There’s a major problem on the Quad Cortex Cloud right now, and it’s only getting worse as the platform matures:
Capture deletion by the original author completely breaks presets for everyone else.
Here’s what’s happening:
- Anyone can upload a capture to the cloud.
- Anyone else can build a preset referencing that capture.
- The original uploader retains full control and can nuke the capture at any time.
- When this happens, every preset referencing it is instantly broken. The capture is gone, the preset link dies, and anyone who didn’t already download both is simply out of luck.
Case in point: Mike Stringer.
He was one of the early high-profile QC adopters. His Granophyre capture, made from a real reference amp, was one of the best captures on the cloud. Then he switched to Axe-Fx III and deleted everything. Every preset, every capture, gone overnight. If you didn’t download it in time, too bad.
This isn’t a hypothetical edge case. It’s the natural outcome of the current system, and it has several knock-on effects:
- Preset creators (myself included) can’t rely on third-party captures for community sharing.
- Over time, more and more presets on the cloud will become dead links and ghost towns as users leave, delete, or simply lose interest.
- The whole cloud ecosystem loses trust and stability.
Solution: NDSP Needs to Own Captures Referenced in Presets
If NDSP wants the Quad Cortex Cloud to be a reliable resource, there’s only one real solution:
Whenever a preset is published and references a capture, NDSP should take ownership of a copy of that capture. That way, even if the original author deletes their own version, the capture used in public presets survives. The original uploader can still delete their own listing, but if a capture is referenced by any public preset, that copy persists.
Other possible (but inferior) solutions:
- Allowing users to “fork” or clone captures to their own cloud account.
- Warning users before deleting captures referenced by public presets (band-aid, not a fix).
- Archival mirror of captures used in presets, maintained by NDSP.
If nothing changes, this is only going to get worse. As someone who creates and shares presets, I do not trust third-party captures because I cannot guarantee they won’t be deleted. It’s a major barrier for anyone trying to build a community around shared tones.
NDSP: if you want a thriving cloud ecosystem, you need to treat captures as shared resources, not personal property, once they’re referenced by a public preset. Otherwise, this is all just a house of cards waiting to collapse.
Open to ideas from others, but this really needs action from NDSP.