NDSP Quad Cortex

[mikah912]

The apology is good enough for me. Mainly because I'm fine with the QC, and I haven't been sitting on their website hitting F5 and praying for a CorOS update. I've been playing guitar, and using the QC, and it's been great. Looking forward to Rabea compatibility. I'll survive.

If there were some specific feature whose absence were truly holding me back, and it had been promised and not delivered, then sure, I'd be pissed. But as things stand, it's so much ado about nothing. "Same as it's been for 5 years" cuts both ways: if you still have a QC and you're still pissed about it, by this point it's on you as much as them. (Likewise for "Plugin compatibility is pointless" cutting both ways, except to the extent that it's made them so slow to develop any other features.)

Fun testimonial: last night our drummer stopped by for what I call a "tech night" - setting up sound treatment and reinforcement, etc. The kind of stuff you don't want to get into during rehearsal. He wanted a monitor on his end of the room so he could get more of my vocals and guitar, but I wasn't crazy about the idea of running XLR cables all over the room. So I pulled up the preset I've been using for this project - 4cm on lane 1, vocals on lane 3 - and I pulled a couple of additional outputs, doubling guitar on lane 2 and adding a cab sim, and doubling vox on lane 4. Assigned those to a spare output and send block respectively, stuck a couple of guitar wireless transmitters in the back, stuck a couple of receivers in his mixer... voila. A whole extra mix in about 5 minutes, no extra hardware.

I tend to be on this side even though I'm an ex-owner, and likely will forever be.

NDSP and the QC are known qualities at this point. If you've paid attention to any of their communication in the last however many months, you shouldn't be surprised that A) they're chronically late and B) they have lots of room to improve with customer communication.

Even if many specific models are MIA, they've essentially fulfilled the general premise they sold this unit on: It's a compact, yet powerful touchscreen-driven modeler, multieffects and capture device with a cloud-based infrastructure.

User-generated content is plentiful and will continue to keep the device somewhat fresh. However clownish NDSP is has nothing to do with when you sit down with the device at a gig or rehearsal. If you can live that, it's a good-to-great value and solid alternative to Line 6/Kemper/Fractal right now.

 

[mbenigni]

My need has become very distilled. I've whatever the opposite of whatever option paralysis is of late.

Same. And lately I've been running 4cm with the two sounds (give or take) a Marshall DSL makes, and that's that. It's actually been kind of refreshing to not worry so much over guitar tone lately. ("That's Jim Marshall's job." )

 

[mbenigni]

The way this company is being run is baffling. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of the QC and the UX is completely my style... but I would never dare to buy it because of how inconsistent and slow the updates have been. Especially considering how much it lacks compared to Line6 and Fractal (or even the cheaper Chinese ones).

I used to love their blog updates, but these days it's just shit. And I don't give a shit about PCOM. Although I realize some do. But devoting this much resources towards it while essentially neglecting all other developments is .. well, as I said in the beginning.. baffling.

PCOM is dumb. No two ways about it.

I‘m happy with my non-existent QC, even without updates It suits my needs.

And I've grown quite fond of Fractal's UI/UX since selling my FM3.

 

[sleewell]

fuck man its just a lot of wasted energy at this point. you dont have one and never will and hate the company and post about it all the time, thats fucking awesome of you... gold star hahahaha. the QC sounds amazing, it is easy use, and i like the size of it. i haven't even got mine on the wifi yet and have no idea what update its on, could be stock for all i know. i play it nightly and enjoy it, thats plenty for me. the touch screen is nice. makes it really fast to adjust. im kinda an old not tech guy and i figured it out pretty fast.

 

[banned]

I‘m happy with my non-existent QC, even without updates It suits my needs.

The good thing about the non-existent QC is it comes with non-existent updates - the exact same as the real QC. So I think that's a bargain!

 

[paisleywookiee]

I still want a Nano Cortex. With my iPad, it'll be the ultimate man-purse rig.

 

[banned]

Hmmm...

Quad Cortex Development Update #57

An update on the status of CorOS 3.1.1

neuraldsp.com

Are these guys for real? This is ridiculous.

5 years and nothing has changed. This has been modus operandi right from the start.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice....

 

[GTR37]

I still want a Nano Cortex. With my iPad, it'll be the ultimate man-purse rig.

To be fair IMO That product they have actually delivered above expectations on
And is good value for the money and a grab and go

 

[GTR37]

Are these guys for real? This is ridiculous.

5 years and nothing has changed. This has been modus operandi right from the start.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice....

It’s just their thing go look at the new Darkglass bass product
It was pre order
People are complaining about delays and they are saying building will commence August 1st , they are still working on Midi controllers and want to get it right
I feel like it could possibly be a QC sequel

 

[paisleywookiee]

To be fair IMO That product they have actually delivered above expectations on
And is good value for the money and a grab and go

Yup, that's how I buy products, for what they do today. I wouldn't have bought it prior to 2.0, especially with their track record. But now it does what I want.

 

[DrewJD82]

Yup, that's how I buy products, for what they do today. I wouldn't have bought it prior to 2.0, especially with their track record. But now it does what I want.

What I get a kick out of is reading QC owners tell other QC owners “Buy it for what it does today”, particularly when it’s a newer QC owner telling it to a pre-order QC owner, being completely unaware that the QC is the entire reason that statement exists.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

fuck man its just a lot of wasted energy at this point. you dont have one and never will and hate the company and post about it all the time, thats fucking awesome of you... gold star hahahaha. the QC sounds amazing, it is easy use, and i like the size of it. i haven't even got mine on the wifi yet and have no idea what update its on, could be stock for all i know. i play it nightly and enjoy it, thats plenty for me. the touch screen is nice. makes it really fast to adjust. im kinda an old not tech guy and i figured it out pretty fast.

Did you think of the QC when you chose your "dropped at birth" avatar? You've hit the nail on the head.

 

[dws2384]

What they really should have done is checked with their development team if it was actually possible before tossing it out there on a wing and a prayer pre-launch to try and sell more units.

By they do you mean the owner of the company? Ya, probably.

I feel like people in the company probably said something along the lines of ‘uhhh its not that easy’ and he was too stubborn to walk it back….I made that all up in my head though so it could be complete BS lol.

 

[paisleywookiee]

What I get a kick out of is reading QC owners tell other QC owners “Buy it for what it does today”, particularly when it’s a newer QC owner telling it to a pre-order QC owner, being completely unaware that the QC is the entire reason that statement exists.

Yeah, I mean there’s no denying the QC is a shit show, development wise.

 

[Orvillain]

So the development updates which they started doing because they’re so shit at communication and software updates are now just being used to apologise for being shit at communication and software updates?

Nice

 

[Dez]

Meanwhile in Finland:

 

[mbenigni]

I still want a Nano Cortex. With my iPad, it'll be the ultimate man-purse rig.

It's European!

 

[mbenigni]

Yup, that's how I buy products, for what they do today. I wouldn't have bought it prior to 2.0, especially with their track record. But now it does what I want.

Personally, I think this extends to QC too. Yes, Neural has an embarrassing tendency to overpromise, and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon. But the QC itself, now, delivers great functionality out of the box. There are a whole lot of people spending a whole lot of money for these things and not sending them back - which is entirely their prerogative. QC can't be sucking that hard.

Points taken re: those who got burned at launch. On the flipside, I'm guessing those people recouped their money a long ways back. I've bought a lot of products from a lot of companies over the years that fell short of their promises, and in most cases that money just vaporized.

 

[mbenigni]

By they do you mean the owner of the company? Ya, probably.

I feel like people in the company probably said something along the lines of ‘uhhh its not that easy’ and he was too stubborn to walk it back….I made that all up in my head though so it could be complete BS lol.

Managers: "Why can't we just..."
Marketers: "Wouldn't it be cool if...!!!"
Developers: "Well actually..."

 

[ejecta]

The apology is good enough for me. Mainly because I'm fine with the QC, and I haven't been sitting on their website hitting F5 and praying for a CorOS update. I've been playing guitar, and using the QC, and it's been great. Looking forward to Rabea compatibility. I'll survive.

If there were some specific feature whose absence were truly holding me back, and it had been promised and not delivered, then sure, I'd be pissed. But as things stand, it's so much ado about nothing. "Same as it's been for 5 years" cuts both ways: if you still have a QC and you're still pissed about it, by this point it's on you as much as them. (Likewise for "Plugin compatibility is pointless" cutting both ways, except to the extent that it's made them so slow to develop any other features.)

Fun testimonial: last night our drummer stopped by for what I call a "tech night" - setting up sound treatment and reinforcement, etc. The kind of stuff you don't want to get into during rehearsal. He wanted a monitor on his end of the room so he could get more of my vocals and guitar, but I wasn't crazy about the idea of running XLR cables all over the room. So I pulled up the preset I've been using for this project - 4cm on lane 1, vocals on lane 3 - and I pulled a couple of additional outputs, doubling guitar on lane 2 and adding a cab sim, and doubling vox on lane 4. Assigned those to a spare output and send block respectively, stuck a couple of guitar wireless transmitters in the back, stuck a couple of receivers in his mixer... voila. A whole extra mix in about 5 minutes, no extra hardware.

Yeah I totally get people’s frustration and I’m not happy with them making promises they can’t seem to keep. Nothing new there really though. I’ve seen it happen to other gear manufacturers. Anyway I like the way the capture I use sounds and the unit’s functionality over any other digital device I’ve used to date so for now it’s my gear of choice to gig direct.