Fx lock / capture change

Nano Cortex Feature Requests
1

Feature Request: “Amp Capture Only” / “FX Lock” Mode for Near-Gapless Amp Switching

One feature I would really like to see on the Nano Cortex is a way to change only the amp/capture while keeping the rest of the signal chain loaded and running.

I understand that true gapless preset switching can be technically complex, especially if the entire signal chain has to be loaded simultaneously. So I would like to suggest a potentially simpler alternative.

The idea

The Nano Cortex could have an “Amp Capture Only” mode or an “FX Lock” mode allowing the user to switch between different amp captures without reloading the entire preset.

For example, imagine having three sounds:

Preset A – Clean

  • Compressor
  • Drive
  • Amp Capture: Fender-style clean
  • Delay
  • Reverb

Preset B – Crunch

  • Compressor
  • Drive
  • Amp Capture: Plexi-style crunch
  • Delay
  • Reverb

Preset C – Lead

  • Compressor
  • Drive
  • Amp Capture: high-gain amp
  • Delay
  • Reverb

If the FX chain is identical, there is no real reason for the Nano Cortex to completely reload all of these blocks when I only want to change the amplifier.

Instead, the device could keep the existing FX chain running and replace/switch only the Amp/Capture block.

Option 1 – “Amp Capture Only” switching

A dedicated mode could allow footswitches or MIDI commands to change only the active Amp/Capture.

For example:

  • Footswitch 1 → Capture A
  • Footswitch 2 → Capture B
  • Footswitch 3 → Capture C

The compressor, drives, modulation, delay and reverb would remain exactly as they are.

This would be particularly useful for live guitarists who want:

Clean → Crunch → Lead

without an audible interruption.

Option 2 – “FX Lock”

An even more flexible solution could be an FX Lock function.

Individual blocks could be locked:

:locked: Compressor
:locked: Overdrive
:locked: Delay
:locked: Reverb

while the Amp/Capture block remains unlocked.

When switching between presets, the Nano Cortex would retain the locked blocks and only load/change the unlocked blocks.

This could potentially provide much of the practical benefit of gapless switching without requiring the Nano Cortex to run two complete presets simultaneously.

Why this would be extremely useful live

As a guitarist, I often use the same pedal/effects chain with several different amplifier sounds during the same song.

For example:

Verse: clean amp capture
↓
Chorus: edge-of-breakup capture
↓
Solo: high-gain capture
↓
Outro: clean capture

The effects don’t necessarily need to change at all.

The important thing is to change the amp character instantly while maintaining the delay/reverb tails and the rest of the signal chain.

A solution like this could therefore be more useful in practice than simply implementing full preset-to-preset gapless switching.

MIDI would make this even more powerful

Ideally, this mode could also be controlled through MIDI.

For example:

CC xx → Select Amp Capture 1
CC xx → Select Amp Capture 2
CC xx → Select Amp Capture 3

or perhaps dedicated MIDI commands for increment/decrement:

CC xx → Next Capture
CC xx → Previous Capture

This would make the Nano Cortex much more powerful as a compact live rig controlled by an external MIDI foot controller.

An important detail: effect tails

Ideally, changing the Amp/Capture would not reset the downstream effects.

For example:

Amp A → Delay → Reverb

When switching to:

Amp B → Delay → Reverb

the delay and reverb should continue processing normally, preserving their tails rather than being restarted or abruptly cut.

This is particularly important for ambient, U2-style, post-rock and delay-heavy live sounds.

Why I think this could be an interesting alternative to full Gapless Preset Switching

I realize that true gapless preset switching may require significantly more DSP/RAM resources and potentially a substantial change to the preset architecture.

The proposed solution is different:

Keep the existing FX chain active → change only the Amp/Capture processing.

If the architecture allows individual blocks to be swapped independently, this might be considerably easier to implement while solving a very important live-performance problem.

Even if true zero-latency switching isn’t technically possible, reducing the interruption to the smallest possible amount would already be a major improvement.

In short

Could Neural DSP consider implementing one of these approaches?

A. Amp Capture Only Mode
→ Change only the Amp/Capture with a footswitch or MIDI command.

B. FX Lock Mode
→ Lock selected FX blocks between presets and reload only the blocks that actually need to change.

Either solution could provide a very practical form of near-gapless amp switching without requiring full dual-preset processing.

I think this would be an extremely valuable feature for live Nano Cortex users, especially guitarists who build their rig around several amp captures but use the same effects chain throughout a song.

Thanks for considering it!

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