NDSP Quad Cortex

[Jarick]

Oh I have most certainly read that the effects are bad sounding more than once but I’m sure not every thinks it so didn’t mean to imply that’s all that’s said about the effects so that’s why I made the limited options comment as well.

On the limited thing…. limits aren’t always bad and in some instances way better than all the options you’d ever want.

I can't stand those people on the internet that make sweeping generalizations!

Seriously though, it's a cool virtual pedalboard with solid effects. I like how they have so many Boss pedals, that's underrated. Stuff like the CS-3 and CE-2, good thinking. I'd love to see them build out more on the delay and reverb side, big opportunities there.

Flip side, for $1700 it's expensive to act as a virtual pedalboard when things like the HX Effects and Stomp XL are available for less than half that price new, or lots more used. The HX stuff to me has more vibe and is more inspiring, although the UX can be more clunky and there's more DSP limits. But again, the price...

I'll be really interested to see if Fractal releases something like a VP8, which would be KILLER with a tube amp or a standalone direct amp replacement (like UAD pedals, Strymon Iridium, Friedman IR, etc.).

Flip side, it would be really interesting if Boss did an effects-only pedal, something built off the GX/GT platform but with all the 500 series stuff, better UX than the GT-1000, etc. The Boss effects legacy and very low latency would be really awesome.

 

[Mikael Dez]

I can't stand those people on the internet that make sweeping generalizations!

Seriously though, it's a cool virtual pedalboard with solid effects. I like how they have so many Boss pedals, that's underrated. Stuff like the CS-3 and CE-2, good thinking. I'd love to see them build out more on the delay and reverb side, big opportunities there.

Flip side, for $1700 it's expensive to act as a virtual pedalboard when things like the HX Effects and Stomp XL are available for less than half that price new, or lots more used. The HX stuff to me has more vibe and is more inspiring, although the UX can be more clunky and there's more DSP limits. But again, the price...

I'll be really interested to see if Fractal releases something like a VP8, which would be KILLER with a tube amp or a standalone direct amp replacement (like UAD pedals, Strymon Iridium, Friedman IR, etc.).

Flip side, it would be really interesting if Boss did an effects-only pedal, something built off the GX/GT platform but with all the 500 series stuff, better UX than the GT-1000, etc. The Boss effects legacy and very low latency would be really awesome.

My buddy got a VP4 and the one thing I kind of scratched my head at was limitation of 4 simultaneous effects. If it's an addition to a pedalboard where you may have a few physical pedals that you can't give up I can understand that - but at 4 blocks I don't think it's worth the money (for me), in that case I'd just opt to save a bit more for an FM3.

 

[namathan_zirwir]

My buddy got a VP4 and the one thing I kind of scratched my head at was limitation of 4 simultaneous effects. If it's an addition to a pedalboard where you may have a few physical pedals that you can't give up I can understand that - but at 4 blocks I don't think it's worth the money (for me), in that case I'd just opt to save a bit more for an FM3.

VP4 also a big head scratcher for me. No interest in what it is, for the price. I would maybe buy an FX8 replacement

 

[laxu]

My buddy got a VP4 and the one thing I kind of scratched my head at was limitation of 4 simultaneous effects. If it's an addition to a pedalboard where you may have a few physical pedals that you can't give up I can understand that - but at 4 blocks I don't think it's worth the money (for me), in that case I'd just opt to save a bit more for an FM3.

The way I see it, most of the time you aren't going to have more than 4 different effects in use at once. Need a different 4 of the same type? Swap channels. Need totally different 4? Use another preset.

My beef with the unit is its high EU cost (more than Helix LT...) and I'm not sold on the user experience. That's why I passed on it, though on paper it would work well for my needs.

 

[AFKAEjay(retired)]

I can't stand those people on the internet that make sweeping generalizations!

Seriously though, it's a cool virtual pedalboard with solid effects. I like how they have so many Boss pedals, that's underrated. Stuff like the CS-3 and CE-2, good thinking. I'd love to see them build out more on the delay and reverb side, big opportunities there.

Flip side, for $1700 it's expensive to act as a virtual pedalboard when things like the HX Effects and Stomp XL are available for less than half that price new, or lots more used. The HX stuff to me has more vibe and is more inspiring, although the UX can be more clunky and there's more DSP limits. But again, the price...

I'll be really interested to see if Fractal releases something like a VP8, which would be KILLER with a tube amp or a standalone direct amp replacement (like UAD pedals, Strymon Iridium, Friedman IR, etc.).

Flip side, it would be really interesting if Boss did an effects-only pedal, something built off the GX/GT platform but with all the 500 series stuff, better UX than the GT-1000, etc. The Boss effects legacy and very low latency would be really awesome.

People mean different things when they comment on the efx of the QC..some simply want more to choose from, some want more parameters, etc.
I’d buy the QC again in a heartbeat, and most efx categories are perfectly fine, but I’m not happy with the reverbs tbh. Serviceable, plenty of types, plenty of knobs to turn…sure.
In my mind there are 2 kinds of reverbs:
A…the ones that annoy you / get in the way when they are audible
B…the ones that simply give you a sound that’s too wet when turned too loud.

From the stuff I used hands on: lexicon, tc, Kemper, boss…all category B imo, set and forget…QC leans to A imo.

 

[ejecta]

The way I see it, most of the time you aren't going to have more than 4 different effects in use at once. needs.

It depends on the gig and rig choices. For some styles like PW I use a cleanish amp platform with a couple different drives driving into each other, some delays doing the same then those for the super washed out verb for ambient, and add compression, volume block, eq, tremelo etc. You can most certainly run out of blocks for some gigs but yeah “in general” I too would think most should be able to make 4 work.