Addressing the relationship between store promotions and Quad Cortex integration timelines

Hello everyone,

I’m sharing a few thoughts today regarding the current communication framework around Archetype compatibility for our hardware. To be entirely clear, this is not a criticism of the technical performance or the sonic quality of the ecosystem, which are both incredible. Instead, it’s an invitation to discuss marketing transparency and how corporate messaging aligns with consumer expectations.

When we explore the digital store, it’s hard to miss the permanent badges stating that Quad Cortex compatibility is “Coming Soon” for the various Archetype plugins. The promotional text explicitly states that these software tools “are” part of the upcoming release environment. This choice of phrasing represents a concrete, active claim on the product page itself, which naturally operates as a major incentive for buyers during promotional sales events.

For the average user, a company speaks with a single collective voice. When an official development update highlighting completed features is rolled out right before a massive store sale, it builds a specific, unified narrative. A customer processes this combined information, sees the “Coming Soon” label confirming integration, and invests their money based on those signals. However, when raising questions about how these structural updates drive purchasing behavior, the corporate explanation often suggests that sales initiatives and development tracks are independent, isolated compartments.

From a consumer standpoint, we cannot look at a brand through isolated internal silos. We engage with the company as a whole entity. If a specific promise is utilized as a commercial anchor to increase sales during key periods, the responsibility for the expectations raised must be fully accepted. Using the ongoing promise of compatibility without establishing a clear accountability framework on timelines is causing widespread fatigue among dedicated users.

Nobody is asking for rushed, buggy software, nor are we downplaying the massive technical hurdles behind the coding process. The request here is simply for greater communication alignment. If a feature lacks a definitive, imminent release window, the “Coming Soon” badges on the store should probably be paused or adjusted to mirror the actual state of affairs. Alternatively, providing a transparent, reliable roadmap would go a long way.

As the community that actively supports this platform, our direct insights should carry weight, and we deserve clarity. I’d love to hear how the rest of you feel about this: did the storefront promises of upcoming compatibility play a role in your recent plugin purchases?

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Hello and welcome.

With all of the respect due to a new forum user… All of this is old hat.

Neural stopped giving out timelines a long time ago. They are extra tight-lipped now about dates, in my opinion as a response to intense scrutiny when features such as PCOM and Cortex Control took longer to implement than expected. Hard lessons for everyone.

The only thing we have as far as road map is concerned is the News page, which is about as aligned as Neural could possibly be in regard to communication.

We know that the next CorOS release, 4.1.0, will include PCOM for five plug-ins, making it the largest single PCOM update yet. We also know that certain plug-ins will not be ported to QC due to contract restrictions and/or lapsed licensing.

In the meantime, we’re currently in the development dry spell period. Nothing else to really do except play guitar and wait it out.

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I fully understand the point of view of those who defend the company by recalling the historical delays of Cortex Control or the early stages of PCOM, but protecting oneself from criticism by stopping the provision of precise deadlines does not justify using an ambiguous communication strategy based on announcements perpetually suspended in a vacuum.

If you deliberately decide to be tight-lipped and not release a timeline to avoid the users’ judgment, then you must have the rigor not to create artificial expectations, because continuing to repeat that updates are coming “soon” when months or years then go by does nothing but exacerbate frustration.

This systematic use of the concept of imminence shifts the problem from the actual technical difficulty of software development to a total lack of respect for the community, which finds itself subjected to a continuous hype strategy that only fuels resentment.

You cannot pass off the news page as transparent communication or a valid alternative to a roadmap, because describing current successes or making promises without a shred of a time horizon only serves to freeze the wait in an indefinite limbo, especially when, in the meantime, new paid products continue to be launched on the market.

The truth is that if you are unable to quantify the time needed to deliver features promised since the hardware launch, the only serious and professional choice would be absolute silence until the moment of the rollout, rather than continuing to mask delays behind empty words that undermine the trust of those who invested significant amounts of money based on faith in the project.

I mean… They’re already doing that.

Saying they are already being silent doesn’t match reality, because slapping a “soon” tag on every single Archetype and using it in newsletters is the exact opposite of silence—it’s retention marketing.

True professional silence means making absolutely no mention of a feature until the code is ready for rollout. What Neural is doing is a hybrid strategy that hides dates to avoid accountability, while continuing to dangle the carrot so people don’t get fed up and sell their Quad Cortex.

Obvously this is my opinion :slight_smile:

So which is it: Do you want them to remain completely silent, or do you want a roadmap with all of the info and the timeline? It doesn’t work both ways.

I’ll stay out of it from now on, as I don’t speak for Neural DSP. Just understand that the talking points in this discussion have been hashed out many, many times.

[I’m off to dial in some tones on my QC for the new baritone guitar I just got.]

Fair enough, man! We can agree to disagree, but I just want to point out that those were two different scenarios… either one or the other, that was the point.

Besides, just because a topic has been hashed out a thousand times doesn’t mean it loses its value or that it’s not legitimate to keep bringing it up, especially if it serves to highlight a real issue that the community still feels very strongly about. As users, we simply shouldn’t give up in the face of these convenient strategies.

Anyway, no hard feelings at all:

have an awesome time dialing in those tones on the QC with your new baritone, rock on!

Instead of focusing on communication alignment (lol) my advice is don’t buy something until you are happy with what it is when you buy it. No matter the product or messaging.

Don’t marry someone for who they claim they will be, that will lead to divorce. Marry someone because you love who they are now.

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The marriage metaphor is pure gold, seriously poetic! But if we’re going down that road, we’re not talking about a romantic crush where you just hope the other person will change over time. This is more like an arranged marriage where the bride promised in the prenuptial agreement that she’d bring plugin compatibility as her dowry!
The advice to buy hardware only for what it can do today is absolutely spot on, no doubt about it. But the catch is that PCOM isn’t some daydream of ours about “what the Quad Cortex wants to be when it grows up”—it’s a commercial promise printed in bold right on the box since day one, which is exactly what convinced many of us to drop nearly two grand on it instead of going with the competition.
So, if after all these years we’re still asking where that dowry is, and all we get is “soon” plastered everywhere, it’s not because we’re nagging spouses… we just want to see the contract honored without all the tap dancing!
:smiley:

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I wish you God’s speed in enforcing the contract.

Thanks, man! At this point, we definitely need all the help we can get, divine intervention included.:rofl:

Jokes aside, it’s not about being bitter, it’s just about holding companies accountable to their own marketing.

Imagine walking into a dealership back in 2021 and buying a futuristic €150,000 hypercar.

The salesman tells you: “This car has an insane engine, a sci-fi onboard computer, and it will make you fly. Oh, just one minor detail: for now, we are delivering it without the four wheels, the seats, or the headlights. But don’t worry, we are designing them and they will arrive ‘soon’ via courier.”

You buy it anyway, put it up on cinder blocks in your garage, meanwhile, someone tells you that you should just appreciate the car for what it currently is, and that you can always sit inside and listen to the radio anyway.:rofl:

Every six months, the car manufacturer sends a notification to your phone:
“Great news! We have completed the driver’s seat (coming ‘soon’)! In the meantime, if you want, you can buy these beautiful compatible branded floor mats (an expensive accessory that is completely useless if you can’t even drive the car).”

Then, in a few years, they finally ship you the last bolt, the wheels, and the headlights. You run to the garage, put everything together all excited, sit behind the wheel, turn on the headlights, and… you realize that the body design is now outdated, the onboard computer screen looks pixelated compared to newer models, and the engine, which was revolutionary in 2021, is being outclassed today by standard electric hatchbacks.

Basically, they sold you a full-price ticket for an amusement park ride that, by the time it finished its test runs and finally opened, had already become vintage.

Don’t you get the feeling that something exactly like this is happening right now?

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The QC is the best music gear purchase I’ve made in decades. I love using it. As is, even.

However, the recent announcements have frustrated me. There are definitely plugins I would not have bought if I had known they were not going to be ported. They made it sound from the beginning that most, if not all, would be. Whereas I’d thought we were all being extremely patient with NDSP’s process, it turns out I wish I’d been even more so and held off on some of the plugins. (If they continue to mirror the exclusive plugin devices with non-PCOM versions, I’ll happily stop buying any future plugins)

The hardware and software is great, it’s my fav of what’s available out there. Some of the company’s policies and decisions are becoming tiresome, however-

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That’s exactly the core of the issue.

You can absolutely love the hardware—and honestly, it’s arguably the best on the market for sound and interface—while still being incredibly frustrated by how the company handles its ecosystem.

Your point about the plugins is spot on.

It’s not just about waiting for a feature; it’s about financial decisions made based on their roadmap. Many users bought specific plugins as an ‘investment,’ believing they’d soon run native on the QC, as originally messaged. Discovering later that some might never be ported—or worse, that they might release exclusive, separate ‘device’ versions that force you into non-PCOM workarounds—feels like moving the goalposts mid-game.

It proves that criticizing their communication and business choices doesn’t mean you hate the device. It just means you want a premium company to treat its loyal customer base with the transparency they paid for.

Honestly, at this stage, it would be really interesting to hear the opinion of official consumer protection bodies (like AGCM / Antitrust). Selling an ecosystem based on long-term written commitments and then changing the rules on digital content delivery years later could arguably cross into a very blurry legal area regarding fair commercial practices.

What do you think? Has it already been done?

That’s it exactly funny… And although I do love the QC and bought 2 more plugins in the sale which is great I actually want to use them on my QC… And the sales jargon kinda gave the impression (to me anyway) that they are coming soon… We are the donkeys and they are dangling carrots… I’ve said to myself I won’t be buying again until it’s out and on the unit. Or buy then we all mite be looking elsewhere at different hardware

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