Neural Quad Cortex

  • I preordered on tier so perhaps im biased but I genuinely think the Kemper is the best unit of the decade but like all things technology moves on and whilst it still sounds good it lacks in many area's. They were top of the game a few years ago and rested and other companies are going to catch up and eventually take over. The QC feature list is incredible and their history with Darkglass and their plugins makes me very excited for the future. Marketing hype is inevitable, every company in the world wants to sell. All that matters is the quality of the unit. If the QC lives up to its claim, and I can't see any reason why not, then it's going to leave the Kemper looking like a DVD player in the 4k/5k streaming era or whatever it is. I guess the proof will be in the pudding

  • Please forgive my ignorance, but why are so many of you guys pre-ordering without even having heard the unit?


    Is it a case of "if it's close-enough I'll be happy because of the form factor" or the ergonomics or whatever, or a fear that stock might be limited for a long time... or both?


    I've never been comfortable about ordering something I haven't heard. Matter of fact, I've never done this. :/

  • I listen to some yt stuff from neural..


    They have some great players as endorsers..but it is all some sort of new metal shred and chug-stuff with Fortin Sims..


    I am not impressed.


    I have not heard anything clean & midgain that I really liked.So..when we finally (when ever this will be)hear something from this wonder-tool..we can talk..

  • Looks great, but I'm not really hyped because I have tried their plugins. They are much worse IMO than Kemper profiles. They have great endorsers who make professionally produced tracks. But that is all. Based on my own experience I can say that Kemper sounds and feels much more like a realy amp. I would go as far as saying that NeuralDSP plugins are not even the best among plugins.

  • Well its 200€ refundable deposit so no big deal.


    Ive have their plugins so I have more than enough faith in them. Their Plini plugin particularly excels in clean and low gain sounds so i'm not worried at all when it comes to cleans and low gain. Theres no chance this is going to be released with it not sounding stellar. Plus the capture feature is additional to their own sounds. The Kemper doesn't profile perfectly, so there is certainly room for improvement in the world of capturing amps. Whether Neural, Kemper or someone else does it I don't know but there's plenty of room to refine this feature.


    Also the feature list has been somewhat underplayed here as well and it seems like more clarity on the details is coming by the day. If the KPA stage had half of them it would have been an innovation but instead they just repackaged old tech in a still large floor unit with an even poorer interface.


    Worth a refundable 200€ if you ask me.

  • Yup. If you like how the plugins sound then go for it. But I recommend anyone to do the same: not just listen to clips, try the plugins. There are free demo versions on their website. In my opinion the Kemper is a different league. But opinions vary.

  • If the QC lives up to its claim, and I can't see any reason why not, then it's going to leave the Kemper looking like a DVD player in the 4k/5k streaming era or whatever it is.

    If the KPA stage had half of them it would have been an innovation but instead they just repackaged old tech in a still large floor unit with an even poorer interface.

    The same Kemper box has been gaining market shares every year since its introduction and if you were aware of this market share in the pro recording/live touring circuit, you would know that it's not some new unit, no matter how great, that's going to make it become obsolete overnight.

    "Old tech" is a weak argument and pretty dismissive considering how well it is being sold at the moment. A lot of folks on the pro scene around me are ditching their AX8 (has been for many years and still is the unit of choice) in favor of the Kemper stage these days, as I predicted... old tech or not, it seems to perfectly hit a niche market. I see the excitement of some folks for "Neural" or whatever new company, but it'll take not only quality but a serie of specific circumstances before a product takes over and become industry standard the way Fractal and Kemper have become these last few years.

  • Nobody has played with one yet

    No wonder, as it will be released in September 2020 :)

    Anyway for me this is more a competitor to the Fractal products.

    I'm not familiar with Fractal - does it support creating your own physical rig profiles like with the Kemper and Quad Cortex?


    not on EQ and gain matching as a whole.

    Well, I for one have been doing that already back in 2006 or so, using the Voxengo Boogex VST plugin, which I'm quite sure is not the first such :)

    Vortech - Finnish Industrial Death Metal since 2000

    Edited once, last by Torniojaws ().

  • Looks great, but I'm not really hyped because I have tried their plugins. They are much worse IMO than Kemper profiles. They have great endorsers who make professionally produced tracks. But that is all. Based on my own experience I can say that Kemper sounds and feels much more like a realy amp. I would go as far as saying that NeuralDSP plugins are not even the best among plugins.

    I agree.


    And I would also like to ad that machines like the Kemper are proven live-/recording tools..used within the biggest productions..for years now..


    The Kemper it self is the new standard in every serious studio and in use with many top live productions.

  • Well, stepping back a bit in true Cpt. Picard fashion (as Monkey_Man man kindly characterized me once or twice) I will say that I'm curious in an academic sense how the Quad Cortex will do profiling with an approach different enough to not violate the Kemper patents.

    If it’s not only ancient EQ matching and if the results are great sounding and feeling this will be an interesting machine.

    Also I genuinely like folks that develop creative approaches by thinking further and out of the box. In this sense Neural are not unlike Kemper, are they?

    As for the guys already predicting how the QC will sound according to some available plugins:

    Bear in mind that we only have some very specialized signature plugins available. In no way we can predict both the quality of their component modeling nor the quality of what they call profiling.

    In the end the proof will be in the pudding (as always).

  • I'm curious in an academic sense how the Quad Cortex will do profiling with an approach different enough to not violate the Kemper patents.

    If it’s not only ancient EQ matching and if the results are great sounding and feeling this will be an interesting machine.

    Me too.

    CK patent is here :https://worldwide.espacenet.co…pacenet.com&locale=en_EP#


    but I think the better explanation lies in this paper: https://www.hsu-hh.de/ant/wp-c…r_amps_with_WH_models.pdf

  • The same Kemper box has been gaining market shares every year since its introduction and if you were aware of this market share in the pro recording/live touring circuit, you would know that it's not some new unit, no matter how great, that's going to make it become obsolete overnight.

    "Old tech" is a weak argument and pretty dismissive considering how well it is being sold at the moment. A lot of folks on the pro scene around me are ditching their AX8 (has been for many years and still is the unit of choice) in favor of the Kemper stage these days, as I predicted... old tech or not, it seems to perfectly hit a niche market. I see the excitement of some folks for "Neural" or whatever new company, but it'll take not only quality but a serie of specific circumstances before a product takes over and become industry standard the way Fractal and Kemper have become these last few years.

    hmmm well obsolete may be too strong a term but certainly technology moves fast and it doesn't matter how big you are. When I was a kid everyone had a Nokia phone, then Apple came....... but im sure we can find plenty of instances for and against both our arguments. Kemper has become industry standard and rightly so, it was hugely innovative and changed the game but they haven't built on it well in my opinion. The Kemper works fine in the pro touring world for good reason (far less so in recording) but as soon as competing products do the same and more (especially at the same price point) that will soon stop. These are not expensive enough devices for people making their living in music. When people get a taste for new things they don't look back and on paper it's falling short in many instances. In my opinion they should have rectified that with the Stage and showed continued innovation.

  • The neural guy talked about this on the gear page, including some of what makes their approach different, I think.

    Yea - I just searched for this paper .


    And it makes sense. They had to analyze how KPA works to bypass the patent. And this document largely reflects the KPA structure - that is, two EQ blocks and one nonlinear block in between. Quiet sounds examine the sum of AmpEQ and CAB EQ. High signal level examines CAB EQ... and so on. It is worth reading into it if someone likes to know how something can be constructed and how it probably works.

    Of course, we will never know 100%, but one can probably assume that this model could have been used.

  • It's one thing to apply for a patent, a different thing to hear how it works. As far as I can tell, this is all just meaningless speculation till we have some audio tests or hands on experience.


    Anyone remember the Slate thing where they said "we have profiling technology"? Turns out they didn't.


    But what's becoming increasingly obvious is that when you tell guitarists, "We can capture tones LIKE THAT OTHER DEVICE", people seem to lose their minds and swear it's the best thing ever.


    And they do this based on a slickly produced video that has no tone examples or real life content.


    Believe me, I am tempted to pre-order one, but I figure there's really no rush. Just the hype factory and herd mentality at play.


    Let's see what they bring to the table. That is all.

  • Neural is going live in a couple hours with a Q&A for those interested in listening in or inquiring:


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  • 100% agree with all points, Ingy. Beautifully-said, mate. ;)


    At this point, as we wait for the livestream which is 97 minutes away, I can't resist breaking out my old friend, the Gartner Hype Cycle:


  • Anyone remember the Slate thing where they said "we have profiling technology"? Turns out they didn't.

    ...

    Thank you..I tried to remember all morning "who was it"..


    Let's not forget some others..Mooer etc..


    I mean..all good..but can we hear this first please?I just don't like big claims and no evidence to back it up..