Wish for a better UI

Contribute Feature Requests
#1

Hi MOD community
I´m sharing my vision for the Mod Dwarf

I want to use it like a groovebox/MultiFX box because this has many things ALREADY BUILT IN (generators, midi, effects) but it´s difficult to ACCESS/MOD them because of the USER INTERFACE

The major problem holding it back is the user interface (in my opinion). We have a nice Software running but not talking to the Hardware in an optimal way.
To improve the workflow I wish we can: 1º Improve the navigation, 2º eliminate the need for Computer but keep it

Look at the Zoom MultiStomp design or the Elektron way (1 page per function). I am not proposing exactly same system as above but something to keep in mind

Suggestion for NAVIGATION MODE to make a fake mouse and use what we already have:
-I would make a square grid based navigation in 2 dimensions (left-right, up-down) to make chains of pedal or modulate pedal parameters. Like when you look inside of the parameters of a pedal in the computer but for pedals too.
-Using the knobs like a pseudo mouse like a drawing sketchpad: knob 1= change options in the current space (on/off pedal, mod/add/remove), knob 2= up/down, knob 3= left/right. Clicking on knobs to enter/exit navigation mode so IT´S FAST.
So the key point here is being able to navigate the full interface with 3 knobs in Navigation mode (vertical, horizontal, and change options of this 1 parameter selected) to unlock all the power of the unit without computer.
On the other hand we have PARAMETER MODE: 3 parameters at the same PAGE like we already have, with 1 knob controlling 1 parameter.

-The 3 pushbuttons under the knobs can be used as 1= accept-enter, 2= cancel-exit, 3= next page (double tap to previous). In a consistent way like in a tamagotchi

We have now access to all the parameters but only can see 3 at the time in the screen so we need to be able to reorder this “parameter squares” with a number (1/2/3, etc, or hide) in the order they will appear for us in the screen

Summary: Navigation mode to make a pseudo-mouse (knob 2 and 3) and change 1 parameter at a time (knob 1), Parameter mode to change 3 parameters of the screen (with 1 parameter associated to 1 knob) and the 3 pushbuttons to accept/cancel/next. The footswith are still free to whatever you want

Please I would love navigation mode and new fast interface for fast workflow without computer.

1 Like
UI suggestion: more info in the assignment dialog
Where to post ideas for improvements?
#2

I can tell you that this is a need and a pain that we already have in our plans to tackle. Yet, it’s quite a big project to implement. With the resources that we have at the moment, it’s not really possible (in short term) since it would jeopardize the development team eventually for some months (at least).
Sooner or later it will become available, but we can’t tell you when.

15 Likes
#3

Can we please make a monthly survey in the forum to vote for development priority updates?
I know right now is Neural modelling but it will be cool to have some community driven updates.
Maybe you can offer a few options and estimated time to do it or work in progress…

I want to make pedalboard without a computer. Being able to use the Dwarf standalone for me is first priority, please, I dont care if it takes 3 months because I´m sure it would make using the dwarf faster and more often

3 Likes
#4

Another approach is to improve the existing UI so it’s easier to edit on mobile platforms like phones (or to create an android app that can talk to the mod system). This, in conjunction with Bluetooth (or better : using a wifi dongle and the phones tethering option) can already be used but is somehow quite annoying for many reasons.

I suspect improving the mobile platform capabilities of the UI is way cheaper in terms of dev, and would retain the many advantages the current UI has. What’s your take on this @jon ?

Maybe some people in the community are savvy enough and would have a bit of time to help on that front as well.

2 Likes
#6

For me it´s best standalone to be free… not need more complications with app or bluetooth…

1 Like
#7

This assumes there is a team of developers for such features.

I think this would be an interesting idea for when MOD is going strong and they have additional capacity to work on “extras” every month/quarter. Not at the moment though.

2 Likes
#8

I am not sure that a stand alone approach would be usable with the currently existing products… No touch screen, limited screen estate, lots and lots of effects and completely unrestricted connections between them…

Maybe the next models will allow more interaction, but as off now it is far more friendly use a tablet and a otg cable or a Bluetooth adapter

#9

It seams the Pi-stomp “team” has done some work here, so there may just be a merge from their github ?

(never tried a pi-stomp but it seams to work without a computer)

Sure the screen is colorful and seams to have a bit more pixels, but the way you can change parameters for each plugin doesn’t seam to need a lot more pixel or any color than the Dwarf offers, no ?

6 Likes
#10

I would like too to change any param direct on mod equipment without manual assignment.

The software that controls the mod devices screens is closed source, so there isn’t possible to contribute this with the mod team.

3 Likes
#11

I can’t even imagine how you could achieve that realistically given the routing flexibility on the Mod devices.

The Boss GT1000 has a good system in place but it has a pretty linear signal chain aside from the odd parallel divider. Most people I spoke to favoured editing via a computer regardless and in a live situation being able to manually set parameters you could tweak on the unit would have been an improvement instead of trawling pages of fx blocks.

#12

Hi, so we do not have the ability to build pedalboards on pi-stomp, but we do expose all of the plugins parameters in our UI to be able to change things on the fly. This is done through our own “API” injected into mod-ui. Not sure it would work on mods hardware as they don’t show all the plugins on the main screen like we do.

4 Likes
#13

Well, creating pedalboards would be really hard, but tweaking parameters should be feasible: one first screen with a browsable list of all the plugin instances on the current pedalboard, clicking on one of them you could enter on a list with the plugin parameters

OTOH i still can’t see the benefits compared to having a tablet close to it, except maybe that you can’t enter in navigation mode (select pedalboard and snapshot) when the web ui is connected… and that the web ui uses some cpu… Ok, there would actually be some benefit :smiley:

3 Likes
#14

Maybe merge this post with Parameter assignment directly on the device and Access every plugin parameter from the Dwarf screen since we have the same request:

Being able to modify plugin parameters at any time without restrictions (no need to previously map it to a button).

I embrace the flexibility on Mod devices and the clever web interface but modify parameters on the fly is convenient (like a normal guitar pedal…)

The way it has been done on the pi-stomp seems clever to me and only with 1 knob
Maybe you can collaborate and turn this into the OS itself? And then add ability to add/delete/move plugins

3 Likes
#15

Seems sensible doremi.

Thinking about it, in order to assign parameters on the unit first you have to be able to find the parameter, then assign it (I realise I’m starting the obvious!). So being able to select the parameter and tweak it would be half-way there.

Being able to then optionally store an assignment for that parameter would be the icing on the cake of course!

#16

Or would that just make it easier for the Mod Audio crew to ignore if it was a single post? I acknowledge that with most things they’re very involved in what we ask for even if it’s just to say “no” or “not right now,” but there are three or four different threads on this (at least two of which point out it was a promised feature in the original press drop) and NOBODY from the company has chimed in on any of them! At a certain point it’s not paranoia; they really are ignoring it on purpose.

Creating complex pedalboards might be really hard, but perhaps stringing together a mono board with effects in a straight series (and rearranging them) shouldn’t be that tough. Even the Zoom MultiStomp pedals let you do that.

2 Likes
#17

While idea of complete standalone configuration sounds appealing, I can’t imagine a way how the flexible and sophisticated pedalboard routing of the MOD platform could be expressed via a couple of knobs without being unbearable. ( Even in the much simpler linear configuration of the classic BOSS processors, configuring presets was at least uncomfortable, and I had switched to setting parameters from the PC app quite fast)

I guess the best bet here is to have a lightweight simplistic interface for the mobile devices (phones, tables)+ good access point wifi mode support with wifi functionality leaving the “experimental” territory.

I see it like something similar to puredata flow diagrams:
image

With a full plugin bitmap graphical ui replaced by the minimalistic autogenerated ableton style controls:

image

This could help to do some pedalboard tuning on the fly with no PC, and be fast enough to work even through bluetooth.

“Don’t you guys have phones” (c)

2 Likes
#18

I totally agree with @doremi here.

The fact that I have to connect my mod to the computer, open up that browser (which also very often doesnt load the gui on the first attempt) just for swapping a chorus effect for a flanger really puts me off and made me switch to a zoom multi fx instead of mod for guitar related stuff.

The mod is still in the setup but more for synth related stuff, running cardinal and as a usb midi router. Since these are more complicated tasks I don’t mind using the editor here so much.

So as a start it would be great if could at least do these things in standalone:

  • Swap effects out
  • access all paramaters of all plugins from the hardware (as mentioned already many times)
2 Likes
#19

Maybe it is the software developer in me, but also “simply swapping” two effects is not “simple” because the absolute freedom offered by the system when ut comes to define pedalboards.
What if it is not a simple Daisy Chain? What if the output of one effect goes to more than other plugins? Or viceversa? What if one is mono and the other is stereo? It will be really hard to define those special cases…

Maybe it could be enough to have a lighter and simpler UI which can be used without affecting navigation mode.

3 Likes
#20

I once suggested to allow inserting a plugin between two connected ones by dropping it onto the joining cable (by default, it would use the first input and outputs if multiple ones are present, but why not allowing developers to design more complex behaviours using an optional set of rules ?).

We could also have an extra suppress button that keep the connection between the upstream and downstream plugins. Combining these two feature could greatly speed up the editing of pedalboards, especially on moblie platforms.

2 Likes
#21

You mean :

  • having a phone charged
  • having a bluetouth dongle
  • make it work with your phone
  • having the time to load the pedalboard through the slow 5.0 bluetouth
    ?

Since developing a lighter/simplier UI, why not the one that even the dwarf could use it with 3 buttons and the b&w screen ?