I've had my nano cortex for about a week and have used it extensively at this point in quite a few different ways and I'm really impressed by it.

The user community has created tons of really good sounds to play around with. My primary instrument is bass and there is no shortage of excellent DIs and bass amp sounds on hand. Bass players are well represented and the sounds are wildly good. On my first day I found an Acme Motown, Avalon, some vintage Altec sounds, and just and amazing array of different tones and pedals to explore for free.

I learned from Brook, my SW SE, that I could load custom IRs into the pedal and I got my hands on some really good SVT cabinet tones and continued to be blown away.

I captured a couple high DIs I own and was blown away again and questioned my philosophy toward analog gear.

I had a bit of trouble updating the firmware, reset factory settings, plugged in pedal to power supply and iPad to power supply then the firmware update worked fine and the app saved everyone of my settings.

The firmware updates made this rig even better. Now I have a bunch of built in dirt pedals that sound really good, like surprisingly good, different delay types, reverbs, etc.

I do some music therapy work with a client who has a quad cortex. We set up the nano and quad as aggregate devices on his M2 MacBook Pro. Monitored through the quad - and it's like they imagined this happening. Some how the monitoring was still incredibly direct and immediate with no signs of latency whatsoever from the aggregate device combination.

At home I've used as an interface powered by iPad Pro (works perfect) and with my computer. The device settings allow the user to turn off direct monitoring. This was great because I had things setup with the nano as the interface, and my Apollo running DSP only. So I hooked the output of the nano to some DSP effects with zero latency and it works amazing.

One minor gripe about using the nano as an interface is that the DAW playback is not incredibly loud through headphones. I am going to hook it up to an inexpensive headphone amp for a bit of boost and be happy with that. This should be a non issue with powered monitor speakers. There can be a bit of 'ground whine', but there is literally a button that is a ground lift that works perfectly to eliminate all of that 100 percent.

Finally, the best sound I got was running the nano loaded with a Benson Capture in front of an old tube Champ.

This thing is really great.

I'll be honest, I've been in the Line6 ecosystem for a while and I didn't want to like it when I got it but Holy does it sound good. It has everything I need in a small package. I needed more footswitch control but I have a XSonic Airstep, which was easy enough to program to do everything I wanted it to. I love the Chorus in this thing. To me the old SCF+ was the standard. The Cortex algorithms are just as good. The amp gains behave the way I expect them to in regards to interaction with the volume knob. This wont replace everything but it does fulfill 90% of my live playing needs.

The on pedal controls beyond the amp knobs are a pain to deal with. You're pretty stuck with the slot structure. You can't have certain effects before the capture model. The app is the way to go to control this. The captures are pretty true to the source though its better to get a new capture when you have a different tone on the same amp vs trying to tweak the existing capture. There are some really good captures out there. Even though I've made my own, I'm still using some I originally downloaded the day I got it.

This thing is great, small but packed with features and capabilities. Also shoutout Jeremy my sales engineer for making this happen!

There are many reviews out there, so I wanted to focus on why the Nano Cortex has been a problem solver for me, and how it might be for others.
Years ago, due to a low back issue, I switched to using lightweight PA speakers instead of traditional guitar amps. In looking for ways to get good sounds for my electric guitars I've tried a couple of all-analog amps & cab sim pedals, a few digital amp & cab pedals, and a few all-in-one modelers. Most sounded quite good, & I just settled on what was easiest to use. The clutter-free aspect of an all-in-one always appealed to me, but I was never drawn to anything that required deep editing on my Mac. Having a unit with easy editing via Bluetooth on my iPad has been great; I do not miss having a screen on the pedal. (I have an excellent and reliable screen on my iPad)
But for me what is best about the Nano Cortex is that while it's easy to create presets and try out amp captures, 90% of the time I just want to plug in and be able to have 2-3 sounds I'm happy with. So whether you want more of a "set it & forget it" unit, or you enjoy hands on crafting of your sounds, it will oblige. And finally: the captures to my ear sound great. The other pedals I've used tend to sound pretty one-dimensional in comparison. I'm sure if I wanted to "tone chase" I could probably find something a notch better, but I do feel the sounds are in the top tier.

I have owned Line 6, Boss, Headrush, Ampero, and several other multi effects units. The Nano Cortex is without a doubt my favorite one in terms of the sound quality of the amps and effects. The Headrush is a bit easier to use because of its nice screen and UI. The Nano Cortex was easy to connect to my iPad and use the screen via Bluetooth to control settings. That experience is always consistent and fast to connect. I only wish that it had a small screen so I wouldn't have to use the iPad as often. Such a great device otherwise!

I got this to drop into an FX loop on my Helix Floor to expand upon that. The Nano's onboard FX and amps are WAY better than what the Helix is offering. I may have to upgrade to a proper Quad Cortex.

I'm probably not using this like many people who bought it. I don't use any of the NC's internal effects except some noise gate (I have a well populated pedal board that already has other effects pedals on it), but I do use the captures and the speaker IRs etc. I replaced a Strymon Iridium, Blackstar HT Dual and multiband EQ on my board with this one unit. The Strymon sounded great, and did a great job of sounding like the Deluxe I used when I was still gigging with an amp (I only go direct into the PA now) but I wanted access to more sounds and the Nano Cortex does a great job of that with just the factory captures. The sounds I'm using on the NC are deeper and fuller than what I was getting from the Iridium although I can pretty much duplicate what the Iridium did if I want. Nice to have 4 different sounds available from the 2 footswitches without changing banks etc. and they play well with the other effects on my board.

One caution... This beast is power hungry. Needs 600mA of clean power. Initial testing by itself sounded great, but then I moved it to my pedal board. When I plugged it into the 9v power on my board (which was already feeding several effects) there were high frequency artifacts coming through the PA. I switched it over to a separate 9v Gator wall wart power supply (the one that Sweetwater offers with the NC as a cheap bundle) and the noise went away. Don't know if the noise was from the NC or one of the other effects that had become starved for power, but anyway, problem solved. It sounds great now.

Amazing sound quality—feels just like a real amp with rich, authentic tones. Compact, powerful, and highly recommended!

Just received the Nano cortex I have to say it sounds amazing and very impressed with it.

this thing has pretty insane functionality, and sounds great. i used it to play a reunion show for my old band recently. i really like the way it sounds, and i love that you can use it as an audio interface.

what I don't love is the following:

- no XLR out. so, if you're running direct into the PA you need a DI box.

- the indicator lights are extremely dim and difficult to see even in a normally lit room. they are IMPOSSIBLE to see when playing outside in daylight.

- there is a noticeable delay when switching patches. it's not HUGE but you can hear it. sometimes it produces weird audio artifacts. this is definitely the most disappointing thing here, and really genuinely sucks.

It' a great product just wish the software was compatible with the Mac OS systems , love it elsewise, mobile compact versatility is unreal love everything about it Ty for everything once again all of you guy's , Sincerely yours , Tim.

I received this gear in a matter of minutes I was dialing up tones on the phone, easier UI vs the Tonex in my opinion. I love them both still the same! The transpose effect latency is seamless and worth the price of admission alone! Has all the effects I would use except tremolo. The size was a shock I thought it would be bigger but it will ride on your one tier pedal board like a PT Nano. Does that count as a pun? Anyway it's hard to find cutting edge gear that sucks anymore! I've played it through my Spark and Tonex FRFR's and through the studio monitors it sounds great! I'm sure there will be further updates in the future to fill any gaps. One thing it captures more accurately at 2/3's input impedance and match the output at the same level. Cheers!

Wow...After Neural sweetened the pot with firmware version 2 I couldn't resist purchasing this wee unit—and I haven't been disappointed. The amp sims / captures and effects are top-notch. Love the fact that it's USB powered, too. So many amazing features in a little box.

Great Quality with tons of diverse uses.

Excelente equipo

This pedal is amazing I still can't believe I finally have it!! Can't wait to use it live in church! Thanks to my sales engineer Eahab for helping me out get this product means alot! God bless you guys

I have always struggled with option paralysis with modelers and have had a few. The nano is amazingly intuitive and most importantly sounds great.

Best purchase I have made for a backup rig to it's bigger brother the Quad Cortex. Being able to create and or purchase captures and IR's and instantly share between the rigs is a HUGE plus! When traveling, the Nano Cortex is a dream sonically and for overall usability. Like it's older brother, there is virtually no learning curve. Great job NDSP! Another hit out of the ballpark!

So to start off, I bought this unit and the kemper profiler player at the same time.

I had a little extra spending money, and thought why not see what they both offer. So began my arduous testing, and let me tell you these units both blew me out of the water!

Capturing is so fun for me, it may be as easy as it gets on cortex, and the kemper player does not allow you to capture for yourself. This started as not a big deal, but became a deal breaker for me. If you see yourself curious to capture your own (or friends) gear the nano wins solely.

Whatever sound differences or improvements that the kemper has over the nano is moot, as the nano sounds and plays excitingly enough to make it worth my recommendation.

I had the head rush when it first debuted in its pedalboard format and loved that thing too. I'm usually not a hard critic of gear that passes the "good enough" test as truly its songwriting that got me here. It's a great price, and it sounds fricking amazing, this could also be the perfect way to "dip your toes" into the water of a quad cortex without dropping the big bucks!

I'm extremely happy with this purchase. It really woke my amp up and allowed me to create tones that were just not possible before. Icing on the cake is you can plug it into your computer and use it as a standalone DI for tracking guitars. This little device has inspired me to play more and get more creative with my playing. Highly recommend.

Right out of the box the sounds are harsh and digital. But if you invest time into it you can get super killer sounds. Mostly you need to shave off a LOT of the highs. Also many of the download profiles just don't sound that good. I had to record my own amps into it to get a realistic and non digital sound. But after working with it it does sound like an exact replacement for my amps. Pretty amazing.
I think my initial issues are common to all modeler/profilers though, not the fault of this unit.
I love the tiny size and it looks super killer in person. Very high quality feeling construction, including the metal knobs. Love this thing now, honestly a game changer for this die-hard amp only guy.

There is a bit of a learning curve if you have not worked with multi effects units. After a couple of days of YouTube and google, I have dialed in some awesome tones. The options and sounds seem to be endless. I would spend more time learning how to use it but, I have dialed in a clean tone and a high gain tone that sounds so good I can't stop playing long enough to look for any more.

Patrick, my fantastic Sweetwater rep, recommended and set me up with the Nano Cortex. I'm blown away. Can you imagine playing song one on a late '60s Fender Bassman, Song 2 through an SVT with an 810, and song 3 with an Orange AD 200? Yes, it's all that and more.

I only play in my church band because the thought of going on at 10 pm doesn't cut it for me anymore. Typically, we play four songs, and now I set four different rigs in the Nano Cortex, so my bass brings the right tone for all of them. Not only do I have the proper amp and cab, but I can add a touch of reverb or fuzz, whatever is appropriate.

My pedalboard now only consists of an Origin Effects Cali76 limiting amplifier (yes, the big box one) and the Nano Cortex.

My next task is now selling off a bunch of obsolete gear.

Having read the online reviews and now having had a chance to try out this little device, I must say that it punches well above its weight. My needs are pretty straightforward: wanted a pedal with amps, IRs, and a few effects for a new band with the goal of a silent stage. After reading about different options, it seemed that loads of people liked the Quad Cortex, but at $ new, it seemed too dear. So I opted for the Nano Cortex at about one-third the price (actually about one-fourth in getting an open-box special - thanks Sweetwater!) and was not disappointed. It works exactly as it should and is very simple to operate. My pedal board has a tuner, booster, distortion, chorus, and delay. Like to keep it simple. I play through Marshall valve amps and cabs. Again, straightforward. Enter Nano...first thing that blew me away was the quality of the sound. My first foray into IRs was with the Headrush MX5, which is a great pedal, but the quality of the sound left a bit to be desired. The IRs on the Nano though are on another level entirely. They really sound like the amps and cabs they are emulating. So much so that I'm selling my Marshalls! First rate stuff. And the chorus and delay effects are also superb. The interface is easy to use but the app, which ran just fine on my iPhone, is a game changer. Makes it so easy to move patches around, edit the sounds themselves, and make adjustments. The only downside is that, unlike its big brother, the Quad, the Nano does not have a screen. But I can recommend it without reservations. Excellent quality for a reasonable price. And it runs on a standard Boss AC power supply. The Sweetwater staff were, as always, champs. They're the best. Check it out!

I play bass primarily. Although the bass sounds are really good, I still prefer the origin effects direct rig I've put together. With that said, this has revolutionized practice for me. I learn songs for church, most times in a different key than the original recording. So I would learn them in the recorded version and then transpose to the church's key. Kind of a hassle when my time is limited. With the nano I can have a satisfying bass tone and transpose so I learn the song with the same fingering and positions that I'll use at church. The tracking is great and I can adjust the semitones very quickly with my phone.
The time and effort this saves me is worth the price. It does have a permanent place on a guitar board, where it can either be the main direct sound or bypassed and used with an amp with a few other pedals. I'll include a pic. To get 5 stars, I'd have to be selling all the origin pedals, but I'm not ready to do that.

The audio quality is superlative, and what it may lack from the interface it makes up for with an excellent cell phone application, it is a very small and comfortable device, I made several captures of distortions, amps and cabinets and there is no difference with the original, waiting for future updates and improvements, excellent purchase and at a very reasonable price

Captures are almost perfect, the dynamics while playing is close enough, the simplicity of the hardware is perfect for my needs.
Where it falls short is the software side- not having sub menus in the library has me thinking of returning it. Also there's no clear order once you done captures- beyond ridiculous. In three weeks I've done 160 captures of a dozen amps/speakers and mic combinations and they sit convoluted in the capture library- no rhyme or reason and that makes using it on sessions a chore. No sort order option, no category folder option, just random ordered captures- maybe I'm missing something, seems like such basic functionality would be obvious……

Being a long-time Quad Cortex (QC) user, I find the Nano Cortex (NC) to be the perfect complement and ideal solution to utilize the same Neural DSP technology (only limited) with a smaller footprint and as more convenient pedalboard solution - by comparison to the size of the QC. I have a well-designed pedalboard that meets my playing requirements and tonal aspirations and includes a variety of boost, overdrive, modulation, delay and reverb effects. For me, the Nano Cortex checks the right boxes concerning pedalboard integration and an "amp-in-a-box" (capture tech) direct solution!

I grew up playing on a Marshall 50 watt head through a Tom Schulz power soak Into a 412 cabinet …. no effects, just your volume pot. Just had one sound but it sounded SO good. So when I decided to try a modeler I looked for the best sound I could find. That led me to the nano cortex. Now I have 4 amps on stage And they all sound great. I run a Dunlap Echoplex before for gain staging and a Zoom Multistomp after For effects. That gives me full control with just three pedals. I've only had the nano cortex for a couple days, but I already have four patches… A clean Bogner, a high gain Marshall, a Hiwatt crunch and a Marshall lead with delay They get me like 12 different tones with the volume knob and the preamp. I'm very happy with my purchase and I would recommend it for people just looking for a few amps to be the centerpiece of their board. Next, I'll be purchasing a midi pedal so I have access to all 64 presets. Technology has come along way since that 74 Marshall.

Thank you sweetwater for my nano cortex and the kind holloween bag of candy.

I had high hopes for this pedal as something to bring on fly gigs instead of the Quad Cortex (which I LOVE, but it's too big for fly gigs). As a bassist, being limited to 4 easily-accessible patches wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, as a bassist, a compressor is mandatory, and the Nano Cortex just doesn't have one. This means I would have to pack both the Nano and a separate compressor pedal to get compression for a fly gig. Unless/until Neural DSP adds this functionality, this pedal will be relegated to my pack-rat pile of unused pedals.

Got mine today. Would not connect via bluetooth to my 6th Gen iPad. Called Sweetwater tech support and found out it only works with certain bluetooth versions. Never knew there are different bluetooth versions. Without this connectivity, accessing Cortex cloud is impossible.

Returned mine sadly

This info needs to be disclosed by Neural to save this from happening

This was my first attempt at capturing amps, and they came out great! The process is very easy. The results are very impressive! Really enjoying this nanocortex. I like it so much I may try out the full blown quad cortex.

This unit is one of the best sounding pieces of gear I have ever bought. The captures and toes are endless it makes me wanna buy a quad cortex now that I've seen the quality of the nano cortex.

Everything about it is amazing

I own and use a Quad Cortex for gigging and love it. I bought this for a backup and rehearsal unit. It was easy to set up, uses the same captures and sounds fantastic!! Not sorry!!!!!!

<span lang=”es”>El mejor modelado én un aparato pequeño y asequible ... el precio es perfecto ... podras usar solo un equipo con solo un noise reduction un chorus una reverb y un delay ...pero son de altisima calidad ...si crees que te faltan elementos en la cadena puedes combinarlo con otros pedales pero te advierto que el nivel de calidad del modelado de equipos y la manera en la que combinas ir con capturas de la cominidad es una absoluta delicia ... si necesitas mas tendras que ir por el quad cortex pero si logras sonar con esta cadena mas limitada no querras dejar de usarlo es pequeño muy pequeño y poderoso muyyyy poderoso</span>

Bought as soon as it came out and was exactly what I was after sounds amazing

MY band is gearing up to play shows and I've been looking for a quick and easy to use solution to not have to lug around a heavy amp and cab, and this is it. It captured my amps pretty much dead on to how they sound and 100% is my amp sound for those upcoming shows. Couldn't be happier!

This little thing is a beast. It's small and perfect for my pedal board. It's not dual amps BUT the depth of the amp sounds more than makes up for it. These are by far the best amp sounds, and I have literally tried them all; ACS1, ToneX, Kemper, Helix, Iridium.

There is a filets and depth to them that sounds like the real thing. There's no need to go out and buy IRs, although you can if you want, but the amount of control you get with the stock is awesome. 5 different mics per cab, 6 different positions, eq adjustments. Sure the FX slots are limited but the dimension chorus, analog delay and mind hall reverb in this thing are fantastic. Lush and authentic sounding. 100% recommend this piece of kit

Yes, the signal chain is locked, yes the signal chain is limited. After years of wanting more delay and more reverb and realizing 90% of that doesn't translate live, this unit gives what you need. It's not intended as an all-in-one, but in a pinch it can certainly do it. This unit takes signal from other devices excellent, so run a drive or two in front, run another delay or reverb after, use it in the loop of a Helix or other modeler to add captures and a few more effects. The possibilities are many and the captures are amazing!

I've tried them all. I had the ac1, iridium, helix, fractal, and Friedman ir-d this unit is the most accurate to an amp. My tone sounds so pure. I understand that this unit isn't for everyone. I tell you who it is for. Those that have a pedalboard and just need amps. You might argue that Tonex is a cheaper option. True, but the quality is unmatched. If you lean towards tonex let me ask you this, can you download your favorite guitar player's rig for free from the cloud? No! Only neural can! This isn't an all-in-one unit it is your amp in a box. Killer pedal!!!

I really wanted to love this unit and integrate it into my rig, but it did not deliver.

The good:
Sound wise, the captures are exceptional, the best I've heard. No complaints about that. This unit's ability to capture without external apps is outstanding. It's small and lightweight and can be powered via USB C. It can be used as an audio interface and works well as a standalone Bass pedal.The phone app is great, very robust. There is a good community of users that post to the web, and you can find a lot of good captures to add to the unit.

Overall for certain situations such as capturing amps, pedals and or complete rigs - using it as a dedicated replacement for a real amp and cab on a pedal board with outboard effects, and using it as an audio interface for recording purposes, this unit will fit the bill.

The bad:
Virtually no MIDI support. According to Neural, only PC (program changes) can be implemented to basically just change presets. There are no 5-pin MIDI ports, only one TRS port that you have to choose midi OR expression pedal. It's one or the other. I have a Behringer fcb 1010, and even though Neural says it's "supported", you cannot use the expression pedals, and there is no 'learn' function.
There are only 4 presets of captures. It's impossible to use a captured amp with a drive pedal UNLESS the pedal is external. There is no effects loop. Effects blocks cannot be switched out, they are permanently hard-wired.
For live applications you basically have 4 captures to use, unless you take your phone on stage and monkey around with it between songs.
There is just a Master effects 'amount' knob that increases or decreases ALL the effects that are on at the same time. MIDI would be awesome to change individual effects.
I did not have success in powering the unit with my pedal board power supply, I had to have a dedicated 9v plug.
No Models are available, only captures.


So, if you want to use it live as a standalone unit, the lack of MIDI to control parameters in real time make it difficult to recommend. The limit on 4 presets to select, and having to have your phone on stage to tweak your setup, just isn't practical.

I've only had it 2 days but I can't put this thing down. Perfect for my mobile loop setup . I own a quad cortex and have captured a couple of amps and plugins. The neural captures sound just like the quad cortex both the ones I created and existing ones I moved to the nano. I see all the hate for some reason I'm not sure. This thing does capturing which to me is worth the cost of admission.

This is what a compact modeler should be. Sounds are just like my Quad Cortex, it's much smaller 1/3rd the price and you still get the modeling. I powered this thing up, picked my first amp, the one that is named after Mesa California:), put a little reverb and WOW it really sounds like my old Dual Rectifier saturated and smooth at low volume. A couple tweaks from the app on my phone and within 10 min I had my first preset. It's Sick!

I love my tube amps and effects pedals. I've tried many all in one solutions, and always miss the experience of pedals/amps. This is the ticket for me! Phone app is flawless, and works perfect! UAFX could learn a thing or 2 about Bluetooth amp functionality from these guys. My favorite amp replacements have been UA audio and Friedman IR-X. This is a lot like my Friedman pedals, but I can store my Soldano, my IR-X, and my UAD amp pedals in one box! Slapping some neural in between Analog drives and Strymon effects is super easy with this little guy.