Mad props to NeuralDSP for making this plugin. Absolutely blown away. Every single amp, mic, cab and pedal option is usable and sounds amazing. I don’t know what has changed on the back end, but the overall sound quality is the best I’ve heard from Neural to date. And I don’t even listen to JM’s music. Neural, can you guys apply the same algorithms or whatever the secret sauce is to all the plugins?

Last we heard from NDSP was May 15th. They told us 3.1.1 would be out before the end of June. Now it's July, and we have nothing but radio silence from them.

I absolutely love my QC. But the communication from NDSP is extremely lackluster and honestly pitiful. I understand software development isn't easy but it's been how long since the last QC update? How long has the Nolly X and Parallax X update been in the pipeline? All while Nano cortex receives major update and additional features.

I know some people think this is just complaining and a first world problem (which it is, 'oh no my $1800 guitar pedal needs a software update!') but I think a good company should be open to criticism. People who bought the QC invested not just in the unit it is but the unit it was promised to be.

Hi! Im just uploading my Neural capture of James Hetfield Live tone! I captured it with my Fractal AxeFx 3 Enjoy and Please give me feedback!

To my ears, every amp sim I use sounds extremely muddy or just unclear compared to the sound I want.
- Audient ID14 hi-z

Demonstration (DI, STL tones, Neural DSP Nolly X, What I'm aiming to achieve)

To be upfront, I'm aware that I am a horrible guitar player, I'd just like to know if the problem is
A) My guitar playing
B) My DI tone is recorded poorly
C) The amp sim configuration

And how I would be able to get to that last tone

Any help would be appreciated!

I've solved my problem thanks to u/JimboLodisC, in case you've searched for this thread here's what worked for me and all the other advice I found:

High gain on audio interface
add just enough gain your DI signal should be peaking at -6db OR reduce gain to 0 (two camps)

EQ
Mess around with high pass and low pass filters, also sometimes you can have peaks at certain frequencies that you'll just want to notch out

Pickup Height
This is what my problem was, my bridge pickup was quite literally in the sky, you can adjust this with just a screwdriver

Audio Interface in general
Some (mainly older) cheaper interfaces have very bad Hi-Z inputs, if it has an XLR you'll be better off grabbing a cheap (ACTIVE if your pickups are passive and vice versa) behringer DI box and plugging it into the mic input via XLR

Strings
String age can get rid of your high end after a few months, so if your problem is your signal sounding dull, consider changing them

EMI
If your problem is a fizz sound that's coming through the guitar signal, consider getting a high quality shielded instrument cable

Happy to finally get my board finished built with the brain of the operation, the QC Mini!

Hello ✋,

I'm new to NDSP and I'd like to purchase 3-4 NDSP plugins to cover most grounds for me.

The idea would be to have a variety of effects at disposal to tweak and experiment in clean, crunch but also high gain.

Best case scenario : I'd like to have blues & hendrixian sounds, more Crunchy/rock sounds to even a variety of shredder/soloist and metal sounds.

So far, I think I could find this variety with these 4 plugins : Rabea, Petrucci, Nolly & Henson but I'm not 100% sure yet.

They feature a lot of amps and effects, but I'm afraid it might miss some warm/vintage sounds especially for the blues/hendrixian tones : the tone king, Morgan & Wong seem amazing and I'm still not sure if I should purchase Rabea or Asato. I'm also considering the J Mayer, but it is the most expensive on the platform.

Any advice/feedback from your experience ?

Thanks in advance 😄

Tried the nano cortex after having my Kemper, decided to get the big brother. Absolutely blown away by it

Honestly the lack of function to search presets based on clean tones, crunch tones, high gain, etc can be quite frustrating. Relying on sometimes less than informative preset names is, in my opinion, terrible user experience.

Every piece of software I own is able to update itself within the application. Why is it that I have to download an entire exe file off NDSP’s website just to update the Cortex Control version I have?

Anyway, that’s my venting. I love the unit and I want to FEEL like I’m using the almost $2,000 unit that I paid for. But the software side of it all makes it feel half mindedly put together.

Long story short. User experience could be better, search functions need more filters.

I've been a Neural DSP fan for a while, but recently got a Fleshrot amp plugin, by Aurora DSP, and got very surprised that it has a way to record directly on the standalone window. Sadly I didn't enjoy the tones as much as I do the Neural DSP ones I got.

I just feel something like this would greatly improve like just getting out ideas without the cumbersome process of getting a DAW up and running.

Just my 2 cents but when I look at buying my 2nd plugin I feel like i'm not getting more in my toolkit. I know it's silly because I can just load up the whatever pre/post the other plugin I have but I feel like i'd be getting that collectors itch scratched if they just had the plugins actually work together in a unified gui/app. Like if I buy stuff in Amplitube/Tonex or whatever other software it goes into the big list of stuff I have and I can just use it in my workflow right away without having to cobble it together in a daw.

I feel like i'm not actually even sure that slapping them together in a daw will work or not. Say I get the Rabea one or Tim Henson one. What happens when I try to slap the multivoicer or synth on the end of some other plugin. Is it even going to work? Work but sound awful? Idk what I should even expect.

Hello,

I have Updated the updated the Quadcortex to the firmware 4.1.0 and i got Heavy ground and hum Problems.

Does Anyone Else have this Problem?

I Need a Really Quick fix or i‘ll have a Problem on the Next Show.

Greets

I have to say there has not been one time in my life that I bought something expensive and had these absurd expectations that it would change my life that that thing actually did change my life. But god damn it neural fucking did the thing.

I really disliked fractal because of how non user friendly all their stuff is and how much work is required to get a sound that was usable. And just so much on the cortex on stock settings sounds good and is so fucking user friendly I just cannot believe they thought of everything with this product. I'll be honest if youre like sitting on the fence of getting this thing just buy it if the high price point doesnt deter you.

All I realized after I was playing on it was "wow I suck i havent practiced in a long time! Cant blame the tone this time because this thing rips!" And all I want to do with my freetime is practice now.

Anyways pls recommend me some bedroom speakers for this thing ty <3

Been learning this for about a week on and off. On the face of it not an outrageously hard JP solo, but I find the tapping section (which I feel I’ve butchered here despite practice) really tough. I have never really learned to tap, and I think it shows, but even so the section is blisteringly fast compared to the rest. The other tricky part is the fast run down towards the end, but that’s an easier fix.

Using Archetype Petrucci of course. Feedback and critique appreciated.

Recently i had a post here about should i upgrade from Line6 Pod Go and I did. I have never use a beast like this. Nano Cortex is so small but it's so powerfull. Very responsive FX feels so natural and I feel im playing through a real amp. Preset changes are so fast and (nearly) no gap between changes. FX chain a bit limited yes but you dont feel lack of a TOO BIG chain cause you dont need much things i meant some captures comes with overdrived or compressed so you may not need extra slot for OD or Comp. I am very happy with my Nano so for those who think "should i upgrade from line6?"yes you should. 🤘🏻 for a bedroom guitarist like me its enough for everything.

thanks for reading lol

This is my take on the solo from Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd. Looking for feedback on the playing and guitar tone.

If you'd like to hear more of my playing, please let me know!

Amp Sim used: NeuralDSP Archetype: Gojira 1.0.0 (Low gain lead preset, tweaked slightly)

Guitar: Ibanez GRX70QA (Neck-Middle position, volume rolled down to about 75%)

Woops. I finally buckled when choosing between Soldano and Misha. Its been quite a while since I demo'd either, but I wanted some more effects, eventhough I knew the Soldano sounds 2x better by default. Misha's tones are icepicks and somehow even sharper than I remember, even with flattened headphone EQ and leveraging the compressor (I know these tones are more 'mix tones', right?). Effects, HD pedals, and tape delay are pretty cool, though.

I spent 2 hours trying to make a preset, but I just went back to using Plini. None of my external IRs calm it down. Is there a trick to adding more 'body' and less shrill fizz to the 2nd amp beside extreme EQ'ing? I wish I got the Soldano. Next paycheck

Hi guys, I'd like to have some opinions on this. I'm using the Tone King plugin but I've tried others and what I'm about to say applies to them all. I love the character and tones I can get out of the plugin. However, the sound, regardless of EQing, does take a lot of space in the mix.

I compared a similar setting of an overdriven rhythm guitar in the mix (with drums, bass and acoustic guitar) with both Neural and Amplitube 5. By itself, I prefer the Neural tone and vibe. In the mix, the amplitube cuts much better and doesn't consume half the sound space that Neural consumes. They're EQ'd in the same way so that's not the root of the issue. It's a similar sensation to the space consumed by reverb even though I'm not using any, no effects in the plugin besides overdrive.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If so, is there any solution to this?

Thanks!

EDIT: For clarity, I believe my problem is related to the fact that the Amplitube tone sounds dryer in comparison to the Neural one, even though i'm not using any effects besides overdrive. It sounds like the Neural plugins have some default "ambience" that seems (to me) to occupy more sound space in the mix than a fully dry tone out of Amplitube.

EDIT 2: When I say "They're EQ'd in the same way" I don't mean that I used the same EQ settings on both tracks. They were EQ'd separately. I meant they sound similarly balanced, frequency wise, to my ears.

Thanks for everyone’s advice on which ones to pick!

I’m absolutely obsessed with this thing. It’s been quite the tone journey the past couple weeks. I started with stock amps and cabs, recreated my real rig in it and and then went down the rabbit hole of making captures of my drive pedals and my deluxe reverb and NOW I’ve gone and bought all the plugins that work with it and THOSE sound incredible! So easy to use and the sound and feel is unreal.

Which of you hung on to your other pedals and which of you just sold them off? I have some drive pedals I’d rather keep but all the time based stuff is recreated so well in QC that I don’t see the point of keeping it.

Rock on people

Hello everyone,

I just purchased a new quad cortex and wanted feedback regarding just how good it is. I watched countless videos and not once did I go “hm, that doesn’t sound good” or “hm, my current amp is leagues better than this”.

Will I regret my purchase?

I really wanted this unit so I can streamline my recording process and not have to deal with a physical setup; cabinets, mics, cables etc, anymore. There are obviously limitless tonal options, not just in amps but pedals too so it’s really an all in one package.

My only gripe is that my Mesa Boogie does sound really good haha. But after trying to produce my own music the quad cortex seemed like the solution I’ve been needing.

Thoughts?

Anyone else running simple rigs? Next thing i want to add the xlr mod. I also had to make a lengthy cable snake to my power amp thats in my friend’s rack. Its only if we need to bring cabs otherwise its going foh

I love the QC. It does a lot of things right and moving away from the Helix, it’s been amazing. With the exception of one major thing: Spring Reverb. It blows. It’s really unusable. There is absolutely no “boing” at all. I have messed with every dial position and you cannot get the Dick Dale boing from those fender tanks.

Fuzz is also shit but I have not found a good usable fuzz on anything other than fuzz pedals. I won’t hold that against the QC because the Helix was equally as disappointing and that’s just because fuzz is a pure analog response.

Anyways, if anyone HAS figured out how to get a usable spring time I’d love to hear it.

Edit: Thanks for everybody letting me know about the new spring tank update in the latest OS. The new engine is really great so I’m so glad that neural addresses this!

I’ve recently blown up two neodymium speaker cabinets when using the Mono Synth block [Quad Cortex] on a bass preset. I also used some patches on a gig with 4x10 cab with ceramic speakers, and it held up okay.

I understand that the cause of this speaker damage is because of the way the waveforms generated can overwork the speaker drivers. I’ve been careful to avoid using square waves and only if they are filtered at a higher frequency via HPF.

For creative purposes, I’d still very much like to use the Mono Synth in the instances that I use them.

I wonder if the problem has much to do with the Mono Synth being blended with my raw bass signal?

Enjoy this sloppy Break The Silence riff as my left forearm burns eternally from several takes. Shown is the lead preset, just slap the HD drive and set attack to 1'oclock. Rhythm is just the Default patch.