First Look at the Neural DSP Quad Cortex Digital Effects and Amp Modeler and Capture Floorboard 

Do they have a release date yet?

Thanks for the interest! Check out the following link for details: www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/QuadCortex--neural-dsp-quad-cortex-quad-core-digital-effects-modeler-profiler-floorboard

Mitch n Fellows we need to listen thoroughly to how it sounds. Especially the amps n cabs. We already know most of this info, Neuraldsp have been posting about this for months. I need to know for example if this can really match real amps in sound quality, that would be game changing. Other than that there are a lot of similar good products in the market. I hope you do soon a deep sound dive video of this. Thank u

Hopefully andrew baena and taylor danley get one!

Sweetwater what power cab or power monitors do you recommend just for home use in stereo sound?

I'm sure we'll see a review on your channel in the not too distant future?

@@majesticpbjcat7707 I'm too broke for this right now ahahaha

@@KeyanHoushmandLive same

You can use gclip to play djents dude its no different

Same, thats why I bought one lol

youve never tried a nerual product and it shows

@@EhEsDeeEf Neural. You might have tried it but you can’t spell it.

@@BigBlueRabbit trying is for professionals and spellings are for students.

@@mellowmonsoon278 *spelling is for students

@@BigBlueRabbit precisely as you keep demarcating son :)

Shame we can't actually "hear" things evolving...

@@arbitermatt i get what you are saying. Much of what is on offer soundwise is pretty much the same old revamped or with minor tweeks. Those are the things the majority of people want, so the builders do them (yay... another marshall/tube screamer/big muff/reverb). But there are some companies out there that have different aproaches and offer new ideas. Sadly, in the guitar world, those are rare and mostly "boutique". In the synth world it's a whole different story. People have embraced the digital capabilities and, while some still care and crave for the old units, the hybridization of technology allows for new and interesting things. Up untill recently, you'd be hard pressed to find stereo multi fx units to couple to your keyboards.

I have been using the hx stomp (a scaled down helix) for a while and have tried out the Abasi neural plugin. I've got the hx stomp to sound great and have gotten a lot of compliments on the sound, but in my opinion the Abasi plugin neural did just felt more lifelike. I think that the quad cortex is gonna be along the lines of the axe fx with how real the amps feel, and at a lower price, but thats just my thoughts.

I find it highly unlikely that it will end the Kemper as some people are suggesting. Based on the clips alone, it sounds a lot flatter than my Kemper does. The only modeler I've seen and played with similar sound quality and feel is the FM3 (AXE III). Having played with Neural plugins, I'm not convinced.

Omg haha. Mitch is a legend tho. I think the issue is that everyone is always on the hype talk. But no one is hearing the sound quality of the plugins they make yet

@@IntheDAW I think it's going to be a bit after it gets in peoples hands for models and profiles start rolling out in good quality. I was at my friend's place last night who has a kemper and we downloaded a few of the plugin free trials to see how they sound and were pretty impressed, but not as good as the kemper. I'm in the market for one of these modelers/profilers and can't wait till these things are better reviewed so I can decide on what to get. The neural's device and UI looks amazing, but just hope that it sounds good too.

@@Jtatnell supposedly models went out but no one has actually made videos. only people like sweetwater and Andersons have videos. the fact that they all say the same thing makes it look like all talk. I Hope its amazing I was going to buy one but decided to wait since I really liked my axe fx 2xl. But its been so long I just upgraded to a axe fx 3 and its amazing. So the lack of info and content/examples is making people doubt the company claims. And spend more money somewhere else.

Respect Mitch.. He works hard to give us deets on the gear.

@@IsaacKLee they are necessarily and exactly copies of the real amps. Just named differently in fear of being sued by the trademark owners

Have said this on my podcast dozens of times. If digital wants to replace tube amps, stop trying to replicate real ones and start making stuff better than what we had--and that's definitely doable.

I am but no beer. Just watching it over for the 3rd time. It’s a good thing it was released last year. I bet it’s going to be at least another 6 months and that’s if we’re lucky.

That's what you think !? Have you used the Headrush pedal board ? I have the headrush pedal board and I have to say it sounds better than what I'm hearing here.

@@auntjenifer7774 It is true: that is what I think. I played around with the Helix and the Headrush. I didn't think the either one sounded very good. Sonically, they sound digital to me (separate parts summed to approximate the wave can be heard in the signal). Fractal Audio and Kemper are virtually impossible to distinguish from analog signals, though. That being said, I prefer Fractal Audio over Kemper. Kemper sounds thinner to me for some reason. It might be because it profiles an amp's sound whereas Fractal Audio digitally recreates the original electronics.

Sound quality wise, I highly doubt that. Every clip I've heard of the Quad Cortex during it's development (including this one) sound like a flat Coca-Cola. They don't really sound 3 dimensional in the same way that both the FM3 and Kemper do. I think the Helix approaches that sound quality level (and is basically a toss up between those three as it's attractively priced) I think the Quad probably has great models and dsp, but terrible A/D conversion.--> that would explain why the guitar doesn't appear alive when coming through it. I'm not ditching my Kemper for this. Especially not until I can hear it in person. I really think there is an intense hype machine running for Neural DSP, and I've yet to think anything they do sounds as good as the other big 3. With all due-respect to the person with the Headrush, I a/b'd a headrush and a helix when I bought my Helix (before moving over to Kemper land.) and the Helix one, hands down. The only thing that keeps the Headrush moving is the ease of use. I mean, it's using models form the 11 Rack--which came out in what, 2006/7? That's the danger of all this technical stuff, old assets... At least with Kemper you can roll your own models (and now quad cortex apparently) Truthfully, I'm a lot more likely to go back to more tube amps if I was to get out of the Kemper at this point--which will happen if Kemper values drop.

Can anyone tell me if the ISP Technologies Theta X sounds good?

Which one are you using??? I am planning to get one. Do they have sale??

@@pramesh.gurung I haven't seen a sale since I started following them. if you like clean/funk tones I REALLY enjoyed the Cory Wong profile, I was using it while I waited for my amp to show up. I'm not a heavy metal guy and that seems like what the majority of their profiles are for, the Wong however had some really decent cleans and mild break up.

Koroz thanks man... will be trying some plini. They goes on sale sometime ago. i am in third world country dunno how to pay for it. Really want that plini dsp.

pramesh gurung I play and mix primarily heavy music (metalcore, deathcore, etc.) and the Archetype Nolly 5150 with a single SM57 is my go to for rhythms every single time. I also use the Omega Granophyre or Fortin Nameless on the rare occassions that the Nolly isn’t working for me. But 95% of the time my rhythms are the Archetype Nolly.

CityInTheDark1 i am liking nolly too. It has more open sounding heavy rhythm . Will try it once my setup is ready 👍👍👍

I bet the display is only slow to change because the preset changes that slowly.

@@Stefan- I think you're right, I imagine that if its in scene or stomp mode it'll be faster, surly neural wouldn't put out something that slow cause it'd be unusable.

@@ColtonStoneMusic The thing is though that scenes, snapshots or whatever you call it isnt as powerful as a change of presets where you can change everything. Snapshots is the same as assigns but packaged differently, its a good option, but its also quite limiting to just change values and on and off status of the effectblocks, you cant get nearly as much variation as changing the preset will give you.

@@Stefan- Yea that's true, but I usually change presets for song changes and snapshots for quick fx changes in a song, I use the Hx stomp and the delay between presets is about the same and its never caused problems, but I'd definitely like to see it improved.

This is just a fault with modeling and not neural dsp, axe fx has it too so does helix, and all that other stuff. They have to unload all the models then reload the models with scene's you don't have that issue because nothing is being loaded and unloaded

Literally how? A Helix/Axe-fx with more processing power and extra knobs is not exactly a “game changer”. Looks great, don’t get me wrong. But I just don’t see how it’s all that different.

89ji it can capture the amp like the Kemper can. Moreover, it will be able to capture pedal!

The Seeker can’t the Mooer modeler do that too?

@@89ji76 capture amps, speakers, pedals or use modeled amps , fx., ir's , touchscreen, switches that change values. a lot different than anything out there now.

Probably not

The people that order first will be the first to get them once they are available.

@@douglascastro320 Every order gets free shipping at Sweetwater... you are correct.

It’s been over 3 months already.

Im really considering selling my kemper for this...

Don't sell your kemper. That will be moronic

If capture works as well as they say it does, it will be the least moronic thing you could do. Lots more flexibility to be had here.

I guarantee you beyond the shadow of a doubt that it will not work. The creator of the kemer is an electronics genius. He also created all the virus series synths. Which to this day sustain their value. Kemper is not in the same ballpark as any other modeler. All that you're being shown right now is marketing hype. Unless you try one yourself don't sell your kemper. If it eint broke dont fix it.

@@BigJohn95 I'd definitely wait a bit longer to see how these things are faring a month or two into the beta test. The Kemper sounds like a tube amp, so it's not like you'll be missing anything big without it.

The scenes are whole setups. I've seen the issue with other units. The idea is that a scene is a whole rig, not a change of sound on the fly. Note when he goes to withing-scene changes, it's much more responsive. I was looking out for that. Changing scenes will change tons of different modules all at once (different amps, cabs, effects, routing, etc.). You'd do that between songs and people like me would only do it between gigs. It'd be like changing from one pedalboard to another. In a given song though, you want to turn 3 effects off and 2 others on, that's going to be really quick (probably seamless if they want this thing to sell). Because that's _within_ a scene - equivalent to a footswitch controller for your stompbox pedalboard.

AFAIK, there is always delay when switching between presets/patches in all multieffects units. It's the scene mode, or snapshot mode for Helix, where you can change between sounds without delay. In fact that's the main purpose of that mode I believe.

Great questions. I was actually surprised he did not scroll any menu even once. Almost as though it was deliberate.

@@tuiso The patch changes in the Boss GT-1000 is pretty much instant.

Hello, Armando! You do not have to run this through a guitar cab. You can go straight to front of house, as it has balanced direct outs, plus amp/cab sims on board. Thanks for the interest! Kevin Spunde, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1732, Kevin_Spunde@Sweetwater.com

What about the profile option ?

Idk what that means but that's lame. Why not actually process at 2 GHz? Is it impossible or not necessary?

Higher clocks don’t necessarily mean faster.

I'm assuming that by "Neural DSP" they're probably using neural networks to do most of its computing. This basically requires a crap-ton of matrix computations which benefit from parallel computing (multi-core processors excel at it). So I guess it depends on the amount of parallel computing the unit, as a whole, is using.

Now you know you are a zero and your head is split in two.

What ? What's your point ?

@@auntjenifer7774 listen to demos from the other manufacturers. This is all hype. It releases in a month and no official videos from the company other than a terrible beta example from 9 months ago. This video isn’t any better.

Don't worry, many folks are buying the marketing hype. Trust your ears. Get one in hand when they are available, and check it out--no need to risk it when the pre-release videos don't sound great.

I did use my ears and got the headrush pedal board. But the hype got my attention in the first place to get me looking, after listening me ears choose Headrush pedal board.

Keeping in mind Neural DSP has the best sounding guitar suites I've ever heard, I have no doubt they will update and improve this consistently over time.

Bea is already working on his review👀

@@josuastangl7140 Bea is obviously being paid by neural so no, I won't even trust Bea this time.

@@digoutyourMUSEsoul yeah obviously he's getting paid, just like every other reviewer. Bea's got a great reputation to loose and knows how to get a variety of great tones. I do trust him, but he's not the only guy I'm listening to. Conclusion: I already ordered mine.

Exactly! The sounds in this video weren't convincing at all in my opinion.... Hope there are better amp sounds in there!

What I would recommend to you is to try their Archetype trial versions. They are free to use, work as standalone and are a good indicator of the sound quality. I tried some and they convinced me. The tones I got from the Archetype are actually better than what I got previously from an amp. Why? Because my cab is not the best and I only got one mic. So basically: try it out. It’s free.

@@thorestey good idea

Hi, Josh. Yes, the Quad Cortex has a pair of XLR balanced outputs so it can go directly into an interface, live mixer, etc. Definitely adds to the flexibility of the unit and makes it easy to use in all applications. Thanks for your interest! Charlie Davis, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1320, charlie_davis@sweetwater.com

it's one thing to make sw and a another to make hardware. the delay taken to ship product is not a good sign...

Hi, thanks for the interest! The Quad Cortex isn't necessarily hands-down better than the HX Stomp or other Helix pedals, but it is somewhat different. You probably noticed that the Quad Cortex has more footswitches than the HX Stomp, allowing you to control more parameters while you play. The Quad Cortex also uses different, newer machine learning technology to digitally recreate the sound of analog amps and stompboxes. If you were to get the Quad Cortex, you probably wouldn't use both it and your HX Stomp, since they basically take different approaches to the same concept. You'd probably end up using one or the other, not both. If you have further questions, feel free to contact your Sales Engineer, or reach out to me directly! Caleb Lowrey, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1620, caleb_lowrey@sweetwater.com

Yes. Four inputs, four outputs.

Amen brotha! I'm taking one for the team on the bass side haha. I pre ordered one and will be shooting a demo on my youtube channel and doing live first impressions on twitch. Would be forever grateful if you checked my channel out! 🤘🏽

Just check out Neural’s bass plugins (Parallax, Dark Glass) as testimony to how they handle bass to ease your mind. Next level!

@@jasonbrogly7401 I have the bass plugs and LOVE them. I also have the guitar plugs and love them too, but for some reason this hasn't sounded as good to me in the demos. That's what is making me nervous about the bass as well. Might be the fact the tones they are using for the quad cortext demos are just normal amp sounds and not curated by sick engineers haha.

@@douglascastro320 I guess the delay is currently as 'long' as a Helix, but Helix is switching the leds 'instantly', so it seems to do the job quicker, but the audible difference is kinda same?

I agree, but like others are saying in scene and stomp mode I'm sure there won't be any lag. I doubt neural would put out something with an unusable amount lag.

Hello, Mark! As of right now there are a fair amount of bass amps and cab sims, as well as a selection of bass specific overdrives, and a bass wah. Other effects don't necessarily have to be bass specific (such as compressors, EQs, modulation, and time based effects). Being a bass player myself, this makes sense to me, as all of my overdrives are bass specific, and I have a bass specific wah pedal, but most of my other pedals are guitar/bass agnostic. Thanks for the interest! Kevin Spunde, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1732, Kevin_Spunde@Sweetwater.com

You can plug it into your cell too and update etc.

Rabea just put out a playthrough using the quad cortex for guitar tones. Everything I’ve heard out of this sounds like the real deal

Hello! Yep, that is one of the ways you can run that, but you could also still use your amp if you wanted to. Thanks for the interest! Kevin Spunde, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1732, Kevin_Spunde@Sweetwater.com

If you have already purchased their plugins, then you'll be able to download them as standalone upgrades to the Quad Cortex. However, they won't come stock with the firmware.

Yeah this demo didn't sound good to me.

That's what EQ/low pass filters are for. I have no doubt you'll be able to dial in the tones you want on it that sound good. Whether it's worth upgrading your current floor modeller or not? Depends on whether you need all this functionality I guess.

@@arbitermatt My current floor modeler is an FM3 with an FC6 in OMG mode. It sounds amazing out of the box.

@@ScottAbene Yep, a nice modeller! I only really use them on fly gigs where I can't take an amp to be fair, so I just use a helix stomp with a selection of pedals. Completely does the job for me.

@@arbitermatt how are you so sure when we heard 0 proper demos of it. Their plugins sound harsh and loose(compared to both kemper and fractal). I’m only interested in the capture thing if it can be on par with the kemper. But the lack of demos this close to the release is worrying

I wouldn't say by far, they each have their benefits for different applications.

Hello, Bob! There may be some restrictions on shipping certain gear internationally, but we'd be glad to look into it for you. When you have a moment, please give us a call at (800) 222-4700 or email us at sales@sweetwater.com. Thank you for the message!

This unit is running beta. Neural is updating this before release

same impression here, to slow switching between patches, but this is a critical issue, hope will be fixed soon, by now, fm3 wins for me

Smaller. It sounds better to me. The helix and the kemper imo need a overdrive to help it along. Just my opinion. I’m using it they s regular guitar cabinet.

Those will come out very quickly probably starting next month.