In April 2023, I wrote about how Neural DSP announced the Cortex Control desktop application, allowing you to control your Quad Cortex remotely using a PC or Mac. Well, Neural DSP has finally released it six months later, in beta form. Technically, it is 18 months from when the existence of it was first revealed in February 2022.
My first impressions of Cortex Control are it is pretty damn good for a beta release. I have encountered a few little UI quirks, and it has crashed on me once on Windows, but for the most part, it works surprisingly well.
What I’ve loved about Cortex Control is how intuitive it is. If you know your way around the Quad Cortex, the learning curve for the desktop app is fairly nonexistent.
Everything you can do on the Quad Cortex, you can do in Cortex Control, including the capture process. Allowing you to use the Quad Cortex remotely.
There are some subtle UI nuances to be aware of. If you want to make your settings adjustable on a per-scene basis. On the Quad Cortex, you long-press to do this, but on Cortex Control, you have to right-click. It’s a minor thing that took me a little while to work out. This includes right-clicking on the power button for amps, effects and more.
On top of the ability to drag and drop parts of the UI, adjust parameters and whatnot, keyboard shortcuts allow you to work with your presets and scenes so much easier. The workflow on the Quad Cortex was already fast, but it’s so much faster and better on the desktop app. You can even bulk-select items on a row and copy/paste them into the same or another preset.
Overall, I’m pretty impressed, and it has quelled some of my frustration with Neural DSP for not shipping sooner. It feels polished.
