After quite a lot of hype in the NeuralDSP world we finally get to see what the product is…
And … meh.
Limited and expensive. I dont think this is the direction anyone wanted them to go in?
It basically works with amp captures only, no modeling. From a company built on amp modeling?
For ÂŁ499/$550 ? No boost pedal, no real midi, no desktop app, and the rest is pretty limited
Am I missing something?
Product page -
Andertons -
I think I would rather have the modeling bits of QC over the amp and pedal capturing parts.
Same!
Give me something I can run my plugins/presets on!
This just has… not a lot , for a lot…
You can get 3 tonex one’s for the same price
Just seems like a massive miss
One market will be gigging musicians who don’t want to take their amp(s) to every gig. They can capture their kit and just take this bit of kit on their board.
Having said that, this represents a tiny fraction of the market so I’m also a little surprised there’s no modelling.
Doing a good capture isnt super easy but yeah I can see that.
But if so why not the much cheaper ToneX one or something?
Most will just download from the cloud I suspect.
Yeah I watched the video yesterday and don’t think it’s the answer to any of my rig problems, in fact to be honest I’m not sure I entirely understand what it actually does do! If you bought one of these, what else would you need or what gear does it replace (if any)?
So the main feature is that you can capture the sound of your amp / cabs into a small portable box. I’d not seen the Tonex thing Rob mentioned, but on the surface that looks like a cheaper wsy to do this.
You can also download loads of captures other have created (many/most free). So you can get the sound of any amp someone has captured - with fixed settings. The fixed settings thing is important though. With amp modelling you can adjust things like gain on the amp, with profiling you can’t (although you can of course put a gain pedal before/after it). With captures you would have to capture the clean amp and the dirty amp as separate things and switch between them.
It has a couple of basic effects (chorus, reverb and a noise gate I think) built in, but I would expect most people would use it to gig putting it on their pedal board and leaving the amp/cab at home.
Thanks for this explanation, really helpful, not something I’ll be needing any time soon
I think this product should not be confused with a traditional multi-effects unit. It’s a super niche product IMO - I think it’s for the pro or semi-pro who already have a ton of gear he/she likes, and just wants to capture a specific tube head to avoid bringing it on the road. Reasons could be volume, weight or value (perhaps a vintage and very special head). AND this person will then have to like this units captured sound (it does appear to be of very, very high quality) over a small Tonex pedal… or the kemper profiler player.
The target audience is probably players where budget isn’t too big of a concern, ONLY tone…
I meant to ask, what are you using to do captures? On the QC as long as I have plenty of volume (I use an SM57) then it’s quick and easy - If you can DI then easier still.
Actually the Di thing is a point
I guess you can always capture your plug in if you like
Yep, this makes capturing an overdrive pedal a breeze. Captures obviously won’t work with modulation, reverb or other time based effects of course.
You can’t really tweak after so much but a small collection of sampled plug ins for a live gig would work.
Still seems like extra steps and a pedal that’s more expensive than most others doing the same
Reactivating the thread to seek some advice 
I am considering the Nano Cortex for be used exclusively as amp modeler. Basically, I don’t profile amps (I don’t have the chance to, I am a bedroom musician), but the NeuralDSP ecosystem has looooots of good profiles that I would love to use! Basically, I would like to use the Nano as amplifier for practice (e.g. on my couch with with earphones, when I travel), and at the desk with my pedals connected to it and plugged into speakers or garageband. Do you think it is worth the price for this use or there are better alternatives?
Seems like a lot of money for something that is going to be used for a function it was not particularly designed for 
Could something like this work for you?
It’s a lot cheaper 
But with that you don’t have access to the hub of IRs of NeuralDSP, no? Plus in the nano cortex you can also put up a very simple signal chain if you want to.
It is likely overkill when you don’t have access to other gear to profile. Also, you are likely to find 2-3 items you use and the rest won’t see use. I have a Helix and find this to be very true.
Be aware the a IRs are only reasonable for the linear items in your guitar chain, that means EQ blocks, speakers if you are not pushing too hard, and very, very clean amp settings. Once you are playing at a different level than the IR was built around, it is not accurate any more and the further away you get, the more inaccurate it gets. For amps, if you play crunchy to distorted, then the IR is just plain old silly. The modeling of the way the amp is distorted is not part of an IR - only the linear frequency response at the level the sample was taken is part of the IR. It can be thought of as an EQ to get you in the ballpark of another piece of gear at one signal level.
I bought my Helix so I could fiddle with anything I wanted to fiddle with. I do that, and it certainly is a lot cheaper than buying just 5-6 pedals and 2 amps. I recommend looking at modelers that have everything from pedals to amps to cabs so that you are getting the non-linear part of the response modeled. I like my Line 6 gear, but I also remember liking the sound of the Boss gear when I was researching. The amount of models to play with seems to be pretty much correlated with price. You will need to have a way to get the output of the modeler to speaker(s) so plan for that. You probably want to use something fairly flat in frequency so you can manage it using the modeler. I prefer a FRFR guitar amp over studio speakers because it seems to have the right punchiness to it.
Thank you for the extensive reply!!!
You might want to check out the newest Wunderkin from Valeton, the GP-50. It’s a fraction the cost of the Neural gear and it comes with an absolutely impressive list of specs and features. You won’t get access to the Neural ecosystem but you do get the entire Neural Amp Modeler library.
Thanks @Richard_N!!! I am using NAM Plugin in garageband, and it is absolutely amazing I found a cranked JTM45 and now my “Hey Joe” sounds like a dream I will check this out, absolutely!