Neural DSP Nano Cortex

[Achilles]

Just dropping in here to ask..., how exactly does one do that?

Like, do you mike up your amp?

I have no choice but to make DI. I don't/can't play loud enough for a good mic signal.

 

[duzie]

I understand all of your opinions about the drive and transpose block.

Obviously, both of them would be ideal.

However, I prefer the transpose to a drive block in this singular kind of pedal.

My reasons:

I don't see it as an all in one unit. Even with a drive block, it wouldn't be. For me, it should have at least a compressor and one more block and effects choice. So a drive won't solve the "all in one" thing.

I almost never needed a transpose. So I don't have a pedal for that. And the multieffects I have don't have a good working poly pitch. However... I've got plenty of drives (analog pedals and digital models). Given the fact that, for me, the NC would be basically an AIAB pedal to integrate with a pedalboard or a multieffects, if I needed a drive, I can use whatever I already have. But what if, overnight, someone asks me to change the key of a song to play the next day and I have no time to learn it? Or if my skills are not so good to play transposed on the fly? Yeah, no problem, I change the key in the NC. Yeah, if I had to use a drive AND transpose, it won't work perfectly, but given it would be just a emergency, I can play without drive. It wouldn't be the perfect tone, but I would have been able to save the song.

To sum up, if I planned to use the NC as an all in one, I prefer a drive block. But as I'll never consider it an all in one, I prefer just the way it is because I have lots of drives and not a transpose. And honestly... This unit is NOT an all in one.

My question would be how well does the transpose actually work

 

[Achilles]

To sum up, if I planned to use the NC as an all in one, I prefer a drive block. But as I'll never consider it an all in one, I prefer just the way it is because I have lots of drives and not a transpose. And honestly... This unit is NOT an all in one.

Agree with everything you said except that for those with simple/basic needs the Nano could easily be an all in one.

 

[Sedaxel]

My question would be how well does the transpose actually work

If it's like the QC, my buddy played Moonlight Shadow with the transpose on the QC, with Maggie Reilly in a full auditorium in Madrid. She asked the night before to change the key. He got an ovation from the audience. I've seen the video, and the tone was perfectly fine... Both the rhythm chords and the solo parts.

 

[Achilles]

 

[TSJMajesty]

I have no choice but to make DI. I don't/can't play loud enough for a good mic signal.

View attachment 29045

Ok, so it gets a direct signal. So it's just a snapshot of however you have your amp dialed in? Do you have to play something from the lowest to the highest notes, so it can accurately "hear" how the amp processes that entire frequency spectrum? Or does the NC itself send some type of signal through the amp?

Like I said, I really don't understand the process.

And then once you have that capture, can you tweak it on the unit itself? And does it respond to those adjustments the same way the real amp does?

And is the whole reason for doing this so you can now take your amp's tones with you, without taking the amp? Or is it to have more flexibility in being able to choose various tones/captures as presets, that wouldn't necessarily be possible with a real amp? Both? More than that?

 

[Achilles]

Ok, so it gets a direct signal. So it's just a snapshot of however you have your amp dialed in? Do you have to play something from the lowest to the highest notes, so it can accurately "hear" how the amp processes that entire frequency spectrum? Or does the NC itself send some type of signal through the amp?

Yes, a snapshot of where you have the amp set. First the unit shoots a bunch of very funky noises through the amp that have zero to do with music but everything to do with calibrating things. Then there's a secondary process where you just jam a bit to further refine the capture. It's pretty fast. I'm going from memory of some videos I watched so I may be a bit off - but that's the basics.

And then once you have that capture, can you tweak it on the unit itself? And does it respond to those adjustments the same way the real amp does?

Since you're capturing a snapshot the unit has no clue about how the pots affect that particular amp.
Similar to Kemper you get the basic G-B-M-T controls after the fact but they act more like a basic EQ pedal
would if put in an amp's FX loop. The capture doesn't turn the Cortex into that amp in regard to full control.

And is the whole reason for doing this so you can now take your amp's tones with you, without taking the amp? Or is it to have more flexibility in being able to choose various tones/captures as presets, that wouldn't necessarily be possible with a real amp? Both? More than that?

The possibilities are totally up to the user. In my personal case:

- having my favorite amp tone at 5:00 am or 11:00 pm with headphones.
- being able to have that tone at the instant ready all day without having cooking tubes and electric bills in the back of my mind.
- pop over my daughter's house and jam with her husband without lugging an amp.
- space. we just downsized again and having a bunch of heads is just nuts. I got one out in the open, one under my bed, and three of them locked out back in the garage which makes them a pain in the ass when the urge hits to play one.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Yes, a snapshot of where you have the amp set. First the unit shoots a bunch of very funky noises through the amp that have zero to do with music but everything to do with calibrating things. Then there's a secondary process where you just jam a bit to further refine the capture. It's pretty fast. I'm going from memory of some videos I watched so I may be a bit off - but that's the basics.


Since you're capturing a snapshot the unit has no clue about how the pots affect that particular amp.
Similar to Kemper you get the basic G-B-M-T controls after the fact but they act more like a basic EQ pedal
would if put in an amp's FX loop. The capture doesn't turn the Cortex into that amp in regard to full control.


The possibilities are totally up to the user. In my personal case:

- having my favorite amp tone at 5:00 am or 11:00 pm with headphones.
- being able to have that tone at the instant ready all day without having cooking tubes and electric bills in the back of my mind.
- pop over my daughter's house and jam with her husband without lugging an amp.
- space. we just downsized again and having a bunch of heads is just nuts. I got one out in the open, one under my bed, and three of them locked out back in the garage which makes them a pain in the ass when the urge hits to play one.

Cool. Thanks!

 

[timbuck3]

The hard limits? I'm hoping/assuming that "most" people will know what they are buying and read the product description beforehand?

Many just buy cause it’s new and are fan boys,,, you should know that by now

And there-in lies the problem.
Give 100 people a basket full of shiny apples and at least 50 of them be like, "What, no oranges?"

apples give me gas

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Per Nathan’s post in another thread.

NC has an input headroom of 10dBu, QC is 15dBu.

I wonder if they’re accounting for this level internally? I’ve already seen some posts saying “trust me, captures sound better on NC” which would suggest maybe there is a level difference.

Anyone with both able to check real quick?

 

[Sedaxel]

has an input headroom of 10dBu, QC is 15dBu.

This is worrying. If they're changing reference between their own units, that's not looking good. I hope they're getting it balanced inside.

 

[BenIfin]

Per Nathan’s post in another thread.

NC has an input headroom of 10dBu, QC is 15dBu.

I wonder if they’re accounting for this level internally? I’ve already seen some posts saying “trust me, captures sound better on NC” which would suggest maybe there is a level difference.

Anyone with both able to check real quick?

This is worrying. If they're changing reference between their own units, that's not looking good. I hope they're getting it balanced inside.

Purely technical question.

What is the difference between an NC input headroom of 10dBu vs the QC input headroom of 15dBu ?

Which one is better and why ?

Need to be schooled on this.

Ben

 

[Sascha Franck]

This unit is NOT an all in one.

IMO it easily could be, if only it was given a little more thought.
However, as far as drive vs. transpose goes, why not just offer both? They could do it the same way as Boss which goes sorta like "gapless switching only when you're using the same signal chain and block types". Problem solved, win-win.

 

[Sedaxel]

Yeah, I think the unit could be better.

However, I also think that an all in one unit needs at least the Kemper player bare bones. And even that is not a perfect all in one (display lack and whatnot). Everyone's needs are different, though. For some people, a simple amp sim pedal is already an all in one. In my singular use case, this would only serve me as an all in one for very particular situations... And given that exceptional cases, I could also go without drive. Not ideal, of course.

I guess they targeted this box just, and only just, for integrating it in pedalboards and multieffects.

 

[Sedaxel]

Purely technical question.

What is the difference between an NC input headroom of 10dBu vs the QC input headroom of 15dBu ?

Which one is better and why ?

Need to be schooled on this.

Ben

Well, there are 2 different subjects.

The first is the risk of clipping the input signal hitting the AD converter. The less headroom, the bigger risk of clipping. If your guitar is hot enough, you could clip and lose peaks of its audio signal. With 10db should be fine in most cases, but I guess it's better 15dB for safety. It can also be taken into account that going too far adding headroom could lead to excessive noise when trying to recover the gain internally. So it's not good having much more than 15dB, I think.

Then there's the reference thing. There's no better here. You just need the same headroom on the input as the one used when the captures were created, so you can be sure the capture will be run exactly as the captured amp. If they start to change the input headroom reference, captures from the QC will behave a little different in the NC, not giving you the certainty of accuracy to the real amp UNLESS they are making up the value internally, prior to entering the capture player block.

MirrorProfiles could correct me if I said something wrong.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Well, there are 2 different subjects.

The first is the risk of clipping the input signal hitting the AD converter. The less headroom, the bigger risk of clipping. If your guitar is hot enough, you could clip and lose peaks of its audio signal. With 10db should be fine in most cases, but I guess it's better 15dB for safety. It can also be taken into account that going too far adding headroom could lead to excessive noise when trying to recover the gain internally. So it's not good having much more than 15dB, I think.

Then there's the reference thing. There's no better here. You just need the same headroom on the input as the one used when the captures were created, so you can be sure the capture will be run exactly as the captured amp. If they start to change the input headroom reference, captures from the QC will behave a little different in the NC, not giving you the certainty of accuracy to the real amp UNLESS they are making up the value internally, prior to entering the capture player block.

MirrorProfiles could correct me if I said something wrong.

Not sure the input gain matters for anything than usage as AI with DAW type stuff.

My logic is that hitting the front end with a boost you’d be constantly clipping.

Whereas I don’t like the “normalising inputs” concept, I’d prefer how it’s done on AxeFx3 vs the early models where when I swapped from single coils to EMGs it was clip city unless I remembered to adjust.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Not sure the input gain matters for anything than usage as AI with DAW type stuff.

My logic is that hitting the front end with a boost you’d be constantly clipping.

Whereas I don’t like the “normalising inputs” concept, I’d prefer how it’s done on AxeFx3 vs the early models where when I swapped from single coils to EMGs it was clip city unless I remembered to adjust.

IMO the biggest issue would be about parity between using a model/preset on NC and QC. If they aren’t automatically adjusted internally then they’ll sound different. 5dB is enough to be pretty noticeable. The AxeFX approach is just to avoid clipping the A/D, the levels hitting the model get internally adjusted back to unity.

 

[Frankencat]

At least the GX-100 is useful. Mediocre to bad tones, but useful.

I get great tones from my GX-100. If you can't then it ain't the box

I am not sure the Nano Cortex has that much better than the Tonex and the Tonex One hits a sweet spot for pedalboard use.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Where's Leo Gibson with some latency measurements? Or has anyone else done so yet?

 

[paisleywookiee]

I get great tones from my GX-100. If you can't then it ain't the box

I am not sure the Nano Cortex has that much better than the Tonex and the Tonex One hits a sweet spot for pedalboard use.

I’ve spent a lot of time more with the GT-1000 stuff. It can sound pretty decent with good IR’s. But it’s not in the league of Fractal, Helix, or QC, IMO.