***
Update - after few months and few firmware updates.
Very nice device - still. Still waiting for it to be functional.
In the meantime I learned how to do captures and captured two amps and some overdrive effects. Once you learn (not an easy, "try and miss" process) the level and EQ adjustments the results of the captures are really good.
Yet, as still no NDSP plugins available on QC, I am not playing it anymore. It stays in my home studio to "impress" (nobody's really impressed, as it is rather boring looking gray box). So I am using plugins and since few days the Headrush Prime. Huge, powerful and funny.
I wonder, if QC will ever be fully functional, working like in the initial description from Neural DSP. Maybe may kids will see ;-)
Footswitches I was complaining about are now creaking even louder after some use.
End of update.
***
***
Original review below.
***
I bought this unit after almost two years of “hunting”. Not a fan of prepaids, so was waiting till online availability. And then it happened, so I bought it instantly - happiness :-)
I bought it, as I am using NDSP plugins, and they sound fantastically. Nothing mimics my old Marshall like Nolly plugin. And I remembered, NDSP was promising the ability to have your plugins available in your Quad Cortex. Well, not yet, and there is no date set to it.
About the Quad Cortex self.
PROS
- processing power - it is really there, you may create any crazy signal chains and QC is processing it easily
- great touch display
- good design (both the physical device and the interface)
- footswitches act as potentiometers also (rotary encoders)
- tons of amps and effects to choose from
CONS
- not really built “as a tank”, my impression is QC is rather fragile (comparing it to some other devices I own (no names in the review) :))
- footswitches are very noise (they squeak like they will break any moment)
- because of processing power this unit goes hot, even on standby
- with all the amps and effects available - missing the ones from NDSP plugins, which is big disappointment
I know, I shall read the whole Internet before buying, and not rely on what I remembered from the initial statements of NDSP. The lack of amps and effects from plugins is quite a bad surprise to me.
Otherwise, great unit. Especially, when you want to use it as sound capturing device (did not try it, but youtube videos sound convincing).