“Master of the Universe,” my demo song, shows what the Quad Cortex Mini can do.
Occupied
When it comes to recording, you don’t have to worry about connecting this thing to your audio interface; Simply connect it to your computer with a USB-C cable, and it becomes a 24-bit, 48 KHz interface. (On Mac, it’s class-compliant and doesn’t require a driver; it also works with iOS devices. Neural creates the necessary drivers for Windows.)
The Quad Cortex Mini comes with multiple inputs, making it easy to record both dry electric guitar tracks and heavy effects tracks at the same time. If you change your mind about the sound later, you can always “re-amp” the dry signal by routing it back to the device and recording with different settings. You can even track mics through this thing, thanks to support for XLR inputs and (for condenser mics) phantom power.
The Quad Cortex Mini can also take its own photos of gear you own or have passed around. This can happen in two ways: 1) on the device or 2) in the cloud.
The device-based system, which the company calls “Neural Capture Version 1,” requires you to connect your gear to both an output (to play the system’s test tones) and an input on the Mini. (Note: Under no circumstances, do not connect the actual speaker output from a tube amp directly to the Mini. The power levels are too high.)
Various known sounds are then played through this loop, and the Mini’s software analyzes the difference between the sound it sent and the sound it received. Machine-learning algorithms for this run locally on the device. Neural says the Capture 1 system can handle overdrive pedals, amps, and cabs.
The company says the new system, called Neural Capture Version 2, is “an advanced evolution of Neural Capture trained through Cortex Cloud.” “This option provides even higher-resolution capture, making it especially powerful for touch-sensitive instruments like fuzz, compressors, and some styles of amp.” Capture 2 is said to be capable of modeling “subtle behaviors like volume-knob cleanup, amp sag and bloom, fast transients, and blend controls.”
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