Neural DSP Nano Cortex

[MirrorProfiles]

Well it is and isn't. Just adding that Transpose in there y'know? Should have left it out if they expect people to put a boost before the Nano - it'll screw the pitch shifting.

Anyway, that's just my take on it.

Yeah, I agree it’s odd to put transpose in. I guess a number of NDSP users are kind of used to that and could probably get by with a headphone/travel rig of just amp model+basic fx+headphones.

Tbh, I don’t see the FX there as anything other than a quick problem solver if you need it. The core of the product is the captures, anything else would be if you aren’t a modulation nerd then you can use your own choice of boost/delay/reverb and you have a chorus that’ll do the job if the situation arises. I’m presuming the pitch shift is the same thing - for a practice/travel rig it might be handy, for serious use you’d probably use something else elsewhere in the chain.

idk, while you're not wrong I'd say that once you start putting fxs into a digital device derived from big device like the quad cortex, players expect some degree of flexibility.

maybe it's just a naming issue here.

I think if someone expects a degree of flexibility this is absolutely not what they should be looking at. They’ve purposefully kept it dumbed down so the lack of screen, lack of I/O, lack of knobs, lack of switches etc makes sense. The strength of the unit is more based on what they’ve stripped away.

Best to imagine that it’s a capture player with no fx at all. It’s actually how I look at that Dimehead pedal or most built in fx. They’re there if you want them, but the whole purpose of it being on a pedalboard in the first place (and not a dedicated all-in-one) is that you want to use the stuff you already own and like.

Who wants NDSP’s average delays and reverbs anyway?

 

[deepskyone]

I was a bit puzzled about this product but when I put on my venture capitalist Patagonia vest, it all makes perfect sense.

This is targeting the TOP demographic: old dudes with aircraft-carrier size pedalboards and "one-of-a-kind" tube amps that they cannot carry anymore or don't want to fire up because of those precious NOS tubes.

The digital natives are already served with QC and the plugins.

The effects are just a box-ticking exercise because Tonex and Kemper have them as well.

Best case scenario: tube amp aficionado buys the NC, captures all his amps to have a backup, and then realizes he doesn't need the amps anymore and sells them. Vendor lock-in, baby!

P.S.: What still doesn't make any sense is the YT cringefest...

 

[MirrorProfiles]

But they better bring more fx for each of the categories because it's wild to have a pedal like this that only comes with a chorus for modulation, only comes with an analog delay etc.

Makes me wonder how much of this is basically beta software that they managed to get out and make those fx run on the cheap processor they chose for this.

This just seems miles off base to me and missing the point of the pedal. IMO you should be comparing it to the Strymon Iridium or Blu, and not the QC. If you want more FX and processing then you’ll want a screen, poo switches and everything the QC offers.

For this concept to work it HAS to be stripped back. You combine it with your preference of fx and other gear, that’s why it’s so small and simple.

 

[Sascha Franck]

To be honest, LOADS.

Where are they?

 

[Sascha Franck]

They should possibly offer two modes for this. 1) as is, 2) running 2 captures, an IR and nothing else.

 

[Orvillain]

Where are they?

Playing in live rock and metal bands, using 5150's, Marshalls, and other amps that don't require boosts in order to get good sounds.

It has only been the last couple of years that I've had any interest in drive pedals at all, myself. Prior to that I was purely getting all my gain from the amp; which is totally possible.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Playing in live rock and metal bands, using 5150's, Marshalls, and other amps that don't require boosts in order to get good sounds.

Pretty much anyone boosting their amps for, say, solo patches, is using pedals to finetune things, though.

 

[HotRats]

I think if someone expects a degree of flexibility this is absolutely not what they should be looking at. They’ve purposefully kept it dumbed down so the lack of screen, lack of I/O, lack of knobs, lack of switches etc makes sense. The strength of the unit is more based on what they’ve stripped away.

Best to imagine that it’s a capture player with no fx at all. It’s actually how I look at that Dimehead pedal or most built in fx. They’re there if you want them, but the whole purpose of it being on a pedalboard in the first place (and not a dedicated all-in-one) is that you want to use the stuff you already own and like.

Who wants NDSP’s average delays and reverbs anyway?

My point is just that having no options is a better than having stripped down ones.

Imho there's no point in adding a single average chorus or adding few fxs but no drives in a product like this, because people will inevitably complain and point out at those meh options as weaknesses.

 

[Foxmeister]

This just seems miles off base to me and missing the point of the pedal. IMO you should be comparing it to the Strymon Iridium or Blu, and not the QC.

The better comparison is with the Kemper Profiler Player - still stripped down in terms of FX, but not to the degree that the Nano Cortex is.

I do hope that they eventually allow some of the FX to be swapped for different FX of the same type, but I'd imagine this may break gapless preset switching.

 

[laxu]

This just seems miles off base to me and missing the point of the pedal. IMO you should be comparing it to the Strymon Iridium or Blu, and not the QC. If you want more FX and processing then you’ll want a screen, poo switches and everything the QC offers.

For this concept to work it HAS to be stripped back. You combine it with your preference of fx and other gear, that’s why it’s so small and simple.

I'm not saying it has to have every option the QC has, but certainly more than one effect per category. To me it seems entirely built to be like that from the editor. Like why would you have just chorus and not also a flanger or phaser? Why analog delay, but no digital delay? Why a single reverb type? That's why I've been making the beta software remarks.

Kemper Player seems like the closest equivalent, but HX Stomp is not that far away either. Nano Cortex just puts the advanced functionality into the app instead of a built in screen, and with more limitations.

The marketing is that it's a "full guitar or bass rig" and that's already far away from the Strymon or BluGuitar.

 

[Lysander]

The better comparison is with the Kemper Profiler Player - still stripped down in terms of FX, but not to the degree that the Nano Cortex is.

I thought the KPP could play any Kemper rig? i.e. all Kemper effects are there and available.

 

[jellodog]

Pretty much anyone boosting their amps for, say, solo patches, is using pedals to finetune things, though.

There are other styles of guitar music that don't use boosts for solos... they don't even have solos!

 

[Sascha Franck]

I thought the KPP could play any Kemper rig? i.e. all Kemper effects are there and available.

No. There's just 2 FX slots and from all I know, they're somewhat limited, too. So just the "guts" of the patches will load (no idea how well that does or doesn't work).

 

[MirrorProfiles]

The better comparison is with the Kemper Profiler Player - still stripped down in terms of FX, but not to the degree that the Nano Cortex is.

I do hope that they eventually allow some of the FX to be swapped for different FX of the same type, but I'd imagine this may break gapless preset switching.

I’d imagine for most users the amount the Kemper offers (for a small capture playing device) is overkill. I certainly never used 95% of the effects in the kemper at any point on the big one, and if I was buying the small version it wouldn’t be for any of those. I’d take them if they’re there but beyond that I don’t care. My gut feeling is having as much as the Kemper does just adds bloat and potential for making things even worse to use, which is why they’ve decided to reduce it down to absolute minimum.

I'm not saying it has to have every option the QC has, but certainly more than one effect per category. To me it seems entirely built to be like that from the editor. Like why would you have just chorus and not also a flanger or phaser? Why analog delay, but no digital delay? Why a single reverb type? That's why I've been making the beta software remarks

why? it’s just adding bloat that most people won’t care about anyway as they aren’t buying one of these for the fx or options. They’re there for “in a pinch” moments where you can chuck a quick delay or reverb or chorus and carry on. If you need a specific effect you’ll use something else. The whole premise of the unit working is to strip it down to minimum. Any guitarist who needs more options would use something else - the goal of this pedal is to provide captures and something small/basic. Anything more, just use a QC/HX/FM.

It’s plainly obvious that this is not trying to compete with HX stomp or any modeller like that. It’s closer to ToneX or Kemper Player or the Strymon/UA/TC pedals. The limitations are essential, and they need to be chosen carefully. Basically every argument so far about what it’s missing seems to be assuming that the pedal is trying to be a smaller QC and that’s not at all what it is. If they added a load more options it would just be a badly crippled QC that would be absolutely awful to use.

Backstage warming up or for rehearsal, a big standard delay and reverb will be fine. For building a serious rig, you’ll use something else. Buying one of these in the first place assumes that you don’t want to build an entire rig inside something like a QC/Helix/FM and that you have other pedals you prefer to use. So why do you need even more delay/reverb/etc options on top?

 

[Joshual-L]

it can be a great backup device with a midi footswich, but the EXP/MIDI really? couldn't they put both? Midi on the side or something?

This product seems really great and well thought but honestly I'm starting to think that all the new products coming are for instagram players and not live players anymore.

 

[JCW308]

At some point, they're going to have to open up that signal chain for this to work.

2 pre of anything

3 post of anything

Right now this is not going to work for many users.

 

[laxu]

Backstage warming up or for rehearsal, a big standard delay and reverb will be fine. For building a serious rig, you’ll use something else. Buying one of these in the first place assumes that you don’t want to build an entire rig inside something like a QC/Helix/FM and that you have other pedals you prefer to use. So why do you need even more delay/reverb/etc options on top?

Because there's no functional cost to it. It's not bloat at all. The effects categories could let you pick an effect from a small pool of effects of the same typ in the app and use that, with one onboard control for each category of effect.

It looks like they build it to be a mini-QC and then either pivoted to this or they just didn't get the additional effects done in time. I guess we will see which when more fw updates arrive. To me everything about the way the app works for effects points to this.

 

[Orvillain]

Because there's no functional cost to it. It's not bloat at all.

Not true. Making the effects slots flexible all of a sudden brings DSP usage variability into the mix. So much product design work is often done around handling this reality of flexible signal paths and switchable block types/models.

If you hard-bake a fixed signal path, with fixed blocks, you get to ignore a massive chunk of workflow problems and architecture problems.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Because there's no functional cost to it. It's not bloat at all. The effects categories could let you pick an effect from a small pool of effects of the same typ in the app and use that, with one onboard control for each category of effect.

Literally the only “cost” I can see would be a functional one. It just opens the door to the unit being a more complex device than it needs to be. At what point does a user start to think “oh, maybe I don’t need my timeline if I can find a way to tweak these delays to do what I need”?

As soon as you start making it try to do too much it just becomes worse and worse to use. It has basic FX in the way most other pedals of this type do, which is with the expectation that you’re going to use something else anyway. The more dumbed down this thing is, the more useful it is. If it’s too dumb, then you need something like a QC.

 

[Jarick]

I'll be interested to see how successful it is and how many forum people pick it up. It looks really similar functionally to the ToneX and the Kemper Player with price and functionality somewhere between the two. Interesting that none of those devices do dual or stereo captures though.