Quad Cortex Mini

[Lysander]

Maybe Dougs master plan was bribing a TOP Mod to yeet all the critics of NDS so they formed a new forum he could harvest for ideas?

 

[Dez]

I think I just got lucky. I saw the announcement yesterday, went to Sweetwater and saw they were in-stock rather than pre-order and figured what the hell. My rep texted me an hour later and said it shipped and would arrive today. I’m only a few states away, but most things are 2 days from Sweetwater in my case.

Don’t worry though, there’s still time for it to be delayed with Fedex!

Mine gets here Tuesday lol

 

[deadpool_25]

Mine gets here Tuesday lol

Mine shows Saturday via UPS. And that’s just because it shipped from Ft Wayne. If it had been at the Arizona warehouse it would’ve been here today.

 

[Dez]

Mine shows Saturday via UPS. And that’s just because it shipped from Ft Wayne. If it had been at the Arizona warehouse it would’ve been here today.

I’m assuming that being in NE is a factor here with the coming winter storm, idk. It’s alright though it’s literally just making my desk cleaner with a smaller device that does the same shit lol

 

[deadpool_25]

It’s alright though it’s literally just making my desk cleaner with a smaller device that does the same shit lol

You too, huh?

 

[dws2384]

Kinda funny to read this as someone who has a Neural product but is not a fanboy (it's my secondary device to an Axe 3). A lot of the criticism here strikes me almost as 'intentionally not getting it' because it is Neural, not because the product isn't good. I do agree that it has a *lot* of overlap with the main QC...

But all the DSP power and similar I/O in a super compact form factor and cheaper, what's not to like? Unless you want to drag out all of the things you don't like about Neural and the QC and use this as an opportunity to b*tch. If the QC is not for you neither is this thing. For new customers, I think it will be just right; for some others, will want the QC or a competing product.

For sure. If fractal put the full power of the Axe in something this size the verbal fellatio would last a decade.

 

[Dez]

You too, huh?

I love clean and minimal - I think you do too lol, maybe it’s the military? This thing looks sleek and PERFECT for someone like me

 

[[Nathan]]

A lot of the criticism here strikes me almost as 'intentionally not getting it' because it is Neural, not because the product isn't good. I do agree that it has a *lot* of overlap with the main QC...

A) yes
B) Sascha and ChordInversion don’t play favourites complaining about every modeller on the market, at least they’re consistent

Otherwise this statement is on point imo

 

[R590]

Mine gets here Tuesday lol

Mine shows Saturday via UPS. And that’s just because it shipped from Ft Wayne. If it had been at the Arizona warehouse it would’ve been here today.

And there it is. Fedex delayed—I knew it was too good to be true! Let’s see if Friday holds.

 

[mikah912]

For sure. If fractal put the full power of the Axe in something this size the verbal fellatio would last a decade.

There is no floor board - even of the larger variety - that can run the processors and cooling of the the Axe-FX III.

But the point stands because Cliff hasn't been able - yet - to get the equivalent processing power of the Mini in an enclosure smaller than the FM9. So if he got just that into something close to this with a simplified touchscreen UI......yeah, it would be forummageddon.

 

[dean701]

where is the ventilation on this thing? If it truly has the same power as the QC, does it not need cooling or at least slots for heat escape? I'm looking at pictures of all sides of it and I don't see anything.

https://www.thomannmusic.com/neural_dsp_quad_cortex_mini.htm

 

[FourT6and2]

I know nothing about the Quad Cortex or Neural DSP except they make like... plugins you can use on your computer for recording and then the modeler stuff and the QC for live use?

I've been kind of interested in some of their plugins. But I don't want to use my laptop at all. Can the Quad Cortex and this new Mini run their plugins/profiles without the use a computer? Like when I see videos of their Granophyre or Archetype or Fortin plugins, the actual Quad Cortex or Mini can run those and I have full access to the plugin features?

And can I run these devices right into a power amp and get a live sound?

 

[ChordInversion]

A) yes
B) Sascha and ChordInversion don’t play favourites complaining about every modeller on the market, at least they’re consistent

How dare you, sir? I have not complained about Headrush, Atomic (only ever had an Ampli-Firebox that was just ok), my BOSS (I accept it for what it is), a whole list of modelers I've never touched, or my Fractal stuff.

I mostly just poop on touch screens in general, with a little extra dollop of disappointment for the one I actually got with a touch screen, the TMP. Oh, and I dislike built in expression pedals. And IK stuff, but those are plugins. Though the Tonex software sucked so hard that I think people view its not-quite-as-sucky current state overly favorably. But that's a capture device. Oh, and the insistence that every device in the universe must do captures. That's about it.

I have no idea what you mean.

 

[laxu]

Kinda funny to read this as someone who has a Neural product but is not a fanboy (it's my secondary device to an Axe 3). A lot of the criticism here strikes me almost as 'intentionally not getting it' because it is Neural, not because the product isn't good. I do agree that it has a *lot* of overlap with the main QC...

Aren't those good enough reasons? I said when the QC released that I sold mine because I wanted to see where it was going first. Now I'm reluctant to buy one because I'm not happy where it has gone in those years, and how NDSP has handled it. That makes me wary of another NDSP product.

At the same time, it's competing against used QCs. I've seen them go for about the same money as the QC Mini, and right now someone is selling QC + official carry case for 100 € more than the Mini.

I feel NDSP has had the wrong idea what people wanted out of a "Dual Cortex". They got the size about right, but then at the same time gimped the footswitching and editing convenience in a big way. I'd have to try it myself, maybe it's nice to edit via tap + turn specific knob due to the form factor.

I saw the Dual Cortex premise as "for users who want something cheaper, smaller and less powerful because they don't need 4 paths for fx or to run a whole pile of captures". The Nano Cortex overcorrects in the other direction where it is certainly cheaper, but the lack of a screen (even a non-touch one) makes it pretty stupid in many ways. Meanwhile the QC Mini is not cheap enough, and it's not like the QC was a huge device in the first place.

 

[Sedaxel]

Aren't those good enough reasons? I said when the QC released that I sold mine because I wanted to see where it was going first. Now I'm reluctant to buy one because I'm not happy where it has gone in those years, and how NDSP has handled it. That makes me wary of another NDSP product.

Totally legit reasons. My experience is the opposite with the Nano Cortex. They´ve kept a consistent improvements pace. It´s been outstanding, actually.

At the same time, it's competing against used QCs. I've seen them go for about the same money as the QC Mini, and right now someone is selling QC + official carry case for 100 € more than the Mini.

Yes, I somehow can undestand this. But I think that some are not understanding that many users might actually prefer the Mini because of it suits better their needs. I´m one of them. I didn´t buy the QC because the form factor would be a hassle for me for live use. But I´d certainly would have bought the Mini. And it even would have been cheaper! Of course I´m not the mayority, but maybe not the minority either.

I feel NDSP has had the wrong idea what people wanted out of a "Dual Cortex".

This mantra is all over the forum... but who are We to have a better knowledge of the market (what people wanted) than a hyper sucess company in this market?? What makes you think that your feeling about what people wanted wasn´t this unit. and the company is wrong? So far, they´re selling them like cakes, apparently. It´s hard to see how could they have the wrong idea and still have this great sales sucess. I guess that the more accurate afirmation would be that this is not what YOU WANTED this unit to be. I´ve seen this before (with the VP4 and AM4 there were people saying the same... me included, but I´m aware that my personal use case is not the same as anyone else´s, and the units were very well received by users in general).

I saw the Dual Cortex premise as "for users who want something cheaper, smaller and less powerful because they don't need 4 paths for fx or to run a whole pile of captures". The Nano Cortex overcorrects in the other direction where it is certainly cheaper, but the lack of a screen (even a non-touch one) makes it pretty stupid in many ways. Meanwhile the QC Mini is not cheap enough, and it's not like the QC was a huge device in the first place.

Well... the "Dual Cortex" was a forum thing. NDSP never talked about "Dual Cortex" or those "premises". And honestly... so far, the market is proving them right. They are following their market strategy (which I assume is documented and supported by market studies), not what four freaks of TGP (count me there, of course) are telling them to do.

 

[Progressive_disclosure]

Aren't those good enough reasons? I said when the QC released that I sold mine because I wanted to see where it was going first. Now I'm reluctant to buy one because I'm not happy where it has gone in those years, and how NDSP has handled it. That makes me wary of another NDSP product.

At the same time, it's competing against used QCs. I've seen them go for about the same money as the QC Mini, and right now someone is selling QC + official carry case for 100 € more than the Mini.

I feel NDSP has had the wrong idea what people wanted out of a "Dual Cortex". They got the size about right, but then at the same time gimped the footswitching and editing convenience in a big way. I'd have to try it myself, maybe it's nice to edit via tap + turn specific knob due to the form factor.

I saw the Dual Cortex premise as "for users who want something cheaper, smaller and less powerful because they don't need 4 paths for fx or to run a whole pile of captures". The Nano Cortex overcorrects in the other direction where it is certainly cheaper, but the lack of a screen (even a non-touch one) makes it pretty stupid in many ways. Meanwhile the QC Mini is not cheap enough, and it's not like the QC was a huge device in the first place.

From my experience working at a company that does SW and dedicated HW with embedded SW I can totally understand the choices they made on the QC Mini. To me it all aligns with them trying to catch up on the SW development side but having to do more than just SW as well.

Their industrial designers have gotten to do work (instead of laid off), the SW dev items have been kept to a minimum to just support the new HW (form factor and amount of switches) but will now not interfere much with their (probably gargantuan) backlog of development tasks they have in front of them still. The company also stays relevant and gets buzz since they are releasing (and selling out) a new HW product so marketing and sales depts gets to shine. And also there’s a bunch of people getting a shiny new modeler and being happy about that as well.

Of course it’s not what everyone wanted and the price point is a bit puzzling, but this all makes perfect sense to me. And as @Whizzinby has stated they didn’t dumb down anything so it’s still full featured so is bedroom guitarists aren’t missing out on anything.

 

[Sascha Franck]

B) Sascha and ChordInversion don’t play favourites complaining about every modeller on the market, at least they’re consistent

Someone has to do it. And it's not that my comments (at least the vast majority of them) regarding modeler functionality would be unreasonable - regardless whether anyone's sharing my sentiments or not. IOW: Me asking for, say, global blocks is absolutely as valid a request as other folks asking for whatever modeling accuracy minutiae.

 

[laxu]

This mantra is all over the forum... but who are We to have a better knowledge of the market (what people wanted) than a hyper sucess company in this market?? What makes you think that your feeling about what people wanted wasn´t this unit. and the company is wrong? So far, they´re selling them like cakes, apparently. It´s hard to see how could they have the wrong idea and still have this great sales sucess. I guess that the more accurate afirmation would be that this is not what YOU WANTED this unit to be. I´ve seen this before (with the VP4 and AM4 there were people saying the same... me included, but I´m aware that my personal use case is not the same as anyone else´s, and the units were very well received by users in general).

Well... the "Dual Cortex" was a forum thing. NDSP never talked about "Dual Cortex" or those "premises". And honestly... so far, the market is proving them right. They are following their market strategy (which I assume is documented and supported by market studies), not what four freaks of TGP (count me there, of course) are telling them to do.

Dual Cortex was actually a literal Neural DSP trademark for a time. It's not a difficult premise to come up with: Half the DSP of the QC, less footswitching and I/O for a more affordable/smaller box.

I don't think sales success is a good metric for anyone but the company themselves. We'd all be buying Boss Katanas if sales success was how we pick what to buy.

The QC Mini is actually very much in my wheelhouse. It's probably the closest to the "FM0" concept people have been asking from Fractal. Yet, I'm more likely to pick up say a smaller Helix Stadium, or wait for their HX Stomp-ish device, or even pick up a VP4/AM4. Or at least wait to see if any gremlins come out with the QC Mini.

I just have a deep distrust of NDSP at this point after following the QC development arc. Last year was a pretty bad year for QC updates and it starts to become clear why: devs tied up with Nano and QC Mini development. We will have to see how this year turns out. They've put out some new reverbs which is nice, but not much else moving the needle in any direction.

I'm not saying other companies are perfect either. I expect Fractal to largely ignore UI matters much to my chagrin, but deliver big time for sound related ones. Boss is best approached with low expectations for updates. Line6 is the company that I trust to deliver on all fronts.

 

[[Nathan]]

This mantra is all over the forum... but who are We to have a better knowledge of the market (what people wanted) than a hyper sucess company in this market?? What makes you think that your feeling about what people wanted wasn´t this unit. and the company is wrong? So far, they´re selling them like cakes, apparently. It´s hard to see how could they have the wrong idea and still have this great sales sucess. I guess that the more accurate afirmation would be that this is not what YOU WANTED this unit to be. I´ve seen this before (with the VP4 and AM4 there were people saying the same... me included, but I´m aware that my personal use case is not the same as anyone else´s, and the units were very well received by users in general).

Nailed it

Sharing personal opinions and wish lists are great, but the overreach that the hardware company has missed the mark because it didn’t fit what you personally wanted is where things fall off. I could look at pretty much every device that’s released and say I wish they did xyz, but to look at something like the am4 and say “it should have been a touch screen”, vp4 and am4 should have been one device etc etc. Like cool story, fractal know what they’re doing and they executed on it. Would have been cool with changes but just not for me.

 

[Orvillain]

Thinking about it, I would've preferred a bigger QC really. Don't need more footswitches, just need them to be better spaced apart. Need better signal to noise ratio. Would've liked an integrated expression pedal.

Basically a Helix Stadium with QC sounds. I'm sure Proxy will go some way to filling the gap.