I have the idea to build some kind of custom mixer with my Mod Duo X. The building blocks would be like:
16in/8out channel USB audio interface
MIDI controller for additional controls
Up to 8 “channel strips” (a mix of mono and stereo) build with plugins consisting of gain, EQ, filter, compressor
2 busses for internal send effects (delay, reverb, EQ on both)
1 bus for cue listening
1 bus for a sub mix with EQ, compressor inserts
1 bus for the master mix with EQ, compressor and limiter inserts
This would imply a tremendous amount of wiring and OFC I have to get USB audio working again first. But is it even worth the effort? Or will I run into bigger problems anyway?
(Yep I know that tinkering with external interfaces on the MOD hardware is rather unsupported )
I think the big variable is time. Suppose you have basically unlimited free time (you think this is fun to tinker with and you’re willing to spend nights and weekends doing that). Buy a used interface. If it doesn’t work, sell it again, very little money lost. Perhaps basically no money if you use Craigslist/FB marketplace/whatever. But if you’d rather not spend the time, you should probably go with something off the shelf (used iPad and interface, perhaps, and this also might have resale value if you decide you don’t like it).
I think for the vast majority of people this wouldn’t be a good idea, unless you wanted to try and get donations and whatnot and legitimately become a contributor to the project as part of your career. It probably won’t be fun enough to justify the time unless you’re getting money for it.
My feeling that using one of the MOD devices would be too restrictive; however using MOD software on a small computer with an attached USB audio interface might have sufficient power and I/O for this to work, something like
Well… I couldn’t resist and tried some things in 3-4 nights. It definitely wasn’t fun but mainly because the UI is a giant PITA since it was clearly not built for that amount of plugins and channels. In retrospective I’m not sure if it wouldn’t have been less pain to do all the loading and wiring directly on the API
I think my MOD device is sufficient for rapid prototyping because all the internals are already working and optimised for its purpose (RT kernel with custom patches, OS config, ALSA config etc). But my experiments made me wish for a stronger SoC because the load is already pretty high with a rather basic setup. I’ll elaborate on my experiments in the post below.
I don`t really understand why you would want to use your mod for this.
Use a DAW?
→ RT kernel with custom patches, OS config, ALSA config, … these are all easily accomplished within 15 minutes on a normal desktop running linux.
Buy yourself a cheap second hand audio box, for 100 EUR you have a working USB 2.0 one with a dozen in/outputs. Add it to your setup, et voila.
Why go through pains massacring a machine trying to rebuild it for a purpose it wasn’t made for…?
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