r/NeuralDSP

Just finished capturing my Friedman Dirty Shirley for the Neural DSP Cortex. 🎸

The new DShirl V2 Cortex Capture Pack has 18 captures covering:

• 4x12 cabinet captures
• 2x12 cabinet captures
• Full DI captures
• Low, mid and higher-gain settings

The Dirty Shirley has been a really fun amp to work with. It has that chewy, open British crunch at moderate gain, great response to pick attack and guitar volume, and then gets thick and vocal when pushed without completely losing that old-school feel.

I put one of the captures on the Neural DSP Cloud for anyone who wants to try it first:

🎁 FREE: Low Input • Mid Gain • 2x12

https://cloud.neuraldsp.com/cloud/profile/neural-capture/neural-capture/view/bfc3fd02-4318-476b-bd3b-82cb30ab5b18

Full 18-capture pack:

https://www.mattfig.com/product/fig-v2-dshirl-cortex-capture-pack

Would be curious to hear what cab/IR combinations you guys end up trying with the DI captures. 🤘

Hi everyone,

I've decided to go for a Quad Cortex. I am having a bit of trouble deciding whether to get an OG or a Mini. I thought I'd ask you for your experiences with one or another, and maybe if you've been in a similar situation to me where one use case is better justified than the other.

So here I am voicing some of my concerns, excited what your input will be. I realize that this might have been done to death, but I apricate all takes and inputs either way.

I did some research and found people saying that the OG has some noise problems due to an ungrounded output, which is said to be better on the Mini. I am also a bit skeptical towards the power supply cord and input on the OG, which I read is really flimsy and comes out quickly (supposedly fixed by the lock-in plug on the Mini).

Our shows currently is fully automated with patch and snapshot changes on a different unit (which is not mine and I don't enjoy a lot), so it would make sense to get the Mini, but I am curious if anyone ever had a setup like this, went for the Mini and then regretted not going for the big one later. I am afraid of losing out on the footswitches for other use-cases.

Lastly, how is the UX on the Mini? I saw that on the OG each knob gets assigned to a parameter, which seems intuitive. Is the Mini lacking in this department, is it more difficult to dial in tones?

The Mini sounds better put together, according to forums, but not sure about the UX and the lack of footswitches (I also read there are no momentary switches on it).

I am not looking for a push in either way, just if you have some experiences with gaining or missing some "features" by switching either way. I would like to make sure to get as much of the possible use-cases covered as possible, it is a big spending after all.

Thanks all in advance.

Is it possible to have the IR bypass on one output while it's active on the other? I have the setting enable to bypass on the right output to send to my poweramp, but the left out now has some of the bypassed IR signal coming through into the PA. Is there a pan option somewhere I'm missing?

Hoping somebody here can help me with this predicament. I’m wondering if there is a way I can wirelessly play my guitar through my QC, specifically when just hanging out in my living room, with the pedalboard tucked away in a corner somewhere.

I know there are plenty wireless guitar transmitters out there, but is there a two channel transmitter that can send the guitar signal to the input of my board, and then transmit the output signal back, with a headphone jack?

Hey yall, I finally converted and got myself a QC. For live, I planned on using it straight into thehouse PA, but Im now realizing that Im not going to have sound behind me. Could I just use a cheap PA wedge behind me? Or does FRFRs do something that a regular PA cant?

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to build my first preset on the Neural DSP Nano Cortex for that classic early Pearl Jam rhythm and solo tone.

I know the foundation is a Marshall (Plexi or JCM800), but when I build the chain using the built-in models, that sounds somehow wrong.

Please share your exact settings (screenshots or numbers). I'm losing my mind here!

English is not my native language, so please excuse any errors.

Thanks!

I’m at the point of overthinking myself into confusion here so I need some help. Please ELI5.

If I want a stereo L/R XLR out from my QC, is there any purpose to panning those output hard left or hard right? The XLR can’t carry stereo information anyway so why is it an option?

Also, I want to use one amp but generate two slightly different signals for my stereo out - do I just throw on a stereo delay/reverb? What do those even do, like how do I get the two different signals out of it if there’s only one output from the block?

Any good tip to get that specific intro tone with my setup? I have a Fender Telecaster, an Epiphone Les Paul Standard 59, I record DI in my DAW and use Neural DSP Nolly X plugin for my amps and cabs. Thanks!!

So I was jamming great and all at sound levels I was nervous if the sound through my monitors was gonna wake my baby. I tried to do an amp capture using my Suhr Reactive loadbox, was sketching me out and confusing me so I stopped. Now at volume 100 on my quad cortex it’s fairly quiet where it wasn’t before. What happened?

What’s the best frfr, I’m seeing Laney but they are pricey. Any recommendations?

Or is it more worth to get a power amp and a regular cab.

Looking at frfrs bc I absolutely love my tone as is with my QC, so I want to preserve my IR tone.

Thanks!

Just got my Quad Cortex Mini in the mail. Eager to try it out, I plug it in and start doing the login and firmware update stuff. Immediately, I can tell that ALOT of the time, this touch screen is very unresponsive. I press and nothing happens, press again, it responds, or not.. It is not specifically on one part of the screen, it is all over and completely random but I feel like maybe 20% of all inputs I do with my finger are not registered. A really bad first impression when you buy such an expensive premium digital product in 2026. There are touch screens from 1999 that are more responsive than this.

Did I just receive a defect product or is it just how the device is? Any other experiences on this? The fact that it is completely random and can happen anywhere on the screen kind of makes me think that this is just how it is, maybe because its sturdy built for the stage etc and that is one of the compromises one must accept? If so I´m seriously considering returning it. I will use this screen alot and dont really want to spend the next 10 years being frustrated about inputs not being registered this often.

Last night I had my first gig with my QC mini. Went great and felt super comfortable with it! Apart from;

Once the screen is locked, I appreciate buttons 1 and 3 together enable the tuner - great.

My issue is, I'm currently working with 4 scenes, and stepping on 2 and 4 together changes from scene to stomp - this is a bit of a struggle when the buttons are so close!

Is there any way to disable that? Or another solution possibly? Totally get why stomp mode would be useful to many in a live setting, I prefer to have 4 scenes which are set and don't change throughout the gig.

Other than that, what a great asset for gigs - incredible to be able to lug equipment from the car to the stage in one journey! 😁

Cheers

After lots of feedback from here and my last video, I decided to do a follow up video discussing if the Quad Cortex could take over my whole rig and the results were way closer than I thought

I know it’s not the same Tier, but the axe 2 was born in 2011, prices today are similar tho. I’ve saw everyone moving from axe Fx to QC, some to helix, now everyone is getting into the headrush and the nam2 seems like the future.

But Sometimes I believe people got bored of great tone and wanted more bling bling and easy touch pad interface, people can’t read a manual and figure out instructions these days… you know these new generations are so strongly and manly, well that’s my theory why they all went to try other devices.

I grew in the 90s, we got to share a single tv and rent 1 movie and watched it like 5 times over a weekend.

Let’s say at an even 800$/€ what would you get ?

I’m asking because I’m almost buying the axe2 with a mfc-101 but wondering if there’s something I’m missing