased towards having more processing power, as I have to process two pickups of my Chapman Stick separately and almost indepently.
Most of users still might be fine with Dwarf. Btw, Dwarf also has some “Founder” Edition, or something, but it is the same as production techincally, only some painting is different, so it is not a red flag, do not be scared in this case.
The Duo is much much older and it has quite limited processing power. I would not recommend (unless you are fine dealing with its many limitations)
The DuoX is technically more powerful than the Dwarf (just make sure you don’t have the Limited Edition, from the crowdfunding, as it only has a quadcore), however it is less suitable as a guitar effects unit because it is not a stomp-box style device and the UI/UX is less optimized for this goal as well.
on the notion of the Dwarf running out of CPU, the portal plugin (beta at time of post) helps greatly with that. Here’s my current main pedalboard that uses an AIDA-X model of one of my own amps and 2 IR plugins (Convolution Reverb and MOD Cabinet Loader) At 128 frames, it uses around 60% CPU on my Dwarf.
I have seen videos using the portal plugin and it seems to do wonders. The CPU limitation on the Dwarf is not a deal breaker for me but this opportunity arose and I’m thinking about it.
The seller has not responded to my request of a pic from the back of the device yet so idk…
Okay so the guy selling the Duo X was very nice and sent a pic showing the power switch and after a few questions I just ordered it. Yay!
He was honest enough to tell me that there is some background noise with the device but very subtle so now I’m thinking about getting another power supply as I read it usually solves the problem. He solved it using a passive DI and always kept the original power supply. I guess I should wait and check how bad it is?
Also I’d like to use the Mod Duo to play (eventually) some synth sounds/loops and some simple melody lines but I’m not sure if I should get a midi controller along the lines of the Akai Mpk mini mk3 (seems to be a best seller) or a cheap small synth to get started with it. I’m a guitar player with very limited piano skills and I’m completely new to synths but I was always interested. Any advice on how to start would be very welcome.
As a sound reference: Tame Impala, The War on Drugs, Radiohead…
I’m excited to get the unit and also a bit stressed about the work ahead of me lol.
Thanks again to all of you helping in the journey!
the available synths for the Dwarf are fine to get you started if you have a midi controller-- I’d recommend one with both mini-keys and pads, and an internal sequencer (tho don’t necessarily expect to be able to work out syncing/clock perfectly, depending on the setup). Arturia makes some good ones, I also have one of the small akais with just pads and dials… but the most essential thing for me is the KMI softstep 2-- and they’ve just released a SoftStep 3, so you might want to check that out.
