How can you manage with a Nano Cortex with only 4 presets that are accessible for foot operation during a live performance of one to two hours?
If you need more access to more than (4) presets, most are simply using the Nano with a cheap MIDI controller (e.g. M-Wave etc.) I think many are having success with the $40 controller on Amazon etc .
1 Like
How many sounds do you really need? Clean (reverb and delay maybe), a moderate gain, high gain, and high gain with delay? Works for me.
Additional FXs would need a separate FX pedal unless/until Neural adds CC midi control to the Nano’s FX blocks.
1 Like
I have the the Quad Cortex, but I want also a small and light pedal for certain events, without adding things…and yes, I need more than 4 presets…
Well, you want more than four presets but I don’t know if you need more; but the Nano doesn’t seem like it work work for what you want.
The M_wave Chocolate would give you 8 total, with 4 fixed (on the nano) and 4 presets extra per bank, which should be enough for a small solution.
1 Like
Depends on the gig.
One band I toured with I could easily have done the whole set with 3 presets (back then I was using one base tone -boosted Plexi basically- hitting a volume boost for solos, and rolling off guitar volume plus hitting a chorus at one point in the set). Also used a wah, but the Nano has it too.
My current band, no way. Very, very gig-dependant.
1 Like
That’s true, but if you have 4 main presents on the nano and 4 extra per bank per song, most gigs are doable and there is a trade off in going small. Believe me, I have tried always to build the smallest of pedalboards and I always went a little bigger after a while. For me the best solution is the luminite m1 + nano with the little xy buttons + 6 normal switches I have built. That are a total of 4 nano + 6 per bank + 4 on the xy and I can select songs with it. It’s an overkill, but great and you get a display 
2 Likes
Hey Virtzberg! I wrote a review on a gig I did using just the four presets… found it to be fine for my application. I actually think it’s a wonderful challenge for performers to limit themselves somewhat, because it really forces you to rely on your dynamics and your playing. My pedalboard has shrunk considerably as a result, and I feel like my playing is as strong as ever in kind! I’m spoiled though, because when I want to get stupid and complex… out comes the QC.
With all that being said, I hear you about needing more — some want the expanded functionality. Neural has officially recommended 5 options to consider:
- Nektar Pacer
- Morningstar MC6
- Behringer FCB1010
- Harley Benton MP-100
- Fortin Hydra
Of course they all range in price, but bear (bare?) in mind that the Nano Cortex will work with any controller that uses TRS MIDI Type-A/is capable of sending command prompts. Which, thankfully, is pretty well 99% of all MIDI controllers 
And heck, as people mentioned, there’s plenty of inexpensive options all over Amazon that I’m sure would scratch the itch.
If you settle on something or find a solution, share what works for you. Cheers!
2 Likes
Thanks you all! but I will stay with my Quad Cortex that give me every thing I need and more. The Nano has too much limitations according to my needs.
It’s always the same old story, almost every Multi FX device manufacturer is trapped in. The fewer knobs they install, the less thought they give to the usability of the device in live operation. In my opinion, devices with four or fewer buttons can only be used seriously on their own if they have a usable setlist/song/song part structure. Everything else is just the usual, widespread poor usability. But strangely enough, so many users seem to be able to cope with this and even defend bad usability, that the manufacturers don’t seem to need to think about it. The only way to combat this is with additional devices/controllers or complicated double-click, long-click and confusing bank changes. I doubt that this will change soon.
The sad thing is that even with the mini ToneX pedals, which can do 20 presets, you would be able to play a complete gig. You’d just have to teach them to switch through the presets in the right order. Since they are programmed via app or software anyway, this shouldn’t be a problem from a technical point of view. But no, the developer thinks that 2 presets that can be switched back and forth are enough. Maybe a third preset with a long press. It’s really crazy. You’d think that the programmers of all companies never use their devices live, but only have them on their desks at home to program and tweak sounds.
I completely agree with you!
I use a luminite Graviton1 midi controller which gives me access to all the presets and to all my HX One effects as well.
1 Like
If you use the MVAVE Chocolate in Advanced with Short Press/Long Press and using the 2 buttons on the Nano, you could get 12 different presets if the PC numbers are programmed correctly.
I have my Nano for a week now and I have the same problem with these 4 presets. I use various Tunings throughout a gig and with the quad Cortex this is not a problem, I have one preset for every tuning. With the nano I can build 4 presets for every tuning, but I need to exchange all 4 presets between the songs.
My solution for a future update would be to make the button with which you can cycle through banks of captures assignable and group the presets in banks of 5 presets.this way you could cycle through 5 banks containing 5 presets (ok this isn’t completely thought out, it should only be 4 presets that you could activate fast) and have a lot more presets available in a very short time. I, personally, don’t need to go through all these capture banks during a gig…
1 Like
I have a feature request for this. There should be an option to change the bank button switch to a preset mode instead of capture. Just disable the 5 lights for the captures in this mode as they aren’t needed (foot switch shows which preset is active of the 4) and have the bank button cycle through 5 banks of presets
1 Like
Toss it into the ‘Feature Request’ portion of the forum for the Nano Cortex! That’s what the good folks pay attention to 
2 Likes