And why - when they have probably already bought one or two (in my case) of these magic amp sim/IR/effects beasts already, they should fork out more money for another system which doesn't - from what I've seen so far - look as intuitive as the competition. I'm a guitarist - I need my tech to just do its thing without learning new operating systems every time. Mungo like knobs and stomp things, make guitar go boom 😂😂😂😂
Bro, nah. Guitar players will waste hours on end watching useless content about gear. Then they'll buy the product, never use it, and just brag about owning it online.
And yet I can’t remember the last time a new product launch got this much attention. This promotional campaign has achieved everything that is was intended to do. People are talking about it to the point that people are making videos about the promotion almost as much as they are about the nano cortex itself. I’d say mission accomplished and well done. Just because you don’t like the format or find it “stupid” doesn’t negate the fact that it worked.
@@gear-head I think you didn't watch the video. You missed the part where negative publicity DOES get people's attention. But it DOESN'T get people to buy your stupid product.
I'm probably not the intended customer for this gear, but I find it wild that it's nearly same price as a HX stomp, for what is essentially just a capture device with no screen.
@@ovivan79 Anybody knows four years is a ridiculous delay to have when giving empty promises of "soon". It doesn't take any direct experience with this particular product, to know that a product shouldn't lack support for the first few years after it is released. That's just bad business, I don't care if you are talking about playing guitar.
@@ChrisTopherBunnell you don’t know how many units Neural has sold. You don’t know how many customers like their product. You are just assuming because people like KDH and others say it’s the worst thing that ever happened, that plug-in support took so long.
I remember being a Kemper owner in the beginning when Cristoph Kemper himself would extensivly survey the official forum to find out just exactly what kind of specs the footswitch should have. And then he followed through with it. And what it is now is the combination of surveys and feedback from that time. THAT is how you make your customers feel heard.
Ngl the over abundance of TH-camrs all spamming their reviews on the same day turns me off from a product. Maybe I’m just dumb but it’s like when someone asks you to do something and after the 3rd you’re finally like “we’ll now I don’t want to”
Digital marketer here: I have aided in the production of better videos than that when I was still in high school. Congratulations Neural DSP, you officially are worse at marketing than 24 marketing students in rural Southeastern Ohio.
Well, the symbol for infinity as an eight lying on its side (∞), so four is already halfway to infinity. You buy two of these devices and put them on their sides - and boom! Infinity achieved! Plus, you save a lot of space on your pedalboard that way. It''s perfect!
You're wrong KDH, I threw my Quad Cortex in the recycling bin and bought 4 nano cortex after watching the 'Sooner' videos - this means which ever room I'm in I have a nano cortex without having to carry anything - helping the planet! I don't like doing updates so I'm pleased they released this instead of working on updates. Now my tone is second to none and I can capture things (whatever that means) - 3 effects doesn't sound a lot but I don't use effects, I just plug straight into an amp which the nano cortex makes easier by not having many effects to avoid. Tone is in my fingers thanks to Nano cortex.
the marketing really shows they try to sell something like a lifestyle product rather then a working tool for guitar players. Also, i think it is really expensive for what it is.... the whole promotion is a turn off too.
@@raadi5939 they should make sure software updates and support is running smooth. Bringing out a companion app not years later and so many more things they could do with the money instead of a this promotion. It is not apple but the new target customer are the people who watch all day TH-cam and wanna become the next guitartuber thinking this is passionate music making... we are all doomed! :D
There were influencers making videos about rumours about the nano cortex while they already had the pre release unit. They knew what was coming, they just wanted to hype the unit up, pretending to know nothing. I’m pissed cause I’m not willing to get lied to. They should let the product speak for itself. It doesn’t need this kind of marketing
How is this significantly worse than the Line 6 pod express? I can't comprehend how a modeler that's under $200 is a better choice than something meant to rival the hx stomp? Do better Neural. Also, as a bass player, this thing is completely inadequate for modern metal because it lacks a compressor which is easily the most important thing to have for metal bass. You'd be better off going direct through a Darkglass pedal than using the nano cortex.
Great view. Change it to "You'd be better off going through a plate glass window than using the nano cortex" and we'll use it in our next Marketing campaign.
the pod express is awesome especially for the price but comparing it to this is apples and oranges , a better comparison would have been tonexone which is the same price as the pod express, honestly buy what works for you be it hx stomp, ampero stomp, valeton gp 200, sonicake matribox 2 etc etc etc
Personally I wasn’t aware of the marketing… but this is like announcing a 5150 nano and it is just the clean channel. When you say “Cortex Nano", people expect modelling not capture
Ooof that’s probably the best definition of the Nano I’ve seen. I was trying to formulate the best comparison, but this is it. It sucks some swamp ass.
The cringe factor of high school movie productions are still the same even when used for a professional commercial lol. Also the "soon" product in silhouette is so apple and has been since like 07. They really need to just speak to their current and potential customers. Peace
@PerpetuallyTiredMusician it's not even the products (which have their problems) I have used apple in the past and still have a MacBook that is doing what it needs to do. What I don't like about apple is the quasi religious attitude as if the world was holding it's breath just because a screen is now an inch wider than before. And the same here. We have a PLETHORA of great guitar gear. So many distortion pedals that browsing the recent ones alone can make you overwhelmed. In the marketing segment the nanocortex wants to be there are at least 3 very competent other products. So, no, the nanocortex is not what the world has been waiting for for years. It will do it's job and it will get better with updates but it's not the best thing since sliced bread. And all those influencers pretending like they had a vision from god make me dislike the product even more
You honestly couldn't have Friends without the laugh track because they filmed in front of a live audience. All the actors were as much performing for the studio as they were for the cameras, and they'd rewrite jokes on the spot depending on how the audience reacted.
For what it’s worth, I find most American comedies utterly unfunny, with the notable exception of The Simpsons which, quelle surprise, does not have a laugh track.
"Why should I spend my hard earned money?" vs. e-celeb guitar players LARPing as actors for waaaaay too long. One sketch only, 5 minutes or less. It's like everyone has forgotten how to market their products. Be it guitar accessories to television shows & movies.
I never understood why Neural users were so desperate to run their plugins on the QC. It just makes no sense to me, you have the QC, it can already do all those things. You don't even need the damn plugins anymore if you own the QC. The Helix approach makes much more sense. A software version of the Helix itself to use as plugins.
The plugins have a lot of FX that are not available in the QC. The FX portion of the QC being so underwhelming is the main reasons my Axe FX3 is my desert island choice over my Quad Cortex. I would agree the general drive/amp/cab sections of the plugins are not super compelling over what you can do in the QC already, but if you look at, say, the Henson or Rabea plugins, they offer all sorts of functionality you can't even get remotely close to on the QC at current.
@@cthalupa6879 I've used it, I know it's weak on FX. Partly why I still use my Helix and didn't buy a QC. The other reason being it's too small, my big tall man feet don't like the footswitches so crammed. It seems to me like more FX need to be added to the QC, and this would be far quicker and easier than adding the plugin capability which was a huge and difficult technical challenge that is still on going after years. No matter how you slice this, adding the plugin capability was a massive waste of resources and effort and really silly of the users to demand. They should have just said - we want these fx from the plugins.
Just wanted to say 2 things: First, big fan of the channel, I am actually new to the music industry professionally, work in marketing, and watch your videos to become a better student in the field. And secondly, spot-on assessment that this short-film would have been better served as a documentary, especially when you have Rabea and Umansky to help demo the piece.
This product, I feel, is purely a consequence of asking what touring guitar players who use the quad cortex want in a cheaper, smaller, unit. Like this feels tailor made for someone like Rabea: you're supposed to capture your boutique amps at your home studio, with the same settings as on the album, and stick it on your pedalboard with the boutique analogue pedals you used to record your album, and then go perform live and not have to lug a big amp head around. Hooray, you've replaced heavy amp heads, and literally nothing else about the process. For professional touring musicians who just need the same 4 tones every night, and never need to customize it, this product makes sense. It doesn't make sense however for literally anyone else - its feature set is blown out of the water when compared to the HX Stomp or Pod GO, with the only unique thing it offers being an awkward amp capture feature that you can't really tweak like a real amp once all is set. This is a product born of neural taking all their feedback from their endorsers, and none from the general public. What a waste - definitely makes me wanna steer clear of their plugins for the time being.
I think a big part of why this unit is hated so much, is that NDSP is known for their extremly high quality amp captures and the endless possibilites with a signal chain. Well, with this unit, both things aren't available, which brings me to ask myself, why they thought this was a good idea.
Emm... It has captures and it has ports to make captures on your own. Regarding number of effects blocks - well, it would be stupid to make an affordable processor that can do same stuff as your own expensive processor.
@@metalosaur I'm talking about the amps, they offer in the QC. Those are way more tweakable than captrues. I'm pretty sure most people don't really care about capturing. Yes they have to distinguish the QC from the NC and that the unit itself can do less than QC is fine, but there are literally no od units, only 2 pre fx and 3 post fx slots and those are fixed, no wah, no flanger, no what ever. It's fine to have a limited number of slots in pre and post fx, but these are too little and the variety is poor af for a unit worth almost 600€
Thank you for being honest. Most of the guitar influencers on TH-cam basically have their mouths stuck to the ass of Neural and don’t give honest reviews
The most underwhelming product in the market it intends to target. Fixed signal chain, no direct control on said signal chain via the unit itself, just 2 buttons as a common use case input method, no FX Loop, no 5-pin MIDI I/O and no MIDI Out... The equivalent of a Valeton GP-100 (without an expression pedal) for 4x the price. If you want it for the captures, you might as well get a ToneX for half the price + a TC Electronic Plethora X3 for a bit more, but with the capability to switch between three amp models and having three post effects to put in whatever order you want (including a Looper and a Tuner)
The line 6 pod go has done it all as far as it goes, sound qualities and reliability. I've spent more time playing and less time tweaking since i got it. Plug in play and call it a day. 😊
This is the same mindset that I have with my Yamaha THR10X. I have a few patches set for it, and when I want to play, all I need to do, is turn it on, and select my patch.
POD Go really is a perfect tool for playing. I love my Helix but sometimes it’s overkill. To be able to plug in and play with minimal tweaking while still getting killer tones is a blessing.
@Game4Lord that's awesome I have my presets like that too! I go from lenny kravitz to coheed and cambria, to Cannibal corpse and dying fetus lol. I haven't bought any gear since 2020 I just checked 🤯
Well, there's rackmount versions of most other modeling units. Or go oldschool with a TC electronic G-Major and that rackmount stereo tube amp from Engl.
Yes, just like I give props to Tesla for not promising self-playing guitars, no matter how much Gibson would possibly beg them to collaborate on such a thing.
Speaking of "coming soon"... Remember when Evertune anounced a bass bridge back in 2015 (if I remember correctly) and they said "soon" until 2023 to eventually come up with a prototype?
do you understand the problems and the challenges while creating something? you must eliminate all the problems that appear on the way. do you understand how hard it is? today me and the colleague did not much of a job because the laser didnt respond properly and we wasted so much time. and it wasnt our fault. now use this in a context of SOON
@@worldaswar3784 Do you understand that it's a bad idea to announce something when you have basically nothing but an idea yet? Ideas are something you sell to shareholders and your bosses. Poducts are something you sell to customers. Customers don't care about the process, they care about the result. Listeners do not care if I spent the last 2 years to release an album. All they care about it is, is it good or is it shit. And when it's shit then the 2 years spent on it don't matter.
@@sazalamel4749 omg :D what a cluelessness is witnessed by my .....omfg....... Reading problems? Too young? Zero marketing skills? No forward thinking ? Please read and learn son.
Neural is the same people as Darkglass, who couldn’t even figure out how to properly source power capacitors in their $500 pedals, so it’s not surprising that their hardware division is having issues.
I am trying to figure out at what point musicians (not "gear enthusiasts") have ever actually cared about what a brand does regarding marketing, aside from featuring an artist or showcasing it's features.
@@deeomayall You are conflating the idea that musicians can't be gear enthusiasts too, and are exclusively working stiffs that don't get paid. Although, not entirely true, also not entirely false either. I sincerely think that most who buy the product and actually use it more than likely don't care about marketing strategies unless it's flagrant, which I don't see this being.
😮 Oh no. Thank you for this. I have been a music tech marketing guy (AND a guitarist) for a long time. I love hearing these types of thoughts on how folk market their stuff. Again, thank you very much. Please more of these. 😍
Shout out to you for bringing me this terribly wrong-footed marketing campaign together with this comment from JumboLodisC, “It’s a $300 pedal that competes with $180 pedals but they want $550 for it.”
I am convinced this company is being sabotaged by a competitor from within. Its the only reasonable explanation for all the farcical marketing decisions, promises that are delivered late (or never), and the general tone deaf / outright contradictory nature of some of their products.
Thank heavens the TH-cam AI didn’t push those nonsensical vids to my feed. I would have been SO mad that my time was royally wasted on stupidity instead of actually launching a product.
If you can't immediately answer the question, "Why do I need this product?" then it’s apparent that there’s a significant flaw, either in the marketing or the product itself. I think that’s exactly the case here. On the other hand, NDSP plugins are also quite limited, with a fixed sequence of devices in their chain, but they’re priced between $80-180. Here, you can capture whatever amp you want and combine it with fixed, predefined elements in the chain, giving you a pretty wide variety of sounds. So, in my opinion, the price tag is fair, but the overall use case is still to be determined. Thanks for the video and for all the hard work and details.
I am so glad I didn't see the video and honestly I can't imagine paying the price tag on Neural stuff when you have all of the options that you do in 2024. I am literally putting a computer on my pedal board with a touchscreen and it is costing me $300. Not over 1k...
Can't fully wrap my head around who is this for. Someone with a lot of expensive vintage amps, but not enough money for the quad cortex? Or someone on a budget looking for a pedalboard amp model player at nearly 3x the price of tonex one? Sure, it's neat that unlike either tonex pedal or kemper player you can capture amps with the unit itself, but surely people looking to capture their vast collections of amps have already done so with some other modeller or the quad.
This whole youtube guitar phenomenon has been pretty funny as its played out over time. Like KDH said, every new thing is a 'game changer'. Its like anything that becomes increasingly commercialized and eventually begins to consume itself. I like Rabea but kinda choked for a half second when I saw what his EBMM sig's are asking. Multi thousand dollar youtuber guitars.
@@sagittated Either Ormsby sx or Vola oz type thing. Both still obtainable. I think EBMM guitars have ascended into unobtanium pricing like PRS. The online guitar thing has been good for the industry of selling gear and has promoted innovation. If a guitar brand thinks an online influencer is the right person to offer a sig to they must believe there's worthwhile financial gain involved.
@richardharrold9736 With respect to the guy, I recall first seeing him doing gear videos for Andertons, building a rep there and then branching out on his own more. I like what he does but not for 4 grand.
@richardharrold9736 The name has to warrant the signature being made in the first place. A $1700 chapman made sense, a $4000 Ernie Ball does not but I hope they sell and Rabea makes a tidy profit. Do you own one?
@@TurbulentJuiceNot to defend him like some fanboy, but you sound like you think Rabea hasn't released any music. The man is more than just his youtube channel. Toska's albums are considered classics of modern prog in some circles and that's not counting his work in Dorje and Vower, as well as solo material.
As a bass player it's very important that you have some ability to have a mix between a clean and a distorted sound otherwise you'll lose the low-end. This is useless for bassists.
Dont get me wrong, I think this is not good for the price, but wouldn't the capture just be accurate to what you feed it? If you have a blended tone coming through your amp where the bass end is preserved and not distorted, wouldn't that come through the capture? Genuine question, never went the capture route, modelling seems more intuitive to me
@@Artec619 bass frequencies are particularly finicky from place to place, and as a result a gigging musician really needs very granular control over that blend to sound good at different venues/rehearsal spaces/whatever.
@@Artec619 I honestly have no idea but looking at the signal chain it seems to be linear whereas almost all bass distortions will have a way of having a non-distorted blend. I've got a Darkglass ADAM that has sort of a 2-channel setup with a blend between a compressed and eq'd signal (sounds like a very good valve rig) and distorted channel, even my cheap Ultraharmonix has a clean/distortion blend. Not sure how a modeller would deal with this, but I really don't know.
Neural DSP will have the same fate as Positive Grid: They had a fantastic and novel tech and product that their competitors improved on using financial resources to improve the tech and product instead of wasting money on advertising
Ya, it's funny. My Sweetwater sales rep emailed me yesterday, "Hey Matt, Neural DSP released a new product yesterdaynd it's one of the coolest things I've seen all year. Want me to put one on a truck for you?" haha!!! He's NEVER sent me an email like this before and knows I'm a professional mixing engineer, not a guitar player. Altho, I do dabble in guitar but he dones't know that lol. They must not be selling like they thought they would because to get that email was...... CRAZY!
Bro, thank you so much for covering this especially so quickly after the release. I guess I'm in the minority here but I saw all the negative comments and was like .. wait, is it really THIS bad?
They also make right angle XLR cable terminations. I have mine on a board as well and I was able to position it in a way that it allows for an XLR / 1.25” cable to be plugged in, without removing the N.C. from the board. 16:06
All the pros who is Neural DSP artists and have the QC on their board alongside 10 other pedals that they need because the QC can’t replace them. «Please just give us the capture thing in small format for my huge pedalboard». Probably the only part of the QC they use anyway 🤷♂️
I am one of the ones real disappointed by this product. its not really a nano version of its bigger brother. Seems more like a capture unit. I was hoping for the Nano Cortex version of the HX Stomp.
I forgot to mention: bravo as usual. There is a reason why you are one of the only people in this space that I trust. You are a true activist for truth and honesty.
I am surprised of the move to integrate capture instead of modelling. I don't know the numbers for the quad cortex, but for kemper, the lead developer said in one of the videos at the release of the kemper profiler player that by far, the majority of the users of the (full) kemper never does capture (was it 90%?)
"...a speed rivaling Continental Drift..." I am SO stealing this line--full props to you when I use it. Great, informative and entertaining content, as always. Perhaps they should hire you to be their Marketing Director! 🙂
Hey KDH, great video, insightful as always. But couple of things I cant help wonder 1. By infinite , dont they mean you can capture your own stuff; combined with the online collection of captures, I would suppose that is kind of infinite (possibilities). 2. The XLR being on the right; I suppose is an engineering and design choice. 90% of people who buy this will not be doing captures, even when the 10% do, its probably going to be on a desk and not on the pedalboard Having said that, I will never buy Neural DSP after they cheated the first set of customers who bought the quad cortex. Very happy with my ToneX running on the FX loop of a TC Plethora X5
I think the best advertisement for DSP was when donut guitar uploaded a video of him playing with a plugin. The plugin was linked, there was no ad revenue they would receive, just them and the plugin. And the plugin sounded awesome! I believe it was the Tim Henson plugin with the neat vocoder effect
You know what really pisses me off? Is that people complain and complain (and they not only have a right to do it but kind of have reasons to do so) and yet keep using the QC and keep buying Neural plugins. If I was as pissed with Neural às these people seem to be I would have already sold my QC and got a Helix or a ToneX
I still don't understand what this product is for. So that I can capture the endless amount of amps that I don't own because that's why I'm buying an amp modeler in the first place? Just get yourself an HX Stomp and you are good to go.
Yeah, this. I'm not interested in capturing amps. I already have an amp modeler that has more than enough amp models and IRs. Why should I choose this thing over my NUX MG-300, which came out years ago and cost ~20% of the Nano's price?
I imagine they were initially targeting a HX Stomp competitor and then kept removing features to not erode value from the $$$$ flagship. Ended up with no screen to make the full quad cortex seem worth, and then kept taking more and more away till there was nothing left. Probably loads of arguments internally as most know it’s a 💩 but some key decision makers are jacked up on hubris
I'm not a guitarist, I'm barely a musician, but man... From what I DO understand, this is an embarrassing marketing tactic, and the fact the product is overpriced and not at all worth it is insane.
I bought it because I was in a rush and thought it was a mini QC, before I ran out the door I tried to look up what sounds it came with and realized it's a capture unit and canceled my order with Sweetwater. It seems like most people wanted a mini QC, that a stand alone capture unit in a world where every single modeler seems to have a capture unit and we there are other stand alone capture unites that have been out awhile was a really really odd direction for QC. Personally all I wanted was QC's reverbs and delays for clean playing through headphones away from my larger pedal board... that's personal to me. A capture unit that lets you dabble with a blink of someone else's setting on an amp is to me, useless. In fact, if Neural simple made a pedal that did all their delays and reverbs, I'd buy that...
THANK YOU. As a very traditional guitarist, I can’t make the jump to quad cortex because no demo video gives me any reason to buy it. They market things to their ideal consumer, rather than the huge percentage of guitarists firmly in the world of more traditional analog or analog-like digital products (tone master amps) that they need to win over to the digital space. It feels impenetrable to figure out how you’d set up a simple amp sound and build a simple pedal board style “rig”.
Well, I think this thing is a fairly garbage product that is targeted at a market segment that largely doesn't exist, but for the QC itself it is incredibly easy to set up a simple amp sound or simple pedal board style rig - and unlike my Axe FX3, the presets pretty much all sound great out of the box and can cover almost any style of playing without you having to build a preset at all. When you get to building the presets, though, it functions basically exactly like it would with building out a real pedalboard. EytschPi42's QC video might be up your alley.
Why can I run Neural DSP plugins on a £200 8 year old laptop... which can play video games and help me with my finances... but they want 550 Clams for this shell of a product? Insane!
It is funny that I didn't see any of those three marketing videos until you showed them here. Instead I saw the very positive Andertons review, and I got interested.
I was giving this product *some* consideration on my own. Even to me after the video I saw, (another TH-camr using it) it seemed a bit off somehow. I did not put the dots together, and I'm so glad you did. I think that maybe this could be semi - usable product in maybe .... 10 years ? ...
It was a desaster only if you still fall into their "soon" "sooner" scheme without knowing that the moment they post a Silhouette on IG (pretty much always on mondays) the thing will be released in three days on Thursday. Only in that instance though, not when "soon" is mentioned anywhere else.
the XLR take is such a silly take because you get low profile patch cable specifically for pedals why wouldn't you get low profile XLR cables for the same? You can make the same argument for every single pedal ever made using regular patch cables instead of low profile cables that you know exists and told us to pretend doesn't.
So, to give some context, to me, this seems like NDSP's answer to the Tonex. It's not an all in one pedal. It does some very specific things. I think a lot of the Quad Cortex community is less than impressed is because this product is not for them, unless they are looking for a cheaper backup to their QC. Other than that, this is a product more geared to someone who doesn't have a QC, but might be leaning towards a Tonex due to price. It's basically for a person looking to replace their real amp for live use. One thing that I do like about the Nano Cortex over Tonex is that the Tonex unit includes overdrives and reverb, relatively inexpensive effects, while the Nano includes chorus and delay, which tend to be more expensive. Of course, if someone is replacing their rig for the purpose of downsizing, they will likely just use their effects they're already using, but on the other hand, they can save some room on their pedalboard by removing chorus and delay if they choose to use the onboard effects in the Nano. I don't think it's a bad product, I just think it is targeting a segment that they were missing when the Tonex pedal came out.
It's definitely meant to emphasize Cortex Cloud's captures and the convenience of accessing it. I assume you just need a Neural DSP account and you can get access to CC, whether you get the NC new or used. ToneX is tied to license (which is transferable) but there are multiple models for different cheaper price points so it has that. Just gotta stomach the program's UI.
@@janfelixbergmann3819 Not really. They are totally different products. HX Stomp is a modeler and effects processor. Nano Cortex is a profiler with only a few effects. You can't just compare prices. You have to also compare functionality, and there really is no comparison.
The support that Neural DSP gives to their older VSTs is a big reason why you shouldn’t spend any money on any more of their products. Hell, even the Quad Cortex was basically unfinished when it was released. We’re a few years since it was teased and released and we’ve still only got a minimal amount of plugins that are compatible with the QC.
I'd say the amount of money spent in marketing a product is inversely proportional to the quality of the product. And the Nano Cortex is the textbook example of that. Too expensive for what it offers and even more expensive than its competitors, many of which have more features. For example, the Hotone Ampero II Stomp has only a slightly reduced feature set compared to the larger Ampero II Stage *and it's 100 bucks cheaper than the Nano Cortex.*
That's why I've almost quit playing electric guitar. Too much gear, too much GAS, too much, amps, pedals, accesories... too much nothing. I play my J-45, D-15 or D-28 and everytime I change strings on these, on any guitar, it is a new guitar, a new voice, a new feeling that makes me want to learn a new thing. Despite these are expensive guitars
Going into it with a positive bias, I watched the official demo video for bass, and my initial reaction was, "these are some of the least inspiring bass tones I have ever heard"
As a 1st shipment QC owner, all it did was piss me off. We still only have two plugins, time/mod effects pale in comparison to fractal and Line 6, and MIDI is still trash after 3-4 years. I still have a board and I bought this thing so I wouldn't have to bring my board anymore.
Neural DSP's marketing is not focused on their products, it's meant to build a brand, this was great marketing, you just don't know anything about marketing. That's why even with everything wrong with the cortex, it is still being sold with a big price tag as well as their plugins. They don't need marketing for their products, people are going to buy them anyway because people want the brand that Neural DSP is.
Besides the marketing, this is getting ridiculous. The market is overflooded with products that more or less do the same thing and they are all called "game changers". Of course, these "modelers" come with the trend of getting loads and loads of other pedals resulting in a pedal board much heavier and more expensive than an actual amp. Keep it simple, have a good guitar and a good amp, learn your songs really well and you will have a much better tone.
I think most guitar players just want to know why they should add your product to their rig, like you said, very simple.
And why - when they have probably already bought one or two (in my case) of these magic amp sim/IR/effects beasts already, they should fork out more money for another system which doesn't - from what I've seen so far - look as intuitive as the competition. I'm a guitarist - I need my tech to just do its thing without learning new operating systems every time. Mungo like knobs and stomp things, make guitar go boom 😂😂😂😂
Bro, nah. Guitar players will waste hours on end watching useless content about gear. Then they'll buy the product, never use it, and just brag about owning it online.
The answer is "No".
And yet I can’t remember the last time a new product launch got this much attention.
This promotional campaign has achieved everything that is was intended to do. People are talking about it to the point that people are making videos about the promotion almost as much as they are about the nano cortex itself.
I’d say mission accomplished and well done.
Just because you don’t like the format or find it “stupid” doesn’t negate the fact that it worked.
@@gear-head I think you didn't watch the video. You missed the part where negative publicity DOES get people's attention. But it DOESN'T get people to buy your stupid product.
I'm probably not the intended customer for this gear, but I find it wild that it's nearly same price as a HX stomp, for what is essentially just a capture device with no screen.
It’s like a worse ToneX but twice as expensive!
@@ObeseChess Better than tonex and its all in the box
@@Illiyinmusic how do you figure? Not trying to bust your balls, I’m open to the idea that I could be missing something.
@@IlliyinmusicNAM, Kemper, and Tonex captures are all more accurate than the Neural dsp captures.
@@ObeseChessit’s obviously worse, but he prolly already preordered it 😂
"Negative publicity is good for fame and notoriety, NOT for selling products..." Spot on KDH;-)
He knows jack shit about how well Neural is doing though. Don't take stuff TH-camrs say too serious.
@@ovivan79 Anybody knows four years is a ridiculous delay to have when giving empty promises of "soon". It doesn't take any direct experience with this particular product, to know that a product shouldn't lack support for the first few years after it is released. That's just bad business, I don't care if you are talking about playing guitar.
@@ovivan79 don't open the doors of your business if your business is not ready to be open.
@@ChrisTopherBunnell you don’t know how many units Neural has sold. You don’t know how many customers like their product. You are just assuming because people like KDH and others say it’s the worst thing that ever happened, that plug-in support took so long.
@@ovivan79do you know how many units they have sold? Please tell us your wisdom
Not publicly surveying for the users' needs is also part of their failed marketing for the Nanocortex, people are really dissapointed 🧐
That’s a huge part of it and you nailed it! I always ask my clients what they want and need and build it based on that, not just assuming
I remember being a Kemper owner in the beginning when Cristoph Kemper himself would extensivly survey the official forum to find out just exactly what kind of specs the footswitch should have. And then he followed through with it. And what it is now is the combination of surveys and feedback from that time.
THAT is how you make your customers feel heard.
@@jasonstallworthIt really does shine a light on the arrogance of these companies.
I would’ve bought the shit out of a tiny quad cortex with less computing power but the same models/ability to use my plugins. Total disappointment.
They did, earlier this year they asked QC owners in an email survey
Thank you for calling this out, seeing this is starting to get frustrating and I'm glad someone is saying something about how bad it is
I love that you're giving a real users POV on it and not shilling like other channels.
He just created a video from his usual angle to keep us watching. Everything is a conspiracy.
Ngl the over abundance of TH-camrs all spamming their reviews on the same day turns me off from a product. Maybe I’m just dumb but it’s like when someone asks you to do something and after the 3rd you’re finally like “we’ll now I don’t want to”
Agreed bro, those guitartubeheroes are starting pixxing me off and tbh I'm not following any of them anymore, apart few rare cases.
Digital marketer here: I have aided in the production of better videos than that when I was still in high school. Congratulations Neural DSP, you officially are worse at marketing than 24 marketing students in rural Southeastern Ohio.
I have no idea how the controversy got this bad this fast but your comment is hilarious 😂
rural southeastern ohio is the most insulting part of that
@@LizordSword entirely believable. I've lived here my entire life and it has few redeeming qualities.
@@daemonspudguy get well soon
so, not only does neural not understand that soon doesn´t mean an absurd amount of time, they also believe that infinity only goes to 4. great
Well, the symbol for infinity as an eight lying on its side (∞), so four is already halfway to infinity.
You buy two of these devices and put them on their sides - and boom! Infinity achieved! Plus, you save a lot of space on your pedalboard that way. It''s perfect!
@@henrygvidonas9573😂
???: "I can only count to four!"
You're wrong KDH, I threw my Quad Cortex in the recycling bin and bought 4 nano cortex after watching the 'Sooner' videos - this means which ever room I'm in I have a nano cortex without having to carry anything - helping the planet! I don't like doing updates so I'm pleased they released this instead of working on updates. Now my tone is second to none and I can capture things (whatever that means) - 3 effects doesn't sound a lot but I don't use effects, I just plug straight into an amp which the nano cortex makes easier by not having many effects to avoid. Tone is in my fingers thanks to Nano cortex.
My sarcasm meter has just broken…
This is a good one
Yeah but do you play authentic tho?
/s ... Hopefully 😅
the marketing really shows they try to sell something like a lifestyle product rather then a working tool for guitar players. Also, i think it is really expensive for what it is.... the whole promotion is a turn off too.
yeah, you can get a tonex nano and an old fx guitar pedal to achieve hte same for under 200$
they are apple of guitar world tbh
@@raadi5939 they should make sure software updates and support is running smooth. Bringing out a companion app not years later and so many more things they could do with the money instead of a this promotion. It is not apple but the new target customer are the people who watch all day TH-cam and wanna become the next guitartuber thinking this is passionate music making... we are all doomed! :D
@@raadi5939 So iow a CULT!
Everything about this reminds me of the Teenage Engineering madness in the synth world. Not a great look.
It’s hilarious that the one product they could have made that would have sold out everywhere overnight…..is exactly what they didn’t do!
it sold out btw
@@JakeSkillmanhipster fan boy effects
@@JakeSkillman I saw! But I stand by that they added the wrong feature! Modelling > Capturing
Sweetwater sold out in hours.
There were influencers making videos about rumours about the nano cortex while they already had the pre release unit. They knew what was coming, they just wanted to hype the unit up, pretending to know nothing. I’m pissed cause I’m not willing to get lied to. They should let the product speak for itself. It doesn’t need this kind of marketing
If you copied the link to the marketing videos, you’d see “Nano Cortex” in the URL
How is this significantly worse than the Line 6 pod express? I can't comprehend how a modeler that's under $200 is a better choice than something meant to rival the hx stomp? Do better Neural.
Also, as a bass player, this thing is completely inadequate for modern metal because it lacks a compressor which is easily the most important thing to have for metal bass. You'd be better off going direct through a Darkglass pedal than using the nano cortex.
Great view. Change it to "You'd be better off going through a plate glass window than using the nano cortex" and we'll use it in our next Marketing campaign.
the pod express is awesome especially for the price but comparing it to this is apples and oranges , a better comparison would have been tonexone which is the same price as the pod express, honestly buy what works for you be it hx stomp, ampero stomp, valeton gp 200, sonicake matribox 2 etc etc etc
The capture on the cortex is similar to the ToneX. You can capture your entire tone shaping rig (compressors, overdrives, amps, etc)
Personally I wasn’t aware of the marketing… but this is like announcing a 5150 nano and it is just the clean channel. When you say “Cortex Nano", people expect modelling not capture
Ooof that’s probably the best definition of the Nano I’ve seen. I was trying to formulate the best comparison, but this is it. It sucks some swamp ass.
The cringe factor of high school movie productions are still the same even when used for a professional commercial lol. Also the "soon" product in silhouette is so apple and has been since like 07. They really need to just speak to their current and potential customers.
Peace
Apple is exactly the kind of vibe I got from this! And thats not a compliment.
@@Dudldom yeh not a big apple fan either.
Peace
@PerpetuallyTiredMusician it's not even the products (which have their problems) I have used apple in the past and still have a MacBook that is doing what it needs to do.
What I don't like about apple is the quasi religious attitude as if the world was holding it's breath just because a screen is now an inch wider than before.
And the same here. We have a PLETHORA of great guitar gear. So many distortion pedals that browsing the recent ones alone can make you overwhelmed.
In the marketing segment the nanocortex wants to be there are at least 3 very competent other products.
So, no, the nanocortex is not what the world has been waiting for for years. It will do it's job and it will get better with updates but it's not the best thing since sliced bread. And all those influencers pretending like they had a vision from god make me dislike the product even more
"At a speed rivalling continental drift". Casually drops the best joke made on your channel. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Pathetic is the most generous word I can use to describe this whole marketing process.
"Rivaling continental drift" - chef's kiss perfection
You got my thinking about how awful the show "Friends" would be without the laugh track.
You honestly couldn't have Friends without the laugh track because they filmed in front of a live audience. All the actors were as much performing for the studio as they were for the cameras, and they'd rewrite jokes on the spot depending on how the audience reacted.
You can find it here on youtube. Its painful to watch.
Enjoy….
th-cam.com/video/DgKgXehYnnw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=-fLf5S0FcaXxjau4
I never found “Friends” funny, even with the laugh track. It’s cringey.
For what it’s worth, I find most American comedies utterly unfunny, with the notable exception of The Simpsons which, quelle surprise, does not have a laugh track.
"Why should I spend my hard earned money?" vs. e-celeb guitar players LARPing as actors for waaaaay too long. One sketch only, 5 minutes or less. It's like everyone has forgotten how to market their products. Be it guitar accessories to television shows & movies.
Everyones just bored. Clown world was never eternal you chodes.
I never understood why Neural users were so desperate to run their plugins on the QC. It just makes no sense to me, you have the QC, it can already do all those things. You don't even need the damn plugins anymore if you own the QC.
The Helix approach makes much more sense. A software version of the Helix itself to use as plugins.
The plugins have a lot of FX that are not available in the QC. The FX portion of the QC being so underwhelming is the main reasons my Axe FX3 is my desert island choice over my Quad Cortex.
I would agree the general drive/amp/cab sections of the plugins are not super compelling over what you can do in the QC already, but if you look at, say, the Henson or Rabea plugins, they offer all sorts of functionality you can't even get remotely close to on the QC at current.
@@cthalupa6879 I've used it, I know it's weak on FX. Partly why I still use my Helix and didn't buy a QC. The other reason being it's too small, my big tall man feet don't like the footswitches so crammed. It seems to me like more FX need to be added to the QC, and this would be far quicker and easier than adding the plugin capability which was a huge and difficult technical challenge that is still on going after years. No matter how you slice this, adding the plugin capability was a massive waste of resources and effort and really silly of the users to demand. They should have just said - we want these fx from the plugins.
Just wanted to say 2 things: First, big fan of the channel, I am actually new to the music industry professionally, work in marketing, and watch your videos to become a better student in the field. And secondly, spot-on assessment that this short-film would have been better served as a documentary, especially when you have Rabea and Umansky to help demo the piece.
This product, I feel, is purely a consequence of asking what touring guitar players who use the quad cortex want in a cheaper, smaller, unit. Like this feels tailor made for someone like Rabea: you're supposed to capture your boutique amps at your home studio, with the same settings as on the album, and stick it on your pedalboard with the boutique analogue pedals you used to record your album, and then go perform live and not have to lug a big amp head around. Hooray, you've replaced heavy amp heads, and literally nothing else about the process.
For professional touring musicians who just need the same 4 tones every night, and never need to customize it, this product makes sense. It doesn't make sense however for literally anyone else - its feature set is blown out of the water when compared to the HX Stomp or Pod GO, with the only unique thing it offers being an awkward amp capture feature that you can't really tweak like a real amp once all is set.
This is a product born of neural taking all their feedback from their endorsers, and none from the general public. What a waste - definitely makes me wanna steer clear of their plugins for the time being.
I think a big part of why this unit is hated so much, is that NDSP is known for their extremly high quality amp captures and the endless possibilites with a signal chain. Well, with this unit, both things aren't available, which brings me to ask myself, why they thought this was a good idea.
They just wanted to cash in on the tone x train from last year.
Emm... It has captures and it has ports to make captures on your own.
Regarding number of effects blocks - well, it would be stupid to make an affordable processor that can do same stuff as your own expensive processor.
@@metalosaur I'm talking about the amps, they offer in the QC. Those are way more tweakable than captrues. I'm pretty sure most people don't really care about capturing.
Yes they have to distinguish the QC from the NC and that the unit itself can do less than QC is fine, but there are literally no od units, only 2 pre fx and 3 post fx slots and those are fixed, no wah, no flanger, no what ever. It's fine to have a limited number of slots in pre and post fx, but these are too little and the variety is poor af for a unit worth almost 600€
@@fuzzymuppet1990 To me it looks like they are rather attacking the Kemper Player and offer something in that realm.
The open source captures are free and higher quality at this point...
Thank you for being honest. Most of the guitar influencers on TH-cam basically have their mouths stuck to the ass of Neural and don’t give honest reviews
The most underwhelming product in the market it intends to target. Fixed signal chain, no direct control on said signal chain via the unit itself, just 2 buttons as a common use case input method, no FX Loop, no 5-pin MIDI I/O and no MIDI Out... The equivalent of a Valeton GP-100 (without an expression pedal) for 4x the price. If you want it for the captures, you might as well get a ToneX for half the price + a TC Electronic Plethora X3 for a bit more, but with the capability to switch between three amp models and having three post effects to put in whatever order you want (including a Looper and a Tuner)
The line 6 pod go has done it all as far as it goes, sound qualities and reliability. I've spent more time playing and less time tweaking since i got it. Plug in play and call it a day. 😊
This is the same mindset that I have with my Yamaha THR10X. I have a few patches set for it, and when I want to play, all I need to do, is turn it on, and select my patch.
POD Go really is a perfect tool for playing. I love my Helix but sometimes it’s overkill. To be able to plug in and play with minimal tweaking while still getting killer tones is a blessing.
Not to mention how well it does working as an interface. I use neural and stl plug-ins through it when I need to
@Game4Lord that's awesome I have my presets like that too! I go from lenny kravitz to coheed and cambria, to Cannibal corpse and dying fetus lol. I haven't bought any gear since 2020 I just checked 🤯
Yamaha/line6 is just light years ahead when it comes to functionality. They make real definition of “well thought out” products IMO.
LITERALLY ALL I WANT IS A RACKMOUNT VERSION OF THE CORTEX OR HEADRUSH. WHY IS THIS SO MUCH TO ASK FOR?!
Should be able to get rack versions of everything imo
Well, there's rackmount versions of most other modeling units.
Or go oldschool with a TC electronic G-Major and that rackmount stereo tube amp from Engl.
I mean, I'll give it to Neural for not promising self-driving cars 'next year' for the last decade.
Yes, just like I give props to Tesla for not promising self-playing guitars, no matter how much Gibson would possibly beg them to collaborate on such a thing.
Speaking of "coming soon"... Remember when Evertune anounced a bass bridge back in 2015 (if I remember correctly) and they said "soon" until 2023 to eventually come up with a prototype?
do you understand the problems and the challenges while creating something? you must eliminate all the problems that appear on the way. do you understand how hard it is? today me and the colleague did not much of a job because the laser didnt respond properly and we wasted so much time. and it wasnt our fault. now use this in a context of SOON
@@worldaswar3784 Do you understand that it's a bad idea to announce something when you have basically nothing but an idea yet? Ideas are something you sell to shareholders and your bosses. Poducts are something you sell to customers.
Customers don't care about the process, they care about the result. Listeners do not care if I spent the last 2 years to release an album. All they care about it is, is it good or is it shit. And when it's shit then the 2 years spent on it don't matter.
@@sazalamel4749 omg :D what a cluelessness is witnessed by my .....omfg....... Reading problems? Too young? Zero marketing skills? No forward thinking ? Please read and learn son.
Neural was too busy thinking about whether they could make this, that they didn't stop to think if they should...
You hit right on: my piss off about this is that my OG QC is still not doing everything I was peomised it would do. Thanks for the honest reporting.
Archtype: Marketing Department
isn't that a Fear Factory song??
@@mark6302 yea
Neural is the same people as Darkglass, who couldn’t even figure out how to properly source power capacitors in their $500 pedals, so it’s not surprising that their hardware division is having issues.
I am trying to figure out at what point musicians (not "gear enthusiasts") have ever actually cared about what a brand does regarding marketing, aside from featuring an artist or showcasing it's features.
Musicians are completely broke, they don't buy anything new anymore. Gear enthusiasts are exactly the sort of market these ads are targeting.
@@deeomayall You are conflating the idea that musicians can't be gear enthusiasts too, and are exclusively working stiffs that don't get paid. Although, not entirely true, also not entirely false either. I sincerely think that most who buy the product and actually use it more than likely don't care about marketing strategies unless it's flagrant, which I don't see this being.
😮 Oh no. Thank you for this. I have been a music tech marketing guy (AND a guitarist) for a long time. I love hearing these types of thoughts on how folk market their stuff. Again, thank you very much. Please more of these. 😍
Shout out to you for bringing me this terribly wrong-footed marketing campaign together with this comment from JumboLodisC, “It’s a $300 pedal that competes with $180 pedals but they want $550 for it.”
I am convinced this company is being sabotaged by a competitor from within. Its the only reasonable explanation for all the farcical marketing decisions, promises that are delivered late (or never), and the general tone deaf / outright contradictory nature of some of their products.
yoooo, wassup Scythe Studios. Great to see you out in the wild.
Thank heavens the TH-cam AI didn’t push those nonsensical vids to my feed. I would have been SO mad that my time was royally wasted on stupidity instead of actually launching a product.
If you can't immediately answer the question, "Why do I need this product?" then it’s apparent that there’s a significant flaw, either in the marketing or the product itself. I think that’s exactly the case here. On the other hand, NDSP plugins are also quite limited, with a fixed sequence of devices in their chain, but they’re priced between $80-180. Here, you can capture whatever amp you want and combine it with fixed, predefined elements in the chain, giving you a pretty wide variety of sounds. So, in my opinion, the price tag is fair, but the overall use case is still to be determined. Thanks for the video and for all the hard work and details.
I am so glad I didn't see the video and honestly I can't imagine paying the price tag on Neural stuff when you have all of the options that you do in 2024. I am literally putting a computer on my pedal board with a touchscreen and it is costing me $300. Not over 1k...
Can't fully wrap my head around who is this for. Someone with a lot of expensive vintage amps, but not enough money for the quad cortex? Or someone on a budget looking for a pedalboard amp model player at nearly 3x the price of tonex one? Sure, it's neat that unlike either tonex pedal or kemper player you can capture amps with the unit itself, but surely people looking to capture their vast collections of amps have already done so with some other modeller or the quad.
This whole youtube guitar phenomenon has been pretty funny as its played out over time. Like KDH said, every new thing is a 'game changer'. Its like anything that becomes increasingly commercialized and eventually begins to consume itself.
I like Rabea but kinda choked for a half second when I saw what his EBMM sig's are asking. Multi thousand dollar youtuber guitars.
Now I'm envisioning a KDH signature guitar, what its specs would be, and how much it would cost.
@@sagittated Either Ormsby sx or Vola oz type thing. Both still obtainable. I think EBMM guitars have ascended into unobtanium pricing like PRS.
The online guitar thing has been good for the industry of selling gear and has promoted innovation. If a guitar brand thinks an online influencer is the right person to offer a sig to they must believe there's worthwhile financial gain involved.
@richardharrold9736 With respect to the guy, I recall first seeing him doing gear videos for Andertons, building a rep there and then branching out on his own more. I like what he does but not for 4 grand.
@richardharrold9736 The name has to warrant the signature being made in the first place. A $1700 chapman made sense, a $4000 Ernie Ball does not but I hope they sell and Rabea makes a tidy profit. Do you own one?
@@TurbulentJuiceNot to defend him like some fanboy, but you sound like you think Rabea hasn't released any music. The man is more than just his youtube channel. Toska's albums are considered classics of modern prog in some circles and that's not counting his work in Dorje and Vower, as well as solo material.
Apparently it worked because everyone is talking about it
As a bass player it's very important that you have some ability to have a mix between a clean and a distorted sound otherwise you'll lose the low-end. This is useless for bassists.
Dont get me wrong, I think this is not good for the price, but wouldn't the capture just be accurate to what you feed it? If you have a blended tone coming through your amp where the bass end is preserved and not distorted, wouldn't that come through the capture? Genuine question, never went the capture route, modelling seems more intuitive to me
@@Artec619 bass frequencies are particularly finicky from place to place, and as a result a gigging musician really needs very granular control over that blend to sound good at different venues/rehearsal spaces/whatever.
@@Artec619 I honestly have no idea but looking at the signal chain it seems to be linear whereas almost all bass distortions will have a way of having a non-distorted blend. I've got a Darkglass ADAM that has sort of a 2-channel setup with a blend between a compressed and eq'd signal (sounds like a very good valve rig) and distorted channel, even my cheap Ultraharmonix has a clean/distortion blend. Not sure how a modeller would deal with this, but I really don't know.
Thanks for making this video, I find it very helpful!
subscribed to push the channel to 100k. Thanks for your work.
Great vid love your channel
Perhaps the Nano Cortex is an example of how the game does not always need changing
This would have been cool if it was a small Quad Cortex. The fact that it has no FX Loop is a huge oversight IMO
Neural DSP will have the same fate as Positive Grid: They had a fantastic and novel tech and product that their competitors improved on using financial resources to improve the tech and product instead of wasting money on advertising
Ya, it's funny. My Sweetwater sales rep emailed me yesterday, "Hey Matt, Neural DSP released a new product yesterdaynd it's one of the coolest things I've seen all year. Want me to put one on a truck for you?" haha!!! He's NEVER sent me an email like this before and knows I'm a professional mixing engineer, not a guitar player. Altho, I do dabble in guitar but he dones't know that lol. They must not be selling like they thought they would because to get that email was...... CRAZY!
Bro, thank you so much for covering this especially so quickly after the release. I guess I'm in the minority here but I saw all the negative comments and was like .. wait, is it really THIS bad?
9:56 - oh hey, cheaper than a Stomp, that's not bad actually... 11:08 - oh... ok... yeah nevermind then. I see why it's cheaper than a stomp.
They also make right angle XLR cable terminations. I have mine on a board as well and I was able to position it in a way that it allows for an XLR / 1.25” cable to be plugged in, without removing the N.C. from the board. 16:06
Was hoping it was a small version of the quad because I don’t want to pay $2000 for the big one. Who wanted this enough to make it?
All the pros who is Neural DSP artists and have the QC on their board alongside 10 other pedals that they need because the QC can’t replace them. «Please just give us the capture thing in small format for my huge pedalboard». Probably the only part of the QC they use anyway 🤷♂️
I am one of the ones real disappointed by this product. its not really a nano version of its bigger brother. Seems more like a capture unit. I was hoping for the Nano Cortex version of the HX Stomp.
I forgot to mention: bravo as usual. There is a reason why you are one of the only people in this space that I trust. You are a true activist for truth and honesty.
I am surprised of the move to integrate capture instead of modelling.
I don't know the numbers for the quad cortex, but for kemper, the lead developer said in one of the videos at the release of the kemper profiler player that by far, the majority of the users of the (full) kemper never does capture (was it 90%?)
"...a speed rivaling Continental Drift..."
I am SO stealing this line--full props to you when I use it.
Great, informative and entertaining content, as always. Perhaps they should hire you to be their Marketing Director! 🙂
Hey KDH, great video, insightful as always. But couple of things I cant help wonder
1. By infinite , dont they mean you can capture your own stuff; combined with the online collection of captures, I would suppose that is kind of infinite (possibilities).
2. The XLR being on the right; I suppose is an engineering and design choice. 90% of people who buy this will not be doing captures, even when the 10% do, its probably going to be on a desk and not on the pedalboard
Having said that, I will never buy Neural DSP after they cheated the first set of customers who bought the quad cortex. Very happy with my ToneX running on the FX loop of a TC Plethora X5
I think the best advertisement for DSP was when donut guitar uploaded a video of him playing with a plugin. The plugin was linked, there was no ad revenue they would receive, just them and the plugin. And the plugin sounded awesome! I believe it was the Tim Henson plugin with the neat vocoder effect
You know what really pisses me off? Is that people complain and complain (and they not only have a right to do it but kind of have reasons to do so) and yet keep using the QC and keep buying Neural plugins. If I was as pissed with Neural às these people seem to be I would have already sold my QC and got a Helix or a ToneX
They got a toxic attachment to the gear they secretly love
Well i did wanted a smaller size, but just didn't understand why they went with no screeen design
We got an indie film from a guitar plugin maker before we got GTA 6
So glad I backed out of my Tier 1 pre order for the QC and went Fractal. Very happy with my FM3 and FM9.
Will do the same soon
I still don't understand what this product is for. So that I can capture the endless amount of amps that I don't own because that's why I'm buying an amp modeler in the first place?
Just get yourself an HX Stomp and you are good to go.
Yeah, this.
I'm not interested in capturing amps. I already have an amp modeler that has more than enough amp models and IRs. Why should I choose this thing over my NUX MG-300, which came out years ago and cost ~20% of the Nano's price?
I love my hx stomp. It's all I use now and all I need
These videos were no "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown"
i got a rock
I imagine they were initially targeting a HX Stomp competitor and then kept removing features to not erode value from the $$$$ flagship.
Ended up with no screen to make the full quad cortex seem worth, and then kept taking more and more away till there was nothing left. Probably loads of arguments internally as most know it’s a 💩 but some key decision makers are jacked up on hubris
The intro to this K - brilliant work
Those marketing videos were so painful to watch
I'm not a guitarist, I'm barely a musician, but man... From what I DO understand, this is an embarrassing marketing tactic, and the fact the product is overpriced and not at all worth it is insane.
I bought it because I was in a rush and thought it was a mini QC, before I ran out the door I tried to look up what sounds it came with and realized it's a capture unit and canceled my order with Sweetwater. It seems like most people wanted a mini QC, that a stand alone capture unit in a world where every single modeler seems to have a capture unit and we there are other stand alone capture unites that have been out awhile was a really really odd direction for QC.
Personally all I wanted was QC's reverbs and delays for clean playing through headphones away from my larger pedal board... that's personal to me. A capture unit that lets you dabble with a blink of someone else's setting on an amp is to me, useless. In fact, if Neural simple made a pedal that did all their delays and reverbs, I'd buy that...
@@Necca_UK Interesting, wonder how common this will be.
THANK YOU. As a very traditional guitarist, I can’t make the jump to quad cortex because no demo video gives me any reason to buy it. They market things to their ideal consumer, rather than the huge percentage of guitarists firmly in the world of more traditional analog or analog-like digital products (tone master amps) that they need to win over to the digital space.
It feels impenetrable to figure out how you’d set up a simple amp sound and build a simple pedal board style “rig”.
Well, I think this thing is a fairly garbage product that is targeted at a market segment that largely doesn't exist, but for the QC itself it is incredibly easy to set up a simple amp sound or simple pedal board style rig - and unlike my Axe FX3, the presets pretty much all sound great out of the box and can cover almost any style of playing without you having to build a preset at all. When you get to building the presets, though, it functions basically exactly like it would with building out a real pedalboard. EytschPi42's QC video might be up your alley.
@@cthalupa6879 Thnk you. I’ll explore that!
Why can I run Neural DSP plugins on a £200 8 year old laptop... which can play video games and help me with my finances... but they want 550 Clams for this shell of a product? Insane!
Either the company is very small and one guy is calling all the shots or different departments are on different planets.
It is funny that I didn't see any of those three marketing videos until you showed them here. Instead I saw the very positive Andertons review, and I got interested.
I was giving this product *some* consideration on my own. Even to me after the video I saw, (another TH-camr using it) it seemed a bit off somehow. I did not put the dots together, and I'm so glad you did. I think that maybe this could be semi - usable product in maybe .... 10 years ? ...
Quadcortex named for 4 parallel processes… like four brains.
Nanocortex named for…. small brain, limited processes.
Sounds like marketing nailed it!
a $550 no-screen capture machine, no thanks
It was a desaster only if you still fall into their "soon" "sooner" scheme without knowing that the moment they post a Silhouette on IG (pretty much always on mondays) the thing will be released in three days on Thursday. Only in that instance though, not when "soon" is mentioned anywhere else.
I've never wanted a guitar pedal less than this.
Idk, it sounds like everyone here watched the whole videos just to rant?
the XLR take is such a silly take because you get low profile patch cable specifically for pedals why wouldn't you get low profile XLR cables for the same? You can make the same argument for every single pedal ever made using regular patch cables instead of low profile cables that you know exists and told us to pretend doesn't.
So, to give some context, to me, this seems like NDSP's answer to the Tonex. It's not an all in one pedal. It does some very specific things. I think a lot of the Quad Cortex community is less than impressed is because this product is not for them, unless they are looking for a cheaper backup to their QC. Other than that, this is a product more geared to someone who doesn't have a QC, but might be leaning towards a Tonex due to price. It's basically for a person looking to replace their real amp for live use. One thing that I do like about the Nano Cortex over Tonex is that the Tonex unit includes overdrives and reverb, relatively inexpensive effects, while the Nano includes chorus and delay, which tend to be more expensive. Of course, if someone is replacing their rig for the purpose of downsizing, they will likely just use their effects they're already using, but on the other hand, they can save some room on their pedalboard by removing chorus and delay if they choose to use the onboard effects in the Nano. I don't think it's a bad product, I just think it is targeting a segment that they were missing when the Tonex pedal came out.
It's definitely meant to emphasize Cortex Cloud's captures and the convenience of accessing it. I assume you just need a Neural DSP account and you can get access to CC, whether you get the NC new or used. ToneX is tied to license (which is transferable) but there are multiple models for different cheaper price points so it has that. Just gotta stomach the program's UI.
With that price it is also competing with the HX Stomp which outperforms it in all departments except the capturing
@@janfelixbergmann3819 Not really. They are totally different products. HX Stomp is a modeler and effects processor. Nano Cortex is a profiler with only a few effects. You can't just compare prices. You have to also compare functionality, and there really is no comparison.
Only one capture block!? That’s fucking insanely limiting….what horse shit.
The support that Neural DSP gives to their older VSTs is a big reason why you shouldn’t spend any money on any more of their products. Hell, even the Quad Cortex was basically unfinished when it was released. We’re a few years since it was teased and released and we’ve still only got a minimal amount of plugins that are compatible with the QC.
I'd say the amount of money spent in marketing a product is inversely proportional to the quality of the product. And the Nano Cortex is the textbook example of that. Too expensive for what it offers and even more expensive than its competitors, many of which have more features. For example, the Hotone Ampero II Stomp has only a slightly reduced feature set compared to the larger Ampero II Stage *and it's 100 bucks cheaper than the Nano Cortex.*
That's why I've almost quit playing electric guitar. Too much gear, too much GAS, too much, amps, pedals, accesories... too much nothing.
I play my J-45, D-15 or D-28 and everytime I change strings on these, on any guitar, it is a new guitar, a new voice, a new feeling that makes me want to learn a new thing. Despite these are expensive guitars
Going into it with a positive bias, I watched the official demo video for bass, and my initial reaction was, "these are some of the least inspiring bass tones I have ever heard"
I can't put reverb in front?? Well no shoegaze for these guys
Any traditional amp has an infinite amount of sounds because all analog pots have an infinite range between fully off and fully on
Marketing so bad they sold out the day they went live. 🥴
yes, seems that all Nano haters in the world is here, right now...
Looks like people rather wanted the full Plugin support instead of that.
Spot-on on every point. This video was incredibly cathartic for me, personally.
As a 1st shipment QC owner, all it did was piss me off.
We still only have two plugins, time/mod effects pale in comparison to fractal and Line 6, and MIDI is still trash after 3-4 years. I still have a board and I bought this thing so I wouldn't have to bring my board anymore.
Neural DSP's marketing is not focused on their products, it's meant to build a brand, this was great marketing, you just don't know anything about marketing.
That's why even with everything wrong with the cortex, it is still being sold with a big price tag as well as their plugins. They don't need marketing for their products, people are going to buy them anyway because people want the brand that Neural DSP is.
Besides the marketing, this is getting ridiculous. The market is overflooded with products that more or less do the same thing and they are all called "game changers". Of course, these "modelers" come with the trend of getting loads and loads of other pedals resulting in a pedal board much heavier and more expensive than an actual amp. Keep it simple, have a good guitar and a good amp, learn your songs really well and you will have a much better tone.
The power of one, the power of two, the power of INFINIIIIITE