This year Neural DSP did something strange at NAMM 2024. Instead of a booth where they have things to show like they did in 2023 when they demoed Cortex Control, in 2024 Neural DSP left “SOON” instead.
Instead of the usual booth setup, they’ve left a cryptic message: “SOON” in big, bold letters. This has sparked a flurry of speculation and rumours within the community. Could this be a teaser for a new product launch? Did they get annoyed? Or perhaps an indication of a significant update to existing offerings?
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.
Ah, the Neural DSP Quad Cortex, the proverbial golden child of the guitar modelling world. As we approach the two-year anniversary of my ownership, I find myself in a love-hate relationship with this awesome device.
Let’s start with the good bits. The touchscreen and rotary stomps are nothing short of a revelation. Navigating through the menus is as smooth as a hot knife through butter, and the visual building process is so intuitive it’s like playing with Lego blocks. But alas, this is where the honeymoon period ends, and the reality of living with the Quad Cortex sets in.
I first wrote about derails of the long awaited desktop editor for the Quad Cortex back in February 2022. At that point, it had been revealed a team had been working on the editor for months. Here we are fourteen months later and we have confirmation of a release.
In their April 2023 update, they revealed they’ll be showing off a beta of Cortex Control at NAMM. On top of that, the QC’s will also be running CorOS 2.1.0 beta as well to support the editor.
For some Quad Cortex users, you will encounter an issue with the WiFi not working. While your first thought might be yoy have a defective unit, the issue might be more simple than you think.
The Quad Cortex only operates on the 2.4GHz band of WiFi. This band offers slower speeds than 5GHz WiFi, but is more reliable and can penetrate obstacles better.
Chances are your WiFi isn’t setup to work with the 2.4GHz band and you could be transmitting on 5 instead.
The Quad Cortex is an amazing modeller, and since buying one in October 2021, I use it many times a week (the perks of having it on your desk). However, despite how incredible the modeller is, the rotary stomps can be a little small for non-desktop use.
If you’re gigging or using it with your feet, the small stomps can be tricky, and you can accidentally press the wrong rotary button.
Since the release of the Quad Cortex modeller, most people have been asking for a desktop editor for the Quad Cortex. While the interface of the Quad Cortex makes for seamless editing, a desktop editor can speed up the process.
In Discord, Doug revealed some details about the highly-anticipated desktop editor.
Here is what we know:
There has been a dedicated team working on the desktop editor for months The desktop editor will require the Quad Cortex to be connected to use (like some other modellers) Doug is strictly against a single-file preset format like what the Helix and other modellers offer There might be a future feature to save and load setlists into the Quad Cortex Admittedly, the lack of file format is disappointing. For such an expensive device that I am a huge fan of, the lack of open file format isn’t ideal and I hope they change it. It seems as though Neural DSP is taking an Apple-inspired approach to their hardware, locking people into using their cloud and future marketplace.
At present, the Cortex Cloud does not have a marketplace feature. There is no officially supported way to sell your preset creations for preset creators like myself. The process works for sharing private presets is you have to befriend someone, then they can share private captures and presets with you.
I have a knack for creating clone presets based on famous artist sounds. Think bands like Monuments or Linkin Park, the kind of tones people want but might lack the knowledge to create themselves. So, I decided to build something called cortexpresets.com.
So, you bought the Quad Cortex. A floor modeller marketed as the most powerful modeller on the planet, but you’ve noticed the delay when switching between presets.
You might not know this, but every competing modeller from the Line 6 Helix through to the Axe-FX suffers from delay when switching presets. The current blocks need to be unloaded, the new ones loaded.
The solution is to use scenes. Think of presets and scenes like this.
The Quad Cortex is great for live use as well as studio settings. If you’re like me, you have the Quad Cortex sitting on your desk, and you interact with it using the screen.
The device isn’t angled, so it can be tricky to adjust things on the screen or get to the inputs and outputs on the back.
Fortunately, the Quad Cortex is similar in size to an Apple Macbook. So, naturally, the solution for a Quad Cortex stand is a laptop stand, specifically, a stand that can be angled and has a flat bottom.