Where is the QC at right now?

Quad Cortex
1

I ditched the QC in November 2023 and replaced it with a FM3, as I felt it was processing way slower than NDSPoriginally promised.
Now that two years have passed I want to give it another fair shot - where is the QC at right now.
Gonna be honest, the FM3 is great and all, but I miss the more compact form factor of the QC coupled with the insane amount of processing power it had.

The list of available amps and effects has, apart from the plugin stuff, barley changed, has the quality of available effects gotten better?

The pitch shifter was bad back when I used it with lots of artifacting, glitching and latency, has that gotten better?

2

Honestly, Iā€™d probably stick with Fractal for now. Their service is much better, the modelling is better, their update consistency is better.

The Cortex is good, Iā€™m enjoying mine. However, Neural just canā€™t compete head to head. Iā€™m seeing issues on this forum from years ago that havenā€™t been sorted. Requests that havenā€™t been acknowledged or provided. The slowest updates Iā€™ve ever seen.

People keep saying, it doesnā€™t need to be updated, itā€™s fine. But Fractal stuff is all fine too, (better, even), and theyā€™re still updating. They just released a new update improving their pre amp modelling. Was it bad before? Not at all, it was great. But itā€™s still improved.

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Since youā€™ve left, there has been a couple large updates ā€” 3.1.0 launched at the end of November 2023, and now weā€™re at CorOS 3.2.1, along with an updated Cortex Control, not to mention an updated Cortex Cloud (2.7.1) released just weeks ago.

Weā€™ve now seen the importing of PCOM capable plugins (Nolly X is one I use extensively on the unit) with more on the way (up next are supposed to be Rabea, Tim Henson, Petrucci and more).

New devices have been added, with more on the way (navigate here to see what has been announced but as of yet not implemented): Quad Cortex device list - Neural DSP ). ENGL, Marshalls, Bogners, Fendersā€¦ plenty of amps and effects and other stuff coming.

Honestly @TexTro itā€™s just a matter of ā€œwhen,ā€ which is what some people in the community feel is an issue but any UX concern Iā€™ve had has been addressed (I have a Nano Cortex as well, and of the few issues I had with it, their next update covered those issues so Iā€™m a happy camper). Iā€˜m all in on Neural, and switched from Fractal because to me this was the better unit, so as always go with your gut second and your ears first. The transpose function is quite nice, and it is among the best out there if not the best for my tastes. Never experienced latency with it. Dropping anything 10 steps is going to create gnarly artifacts, but just for going a step or two down, I find it fantastic. IMO no amount of devices or amps outside of the multitude that we already have is going to now make the difference between making a platinum record at home or magically making you the best sounding cat at the gig. But the sheer options we have on this platform are, frankly, staggering. Which you of course know with the Fractal, itā€™s a killer unit after all ā€” the sub menus are insanely great for getting into the complexities of building your own tone (dialing the right amount of ā€œairā€ on a speaker IR?! I mean, cā€™mon, Fractal is wild in the best way!).

Those are my two cents. If youā€™re giving it another fair shot, then spend a few days with it and I recommend recording something to really see if itā€™s the thing for you now that youā€™re considering coming back. Borrow one from a friend, try one out at a store if they have a demo unit, get a used oneā€¦ plenty of options, and the resell value on them is all but guaranteed. Best part is, if you still arenā€™t convinced about the QC and want to stick with the Fractal, you still win because either option is a great piece of gear. Cheers

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The biggest difference from two years ago is that we now have PCOM for a handful of plug-insā€“you can look up what is currently compatibleā€“with more on the way. If you own licenses for Neural DSP plug-ins, now is a good time to revisit the QC and see what they can do for you. The plug-in amp models sound really good.

That said, the CorOS updates have been few and far between. There was a long stretch between November 2024 (3.1.0) and August 2025 (3.2.0). Part of that must have been due to a hardware-level change for an audio codec chip since the previous had gone out of production.

I canā€™t remember if any new pitch shifting effects other than Transpose have been added in the last two years, but the ones that were available when you had your first QC have remained the same. There are other discussions in the forum about Transpose and opinions are all over the map. Some users think itā€™s great, some users think it produces the worst artifacts theyā€™ve ever heard. So many different use cases for so many different people.

[I have stayed out of those discussions because I actually like the weird noisy artifacts. I spent a lot of time with the Boss PS-3 and PS-5 on my pedalboard; the artifacts they produce have character. The QC replicates them well and Iā€™m happy.]

5

@keith
So NDSP still is somewhat holding onto their ā€œSoonā„¢ā€ :smiley:
I would most definitley give it a few days, if not weeks to re-evaluate fairly.
Its a complex device

@DiffractionCircuit
I havenā€™t bought any NDSP plugins, only tried the demos, thats what initially sold me on the QC
Sadly also never benefitted of the plugins that were given away for free, as I bought my QC early to get during the promotion in late 2023 and sold my QC before the plugin for PCOM was given away.
The plugin that I would be most intrested in is the Graophyre, but I think thatā€™ll be one of the last ones to come to the QC

Iā€™ve had issues with the pitch shifter even at 1-2 semitones down in an otherwise empty preset.
Like it wasnā€™t possible to play a straight 8th note rhythm on the same note, with out artifacting, glitching and delayed output, mind you that ways back in early 2022 but it was present until I sold my QC.

6

For the pitch shifter, iā€™m not sure but i think it didnā€™t change that much.

The quality of available effects is still the same and can/should be better.

For what you need more processing than the FM3 ? I personally came from the low power old Kemper and i didnā€™t really felt the power of the QC much now maybe because iā€™m only using it for recordind right know, when will using it live probably for multi instrumentists, i probably will but in term of pure sounds and especially effects like reverb and delay i donā€™t see any power advantage.

If i were you, i would wait the next PCOM update AND the next update after it to see first how they manage the new effects, synth blocks etc and to see the direction they take with the next (big?) update focused QC only.

7

I dont need more processing power than the FM3 provides, but as I said in my initial post, I miss the amount of power the QC has for the size and especially weight.
Its 1.5 kg lighter than FM3, can use dual amp and/or dual cab setups, which the FM3 canā€™t, and also has almost triple the buttons.

Sure the FM3 has very customizable buttons, that allow near infinte switching options, but its still ā€œjustā€ three buttons, there is no way to get all 8 scenes easily accessable at the press(or hold) of a button without ā€œlockingā€ some scenes behind toggles, meaning they are never directly accessable.

With the QC - and the Helix Floor it had prior, it was easy to setup ā€œPreset per artistā€ and use all 8 scenes, the FM3 really needed me to make a mindset shift towards ā€œPreset per songā€.

I am defo not in a hurry, even though the blue QC Thomann has on offer right now is very temptin.
If space and money were no issue Iā€™d just get the QC alongside the FM3, but I really can only have one or the other in the long term.

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8

I have the QC and the Axe Fx MKII Turbo. I use the QC live and the Fractal in the studio.

Honestly Iā€™m planning to sell the Fractal.

Itā€™s true, Fractal keeps giving updates for free very often, but I can barely hear any difference between one version and the other of the FW. Sometimes they add something new like new ampā€¦ but who needs new amps when you have captures? Yes, there are many effects, but how many do you need for serious playing?

What I really find different and I miss in the QC is the flexibility of the routing. The grid in the Fractal is on another level, but here again, apart from some few use cases, I donā€™t use it.

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9

Iā€™m trying hard to fight the GAS and not purchase the helix stadium.

I keep coming back to the fact that I love the way the QC feels to play. Itā€™s that feel that I canā€™t put into words that I like better than the other major brand offerings.

The ease of use is nice too.

despite the incredibly slow updates and unmet promises, I think Iā€™m staying firmly in the QC camp. Iā€™ve tried to go away from the QC in the past but keep coming back

10

My biggest pro for the QC is that the good amp models (and now especially the plugin amps) are so easy to dial in.

Itā€™s like plugging into an amp. Adjust gain, maybe tone a bit and it sounds and feels great after 1 minute.

For Fractal and Helix I tweaked and tweaked 100 parameters, was totally overwhelmed with the options and still not happy with the sound.

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11

Its not about the amount of effects but rather their quality, where I feel Fractal has the upper edge, though that could be recency bias or my memory tricking me.

Captures I rarley used on the QC for amps, as I didnā€™t have easy access to amp heads for capturing and Iā€™d really rather capture MY sound and not someone elses

Exactly thats what pushed me away from NDSP, after digging through the dev updates etc. it seems they have not gotten better in that regard.

That was and is not the case for me.
Sure the parameters that can be tweaked are overwhelming, but I never felt the need to dive into any of those to get a good sound.

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12

Oh, definitely. The more time you spend with it, the better. The unit was great for me out of the box, and then when Nolly X was finally ported overā€¦ Iā€™ve been beyond thrilled for the tones I have access to! Time is on your side on this one :+1:

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13

Haha, glad Iā€™m not the only one. There wasnā€™t a vast difference between Ares and Quantum for my use cases when I had the AxeFX, and the update buggered a few patches. It took some weekend tweaking to get right, but it wasnā€™t worth it at the expense of ā€œsuperior modelling capabilitiesā€ that were otherwise unnoticeable for what I was doing. AxeEdit thoughā€¦ man, it really outdid everything and set a standard for routing and building out your signal chain!

14

About fx quality itā€™s true, Fractal is superior, but itā€™s something you really notice in the studio (thatā€™s why I have the Axe Fx there). Live, in a band mix, you will hear nothing.

You can find captures anywhere, and add them when you want without needing to wait for an update. When I want a new amp in Fractal I just canā€™t add it. In QC I can look for captures someone else did. And Fractal knows itā€™s a problem, thatā€™s why their next version will support NAM.

15

I had the Kemper and then the FM9 ā€¦ then I had an Engl Amp and a VP4 from Fractal ā€¦ to be honest for me the QC is the best .. I am more than happy with it. I sold all and using only the QC now.

The only thing I miss is that my Plugins are not (yet) added to the QC .. but it is planned to come soon ā€¦

Cheers,

Christian

16

Who knows. NDSP has given so many empty promises with the QC over the years. No one really has a in faith in them anymore. There has barely been any development for it over the years. I suspect once the Stadium is readily available - there will be TONS of QCā€™s on the used market. Itā€™s a major shame. But it is what it is at this point. And as usual - no response from anyone at NDSP for months and months. No other MI company is run this poorly.

18

Perhaps for your use case, this is true ā€” no judgment here. But my experience has differed completely, both as a QC and NC user. I can attest with my own first hand experience that any issues or questions I had were resolved in a timely manner, through both direct contact and through this forum.

To paint a broad picture of a company that has ā€œbarelyā€ done ā€œany development for it over the years,ā€ it borders on sensationalism. I work in commercial AV and a directly with a plethora of MI companies, from North America, to Europe, China, and Indonesiaā€¦ many of which have DSP hardware and software offerings. Poorly run companies donā€™t last, plain and simple. And even from a sales perspective, I doubt the QC would be in the top 10 product in Thomann, the largest music distributor in Europe (even holding the number one spot at times) if it were a product ā€œno one has faith in.ā€ The vocal customers who are unhappy can indeed dominate the spotlight, but the stage has always been set by the multitude of quiet customers who are very satisfied.

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19

it really comes down to your personal experiences with the QC, and your specific individual use case- what do you NEED the QC to do.

If you NEED expanded switching capabilities, youā€™ve probably been mad at NDSP for a LONG time, with no particular resolution in sight. Or, if youā€™ve had a unit thatā€™s experienced multiple failures, youā€™re probably not going to be a big fan of NDSP.

If it does what you need now, you (just like lots of A-list pros out there) can probably use it happily with no particular grudge against the company.

That said, I generally advise to people whoā€™ve owned a QC and sold it; if you didnā€™t like it before youā€™re not likely to like it now. It hasnā€™t (and probably wonā€™t) changed that much.

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20

I dont post very often but I do pay attention to what is going on and coming up with the QC. Like others I have had the Helix, Kemper and FM9. When I got my QC I was very happy with it and still am. I like that I dont spend the bulk of my playing time tweaking things. I can just have a good tone quick and play. I do have a couple of plugins and I do use those most often, in fact waiting for the black Friday sales to grab another one. I would like to see some communications as to what they have in the works just with out tying it to a date that does not seem to go well. As for a wish list would love to see the amp algorithm be brought up to the level of the plugins, maybe a faster boot time or lower latency with the IO. That being said, love my QC as it is, not selling it for any other product on the market that currently exists (have to add that last part since im a gear Wh*re)

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Iā€™m selling my QC tomorrow, nothing has changer and QC it doesnā€™t offers nothing better than Fractal, ToneX, and probably Helix Stadium at sound level, but in absolutely all other factors is the worst plataformā€¦

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