MOD Device (Dwarf/Duo/Duo X) owners' club - Tips, Ideas & Patches

[SamIAm]

15 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Gigged mine again tonight - it does react differently to different basses

Only having used multi-fx units (Zoom now Dwarf) I wonder is this unusual?

S'manth x

[MrDinsdale]

15 minutes ago, Smanth said:

Only having used multi-fx units (Zoom now Dwarf) I wonder is this unusual?

S'manth x

I think it's very common, people often have separate profiles for guitars, sometime singlecoil vs humbuckers etc.

 

It's not really any different with pedals though, a guitar with a hotter signal is gonna have way higher input gain and hit drives harder so having separate profiles is a good way to automate it I guess rather than twiddling knobs!

[MrDinsdale]

2 hours ago, Smanth said:

Whilst the Dwarf is really sturdy and suits my needs for a multil f/x box (I can use input1 for my bass, input2 for another band members guitar/ukulele and generate a drum track using its midi and drum synth plugins) I see what you mean about the fx loop.

It is possible (as I think was mentioned elsewhere) to use Bass->Input1->Internal Signal Chain A->Output1->external f/x chain->Input2->Internal Signal Chain B->Output2->Amp(etc), it would be very nice to have one or two dedicated f/x loops like the GT-100 core or even the single send/return of the HX Stomp.

 

Having said that, I don't have any seperate pedals ... ALL of my f/x run in the Dwarf, so my pedalboard is tiny!  And using the AIDA-X neural modelling plugin I hope to be able to drop in models of some of the external pedals that I might want ... an octaver that tracks really low notes being an example.

 

S'manth x

I'm not against the idea of ditching my analog pedals entirely in principle but I've just never found anything digital that gets me as close as I'd want.

 

The capturing models of fx pedals is super interesting, especially drives and preamps where I could jump from mid to heavy gain settings at the press of a switch.

 

My Capo preamp has two fx loops, a pre and post loop that allow for a pre and post DI. My idea with the CORE was to kind of weave the two together with nested FX loops so that i could sandwich the analog pedals with digital fx. I can still do this via the Mod but it means I'm a little more restricted on where I place the digital fx.

 

It's a very complex signal chain I had in mind, will try and draw a diagram 😂

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

I think it's very common, people often have separate profiles for guitars, sometime singlecoil vs humbuckers etc.

 

I am sure it is - I haven't done it much before though. The Spector isn't any hotter than any of the others (I would say the ibanez is), just seems to react differently, but responds well to the volume.

 

Guess I can put a switchable front end profile in for different basses.

 

[MrDinsdale]

4 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I am sure it is - I haven't done it much before though. The Spector isn't any hotter than any of the others (I would say the ibanez is), just seems to react differently, but responds well to the volume.

 

Guess I can put a switchable front end profile in for different basses.

 

 

I quite liked how Boss handled it on the GT1000 where they let you configure different instruments and correctly set the input level for optimum, I had a wide range from -6db to +6db.

[MrDinsdale]

Well I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger just trying to decide if it fits my setup.

 

Annoyingly even with some fx loop inception, if i want the option to add reverb/delay at the end of the chain that would leave me being able to add fx either before or after my analog drives but not both. Only having mono output means that I also can't split it and have cabsims going to FOH while still having a signal to my amp etc. 

[MrDinsdale]

Quick mockup while on a call at work 😂

 

This is how I think it'd be connected up. It means the signal goes in to the CAPO and I get a completely clean pre DI signal, from there out of the first fx loop and into my analog drives then the first input of the Dwarf. So I can pop FX after the drive pedals but not before (I guess having the Dwarf fx might be better for compression and octave etc).

 

Then it'd hit the Capo Preamp.

 

Then back off out to the Dwarf for any post fx before returning to the CAPO for the post DI signal.

[MrDinsdale]

As a point of comparison this is what I'd do with the GT given the Stereo output and 2x FX Loops.

 

 

It's kind of like sandwiching the GT1000core with the CAPO I/O so that you still get the unaffected pre di signal and the affected post di signal. Then you're treating the CAPO preamp section kind of as if you might wire up an amp using 4CM.

 

Ultimately this means in the GT1000core you would have the analog fx in Loop 1 and the CAPO preamp section in Loop 2. On the Main output your Left signal would go to the amp while the Right would feed back in to the CAPO return and to the Post DI, that way you could apply cabsims to the R side only so that it didn't go to your amp.

[MrDinsdale]

The other option of course is that the Mod Dwarf does such a good job of capturing the analog fx and Capo preamp that I don't need to worry about them at all and for live, the CAPO just becomes a DI box and I leave all the other expensive pedals at home. That's not an option with the GT1000 because I know for a fact the drives and preamps included just don't cut it for the sounds I'm trying to get.

[SamIAm]

9 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

The other option of course is that the Mod Dwarf does such a good job of capturing the analog fx and Capo preamp that I don't need to worry about them at all and for live, the CAPO just becomes a DI box and I leave all the other expensive pedals at home. That's not an option with the GT1000 because I know for a fact the drives and preamps included just don't cut it for the sounds I'm trying to get.

I guess the only way is to try.

 

And Thomann do say ...

Quote

 

Our promise

So you thought a particular product was the right one for you, and then you discover it's not. Well, that's life.

But no problem! We grant a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee on any item you buy at Thomann

 

 

I first bought a Dwarf from Thomann last year but after three weeks, despite loving it, felt I could not justify the cost (As I was still in the process of building a clone based on a Raspberry Pi & HiFiBerry Audio interface) and they took it back no problems.  I then ran up against significant noise issues with my build and stumbled across an offer I could not refuse on a Dwarf in new condition here on BC.

 

S'manth x

[MrDinsdale]

5 minutes ago, Smanth said:

I guess the only way is to try.

 

And Thomann do say ...

 

I first bought a Dwarf from Thomann last year but after three weeks, despite loving it, felt I could not justify the cost (As I was still in the process of building a clone based on a Raspberry Pi & HiFiBerry Audio interface) and they took it back no problems.  I then ran up against significant noise issues with my build and stumbled across an offer I could not refuse on a Dwarf in new condition here on BC.

 

S'manth x

 

Yeah that's the dream. I know bassdirect have them listed as in stock and a bit cheaper than Thomman, they should also accept a 30 day refund etc although not sure how easy it is to deal with them as I've heard a few folks who've had issues.

 

It's a really tough one though because for experimentation having those pedals in the loop of the GT1000core that I can quickly adjust on the fly would be super useful vs having a model of it which is locked down to a specific snapshot of it. Conversely having models means that I can quickly jump between bass and guitar without having to constantly try to re-dial in settings.

 

Gonna have a think on it today.

[SamIAm]

5 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

vs having a model of it which is locked down to a specific snapshot of it.

Like the various IR plugins (amp/cab/reverb) on the Dwarf, the AIDA-X lets you load several on the device and switch back and forth as you desire.  It would mean more effort modelling but ...

Does your Capo and other F/X pedals allow for storage/retrieval of different setting snapshots? (I've not played with real pedals but I gather some have this capability)

S'manth x

[MrDinsdale]

I like the nerdy side of the Dwarf and the open source nature, it's also nice to support the underdog. One extra fx loop and I'd be jumping at it without questioning I think.

 

How many AIDA-X instances can you run simultaneously? I'd certainly be interested in how well it works in practice, there is a lot of nuance in how the pedals interact that I can't quite imagine a model could reproduce. I guess if it's close enough that you can't really tell then who cares though!

[SamIAm]

1 hour ago, MrDinsdale said:

I like the nerdy side of the Dwarf and the open source nature, it's also nice to support the underdog. One extra fx loop and I'd be jumping at it without questioning I think.

 

How many AIDA-X instances can you run simultaneously? I'd certainly be interested in how well it works in practice, there is a lot of nuance in how the pedals interact that I can't quite imagine a model could reproduce. I guess if it's close enough that you can't really tell then who cares though!

I asked on the MOD forum about the number of AIDA-X simultaneously.  Their lead techie suggested that 4 (if in parallel)  is possible, two in series would likely be pushing it (The MOD has 4 cores and I think that the way plugins can be alloted to a core is dependent on series/parallel routing).  The Dwarf does have a plugin called a Portal (Like in the game!) that is used to connect different plugins in series but allows them to be shared amongst the cores, this may allow the higher number.

I might have a play later on my unit and see ...

S'manth x

[MrDinsdale]

18 hours ago, Smanth said:

I asked on the MOD forum about the number of AIDA-X simultaneously.  Their lead techie suggested that 4 (if in parallel)  is possible, two in series would likely be pushing it (The MOD has 4 cores and I think that the way plugins can be alloted to a core is dependent on series/parallel routing).  The Dwarf does have a plugin called a Portal (Like in the game!) that is used to connect different plugins in series but allows them to be shared amongst the cores, this may allow the higher number.

I might have a play later on my unit and see ...

S'manth x

Sorry thought I'd replied! Yeah saw and signed up to the forum to have a dig around. Still very intrigued by the Dwarf so popped a thread there to see if anyone else had similar reservations - https://forum.mod.audio/t/on-the-dwarf-fence-concerned-about-i-o/9750

 

I'm still really torn between the GT1000core and Dwarf. I feel like I could probably do a lot of the stuff I want with the Core, do some cool split delays blending LPF bitcrusher type fx in there and stuff to create stuff similar to the Mastro Valvola LEM etc. It'd fulfill all my IR and reverb needs for guitar perfectly too albeit with a fairly middle of the road fx offering.

 

The Dwarf seems pretty limitless in comparison, all the routing options and a huge array of modules to pick from. It just doesn't integrate with my real world pedals as well, the higher power draw would mean me upgrading my powersupply from a Cioks 4 to a DC7 or similar too.

 

First world problems 😂

[tauzero]

On 10/05/2023 at 09:17, MrDinsdale said:

The Dwarf seems pretty limitless in comparison, all the routing options and a huge array of modules to pick from. It just doesn't integrate with my real world pedals as well, the higher power draw would mean me upgrading my powersupply from a Cioks 4 to a DC7 or similar too.

 

Why not just run the MOD power supply into a splitter, send one side of the splitter to the Dwarf and the other to the Cioks 4?

[Woodinblack]

On 10/05/2023 at 04:17, MrDinsdale said:

. It just doesn't integrate with my real world pedals as well, the higher power draw would mean me upgrading my powersupply from a Cioks 4 to a DC7 or similar too.

sorry away atm so I missed this, remember the dwarf psu requirements are a lot less than the power listed on the back, a CIOKS 4 should be fine

[MrDinsdale]

7 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

Why not just run the MOD power supply into a splitter, send one side of the splitter to the Dwarf and the other to the Cioks 4?

I think the cioks needs a 24v supply but could work.

[MrDinsdale]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

sorry away atm so I missed this, remember the dwarf psu requirements are a lot less than the power listed on the back, a CIOKS 4 should be fine

I think its 12v 1A minimum so it'd need two outlets on the cioks which puts out 500ma per outlet at 12v.

 

I've already got 7-8 pedals connected using some daisy chaining 😂 Tbf I'd consider loosing a drive looper, and the compressor if I could replace them with a digital version.

 

The Capo, Model FeT, Thumpinator and Halberd/Longsword are the essential pedals and they all do fine on a daisy chain with out any noticeable noise. 

[Woodinblack]

6 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

I think its 12v 1A minimum so it'd need two outlets on the cioks which puts out 500ma per outlet at 12v.

it says it needs (and comes with a terrible) 12v 2A adapter, it actually uses 320ma flat out. I have mine on a 12v 500mA output

[MrDinsdale]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

it says it needs (and comes with a terrible) 12v 2A adapter, it actually uses 320ma flat out. I have mine on a 12v 500mA output

Oooo really? That's interesting! Well I still want a bigger supply so I'm less dependent on daisy chaining but good to know I don't have to rush to grab one. 

[Woodinblack]

I would say don’t daisy chain the dwarf (hard to do as it’s 12v anyway) as there is no chance the noise wouldn’t be an issue with that

[MrDinsdale]

4 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I would say don’t daisy chain the dwarf (hard to do as it’s 12v anyway) as there is no chance the noise wouldn’t be an issue with that

Absolutely! I only daisy chain the drives and preamps which handle it noise free. 

[MrDinsdale]

Still on the fence a little between the GT1000core and Mod Dwarf but 75% in favour of the Dwarf currently. Will have to see where I'm at on payday though.

 

Been checking out lots of older videos and some of the synth and glitchy weird ambient stuff you can do is absolutely incredible, certainly stuff you could never achieve on the Core. Just shame there isn't more content out there about it or samples on Soundcloud etc.

[nige1968]

Just butting in but I finally got my Dwarf and OMFG it's fuuuuuun.

 

As you were.