Changes

==What is MOD-UI?==

==What is MOD-UI?==

[http://www.moddevices.com MOD-UI] is an open-source web-gui for LV2 plugins. It is written and maintained by [http://www.moddevices.com http://www.moddevices.com]. They sell a very nice effect, which uses lots of free LV2-plugins and is configurable via USB-ethernet. MOD-UI is open-source, too, so Zynthian uses it also as one of several usable engines. In MOD-UI you can drag & drop LV2-plugins of several type (modulators, equalizer, generators (=> synths), distortions, voice effects, vocoders, ...) and connect them together in a way which is really intuitive and easy.

[http://www.moddevices.com MOD-UI] is an open-source web GUI for LV2 plugins.  

 

It is written and maintained by [http://www.moddevices.com http://www.moddevices.com]. They sell a very nice effect pedal device called Mod Duo for about €549.00. Mod Duo is configurable via a built-in webpage accessible by a USB or Ethernet connection to the device.  

 

MOD-UI is the code for the webpage. It's open-source, too, so Zynthian uses it as one of the synth engines. In MOD-UI you can drag & drop icons representing LV2-plugins of several types (modulators, equalizer, generators (=> synths), distortions, voice effects, vocoders, ...) and connect them together in a way which is really intuitive and easy.

==What is a modgui?==

==What is a modgui?==

As I said: MOD-UI is based on LV2 plugins. For interacting with the LV2-plugin the default icon in MOD-UI is a tin (looks like a tin for fish). But plugins also have different parameters and they should look not the same. Here is the point where modgui is used. In fact it is an addition to the description of the plugin plus some graphic data and stylesheets. The description is written down in text files in the [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(Syntax) Turtle-Syntax].

As I said: MOD-UI is based on LV2 plugins. For interacting with the LV2-plugin the default icon in MOD-UI is a tin (looks like a tin for fish). But plugins also have different parameters and they should look not the same. Here is the point where '''modgui''' is used. In fact '''modgui''' is an addition to the description of the plugin plus some graphic data and stylesheets. The description is written down in text files in the [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(Syntax) Turtle-Syntax].

==What is MOD-SDK?==

==What is MOD-SDK?==

On the sub-page ''Settings'' you can advise the initial parameters for this plugin.

On the sub-page ''Settings'' you can advise the initial parameters for this plugin.

And now: ''Deploy'' - a very nice feature. If there is not the right IP-address (includeing the port!) of your Zynthian in the text field: edit this field! After deploying you cannot see the new icons. You first have to reload MOD-UI/mod-host: go to the shell and enter '''systemctl restart mod-host && systemctl restart mod-ui'''. After reloading the web-page of MOD-UI you should see the generated icons. Try to move it to the pedalboard and try the knobs if they are working.

And now: ''Deploy'' - a very nice feature. If there is not the right IP-address (including the port!) of your Zynthian in the text field: edit/change this field! After deploying you cannot see the new icons right now. You first have to reload MOD-UI/mod-host: go to the shell and enter '''systemctl restart mod-host && systemctl restart mod-ui'''. After reloading the web-page of MOD-UI you should see the generated icons. Try to move it to the pedalboard and try the knobs if they are working.

That's it! Congratulations!

That's it! Congratulations!

Ahhh - one thing: Store the generated modgui on antoher computer - or better: distribute it! How to do that? First you have to copy the files from your Zynthian to your main computer. I am doing this with

Ahhh - one thing: Store the generated modgui on another computer - or better: distribute it! How to do that? First you have to copy the files from your Zynthian to your main computer. I am doing this by:

   scp -r root@<YOUT-ZYNTHIAN-IP>/zynthian/zynthian-plugins/lv2/<LV2-PLUGIN-NAME>.modgui .

   scp -r root@<YOUT-ZYNTHIAN-IP>/zynthian/zynthian-plugins/lv2/<LV2-PLUGIN-NAME>.modgui .

===The nicer way===

===The nicer way===

''(This is not fully tested and documented - will do this soon (hopefully))''

''(This is not fully tested and documented - will do this soon (hopefully))''

You can pimp the generated images: Go inside the folder of the generated modgui and edit the images with GIMP or something else. This has the disadvantage that the screenshots are not showing the changed images anymore. No problem: You can generate them by hand on your Zynthian:

 

You can pimp the generated images: Go inside the folder of the generated modgui and edit the images with GIMP or something else. This has the disadvantage that the screenshots are not showing the changed images anymore. No problem: You can generate screenshots by hand directly on your Zynthian:

   /zynthian/zynthian-sw/mod-sdk/make_screenshot.py /zynthian/zynthian-plugins/lv2/<YOUR-PLUGIN-FOLDER>

   /zynthian/zynthian-sw/mod-sdk/make_screenshot.py /zynthian/zynthian-plugins/lv2/<YOUR-PLUGIN-FOLDER>

===The hard but very nice looking way===

===The hard but very nice looking way===

You can also create your own images and stylesheets by hand. Take a look on some generated modguis of other plugins and try... sorry - I have not more information about his - but perhaps _you_ want to write how to do this?

You can also create your own images and stylesheets by hand. Take a look on some generated modguis of other plugins and try... sorry - I have no information about this - but perhaps '''you''' want to write the article how to do this?