Starting, I’m not confident with the obligation to stay connected all the time with internet. Yesterday, I had to go to vpn because it could not connect with server. Imagine this in a live show that you don’t have time… Not to say that some places don’t have good internet connection.
Second point is the click when changing from clean to dirty… It can be heard.
So it looks like this device is for bedroom or studio. Can you tell me how this work for you, in live? Changing presets and problems with room acoustic, you can solve fast? Internet connection is not a issue for you?
And don’t forget to tell how much presets you use and the kind of music you play. I use 4 presets (clean with reverb, clean reverb delay, blues od and funk od) to play brazilian music (bossa, choro, samba) and jazz standards.
I have gigged with the NC and have had good experiences so far. I should mention that I have a six button midi controller and an expression pedal plugged into it (total of ten presets and the ability to dial in effect parameters in real time). I primarily play classic rock/bluesy rock music and the NC has done well for me. It’s extremely convenient and sounds great to my ears. I’m quite happy with it.
Although this was before the update, here was mine. Compressor and drive functionality have been added of course, so it’s that much better for my application. Check it out if interested. Overall, big thumbs up from me!
I definitely think any plan to use the mobile app for live use is a daunting affair.
an EQ post NC should be all you need to adjust for the room after your presets are dialed. If you’re using an FRFR cab, many have them onboard for this reason.
if the two foot switches can’t do it, grab a midi foot switch. If midi can’t do it, you’re quickly in a deep edit mode and I don’t think that’s something to ever approach mid set or even between sets.
I see. My specific problem is that I gig with an classical 7 strings guitar, a hollow body jazz guitar, semihollow, manouche guitar, and an del Vecchio (like tabajaras) that is like a dobro (I try to bring only one of these for a specific gig). At home the sounds are great but in gigs, there are some preparations to be done in the gig room, because the acoustic characterists of guitar are prone to feedback. Maybe NC is not for me. But if I could use the app without problems these room problems would be easier to solve.
Only two people shared their experience! I think that my assumption is correct that NC is not a device for gigging. Anyone more does want to share live experience?
Thats what I’m about to get to on my board. Up till now Ive been using the NC as an amp and cab emulator on an all analog board. But I just took ownership of a midi switch w. 6 buttons and I’m using an expression pedal for vol swells. My plan is to integrate the NC fully with midi but still have my analog stuff hardwired as back up in case something goes haywire. Once I’m confident the NC/Midi setup will hang in there I’ll eliminate the analog side of my board. This wouldn’t have been possible without NC OS 2.1
I have done multiple Gigs with the NC now. I play Bass in a Folkband and Guitar in Funk/Rock band. The experience was great and I had absolutely no problems with the Nano. I don’t use the app in a live situation, but the Luminite M1 with the 6 button footswitch or the Morningstar mc 3.
For Bass it‘s an easy setup, because I don’t need many effects, so I use the same capture and just toggle on and off the compression or light wet-fx. The nano has no gap at all in this situation.
When I use it for guitar I have built a bigger board with some analoge effects. The best thing for me is, that I can use it without any power from the venue. I‘ve built two usbc batteries inside my boards and it lasts for 10 - 15 hours of playtime on my battery.
Thankfully the gap has become very short now(2.1) and with the possibility to switch FX on and off I had no problems, even with more complicated presets and different captures. With the M1 or the Morningstar MC 3 on my small (bass or vacation board) I can access all of my presets and I’ve made some for small and big venues. I think it‘s a great device for live use and it was rock solid so far.
Easy to carry, no reliance on a power grid on the venue and I always got compliments on my tone. For guitar I use a Fender Fr-10 on Stage sometimes, but that’s it.
Hi - could you elaborate what exactly you mean by obligation to stay connected? Nano Cortex works without connected phone, you have access to four presets from Nano Cortex itself, there is 3 band EQ on the box and you have instant access to mix controls of modulations, delays and reverbs via amount knob, if that’s how your presets are built. That sounds like all you’d need to tweak on the fly during live gig. It’s not like best user experience compared to screens, but if you know the device and your presets, it’s possible to do quick, on the fly tweaks on the box without phone.
Well, playing at home we have an ambient sound, and on gig we have other, because the room, sound equipament, foh, everything is different from our bedroom practice. To sound check and make some adjustments, I need do use the app and just the eq in buttons does not make the job. Some places don’t have a reliable internet connection and the app is completely dependent. So I really need the app for sound check and to play. There are a lot of complains to this limitation in app and I have opened this topic to know why this is acceptable for the part of comunity that brought this device. I think it’s not acceptable for a devive with this hype and price have this limitation. For you is this plug and play? I’m playing guitar for more than 30 years and don’t know a gutarist that came from home with his/her rig and just use whithout some serious adjustments. Note: I use acoustic (classical piezo) and electric (archtops) instruments.
Hey, I was planning to get an M1 or M2 to control my Nano. But I’ve read somewhere that its USB host mode doesn’t work with the Nano. Do you use it with TRS midi or USB host?
Thank you, I have built them myself and I use the trs Mode.
I can try the usb mode, but what would be the advantage? If you want to use an expression pedal you can use it with the m1 and the trs cable.
I like to use the trs connection, so I can use the usb for recording or playing audio-tracks, which works great now, with the update and the volume control for the usb audio signal
I’m playing guitar for more than 30 years and don’t know a guitarist that came from home with his/her rig and just use without some serious adjustments.
If you’re playing guitar for more than 30 years, then you must be somewhat closer to my age, I’m 58, or just a bit younger. So, you know what we had to go through in the past. I’ve lived in NYC for 17 years and when I was there, we had to carry everything. If we wanted a PA, we had to carry that as well. Thank god today’s venues have nice PA’s, a stage, a drum set, amps etc.. So, you think we are just a bit spoiled with the new opportunities? Maybe? Just a tad? OK, when there is a revolution the limit of acceptable changes. And.. it changes immediately. So you might be right about what is acceptable but then again, having a working internet everywhere is what is acceptable as well I think. So whichever venue is not supplying that, that also is somewhat not acceptable.
I think NC is a wonderful piece of gear that lets me carry my amp in my palm which was a dream a few years ago. So, to help you resolve your issue. What could I tell you that is actually useful? You do not have many options. Your user interface has knobs and no screens. So, you could maybe use NC as just an amp and take a couple of efx with you that needs adjusting. Maybe like a mini delay or mini reverb? TC stuff is great and they cut thru the mix really well. If you do not want to carry extra stuff, then you have to think out of the box. You want less reverb tail? Take out some mids. If you’re playing at similar joints try to have separate presets for those joints. That idea saved me some time for familiar joints. If you’re a touring musician and almost never play in the same joint then maybe your band has a technician that can help or maybe you can use QC instead but that is not the point I think.
Another alternative would be Neural DSP to put out a new device with screen that is smaller than the QC and a bit bigger than NC. However, how to position that and have place in the market would be almost impossible. NC users already are asking for some of the QC features in NC. I’m included. Because, it does not make sense not to have a spring reverb and tremolo when you have circular delay etc. etc..
Finally, maybe you were trying to say that the app should work without an internet connection. That might be tricky but possible. You could download essentials to have with you to keep the small footprint of the app. You could only edit your presets if there is no internet connection. That might work well and maybe it solves your problem? Let’s hope Neural DSP implements this then. Good luck with your gigs. I hope they are jazz gigs or somewhat similar since I love jazz.
Yeah, the TRS option is perfectly viable. The only problem I have is that, with my setup, it’s not working (I don’t know why). I have a Boss MS-3 that I’m using only as a MIDI controller. I send the CC1 from the Boss (with the expression pedal connected to it and assigned to CC1 on the same channel as the Nano). Somehow, the Nano doesn’t respond to the CC1, but it does to the PC messages that change presets. Weird.
So I want to try a USB HOST device to free the TRS jack for my expression pedal. Or, just to connect it as you do with the luminite, which is equivalent to what I’m trying with the Boss without success.
Anyway, if you could try the host with the Nano, even if it’s just out of curiosity, It’d be very interesting!
Yeah, it didn‘t work. I‘ll write the luminite support, that it‘s not working, maybe I need it in the future. They answer quite fast, most of the time and they are already working on a feature, i requested, so maybe it will in the future. But If you want to try the M1/M2 be sure that the trs-connect is an option for you. If you connect an expression pedal to the M1/m2 and connect it to the NC via TRS it works fine.
You need to first assign expression pedal to control one or more of the available parameters for exp pedal on Nano, by setting the TRS input to exp. Once you have that, you need to switch TRS back to MIDI in the CloudCortex app and then Nano will respond to exp pedal connected to MIDI controller, which sends CC1 messages. Took me a while to figure it out
Yes, I knew that. Done it, but didn’t work. I’ve been a couple days out of home… first thing I need to test is that the Boss is sending the CC correctly. I even tried with CC0 just on case the midi numeration had offset… but didn’t work either. If I finally see the Boss sending the CC correctly, I’ll be absolutely clueless about the problem. Maybe the DIN5 to TRS cable is not tipe-A… but then, why do the PC messages work?
It was a hidden config thing in the Boss. Expression pedal CC1 was activated in “preset basis”, but the midi status for the expression pedal was set to “system basis”. The switches worked because they were set to “preset”. The expression wasn’t, so the boss was not sending any CC via expression pedal (I confirmed the switches were able to send PC and CC).
Once the expression pedal was set to “preset”, everything works ok.
