Neural Quad Cortex

  • People buy the "axe-fx reacts identical to the real amp knobs" which was obviously a move to uncut the competition with next to zero demonstrations....

    That's how the "conventional" (component) guitar-amp modellers work 'though, Juz.


    How deep they go with component-level emulation varies from company to company, but at the very least I'd expect the stack EQ to be modelled 'cause it's second only to the gain characteristics in importance as far as the actual amp is concerned.


    As per Fractal's M.O. and reputation, you'd expect the stack EQ to have been emulated more-accurately than offerings from its modelling peers, so the marketing claim doesn't surprise me at all. OTTOMH I'd expect gain, EQ, tube and dynamic behaviour and of course cabinets to all be prime candidates for mention in marketing.

    ... (unless it has a database of amp eq dials!) I actually remember hearing the kemper was possibly going to do that at one point via a database?

    I remember its being mentioned too quite some years ago, Juz.


    Given that we now have speaker imprints, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if this is something the team addresses at some point. A collection of the various manufacturers' standard EQ-stack behaviour would be welcomed and a big hit with users, I reckon, but I also think many would be happy to stick with Kemper's proven-and-predictable knob behaviour. Ultimately IMHO it'd be fantastic to be given the choice of employing any of the "models", including Kemper's standard one, in any Profile. I reckon that'd be great! 8)

  • Considering the Quad Cortex, at least to check out how good it is. One thing that’s putting me off a little is that it costs more than the Kemper stage.
    It’s going to have to be pretty damn amazing to justify that!

  • Amazing or not. In 6 months or so we will see them to start popping up in the second hand market. Just like anything else. So anyone who's patient and want to save some money....

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • Considering the Quad Cortex, at least to check out how good it is. One thing that’s putting me off a little is that it costs more than the Kemper stage.
    It’s going to have to be pretty damn amazing to justify that!

    i have the opposite opinion. I absolutely love my KPA powered toaster and have no desire for anything else. However, if I did find the small self contained floorboard format attractive I would think the QC ticks way more boxes for only the price of the Stage. In that case I would be worried that the QC seriously eats i to the Stage market.

  • I want to put some more light not about QC but about Machine Learning capabilities for profiling even time effects like phaser, compressor, limiter or leslie:

    https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/2/638

    Audio Examples:

    https://mchijmma.github.io/DL-AFx/


    Imagine profiling retro stereo DC-2 chorus or any different special FX .


    Will QC use it? I do not think so. But it shows how much possibilities this technology has. I think it is a future of next generation profiler-like devices/plugins . Maybe KPA 2 will use it ? Who knows.

  • Well I went for it and pre-ordered. As I mentioned it’s gonna have to be amazing to get close to replacing my Kemper. I’ve had that for about 6 years and still absolutely love it


    Interesting times for sure!

  • I'm not thinking about replacing my Toaster at this point but this QC interest me a lot meanly cause of:


    -The size of it (Toaster with remote more heavy and a lot more place when going live, also (very personal) i'm not very happy about the remote)


    -Possibility to put 4 instruments at the same time, if it works good the possibility to put in a guitar, an acoustic instruments and a vocal and make automations with midi signals are quite sexy for my uses.


    -Using it as my main soundcard, I'll probably need to upgrade my soundcard probably soon and putting money in a all in one things sounds good for my wallet.


    -The power of the unit also can be cool if they decide to put differents effects or synth sounding (IDK if there are plans for that but if it can replace at the same time the boss SY-300 or add some synths...)

  • So, the future is basically these kinds of devices, but, also able to fully profile every effect in your arsenal on-top of amps etc using a.i. machine learning. At the point where we can tell it which parameter we're tweaking (e.g. Volume, Gain, Presence, EQ) and to look out for it, then, it's going to be on another level.

  • In my humble novice guitar playing opinion...


    Kemper is awesome however everyone should agree that another player will pass them up, when? No idea. It could be now with the QC. Time will tell. In reality who cares right? We can't take this stuff with us, lets honestly hope another player comes along and is 5x better as it will only promote competition and better gear.


    Kemper doesn't push air, Kemper doesn't do X. Well let's hope something comes along that does everything that we want.

  • My apologies, I should clarify that those are things I hear people discuss on Youtube. Basically I think it comes down to people being threatened (Maybe by what they are selling, Tube Amps, Pedals etc...) by the Kemper or any other new modeling type gear coming out.

  • Agree that some people just don’t get certain products and also that not all products are for all people. However, I completely disagree with most of the negative opinions out there regarding pushing air and so on.
    I’m excited about the QC but will in no way be selling my Kemper power head. The Kemper is still pretty much unbeatable but the QC will be different and that makes it worth checking out.

  • There are ton of reasons to wait on the preorder, for example:


    * Price and availability in second market

    * Detailed trustworthy reviews

    * Chance to try it in a store or from a mate

    * Non-existance of commercial "captures" as of yet

    * Potential software updates or issues

    * Reliability of the unit hasnt been tested

    * Covid is still a thing and I think not many are touring or touching stages


    It is wise to wait, specially if you are not too fond of return policies (sweetwater is fine I guess)

    The answer is 42

  • ... 619 posts and almost 1 year later I think I will prepare a birthday cake from the same "hot air" this product has been made of so far.

    You can pre-order a slice now, the cake will be made with the latest technology and Quad layers of hot air Cream

    To be fair, there was a shutdown this year. But, also I speculate that even if the shutdown had not occurred, a late release would've most likely occurred anyway. We might have had it by December or so, but I think the original release date was sometime in September. Still would've had it by now. Maybe not though. Hope we get it soon