Wondering if anyone here is using the Neural DSP Quad Cortex. Thinking of getting either the Quad Cortex or the HX STOMP XL.

Thanks for your input.

There was a short thread on this last year:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15819&hilit=cortex

It looks like a powerful device, seemingly with more state of the art technology than the Helix platform (which at this point is about 7 years old) and the two high impedance inputs/flexible effects routing is nice. Neural DSP guitar amp plug-ins sound amazing but I don't think those same products are modeled on the Quad Cortex yet. I'm mostly laptop/Mainstage oriented these days but I'm curious to see how the QC platform develops over the years. It appears you'd be able to run a lot more simultaneous effects blocks on the Quad Cortex than the Stomp XL, which is limited to 8 at a time, and you can run out of DSP power before you hit that limit depending on the effects type (I have the HX Stomp).

Got mine a month ago, have been using it at open mics every week. I waited until they put a looper in it. For me personally the looper is the best I’ve used. Not as capable as the Aeros, but has everything I need, and can go up to a little over four minutes . I’ve had my Helix since that first came out, had bought an HX Stomp a couple years ago for a smaller size, but for me the Stomp is limited and unlike the Helix I frequently had Issues getting levels correct when playing though other people’s amplification. Ended up getting an Aeros and built a pedalboard. Since getting the QC I sold off the board, Stomp, and Aeros.

Outside of the huge processing power, the interface is fantastic. The lack of software is not an issue as the screen is big enough to type information into it.

I have not done any captures with it yet. Besides Stick I also play and perform with other instruments as well, so both this and the Helix are multi effects that work well for me. QC does not have all of the effects the Helix has, but what it does offer is very well thought out. Personally I like the overdrives in the QC better than the Helix, and the QC’s parametric EQ is graphical, about the easiest para eq to use than I’ve ever seen.

What is a bit disappointing is the number of reverbs and delays is not much. The number they report is a bit odd, as they count both the stereo and mono versions of the same effects as an individual; a few people have called them out on that. Regardless, what’s there is very good, and likely more effects will come in future upgrades.

Compared to Helix, I’m not seeing a swell, no auto wah. And for standalone synth mode, the Helix wins there as Helix uses oscillators to create the sounds, QC uses a Moogerfooger clone that I do not quite see on par with Helix. I use this quite often with the Helix.

I have yet to keep experimenting to see everything the QC can do, but I’m not selling off the Helix. There’s still things that does I can’t do with the QC. But the small size and enourmous powe it has makes it my main choice now for performing.

Thanks for the replies…

Made a mistake in my comments, there are three "auto-wah" type effects in the QC. I had my routing in error when I first tried those. To do a swell type of effect, the tremolo effect can come pretty close to the swell on the Helix, quite a few parameters in the tremolo.

I did my first pedal capture last night - set my GED2112 to one of my basses and captured that setting. What's neat is the QC will assign Bass, Mid, Treble, volume controls to the capture, so it's not a 'frozen in time" one sound setting, one can alter the eq in it. The capture is pretty close to the original. There are some factory captures of the same pedal, but those were more of a high gain, OD type settings, I wanted a clean, more focused bass setting. So I could make as many captures of that pedal as I want.

You can only currently capture OD's, boosts, DI -type effects. That may change in the future, but it's nice to add these to the QC and just plug into the QC without having to hook up additional pedals.

Are you using a Railboard by chance? I have a 10 string Railboard, but can't get any audio into the QC when using the XLR stereo cables, I need to use the instrument cable instead (the one that works into two mono instrument ends). The XLR cable works just fine when plugged into my audio interface, so I'm wondering if this is an issue with the QC and the XLR interface of the Railboard (which supports phantom power)

No Railboard. If you need phantom power, swipe down on the screen and you will see controls for setting up phantom power. I’ve been doing that at open mics for a friend with a mic he attaches to his classical guitar. You also may have to boost the gain where there is a convenient input meter alongside the variable impedance control.

Thanks! I'll try that out