That sounds good in theory, until your modeling company doesn’t update your modeler because they spent a year making a couple plugins compatible.
Mben was only owns the QC, tell him with a straight face that plugins are a separate product.
Yeah, I mean, I’m a hardcore plugin guy and I happily throw money at those. Given the time it makes me to make some NAM/ToneX/IR packs, plugin suites cost nothing by comparison and you get a much nicer user experience. For whatever BS is involved with the QC, the plugins are fantastic and I genuinely wish Line 6 and Fractal could offer me something similar (and I’m sure I’m not alone in that).
As it stands, NDSP lead the way in that part of the market and I have always considered them a plugin company first and foremost. The mistake a lot of people made was assuming they were as good at developing hardware as they are plugins.
If the standard is now IK Multimedia, we’re all fucked. Fractal offering some ancillary IR pack(s) to an otherwise aggressively developed, mature and feature complete product, is quite the fucking stretch to Neurals tangled web with QC & Plug development.
I agree that it’s not an ideal model. But as it stands, Line 6, Fractal and NDSP all offer more palatable options for expanding your options between a HW unit and software. Line 6 nailed it with HX Native, Metallurgy were a misfire that have been entirely neglected. I think it’s been well over a year since those plugins saw an update, and they were never truly perfect. I love Line 6 as a company but the Metallurgy experience is closer to a $5 Audio Assault plugin than it is what NDSP offer. And Fractal are too timid to go near plugins, so while the AxeFX is fantastic they simply won’t cater for someone who wants plugin versions.
Neural DSP offer the best plugin experience and a reasonable enough HW experience, to a lot of guys it’s going to be a good enough balance. For everything I love about the Axe FX, it’s a massive investment compared to anything else on the market and forces you to work a certain way. Line 6 and NDSP are way more flexible with how you use their products.
I’m not saying Fractal doesn’t offer value for money, but also, it’s a big investment that doesn’t completely satisfy what I’m looking for. So they have room to improve and grow, and I’d happily pay money for it as soon as it’s available (just as I paid extra wedge for Helix Native and Metallurgy). You can spend a ton on a Fractal rig and there still isn’t the option to buy the extra features you want - at least this is completely possible with Line 6, and somewhat possible with NDSP (QC Native when?).
I don’t own a QC, but I own most of the plugins so I’m fairly heavily invested in what they offer. It really feels like this topic is talked about in a way that makes it seem like a bigger deal than it is. I’d find a QC Native infinitely more exciting than plugin porting to QC. Most QC users seem to be pretty stoked to be able to use the plugins they’ve already spent money on in their QC, and I think if everything works as they expect they’ll probably be happy to spend more. If both sides are happy with that arrangement, then I’m not going to complain on their behalf.
