Neural Quad Cortex

  • Kemper forum and the most discussed topic is neural cortex. :S

    Most people are playing their kemper..the desired upgrades (delays,editor,reverb,drives) are done.


    Mission accomplished.


    And for those waiting for the kpa2.I would not expect this any time soon.Maybe I'm wrong.We will see.


    So yes..for discussions in this forum.."other gear" it is..

  • I'm noticing that the capture process is very similar and that it takes less kilobytes just like the Kemper. If this works then ya boi right here is gonna make captures of profiles that have all the overdrives and eq's dialed in and stack them to the ceiling.


    Basically, if I can run 4 captured profiles at once, I will.

  • Im not waiting for anything,,,,but good things, from the Kemper team,, just keep coming,,

    I've never been happier with a piece of gear, or a company,The kemper hands down has been my best musical investment,ever,

    It brings a smile to my face every time I plug in, 7 years, never once let me down , stage or studio,

    It would be be impossible to complain about ANY aspect of this unit or Co,

    The very fact that they just "GAVE" us a ton more toys to play with,,, for free,,,,,(DUH) ,,,is mind blowing.

    Thank you CK and all at Kemper,Im all in,,

    My 2 cents

  • Bang on. To keep up to date, some (most?) companies require a whole new reinvestment. Who's to say what Neural's business model will be in future.

  • I will take it out of my head, as I have seen the whole sales brochure and videos, and so far, everything to me points out they are emulating their own plug in platform in a hardware package. That has LOTS of implications as some people stated before, this means they are trying to run PC or Linux based software into 4 DSP cores, hence making the allocation and processing slow but powerful. I hope it is not the case, but it sounds like the easy way out for a software company, because doing everything from scratch as Kemper did, is more difficult and time consuming. In comparison, Kemper profiler runs on a toaster (fun we ended up calling the head like that), as it is not trying to emulate processing from a PC, it does its own thing. Neural is doing what helix, but the difference, line 6 is hackin rich and has done both software and hardware since ages ago.

    The answer is 42

  • Also remember that the code for the profiler was built from the code that CK made for the Virus. That's nearly 20 years development right there. I would hazard a guess that Kemper know the 56K Freescale DSP (also used in the Virus) more than anyone in the business and it shows.

  • Some interesting comments popped up recently.... :!:

    I will take it out of my head, as I have seen the whole sales brochure and videos, and so far, everything to me points out they are emulating their own plug in platform in a hardware package. That has LOTS of implications as some people stated before, this means they are trying to run PC or Linux based software into 4 DSP cores, hence making the allocation and processing slow but powerful. I hope it is not the case, but it sounds like the easy way out for a software company, because doing everything from scratch as Kemper did, is more difficult and time consuming. In comparison, Kemper profiler runs on a toaster (fun we ended up calling the head like that), as it is not trying to emulate processing from a PC, it does its own thing. Neural is doing what helix, but the difference, line 6 is hackin rich and has done both software and hardware since ages ago.

    I feel like you´ve made an interesting point here, I just fear that I didn´t really get it yet due to my lack of actual technical knowledge :D:saint:. Would you mind to further elaborate your fears a bit? How would that "VST in a box" approach be worse compared to how the Kemper is set up? What makes that "PC on a chip" thing weaker?

    I´m really interested!

    To my knowledge it is not really 2 GHz, it is simply a 500 Mhz quad-core chip.

    Good point as well! But I have to admit that I didn´t find any more infos on that (not even on SHARK themselves). Do you have any sources for that?


    Referencing to the aging process with smartphone chips, I´m interested in the lifetime of such processors as well. That said, I can´t complain at all when it e.g. comes to the Helix. Having it since years, I don´t see any signs of aging at all, neither with regarding processing nor regarding the display etc...

  • Sure. You can see it uses two ADSP-SC589 components.

    https://ibb.co/n7XkNcb


    Each one is a dual-core 500 Mhz DSP. Sounds less convincing this way I guess :) But don't worry, it does not mean it will be bad or obsolete. KPA has less processing power. Efficient coding can go a very long way.

    As I said, what guitar player goes out looking for a processor based on how many cores and what frequency it runs at? Seriously!


    For me, it is all about the work flow (live), durability and the sound quality.


    While I know others have different use cases where cool GUI's and editors are high on the list, my needs for live really are that simple.

  • As I said, what guitar player goes out looking for a processor based on how many cores and what frequency it runs at? Seriously!


    For me, it is all about the work flow (live), durability and the sound quality.


    While I know others have different use cases where cool GUI's and editors are high on the list, my needs for live really are that simple.

    When you have a kemper DI profile that sounds 95% close to a real amp all the processing power don't mean too much lol

    coding ftw! Saying that I'm def looking to pick up a QC

  • When you have a kemper DI profile that sounds 95% close to a real amp all the processing power don't mean too much lol

    coding ftw! Saying that I'm def looking to pick up a QC

    While I am always wary of new technology in guitar amps (I avoided digital amps for decades), it is simply a "show me" attitude shining forth. ?.


    If the new pedal has the sonic chops, durability, workflow and is price competitive, I am sure it will be successful.


    I am just pointing out that the number of cores and clock frequency are not good indicators of a good digital amp

  • Some interesting comments popped up recently.... :!:

    I feel like you´ve made an interesting point here, I just fear that I didn´t really get it yet due to my lack of actual technical knowledge :D:saint:. Would you mind to further elaborate your fears a bit? How would that "VST in a box" approach be worse compared to how the Kemper is set up? What makes that "PC on a chip" thing weaker?

    I´m really interested!

    I would not say weaker, Neural DSP as a solution might give us the same or better performance as the kemper, for all we know. But from a design standpoint, Neural will have to deal with hitting the cap for performance, which will reflect on possibly poor updates, technical issues (like the delays between screens that has been mentioned), and eventually, a new version covering the limitations, which are not fault of the hardware itself, but the software platform they developed, which might be emulating a VST in a less efficient package. It is all about potential, kemper has an unbelievable expansion potential (they proved that already if only with the reverbs), while neural might not. Its a matter of doing more with less, and for me, it seems they are doing few with more, which long term might be a red flag, I just feel unneasy about all their marketing mojo focusing so much on "specs" while the important part, sounds no better than Helix, which is cheaper and we already know all its perks. Sound quality and feel will be paramount, as the price bracket competes with the best of the best, not with headrush or GT1000 pedalboards. I just hope it is not a "not so obvious" limited package that will get updated every 2 or 3 years.

    The answer is 42

  • The idea to construct a super stable floor modeler with super stable buttons and no other knobs made of plastic is a great concept.But I still don't understand how this big,unprotected touchscreen fits into this concept.