Guitar Gear Forum

I'm looking at a Quad Cortex.

I just sold my last guitar rig. I live in an apartment and can't really use it anyway.

I'm thinking about using a Quad Cortex as a headphone rig and recording setup for guitar.

I'm also interested in using it as a fly rig for bass... but that's another subject.

I’m in the same situation. I have a great headphone practice rig. The Tascam gb10. Has built in effects. Sounds great for that. But sometimes you need to plug in quick and my Firefly 1 watter is actually still too loud . So I just this weekend picked up a Orange 1x8 and Hotone British invasive. Hopefully it all works. On the cheap.

I don't think you'll be disappointed with the QC. I've had mine since launch and it's lived up to its expectations for me.

My only experience with the IK technology was the ToneX pedal, which sounded really good. So I have no doubt the Cortex will be great.

But then again, the ToneX sounded so good that the ToneX and a few pedals would have been fine for me at a fraction of the price. So maybe that's an option for you?


Also, I inherited that Amplifire from my buddy's brother and it sounds really good as well.

The Hotone Ampero 2 seems to be very well liked as well. Even Bob Bradshaw and Dave Friedman were praising it recently.


So while I think the Cortex is a solid product, I also think there are ways to get great results for a lot less money.

Quad Cortex isn't IK Multimedia, it's Neural DSP.

Neural DSP is an offshoot of Darkglass (which as a bassist is one of the reasons I'm interested in the Quad Cortex instead of a Helix or Snax).

Technically, they're two separate companies located across the street from each other, but Darkglass R&D is located in the Neural DSP HQ and you're seeing the digital integration in the top of the line Darkglass stuff.

Honestly you could do all of this for a trillionth of the price with a Yamaha THR10 - the bass model in those sounds fucking awesome as well; it's what I use on all my clips

You get the advantage of having speakers built in too and it doubles as as a usb recording interface

I've even played live bass gigs using them in to a power amp

I think Jive Turkey is not a fan

Devin wrote:Honestly you could do all of this for a trillionth of the price with a Yamaha THR10 - the bass model in those sounds fucking awesome as well; it's what I use on all my clips

You get the advantage of having speakers built in too and it doubles as as a usb recording interface

I've even played live bass gigs using them in to a power amp

Honestly, I'm not looking for a practical solution.

The reality is that I sold a guitar rig, I have a pocket full of money, and now I'm bored.

That said, the feeling is starting to pass.

On one hand I'd like to try a higher end modeller, on the other I have zero use for it and would buy another amp before I gigged one (they're just not practical for gigging where I live).

There are many issues with the QC, such as a noisy power supply, the fact that Neural overpromised a ton of features at launch, and have yet to deliver on all of them three years after launch.

I’d love to see Korg, who own Darkglass, buy Neural, and make the Quad Cortex into the modeler/profiler it was supposed to be.

I do like the foot switches that act as knobs, the touchscreen, the UI looks pretty cool, and, if Neural bothers to update this feature, has the potential to have the best Mesa/Boogie amp sims in a modeler.

screamingdaisy wrote:

Devin wrote:Honestly you could do all of this for a trillionth of the price with a Yamaha THR10 - the bass model in those sounds fucking awesome as well; it's what I use on all my clips

You get the advantage of having speakers built in too and it doubles as as a usb recording interface

I've even played live bass gigs using them in to a power amp

Honestly, I'm not looking for a practical solution.

The reality is that I sold a guitar rig, I have a pocket full of money, and now I'm bored.

That said, the feeling is starting to pass.

On one hand I'd like to try a higher end modeller, on the other I have zero use for it and would buy another amp before I gigged one (they're just not practical for gigging where I live).

Maybe look into the BluGuitar Amp 1? I've been using mine a lot because it's so easy and it sounds really good. I have other amps here but the Amp1 has been my main gig/practice amp the last few months. The DI out is quite good too, I use mine with an extra EQ (Tech 21 Q-Strip) for the DI but even straight in it's decent for live sound. And it's all analog.

I can't stress this enough


Buy a good amp that you jive with

Buy a Two Notes Captor

Spend 30 minutes finding a couple good IRs that match your style

Never fuck with shitty "high end" modelers again

FM3 is much better and cheaper.

Dave wrote:I can't stress this enough


Buy a good amp that you jive with

Buy a Two Notes Captor

Spend 30 minutes finding a couple good IRs that match your style

Never fuck with shitty "high end" modelers again

I tend to agree with this. I use the Suhr Reactive Load IR now but the Captor X is great too.

Good call out

Any reactive load that can send a signal to your DAW for IR processing will work. Or if you’re Gucci then get the fancy Units with the built in IRs

Now I want a Suhr PT 15 IR....

I prefer to keep them separate but that’s one I’d make an exception for

spawnofthesith wrote:I think Jive Turkey is not a fan

OP; I think they are sort of getting their act together by now; 3-4/ wtfever years in to this thing? If you want something with "cool knobs" and "easy to use interface"; you really can't do any better. Despite all that; it's gross and I wouldn't give them any of my money. So there's that

I have 2 amps with built in loads and IR loading and I have to say; I thought I would like that a lot more than I actually do? Dave gets GREAT results with the Two Notes stuff he posts. Certainly. I have tried a ton of times with the BL and the VII using the cabclone and my monitors and I go back to my FM9 all day long for this task. If I am turning an amp on; I want to play through a cab and play loud. It's just how my brain works? Maybe because I immersed myself in modeler bs for so long before going back to amps that I like both equally in their own ways? Not sure if this helped or not but it's how I roll for better or worse.

Yeah I think IRs are mostly for the studio. Live I'd use cabs or analog Palmers. Most of the time
I'm using both.

But in the studio/home IRs are hard to beat.

GuitarBilly wrote:

Dave wrote:I can't stress this enough


Buy a good amp that you jive with

Buy a Two Notes Captor

Spend 30 minutes finding a couple good IRs that match your style

Never fuck with shitty "high end" modelers again

I tend to agree with this. I use the Suhr Reactive Load IR now but the Captor X is great too.

Yeah, I've been running a Captor X since January of 2022, almost exclusively, and its been awesome. I got mine used and the previous owner got some George Lynch VH cab, and I've used it 98% of the time.

MacaroniSalad wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:

Dave wrote:I can't stress this enough


Buy a good amp that you jive with

Buy a Two Notes Captor

Spend 30 minutes finding a couple good IRs that match your style

Never fuck with shitty "high end" modelers again

I tend to agree with this. I use the Suhr Reactive Load IR now but the Captor X is great too.

Yeah, I've been running a Captor X since January of 2022, almost exclusively, and its been awesome. I got mine used and the previous owner got some George Lynch VH cab, and I've used it 98% of the time.

I see Two-Notes has George Lynch VH cabs, VH1 and VH2. Which one is that you like. I'll have to pull these up to audition.

JiveTurkey wrote:I have 2 amps with built in loads and IR loading and I have to say; I thought I would like that a lot more than I actually do? Dave gets GREAT results with the Two Notes stuff he posts. Certainly. I have tried a ton of times with the BL and the VII using the cabclone and my monitors and I go back to my FM9 all day long for this task. If I am turning an amp on; I want to play through a cab and play loud. It's just how my brain works? Maybe because I immersed myself in modeler bs for so long before going back to amps that I like both equally in their own ways? Not sure if this helped or not but it's how I roll for better or worse.

Similar sentiments for me on the direct stuff. The VII built in cab clone is...fine, I guess. But I have no real reason to use it in the studio at home. But...if I needed to, I certainly would prefer it over any modeling solution. I do use it live, though, to go direct to the IEMs...which is kinda funny because I don't even use the IEMs lol. My drummer and other guitar player love it, so that's cool I guess. But yeah, I would always certain prefer to have a cab running.

That said, I would buy a Suhr reactive whatever if for whatever reason I needed something like that for another amp.

Anyway, if I needed some small rig, I would probably get the Victory Kraken pedal amp thingie. Seems cool, and I dug how the preamp pedal and amp both sounded. I don't know shit about bass, so I can't really say anything about that.

thisguy wrote:

MacaroniSalad wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:

Dave wrote:I can't stress this enough


Buy a good amp that you jive with

Buy a Two Notes Captor

Spend 30 minutes finding a couple good IRs that match your style

Never fuck with shitty "high end" modelers again

I tend to agree with this. I use the Suhr Reactive Load IR now but the Captor X is great too.

Yeah, I've been running a Captor X since January of 2022, almost exclusively, and its been awesome. I got mine used and the previous owner got some George Lynch VH cab, and I've used it 98% of the time.

I see Two-Notes has George Lynch VH cabs, VH1 and VH2. Which one is that you like. I'll have to pull these up to audition.

I use the VH1.

MacaroniSalad wrote:

thisguy wrote:

MacaroniSalad wrote:

GuitarBilly wrote:

Dave wrote:I can't stress this enough


Buy a good amp that you jive with

Buy a Two Notes Captor

Spend 30 minutes finding a couple good IRs that match your style

Never fuck with shitty "high end" modelers again

I tend to agree with this. I use the Suhr Reactive Load IR now but the Captor X is great too.

Yeah, I've been running a Captor X since January of 2022, almost exclusively, and its been awesome. I got mine used and the previous owner got some George Lynch VH cab, and I've used it 98% of the time.

I see Two-Notes has George Lynch VH cabs, VH1 and VH2. Which one is that you like. I'll have to pull these up to audition.

I use the VH1.

Thanks! I'll check it out.

I’ve also got a couple Big Hairy Guitars cabs in there, I think a Bogner V30 cab, a Marshall “Vintage” cab, and a 412 w/ EVM12Ls, they are all pretty good, but Greenbacks are more my thing.

I've been hoarding cabs, probably about 5k IRs. The Two Notes Friedman Pack are my favorites.