“Master of the Universe,” a demo track demonstrating some of what the Quad Cortex mini can do.
Captured
For recording, there’s no need to route it through a separate audio interface: plug the unit into your computer with a USB-C cable and it functions as a 24-bit, 48 kHz interface. (On Macs it’s class-compliant and requires no driver; it also works with iOS devices. Neural provides the necessary driver for Windows.)
The Quad Cortex mini includes multiple inputs, so you can easily record both a dry electric-guitar track and a heavily effected one at the same time. If you decide to change the tone later, you can “re-amp” the dry signal by sending it back into the device and recording it with different settings. It can also record microphones via an XLR input and offers phantom power for condenser mics.
The Quad Cortex mini can also create captures of gear you own or encounter. That can be done in two ways: 1) on the device or 2) in the cloud.
The on-device method, called “Neural Capture Version 1,” requires you to connect your gear to both an output (so the unit can play test tones) and an input on the mini. (Note: Do not, under ANY circumstances, connect a tube amp’s speaker outputs directly to the mini. The power level is far too high.)
The unit plays a series of known tones through this loop, and the mini’s software analyzes the differences between the signal it sent and the signal it received. The machine-learning processing runs locally on the device. Neural says Capture 1 can handle overdrive pedals, amps, and cabinets.
The newer approach, Neural Capture Version 2, is “an advanced evolution of Neural Capture trained via Cortex Cloud,” the company says. “This option provides even higher-resolution Captures, making it especially powerful for touch-sensitive devices like fuzzes, compressors, and certain styles of amps.” Capture 2 is said to be capable of modeling “subtle behaviors like volume-knob cleanup, amp sag and bloom, fast transients, and blend controls.”
