Multi-touch Guitar and Bass Modeler with Capture Technology
The Quad Cortex floor processor from Neural DSP fuses high-precision studio guitar and bass tones with real-world gigging flexibility. This slim, self-contained floor unit is powered by 4 x SHARC+ and 2 x ARM cores, delivering immense processing power for detailed amp modeling, effects, and captures. Inside, 90+ amp models, 1,000+ impulse responses, and 100+ effects serve as building blocks for crafting your favorite rigs, along with a built-in performance looper. Download presets and Captures wirelessly from Cortex Cloud for instant access to artist and community tones, or use Neural Capture to re-create your own amps, cabs, and pedals with exceptional realism — no computer required. The Quad Cortex’s elegant layout is driven by a 7-inch full-color touchscreen and 11 rotary footswitches that twist and stomp to bridge hands-on amp tweaking and navigation with fuss-free foot control. Quad Cortex features fully configurable inputs and outputs, full MIDI and USB audio connectivity, and flexible routing that can be customized per preset for easy integration into any setup. Believe it or not, Quad Cortex packs enough horsepower to serve multiple amp chains and even multiple players at once. So, whether you’re touring or tracking, both you and a bandmate can leave your amps at home when you’ve got the Neural DSP Quad Cortex in tow. Factor in firmware updates and user backups over Wi-Fi (again, no laptop required), unlimited set lists, and three modes of operation to line up tones to go, and it’s hard to overstate how dramatic an impact the Neural DSP Quad Cortex floor processor can have on your performance life.
Related Videos: Quad Cortex Digital Amp Modeling and Multi-Effects Floorboard with Neural Capture Technology
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." — Arthur C. Clarke
Neural Capture digitizes your favorite amps, stomps, and cabs
Already have the world’s best amps waiting for you at home? Digitize them and take them on the road using Neural DSP’s powerful Neural Capture feature. This revolutionary technology lets you use the Quad Cortex to digitize your favorite amps, cabs, and pedals with stunning realism by using machine learning to replicate the nuanced interaction between gear and player, preserving characteristics like sag, saturation, and compression for instant recall. You can capture entire rigs or individual components as modular blocks to build custom signal chains. Moreover, the Quad Cortex supports Neural Capture V2, a Cortex Cloud-trained upgrade to Neural Capture that enhances resolution and dynamic accuracy for complex, touch-sensitive devices such as fuzzes and tube-style amps, exhibiting superior realism and modeling of controls. While V2 requires an internet connection and longer processing time, it offers unmatched precision for the most expressive gear, whereas V1 remains a fast, offline option.
XLR mic preamps with 48-volt phantom power
You’re not limited to just ’57s when capturing amps from your Neural DSP Quad Cortex. Mic preamps with XLR combo inputs and onboard 48-volt phantom power mean you can really experiment with mic choice and placement.
Preloaded with tons of great amps — with plenty more to come
Neural Capture isn’t the only way you can get your hands on fire-breathing modern stacks and high-class vintage combos using the Quad Cortex. From the squeakiest Cory Wong cleans to the grindiest Tosin Abasi gains, the Quad Cortex comes loaded for bear straight out of the gate. Here’s just a taste of what you get:
- Double RVB Normal
- Rols Jazz CH120
- UK C30 Top Boost
- Vishnu
- Hiw103
- British 2203
- PV-505 Lead
- EV III Blue
- California Rectifier Orange
- Bass Super Valve
- Bass Flip-Top Ch 66
- G400
- Darkglass Microtubes B3K
- Brit UBL Lead
- UK C15
- US Prince
- US Tweed Basslad
7-inch multi-touch screen
A bright, responsive, full-color 7-inch touchscreen makes the Neural DSP Quad Cortex a breeze to navigate and a ton of fun to explore. Accessing settings and blocks is similar to using your mobile device: swipe up to show presets, swipe down to reveal amp parameters, touch and drag blocks to remove and reorder them in the chain, etc. Paired with the hands-on rotary switches, the Quad Cortex ensures you never get lost when you’re cruising for tones.
11 dual-function rotary footswitches
In addition to its snappy touchscreen interface, the Quad Cortex gives you a half score of stainless steel 2-in-1 rotary footswitches. These dual-purpose footswitch encoders put an entire amp-face of controls at your fingers all at once. The encoders twist like real knobs in your hands, and the switches stomp every bit as quickly and reliably as traditional footswitches. This not only saves space on the Quad Cortex — it also safeguards you from accidentally stepping on any fragile knobs in the heat of a performance.
“When you have both knobs and footswitches, you need to have enough clearance between them, so you don’t stomp on the knobs and break them. With the Quad Cortex, you not only save room, you’re actually shielding the weakest part [knobs] with the strongest part [footswitches]. The footswitch itself isn’t any less reliable, but the knob becomes as reliable as the switch. So you end up with a knob that doesn’t break.” — Doug Castro, Neural DSP/Darkglass Electronics
Bulletproof aluminum construction
The Neural DSP Quad Cortex comes in a rugged tour-grade anodized aluminum chassis for lasting looks and protection you can count on. This aluminum housing features laser-engraved graphics that, unlike printed graphics and stickers, won’t fade with time or leave behind any sticky residue.
1.8mm glass display shield
Heavy foot? The touchscreen of your Quad Cortex is shielded by 1.8mm of high-strength protective glass. This means peace of mind when you’re stomping away onstage or rushing to pack up after a show.
Ultra-flexible I/O
The Quad Cortex is one piece of gear that won’t leave you high and dry at the gig. Not only do you get a head-scratching amount of inputs and outputs with long-lasting Neutrik connectors, but you can even customize routing on a patch-by-patch basis. Here’s what's included:
- Dual combo inputs: two XLR/TS combo inputs with built-in mic preamps, switchable 48 V phantom power, and independent gain controls.
- Dual effects loops: two stereo FX loops let you integrate external pedals or use the 4-cable method to connect your amp’s preamp and effects.
- 1/4-inch output jacks: two mono balanced (TRS) output jacks, optimized for sound quality and noise
- XLR output jacks: two mono balanced XLR output jacks
- Headphone output: ideal for quiet practicing
- MIDI in and out/thru: automate switching and control every parameter in the Quad Cortex over MIDI
- Dual expression inputs: expression pedals can be assigned to control wah, volume, and pitch shifts
Built-in Performance Looper
Loopers have become a mainstay of modern music. Quad Cortex features Looper X, a powerful built-in looping tool with up to 4 minutes and 44 seconds of record time. The Looper X block can be placed anywhere on The Grid for maximum flexibility, allowing you to capture and layer performances in real time. Looper X can be fully controlled using the footswitches or adjusted within its parameter menu, and a quantize option keeps your loops perfectly synchronized with the internal tempo or external MIDI clock.
SHARC+ and ARM Processing Power
When Neural DSP calls the Quad Cortex one of the most powerful floor modelers available, it’s because of its advanced 4× SHARC+ and 2× ARM cores working together to deliver massive processing power. This architecture easily handles complex signal chains with multiple amps, effects, and Captures while maintaining ultra-low latency. Want to run four amplifier chains at once? How about stereo reverbs and a plethora of other effects simultaneously? The Neural DSP Quad Cortex won’t even break a sweat.
Supports multiple amps — or guitarists — at once!
Quad tracking — recording the same part four times and stacking the tracks — has become a common practice for capturing high-gain music. The Quad Cortex lets you approximate this practice in the live environment by giving you four independent signal paths complete with amps, stomps, cabs, and effects. Whether you’re cascading a single part into different flavors of amp saturation or building the ultimate virtual wet-dry rig to end all wet-dry rigs, it’s now possible from a single floorboard. Combine this with the Quad Cortex’s assignable inputs, and you can even share your Neural DSP guitar and bass tones with a bandmate to conserve space on the road. Now that’s cool!
Audio and MIDI over USB
You can capture stereo rigs straight into a recording session using the Quad Cortex’s low-latency USB connection. No additional interface is required, and the USB playback headphone feed offers several options, including none, USB 1/2, USB 3/4, or both via the I/O settings screen, letting you choose how you listen when using the Quad Cortex as an audio interface. Cirrus Logic codecs secure your place in the front of a mix. You can also access MIDI control over USB for deeper dives.
Built-in Wi-Fi module
Onboard Wi-Fi allows the Quad Cortex to communicate with phones and cloud servers wirelessly. Here’s what that means for your browsing and backup life:
Access new sounds wirelessly
Hungry for fresh tones away from home? Through the Cortex Cloud app, you can browse, share, and download thousands of free presets and Neural Captures directly to your device, no cables or computer required. Whether you’re after a particular amp, stomp, or artist preset, you can beam it straight to your Quad Cortex in real time for instant playback.
Update firmware from the cloud
Another benefit to the Quad Cortex’s Wi-Fi module is over-the-air firmware updates. Now you don’t even need to connect to a computer to ensure your operating system and tone database stay up to date.
Back up tones on the go
Find a new patch you can’t live without? Back up your Quad Cortex instantly over Wi-Fi and ensure it makes it home. There are no cables to plug in or laptops to track down.
Setlists and Preset Management
Quad Cortex can store up to 12 user setlists, each containing 32 banks of 8 presets, for a total of 3,072 user preset slots, plus an additional factory set list loaded with ready-to-play sounds. This flexible structure makes it easy to organize your sounds by project, band, or genre and recall them instantly during live shows or studio sessions. With searchable tags and fast navigation, you can quickly find any tone — from sparkling cleans to crushing high-gain rigs — all neatly organized and ready to go.
Four modes of operation
Quad Cortex features four performance modes to suit any workflow or playing situation. You can switch between modes by tapping the Active Mode button on the touchscreen or by pressing the two bottom-right footswitches simultaneously.
- Stomp Mode: Transforms the Quad Cortex into an elegant analog-styled pedalboard. Here, you can activate or disable any block in a rig just by assigning it to a dedicated switch and tapping.
- Scene Mode: Instantly adjusts multiple parameters within a preset for gapless tone transitions. Each preset has eight scenes recallable from switches A–H.
- Preset Mode: Keeps your eight favorite rigs accessible via switches per bank. This mode is great for players who want their clean, lead, and rhythm tones neatly lined up for quick access.
- Hybrid Mode: Assign different modes to each row of footswitches, combining any of the three switching modes to suit your needs.
Dedicated tuner/tap switch
Need to tune up before a set or tighten up a rhythmic delay? A dedicated footswitch at the bottom-right corner of the Quad Cortex ensures you never lose your place. Just hold to tune or tap in time to tempo coordinate. The ultra-fine resolution tuner displays values in cents. Plus, you have the option to engage or disengage the tap tempo LED via the tap tempo screen.
Cortex Control Desktop Companion
Manage every feature and setting of your Quad Cortex effortlessly in a sleek and intuitive desktop interface. Cortex Control, available for free on macOS and Windows, streamlines your workflow for editing presets, organizing setlists, and syncing with your device in real time.
Neural DSP Quad Cortex Features:
- Multi-touch guitar and bass modeler with Neural Capture technology
- Bright 7-in. multi-touch color display
- Powered by 4 x SHARC+ and 2 x ARM cores for massive processing power
- Preloaded with 90+ amps, 100+ FX, and 1,000+ cabinet IRs
- Looper X with up to 4 minutes and 44 seconds of record time
- Neural Capture replicates real amps, cabs, and pedals with exceptional accuracy
- Plug-in Compatibility (PCOM) lets you run selected Neural DSP plug-ins directly on Quad Cortex
- Cortex Control desktop app for full device management and preset editing
- Rugged anodized aluminum chassis with 1.8mm strengthened glass display shield
- Ultra-flexible I/O with patch-by-patch configurable routing
- Audio and MIDI over USB with multiple playback and re-amping modes
- Built-in Wi-Fi for wireless preset sharing, firmware updates, and backups via Cortex Cloud
