We Jammin'. We Are The Underground

Below is a copypasta of my proposition to the Lead of MOD Audio.


How about both? Let the free software community handle the bulk of the software side of things while forming a Social Purpose Corporation to build and sell the hardware.

If not an SPC, perhaps a B Corp, or co-operative and see if you can team up with Zythian and Synthstrom. I suppose an SPC could be run alongside a larger retail co-op that represents multiple companies. It depends on how everyone wants to play together and be represented.

I think the afforement entities are in other parts of the world. Synthstrom is in AUS and Zynthian is in the UK, IIRC. So, a Turtle Island (USA) corp would be more of an official "licensee", other contenient manufacturer for their products. Which would be cool, I think.

note:
I nearly forgot to mention Passingwind! They make open source preamps and some other stuff.

Maybe even reach out to the guy behind AV Linux and the teams behind Ubuntu Studio and Fedora Jam.

It'd really be something to get all the music related free software groups to unify under a non-profit and help each other out a bit more. Parallel to that, the hardware makers could get together to sell a full suite of products that run the software.

Personally, I'd go in on forming a SPC. I've wanted to start a First Nations musical instrument making company similar to Native Audio is for pedals but, mainly with guitars, basses, and touchstyle (i.e. Chapman Stick) instruments and accessories. I realize you're non-Native but, that's okay. lol.

I was planning on waiting a few more years before seriously seeking anyone else to embark on this venture with. It should definitely wait until 2026 before filling any paperwork, for tax reasons.

Some of the reasons I'd like to do this are
1) I don't have a 1:1 copy of any of my basses or guitars and I want to modify the nuts off of them. This would be probably the best way to build my own "Signature Collection".
2) Many tribes are historically known to have good woodworkers and craftspeople. I want to continue that and raise NDNs up with me. It's something that can be done at home or a workshop could be set up on nearly any rez. It'd be dope to have people all across Turtle Island building for us. Especially with rent these days, if we could eliminate spending thousands a month on a warehouse to create this stuff.....
3) Simply to share our cultures
4) I want to work for myself and diversify my income between this, a clothing/et. al. company, music studio, and social network -- the latter will definitely cost money and not be profitable for a long time but it goes hand-in-hand with the other things and is a primary focus
5) I think the most realistic way to do this is to team up with a number of other people and jumpstart off already existing products and projects.
666) my day job pays alright and I don't have a house or demonspawn to hemmorage my bank account.

https://forum.mod.audio/t/mod-is-at-a-crossroads-and-needs-your-input/8340/324?u=mister_gothfvck

P.S. Working name: maci-manitowi-kitohcikan
https://itwewina.altlab.app/word/maci-manitowi-ipv/
https://itwewina.altlab.app/word/kitohcikan/
The Devil's Instruments
🤘🏼👹🎸
AKA MM'K

The way I see it is there are really two ways of doing effects pedals with another being a hybrid of them.

1) Fully analogue with proper MIDI.
This is the old fashioned, diodes and transistors, way of building electronics. Get out your soldiering iron and multimeter.

There are inherent flaws and variance in quality control that lead to each unit being minutely different. This is more-or-less imperceivable but, sometimes there is a little "something" that a person might prefer with one unit over another. Perhaps one compressor just does something a little sweeter than another despite having all the same settings.

In any other industry this would be considered a bad thing but, musicians get all hot and bothered when a person brings up analogue equipment. Something about those tubes that just gets a guy going.

Never mind how digital is technically better because it's more transparent and accurate. lol. But, I digress.

This variety of pedals, rack gear, etc, are get to specialize in doing one thing. All the knobs and sliders at the ready to tweak any and everything.

It's great because the worthwhile ones are built to last and are generally going to be repairable. They're made with tangible components that people can buy. No programing or flashing of firmware required. No software upgrades or artificial degradation or subscriptions. One just owns it and can potentially make modifications to it.


2) Digital multi-effects units.
The only one that I know of here that I would consider viable is the Dwarf by MOD Audio. That is because it's totally free/open source.

All of the others will eventually stop working and there's not much that can be done as it's proprietary software running on who knows what. Unless the key people behind the products have contingency plans in place, everything dies with them or the company.

Maybe someone else out there could reverse engineer and make a clone but, it's the same problem without releasing the code, schematics, and parts list. It's also a matter of upgrading to new chips and porting over.

Every one of these also has arbitrary limitations whereas the MOD Audio: Dwarf does not. The Synthström: Deluge doesn't really either. That's an open source sequencer.

The Dwarf handles all kinds of effects via plugins, amp sims, cab IRs. It has a looper, noise generators, metronome, LCO, compressors, EQs, synths, and you name it. With whatever virtual routing you can imagine.

Plus, it's possible to run via a USB drive on your computer.
The GUI to configure everything is browser based. There's a local HTML5 file to access everything on the Dwarf. This ensures it's cross-platform.


3) The UNIX Way
Have you figured out the in-between, yet? Take a selection of digital effects and perhaps some others to alter the "wet" effects-only and let each pedal excel at what it does.

Basically like what (closed-)Source Audio does. They make most effects and ultities that exist and do it well. Proper MIDI, stereo i/o, presets, expression, and an app to test out presets and tweak things with. Like MOD Audio, they have a community that makes presets and shares them.

I have a couple of their pedals so far. They're touted as being the best yet, they also are barely profitable. Plenty on the used market. If I won the lottery, I'd buy enough of the company and release the source code for the effects and for the apps. Among other things I'd like to see but, that's for another day.