I felt fooled by the Quad Cortex team.
I never had any previous experience with Neural products, but I was considering upgrading my setup. I always had a positive experience with Line 6 products, particularly with their technical support, and I was undecided between purchasing a Helix or a QC. The Helix is quite bulky, while the QC is far more compact, but what would truly make the difference for me was how the Smart Harmonizer/Minivoicer effect works on each unit.
I did my best research on both. Regarding the Helix, everything was as expected and consistent with what I already knew. However, I could not find sufficient information about the QC. For that reason, I decided to contact the support team by email:
“Hi. I’m thinking about buying a Quad Cortex, but I can’t find any information about the Minivoicer (harmonizer), not even in the manual. My questions are: Which scales are available? From what I’ve researched, it seems like only have major/minor natural scales are available. Are there options for diminished or harmonic minor scales? Also, is it easy to change the key of the scale while playing or switching presets? Thank you!”
I believed I had been very clear, and I received the following response:
“Thanks for getting in touch. You have access to the following scales: Chromatic - Major - Natural Minor - Harmonic Minor - Melodic Minor. You can also set the key you use, and fine tune using the tuning frequency. Note that you can already use the trial version on your computer in order to check how the minivoicer works. It is not possible to use trials directly on the QC. Feel free to reach us back if you have any question. Best regards, Neural DSP Support Team”
They also attached an image of the software showing these scales.
At that point, I thought: perfect, decision made — I will buy it.
However, upon receiving the product, I discovered that those options were not available in the Minivoicer, just major, minor, chrom. When I reviewed the email again, I realized that the screenshot they had attached was from the Archetype Tim Henson X plugin, not from Cortex Control.
This was extremely frustrating. I read and reread the email I had sent, and it was very clear that I was asking specifically about the QC, not the plugin. For this reason, I felt fooled to buy QC.
I sincerely hope that Neural considers implementing additional scale options on the QC minivoicer. It should not be a particularly complex feature to add, especially considering that even many low-cost multi-effects units already include such functionality.