Neural DSP Quad Cortex

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AUGUST 2021 GUITARIST
REVIEWNEURAL DSP QUAD CORTEX
NEURAL DSP QUAD CORTEX £1,449
What You Need To Know
Neural? Never heard of them…
Neural is a Finnish company,
known for its software plug-ins. The
brand’s mission is to design the next
generation of both audio software and
hardware products.
So, it’s a bit high-tech?
Well, any digital modeller could be
defined as such, but this particular
one leans towards a more modern
approach with a sophisticated
touchscreen, Wi-Fi connection and
a massive amount of digital signal
processing (DSP).
Plenty of footswitches but only
one knob. How does that work?
The huge volume knob is right where
you need it, while the touchscreen
takes care of a lot of what knobs,
switches and buttons normally do.
But there are actually knobs – they’re
just cleverly implemented as the cap
on each of the footswitches!
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CONTACT Neural DSP WEB www.neuraldsp.com
The display is armoured with
chemically strengthened
protective glass and a
reinforced touch-sensor panel
D
igital signal processing (DSP)
in a hardware unit (providing
a whole modelled signal chain
of amp and cab simulation plus effects)
is becoming increasingly popular, with
many players opting for the likes of the
Line 6 Helix or similar over a conventional
amp-plus-pedals rig. New to the genre
– and the subject of much buzz since its
reveal at the 2020 NAMM Show – is the
Quad Cortex, which manufacturer Neural
is promoting as “the most powerful floor
modeller on the planet”.
Not only does the unit possess enormous
processing capacity with 2GHz of
dedicated DSP from its Quad-Core SHARC
architecture, but it also has touchscreen
capability implemented to a degree that we
have never seen before in a guitar processor.
But the jewel in the crown is Neural
Capture, which digitally captures the sound
of an analogue rig, in a similar fashion to
Kemper’s Profiling.
For all of its power, the Quad Cortex
still manages to be a fairly small unit,
which might not be out of place on a
medium-sized pedalboard and is certainly
easily transportable as a ‘fly-rig’. It has a
reassuringly solid build and its size has
been kept down via two main features: the
seven-inch touch display; and the metal
caps on each of the footswitches, which are
actually rotary encoders that can be used to
change parameter values.
There are ample inputs and outputs that
take care of many tasks besides plugging in
a guitar. This includes a pair of combi inputs
(with switchable phantom power for the
XLRs) so you can plug in mics, as well as a
headphone output, and a pair of send and
return loops, which let you bring external
pedals into the signal chain or employ the
four-cable method of connection. There
are standard MIDI DIN connections and
MIDI over USB, although most players’ use
of the USB socket is likely to be employing
the QC as an audio interface for recording
and reamping.
There’s no current computer-based
editor/librarian to connect to via USB, but
the unit is equipped with Wi-Fi to access
firmware upgrades and more. It links to the
Cortex Mobile app, and there’s a Cortex
Cloud for backing up your unit’s presets,
Neural Captures and IRs, and also sharing
files with other QC users.