I have the QC and a Tonex One. I sold my big Tonex and have moved away from IK Multimedia because you have to do everything through their software with logins, register this, register that etc.. I don’t want to have to connect to the internet to set up and play music. A stand alone capture unit sounds great to me… mine’s on order. Love your work John.
I won a to tonex one from a UA-camr, so I was excited to download the software and take captures and compare them with my Kemper... I wasted an entire afternoon trying to get the thing to work, but I never could get the thing to work. I'm cured.
This is exactly what I use it for. I captured my 50W EVH 5153 using the preamp out and pairing it with a stock marshal IR inside the nano. I’ve gigged it twice and no complaints. The band couldn’t tell the difference but my back certainly could! I only use four discrete sounds on stage all based on that one capture. So this box changed my world. We use an IEM system anyways, so no cab needed. Stereo out to FOH. I was set up and sound checked in 10 minutes.
@@rejuvenator8966maybe they could still make it in the relatively same price just by removing the capturing capability. So just amp modelling and plugin compatibility
They sound identical. The difference we are perceiving is Placebo. I tested it by closing my eyes when you went to ab tests just after the 5 minute mark... you played a phrase, came to a complete stop, and then played the same phrase, and I thought " yeah the second one is digital, it sounds just a touch thinner." ... but when I opened my eyes they were both the amp.
I have a Nano Cortex on order. Capturing each of my well-manicured signal chain options and simplifying my whole ampless rig is the top reason I decided it is for me. The only thing bothering me is if I'm going to do that, should I just opt for the Quad Cortex, capture all my "stuff" and make that my whole rig instead? But I'd have to be willing to divest of a lot of pedals to fund it.
Used the Nano Cortex yesterday first time in a rehearsal with our band and found it perfectly useable. Previously, I came from years of using a real amp - Mesa Boogie MK IV - which is a great amp with many tones, but it's already LOUD when the Master is at two and also quite fiddly with the knobs (slight adjustments make for big differences in tone). Therefore, I switched to Pedals plus a Fender Tonemaster Super-Amp about a year ago. It has a direct out with speaker sim which sounds decent. The overall sound and useability was much better compared to the Mesa. After a while, I realized that the amp served mainly as a monitor and a speaker sim, which is why I finally came to try the Nano Cortex (together with the Fender FR12). The tone over the PA is better, compared to the Tonemaster and also a bit more adjustable. Bear in mind that I still use most of my pedals (also for distortion and delay) although I could use the Nano Cortex for some of these. Using pedals, however, is much faster and more, umm feet on. I still need to see, how reliable and flexible this setup turns out in reality, but my first impression is that it quite hits a sweet spot between quality, simplicity, and flexibility.
I bought the Nano Cortex because my band has 2 members with Quad Cortex's and I thought it might be a good idea to be caught up a bit (I'm a singer and I didn't have an amp anymore. Just got a cheap 4x12 and power amp to go with the Nano Cortex, but I'll mainly be using it into a PA really). When I got it, I was pleasantly surprised by the base sounds, but I was annoyed and underwhelmed by the effects. I hated the app at first. It tried very hard not to connect the first couple of times, and I didn't know what I was doing. I even decided at one point to just return it and put in a request with Thomann for that. After thinking on it though, I decided instead I would buy a cheap overdrive pedal to put in front of it and keep it. It does sound way better than my previous stuff (Bias FX 2) through the cab, and it is pretty convenient. There are some other options I might enjoy more, but there are already several captures I've found that work out great for getting close to my previous tones or ones I've been chasing. I think the biggest hurdle has just been figuring it out, and my biggest gripe now is the fact you can only cycle between 4 presets on the fly without pulling out your phone or kneeling down to twist knobs. That last one is a big deal to me, but it's possible I can remedy this with a footswitch of some sort that might be able to cycle in order (or maybe that's already a feature if I look hard enough). I also just tested it out as an audio interface, and it actually works great for that. No mic monitoring that I can find, but I was able to use Ableton for that at a really low buffer rate for several hours with no issues, which was impossible on Focusrite or my Zoom mixer. Kinda confusing that the "Level" knob doesn't control volume over the headphone out though (I get why, but in this mode it's an issue. Also sucks that there's no power button? Weird omissions all around with this thing). I've still got a little while to find a different solution for myself, but for now it's pretty cool. If you know what amps you want sounds for, you'll probably find at least one capture of said amp. The problem is some are more accurate than others, and knowing which channel you want from each amp might be hard.
You can tell the difference because you're in the room. Once it's recorded there's no discernable difference. Its simple to create captures on the nano. I have created at least 10 of my own and they sound great.
I have used the capture feature on several preamps that I own and it captured them perfectly to my ears. I connect a midi controller so I have access to 15 presets a bank at my feet. I think it sounds great and does everything I need it to do. I already have drive, wah and other pedals I can use with it if I want and I also have an Eventide H9 and Two Notes Cab M and Opus. But seriously, if I didnt have any other pedals to add , I would still be just as happy with what this thing can do.
same, everyone keeps comparing it to something else and saying what its not rather than just looking at it for what it is. That, to me, is 4 amps in the middle to end of my pedalboard as a clone of any amp pretty well ever. I would be happy for the tone in the video to be my number three tone...more than happy
I have one coming in soon, reason that I bought it is due to it’s simplicity, hope it’s not to simple though.. Im a bedroom guitarist with limited of time and no interest in tweaking, to some extent of course.. however I find all good modellers a little too complex and often get stuck in other things than playing. I don’t have amps that I can capture from, however I can draw use of everyone that have and load them to my device!
Trust me, there’s more to come with this soon………..Kidding, I love this thing. I travel half the month and it is easy to load my favorite amps and settings to take on the road. For me it works, but I can’t help but think that this is just the beginning with this pedal.
I think JNC is right here...this is not meant for QC owners or plug-in users. The Cortex Cloud has thousands of amp models that you can download - you don't necessarily need to capture one of your own amps, so it doesn't even matter if you own any amps. The capture technology is a bonus for someone that has one or more amps, and as noted Connor Kaminski showed how you can capture a plug-in pretty easily. The audience for this product is someone who doesn't own a QC, wants into the hardware modeling world at a relatively low price point, and/or wants a small rig that they can gig with for models they already have or ones they can download from Cortex Cloud. This competes with the Tonex pedals, primarily. I think the two misses they made here are not having it compatible with Cortex Control (why do we need a phone app when you just released Cortex Control FINALLY) and they need a sgnal chain slot for drive/distortion pedal models. These aren't fatal exclusions in my mind, but would make the product better/more useful.
@@DanielBobke biggest miss for me is no global setting for the IRs on or off. I sometimes play with cab sometimes straight to pa. I have to change the cab to no in every preset and save it
@@DanielBobke I really hope so otherwise this thing slaps hard ! I gigged the tonex now for a year but it’s too limited with only reverb. Nano is perfect fit for me and to be honest, it sounds and feels better like an amp. I have no treble bleed on my start, the tonex still has the same treble over the whole volume knob. The nano actually gets warmer and looses treble when I turn the volume down like a real tube amp does. Sounds better with a power amp straight into the cab too !
Those sounds are close enough for the audience not to tell the difference. Nano cortex is not the solution to every problem. But for the price. Amazing.
In a quiet room by ourselves and concentrating really hard, we might be able to detect subtle differences but it’s so close as to be unworthy of discussion and certainly nobody but you would ever notice.
I think the Captures were extremely close. For someone who has vintage, rare, expensive, irreplaceable, heavy, bulky, etc. Amps, such Capture Devices like the Nano Cortex can be an effective and efficient solution rather than risking damage or loss of their precious Amps.
But why would someone who owns all that go w/ this instead of Kemper? Someone out there owns thousands of dollars in amps, but then they can't afford a capture device that already exists and is considered fantastic? That's the part that doesn't make sense.
@@RogerThat902 Kemper's can be rather large, have lots of knobs, and some people who own them have mentioned having lots of cables connected to them. So, easy portability of a small device could be advantageous for them.
I was hoping it would be a great way to bring my QC to a gig in a smaller form factor. I have been using the QC for my acoustic a lot. The Nano is not ideal for using, blending, or mixing IRs for the acoustic. BUT, the Nano is so compact and easy to dial in a good sound for electric and bass that I'm keeping it. I probably should have just bought a nice case , power supply, and pedal board for the QC.
I'm going to get one because it'll pretty much replace my little headphones practice pedalboard that consists of a Digitech Drop into a Boss IR-2 with a Boss DC-2w, Boss RE-2, and MXR Reverb in the loop. It's almost a direct replacement of all of those pedals in a single unit.
You may have given me a reason to purchase the Nano. If I can do a few captures of my amp an effects chain, then perhaps I can get away with just carrying one pedal to some gigs.😮😊
You're wrong. There's another thing the Nano cortex has going for it: you can power it with USB. Steve sterlacci was talking about this. ... I first encountered this feature on the tonex one. I'm someone who always has a guitar with me, and I work remotely add coffee shops and Mall food courts a lot. I will never be without a unit that fits in my bag, gets power from USB, and has amp sounds as good as any flagship. I hope this becomes the new Normal for these little units.
It's interesting you find modelers are more accurate. To my ears I could never get my hx stomp to sound good or like a real amp and I went back to analpgue. The tonex came and then wow I was blown away by the sound. So I just combined the two
Ampero Stage 2 is going to have capturing in the next fw update as well.. and I bet line6/yamaha is going to release their take on this soonish. If only the captures were more flexible/adjustable after the fact. Otherwise I prefer the modeling route.
I think the market for a device than can capture is much smaller than the market for a device that can play captures. If you aren't capturing your own stuff, which most of us aren't, then it's completely irrelevant to most. I've owned a Kemper a few times and got on well with that, important factor being that there are so many pro captures available for reasonable money. I own the Tonex One and hate it, and I think a big part of that is because it's basically an amp without the FX, which limits how it sounds, but the bigger part is that there are so few pro captures vs Kemper, and so many user captures sound horrific.I'd prefer the Kemper player over Nano, whether it is as accurate or not, I think it generally sounds better, and certainly has way more FX options. Ultimately though, the FM3 or any other modeller, lets you tweak your tone much better and has so much more FX than the Nano. Tonex has been the biggest disappointment for me, even with Amalgam profiles.
Agreed - the experience of actually trawling through captures that you haven't made yourself can be kind of not that fun in my opinion too - hence I'd prefer modeling almost every time I think?
The thing is 99% of neural dsp’s userbase use plugins exclusively and have no interest in capturing amps because they don’t have any. They want plugins in a pedal!
@@TheDancingSaxophone they said the majority of their sales are from plugins & music retailers all say gen z don’t buy amps & sales are way down plus everyone is mad at neural lol
@@xlilxillx of course the majority of their sales are from plugins. The Quad Cortex is a halo product. A lot of the people crying about limited plugin integration on the QC or lack of it on the Nano don’t even own a QC anyway. That said, by the same logic I’m sure the percentage of customers that exclusively use plugins has got to be quite high but pulling numbers out of thin air isn’t really the move.
I’d love the model only version of this, with maybe an overdrive in front of- SLO or ToneKing or Mesa. I don’t have the gear to capture and my head explodes when I try to pick some in the tone net
I messed around with mine for about an hour. Got an unboxing and 1st impressions vid coming. I’m impressed. For what I knew it could do and how I plan on using it, I feel like I’ve gotten my moneys worth. Neural can only make it better from here out.
I have watched a few of these videos on this thing, sounds great, honestly not sure how to make it work with a speaker (guessing power amp) but I think the main thing I would want it for is just great sounding silent playing at home using the headphone out, capture my amp and play at home late at night when volume is in issue. Most new higher end overdrive pedal aren’t that far off the price of this these days so I actually think it’s priced well too
Not for me but if you want to capture then looks like the way to go, good to know I still wonder how many people want that but have to assume they did some market research as presumably would have been a lot easier (and cheaper) to make the device without capture.
As someone that does not gig--I play as a hobby--the nano is intriguing, but ultimately seems redundant. If I want to play an amp or a particular signal chain, I'll just play it. If I were gigging and wanted to bring that sound with me but not the amps, etc., it would make sense to potentially use the nano cortex. In that sense, then, it seems like it's geared toward professionals rather than beginners. However, if that's the case, then pros are just going to get the full-fledged cortex. I guess when the market is so flooded with products, you have to try to fit your product in somewhere. What a great time to be a guitarist though!!!
Sincerely no offense intended (because I was thinking exactly the same thing at first), but as soon as I started wrapping my mind around the full extent of the possibilities with this device (now and into the future), I absolutely can't wait to get my hands on one. It's basically like a handy to-go box for all the cool amps, cabs, and tones I could ever want to play - with everything right there with a few pedal pushes or app clicks
I had the nano cortex for one day and sent it back. It sounded almost identical to a tonex pedal. Nothing felt revolutionary about this pedal or its sound. Just sounded like an expensive tonex. I a/b the sounds of the helix and it and the helix kicked that nano cortex’s ass.
When you played the intro I closed my eyes. Every time I could hear the sound change I opened them and that lined up perfectly with what was actually being used. It did sound close, but especially the high frequencies sounded more open to me with the actual amp... BTW I was listening with cheap earbuds. So I guess there should be more obvious differences when listening with good loudspeakers and without UA-cam compression.
Who owns enough amps to make capturing worthwhile? Most of us use captures from the cloud. BUT.... the one thing I've loved about the nano is capturing my Quad cortex. I can capture my Chase Bliss Preamp II, QC amp or capture, IR, eq and the Strymon Deco saturation all onto one capture and put it on the Nano. This makes the NC a valid way to take the core of my QC tones on a pocket sized unit as a backup rig. As a backup rig, I'm grateful for the single chorus, delay and reverb. I'm not going to complain if it saves my gig. The only two things I wish it had are a compressor and a way to access banks of 4 footswitch presets so I can use it for a variety of songs.
If you put a clean and a clean dly on the first footswitch, and driven and driven delay on the second footswitch, and want to go from clean to clean dly to driven and back to clean, how does that work? Does the first footswitch remember where you left it so it goes back to clean dly, or does it switch back to clean? In any case, some combinations of switching will need two presses on the same footswitch - is it fast enough that you don't find this an issue? I havent seen anyone mention this.
I will add this. I now see why the helix is standing the test of time and still sells. By now I’ve tried a flavor of every major modeler except fractal. I will say that helix sounded the best. In the room none of these capture products sound like the real deal. In a recording probably, but don’t get sold on the idea you’re getting clones that sound identical to your amps or someone else. It’s all just marketing scams. Honestly I’ve waited years to try a neural dsp product and finally they released a product that’s in my budget and I will say, I was very disappointed
Once you've got the software you can do the same things without the expression pedal witch is sold separately, at that point, do you really need it to play live or you'd rather go big?! I don't know. Namastè.
The vast majority of people buying this or any of the other capture solutions are probably never going to capture anything… they either don’t have the amps they want or don’t have the skills or gear to get a good capture. People mainly buy these to run other peoples captures surely? Tonex have it right I think…
I have the large tonex and I’m still getting the nano, the being able to control it with an app sold me on it, I don’t care about profiling or captures, I’ll leave that to someone else
Because I thought it would be able to do enough to replace multiple pedals and it turned out to be too limited. If all I’m really doing with it is using it to replace my IRX with captures I’m not gaining anything and spending a lot of money to do it. But sure, be condescending; I’m sure your mom will be very proud when you print out your comment and stick it on the refrigerator
Was considering an IRX, bought the Nano instead. It arrives this weekend, but I am already questioning if I made the right purchase. Thank goodness for return policies….
The nano is for a very tiny minority that have modelers and rigs but want to capture pictures of their settings for live use. Everyone else is paying money for a toy that will quickly or slowly stop being used. If you write music and tweak your sound then a capture sounds cool, but forces you to use one setting with very limited changeability. It's not that the nano is bad, it's that almost everyone wanted it to be something it's not. Captures are for generic music in that you are not seeking that better sound. Captures are for Cover bands or people who play nothing but other peoples music at home... that's fine... but if you write, like actually write, captures are one of the worst options.
Cortex cloud has an increasing number of amps you can use. You act like this thing is useless if you don't already own other gear. You may want to do more research before you post.
Lets capture a ton of sound's you cant actually tweak then find out that none of them fit in your mix.....what then? I'll tell you what then, you go back to your Neural Plugin and tweak it on the fly like i did today to fit my mix! At best, this is a practice tool that takes up no room.
No disagreement, but I assume that the audience for this is rather small. I know dozens of people with Kemper and Tonex devices, exactly one of them has ever done a capture once and found that without a) the proper know-how and b) the proper outboard gear and microphones, the results are not better than most models in a Helix or Fractal units with some tweaking and proper IRs, eventually worse. I went through hundreds of "free" captures on Kemper, QC, Tonex, and QC related sharing platforms - it is a colossal waste of time, the vast majority of captures are awful - I can get better tones from the HX Stomp in under a minute. Yes, a good DI capture from Amalgam for the Tonex, or from Michael Britt for the Kemper does cost around 20 bucks, but they outshine the amateur stuff by lightyears and truly show what these devices are capable of. I have no doubt that the nano is better hardware than the Tonex pedal or the Kemper Player, and I do love these light rings around the knobs that indicate the actual settings, but the Tonex is cheaper and sounds better, and the Kemper has far far far better effects included and allows for far more tweaking. Personally, I would never use a device that is a literal brick without a cloud service - as long as I can't do a local backup/restore and load presets and IRs without the internet, they can stick it...
I don't get the popularity of capturing. Sure you can take a snapshot of a sound you like and then play through it but it is not super tweakable. A modeled amp is a simulation of the real thing and behaves like the real thing. You can tweak it to sound good or bad, just like the real thing. Does it sound 100% like a real amp? Who knows. What does any amp sound like? My XXXX amp sounds different to the same XXXX amp you might own. You set yours up differently to mine so they aren't the same and never will be. So an accurate capture means nothing to anyone else as the only person that knows how accurate it is, is the capper. To everyone else it sounds good like a typical XXXX amp with whatever junk is in front. I'm sure someone will invent a new tech to spend money on soon. Every amp is unique. A Twin Revb sounds like a Fender, A Marshell (sic) sounds like a Marshall. A capture sounds like the thing you capped. Can anyone really tell what they are listening to? If the music is good then let the band play on. Still, it is your money....
I thought the same thing but: 18months ago, I loved my helix, boss GX-100, Amplitube, NI guitar rig 5, positive grid Bias………..owned them all, dug them all, appreciated their differences. Quality Tonex captures have ruined me. NONE of those sound or feel anywhere near as good as a quality Tonex capture. It’s like I’ve been drinking $40/bottle perfectly decent wine and then had $500/bottle wine. I’m ruined forever.
The captures are just amazing on the NDSP stuff. How often are you making large adjustments on your amp when playing it anyway? Pedals are a bit different in that we tend to tweak pedals more than our amp settings (esp when playing live). You can capture your amp clean and then use pedals to tweak its tone or capture it when it’s clipping and add your favourite modulation pedal(s). Until you try it, it’s hard to understand just how good this sounds.
I didn't get the popularity of capturing either, never even heard of it until this came out. Why would I want to capture my amp, I said. But, then I found out there are a ton of amazing captures out there, for free. I can essentially have almost any amp sound in the world. Anything I hear on the radio that makes me go "wow", I might be able to find it in a capture. That is why I ordered one. I am not one to tinker with modeling, nor have time, so I don't care for it, rather, I let all the geniuses out there do it for me.
@@jamesearl389I will say I found the best sounding and feeling tone I’ve ever played in Tonex. I haven’t changed the sound in months because it’s so good. All I’ve really ever wanted was a great tone for lead and rhythm and Tonex had a capture of a boosted raging Marshall that was IT.
The requirement of the phone app is the deal breaker for me...this will be useless once thats no longer supported. Guitar products that have previously been known for longevity now have obsolescence built into the design. Bummer.
$799 Canadian for this thing, its a joke. Tonex big version $499 Canadian, and $179 for the single, does pretty much everything the nano cortex can do. Or you could save your money and get yourself a real amp, rather than trying to chase the real sound and feel through plugins and modelors. Then later you can just capture your amp to take with you anywhere with the cheaper option like a Tonex single. Just a waste of money to get this thing.
Except they stuffed this up too as they put the capture input on the right-hand side of the pedal where the majority of your drive pedals would be on a pedal board which means you have to remove the nano cortex or your pedals just to use it. This product is simply useless on so many levels.
@@josephmaglio5411 It wont matter if your drive pedal has top mount jacks or side mount as you have to remove your entire pedal just to be able to plug a cable into the Nano just to capture anything with the Nano. If the input was on the left it would make much more sense as you don't need delay and reverb as it is built in. This way the nano could be the last pedal in the chain on the left of a board. However, it also does not have a drive block so you need drive pedals typically on the right side of the nano in a standard pedal board build.
Fck, I hate to death you show us the most delicious playing in the world, amazing tones... but you don't respect the voice recording process and give us trash voice quality. Like most youtubers... These videos will last a long time for others to watch, why not put more effort into it? Just get a TLM 103 and maybe treat the room you record in for reflections (no need to kill the room, I think) into an Apollo interface or something and that will do the trick.
@@7riX7er I think try how it works the tonex one with the effects in the line 6 pod 2.0 trought the tube preamp section by the pod. But the nano cortex seems a good buy to Long term
I had the nano cortex for one day and sent it back. It sounded almost identical to a tonex pedal. Nothing felt revolutionary about this pedal or its sound. Just sounded like an expensive tonex. I a/b the sounds of the helix and it and the helix kicked that nano cortex’s ass.
I have the QC and a Tonex One. I sold my big Tonex and have moved away from IK Multimedia because you have to do everything through their software with logins, register this, register that etc.. I don’t want to have to connect to the internet to set up and play music. A stand alone capture unit sounds great to me… mine’s on order. Love your work John.
I won a to tonex one from a UA-camr, so I was excited to download the software and take captures and compare them with my Kemper... I wasted an entire afternoon trying to get the thing to work, but I never could get the thing to work. I'm cured.
This is exactly what I use it for. I captured my 50W EVH 5153 using the preamp out and pairing it with a stock marshal IR inside the nano. I’ve gigged it twice and no complaints. The band couldn’t tell the difference but my back certainly could! I only use four discrete sounds on stage all based on that one capture. So this box changed my world. We use an IEM system anyways, so no cab needed. Stereo out to FOH. I was set up and sound checked in 10 minutes.
Always appreciate your honest reviews and great playing.
I think they sound super close, the captures are solid
Captures sound great to be fair, but not the feature I was looking for.. if they make a 'neural DSP HX Stomp', I'm in!
Duo Cortex
@@martiboucat hoping for that in the future!
@@nunolance23 Just imagine the price of that thing if it ever happens since Nano cortex is already in the price bracket of HX Stomp
@@rejuvenator8966maybe they could still make it in the relatively same price just by removing the capturing capability. So just amp modelling and plugin compatibility
@@rejuvenator8966 yep, I reckon it would probably be around 1k, and at that point an FM3 might be better anyway..
They sound identical. The difference we are perceiving is Placebo. I tested it by closing my eyes when you went to ab tests just after the 5 minute mark... you played a phrase, came to a complete stop, and then played the same phrase, and I thought " yeah the second one is digital, it sounds just a touch thinner." ... but when I opened my eyes they were both the amp.
I have a Nano Cortex on order. Capturing each of my well-manicured signal chain options and simplifying my whole ampless rig is the top reason I decided it is for me. The only thing bothering me is if I'm going to do that, should I just opt for the Quad Cortex, capture all my "stuff" and make that my whole rig instead? But I'd have to be willing to divest of a lot of pedals to fund it.
Yes
@@xlilxillx damn 🤔
Used the Nano Cortex yesterday first time in a rehearsal with our band and found it perfectly useable. Previously, I came from years of using a real amp - Mesa Boogie MK IV - which is a great amp with many tones, but it's already LOUD when the Master is at two and also quite fiddly with the knobs (slight adjustments make for big differences in tone). Therefore, I switched to Pedals plus a Fender Tonemaster Super-Amp about a year ago. It has a direct out with speaker sim which sounds decent. The overall sound and useability was much better compared to the Mesa. After a while, I realized that the amp served mainly as a monitor and a speaker sim, which is why I finally came to try the Nano Cortex (together with the Fender FR12). The tone over the PA is better, compared to the Tonemaster and also a bit more adjustable. Bear in mind that I still use most of my pedals (also for distortion and delay) although I could use the Nano Cortex for some of these. Using pedals, however, is much faster and more, umm feet on. I still need to see, how reliable and flexible this setup turns out in reality, but my first impression is that it quite hits a sweet spot between quality, simplicity, and flexibility.
Nice - which captures have you been using?
I bought the Nano Cortex because my band has 2 members with Quad Cortex's and I thought it might be a good idea to be caught up a bit (I'm a singer and I didn't have an amp anymore. Just got a cheap 4x12 and power amp to go with the Nano Cortex, but I'll mainly be using it into a PA really).
When I got it, I was pleasantly surprised by the base sounds, but I was annoyed and underwhelmed by the effects. I hated the app at first. It tried very hard not to connect the first couple of times, and I didn't know what I was doing. I even decided at one point to just return it and put in a request with Thomann for that. After thinking on it though, I decided instead I would buy a cheap overdrive pedal to put in front of it and keep it. It does sound way better than my previous stuff (Bias FX 2) through the cab, and it is pretty convenient. There are some other options I might enjoy more, but there are already several captures I've found that work out great for getting close to my previous tones or ones I've been chasing. I think the biggest hurdle has just been figuring it out, and my biggest gripe now is the fact you can only cycle between 4 presets on the fly without pulling out your phone or kneeling down to twist knobs. That last one is a big deal to me, but it's possible I can remedy this with a footswitch of some sort that might be able to cycle in order (or maybe that's already a feature if I look hard enough).
I also just tested it out as an audio interface, and it actually works great for that. No mic monitoring that I can find, but I was able to use Ableton for that at a really low buffer rate for several hours with no issues, which was impossible on Focusrite or my Zoom mixer. Kinda confusing that the "Level" knob doesn't control volume over the headphone out though (I get why, but in this mode it's an issue. Also sucks that there's no power button? Weird omissions all around with this thing).
I've still got a little while to find a different solution for myself, but for now it's pretty cool.
If you know what amps you want sounds for, you'll probably find at least one capture of said amp.
The problem is some are more accurate than others, and knowing which channel you want from each amp might be hard.
You can tell the difference because you're in the room. Once it's recorded there's no discernable difference. Its simple to create captures on the nano. I have created at least 10 of my own and they sound great.
I have used the capture feature on several preamps that I own and it captured them perfectly to my ears.
I connect a midi controller so I have access to 15 presets a bank at my feet. I think it sounds great and does everything I need it to do. I already have drive, wah and other pedals I can use with it if I want and I also have an Eventide H9 and Two Notes Cab M and Opus. But seriously, if I didnt have any other pedals to add , I would still be just as happy with what this thing can do.
3:05 what a lick
I love this product. Perfect for my needs
same, everyone keeps comparing it to something else and saying what its not rather than just looking at it for what it is. That, to me, is 4 amps in the middle to end of my pedalboard as a clone of any amp pretty well ever. I would be happy for the tone in the video to be my number three tone...more than happy
Same here.
How close do you have to put your mobil device next to the nanocortex to ensure stable pairing?
@@frankpowilleit7712 Anywhere within 30 feet your connection should be rock solid
I have one coming in soon, reason that I bought it is due to it’s simplicity, hope it’s not to simple though.. Im a bedroom guitarist with limited of time and no interest in tweaking, to some extent of course.. however I find all good modellers a little too complex and often get stuck in other things than playing.
I don’t have amps that I can capture from, however I can draw use of everyone that have and load them to my device!
Trust me, there’s more to come with this soon………..Kidding, I love this thing. I travel half the month and it is easy to load my favorite amps and settings to take on the road. For me it works, but I can’t help but think that this is just the beginning with this pedal.
Curious to see if they leave it with the FX as is or add more with future updates?
I think JNC is right here...this is not meant for QC owners or plug-in users. The Cortex Cloud has thousands of amp models that you can download - you don't necessarily need to capture one of your own amps, so it doesn't even matter if you own any amps. The capture technology is a bonus for someone that has one or more amps, and as noted Connor Kaminski showed how you can capture a plug-in pretty easily. The audience for this product is someone who doesn't own a QC, wants into the hardware modeling world at a relatively low price point, and/or wants a small rig that they can gig with for models they already have or ones they can download from Cortex Cloud. This competes with the Tonex pedals, primarily.
I think the two misses they made here are not having it compatible with Cortex Control (why do we need a phone app when you just released Cortex Control FINALLY) and they need a sgnal chain slot for drive/distortion pedal models. These aren't fatal exclusions in my mind, but would make the product better/more useful.
@@DanielBobke biggest miss for me is no global setting for the IRs on or off.
I sometimes play with cab sometimes straight to pa.
I have to change the cab to no in every preset and save it
@@1Guug I get that...maybe they can add that in updates.
@@DanielBobke I really hope so otherwise this thing slaps hard !
I gigged the tonex now for a year but it’s too limited with only reverb.
Nano is perfect fit for me and to be honest, it sounds and feels better like an amp.
I have no treble bleed on my start, the tonex still has the same treble over the whole volume knob.
The nano actually gets warmer and looses treble when I turn the volume down like a real tube amp does. Sounds better with a power amp straight into the cab too !
I think you absolutely nailed it - solid assessment
Tip! The amp vs nano cortex demo sounded sick at 2x speed. Amazing shredding!
Honestly they sounded identical. Any variation could be playing dynamics.
Those sounds are close enough for the audience not to tell the difference. Nano cortex is not the solution to every problem. But for the price. Amazing.
In a quiet room by ourselves and concentrating really hard, we might be able to detect subtle differences but it’s so close as to be unworthy of discussion and certainly nobody but you would ever notice.
I think the Captures were extremely close. For someone who has vintage, rare, expensive, irreplaceable, heavy, bulky, etc. Amps, such Capture Devices like the Nano Cortex can be an effective and efficient solution rather than risking damage or loss of their precious Amps.
But why would someone who owns all that go w/ this instead of Kemper? Someone out there owns thousands of dollars in amps, but then they can't afford a capture device that already exists and is considered fantastic? That's the part that doesn't make sense.
@@RogerThat902 Kemper's can be rather large, have lots of knobs, and some people who own them have mentioned having lots of cables connected to them. So, easy portability of a small device could be advantageous for them.
I was hoping it would be a great way to bring my QC to a gig in a smaller form factor. I have been using the QC for my acoustic a lot. The Nano is not ideal for using, blending, or mixing IRs for the acoustic. BUT, the Nano is so compact and easy to dial in a good sound for electric and bass that I'm keeping it. I probably should have just bought a nice case , power supply, and pedal board for the QC.
I'm going to get one because it'll pretty much replace my little headphones practice pedalboard that consists of a Digitech Drop into a Boss IR-2 with a Boss DC-2w, Boss RE-2, and MXR Reverb in the loop. It's almost a direct replacement of all of those pedals in a single unit.
The take on Paradigm Shift was superb 👌
You may have given me a reason to purchase the Nano. If I can do a few captures of my amp an effects chain, then perhaps I can get away with just carrying one pedal to some gigs.😮😊
Nope. Can’t capture your signal chain. Only thing in your chain it will capture is your drives and your amp.
Most demos I’ve seen and heard so far the nano always seems slightly darker. But still completely usable.
You're wrong. There's another thing the Nano cortex has going for it: you can power it with USB. Steve sterlacci was talking about this.
... I first encountered this feature on the tonex one. I'm someone who always has a guitar with me, and I work remotely add coffee shops and Mall food courts a lot. I will never be without a unit that fits in my bag, gets power from USB, and has amp sounds as good as any flagship. I hope this becomes the new Normal for these little units.
It's interesting you find modelers are more accurate. To my ears I could never get my hx stomp to sound good or like a real amp and I went back to analpgue. The tonex came and then wow I was blown away by the sound. So I just combined the two
Ampero Stage 2 is going to have capturing in the next fw update as well.. and I bet line6/yamaha is going to release their take on this soonish. If only the captures were more flexible/adjustable after the fact. Otherwise I prefer the modeling route.
Good tone you have there
I think the market for a device than can capture is much smaller than the market for a device that can play captures. If you aren't capturing your own stuff, which most of us aren't, then it's completely irrelevant to most. I've owned a Kemper a few times and got on well with that, important factor being that there are so many pro captures available for reasonable money. I own the Tonex One and hate it, and I think a big part of that is because it's basically an amp without the FX, which limits how it sounds, but the bigger part is that there are so few pro captures vs Kemper, and so many user captures sound horrific.I'd prefer the Kemper player over Nano, whether it is as accurate or not, I think it generally sounds better, and certainly has way more FX options. Ultimately though, the FM3 or any other modeller, lets you tweak your tone much better and has so much more FX than the Nano. Tonex has been the biggest disappointment for me, even with Amalgam profiles.
Agreed - the experience of actually trawling through captures that you haven't made yourself can be kind of not that fun in my opinion too - hence I'd prefer modeling almost every time I think?
I’d love for you to capture the Suhr Bella.
The thing is 99% of neural dsp’s userbase use plugins exclusively and have no interest in capturing amps because they don’t have any. They want plugins in a pedal!
Where did you get that statistic from?
@@TheDancingSaxophone they said the majority of their sales are from plugins & music retailers all say gen z don’t buy amps & sales are way down plus everyone is mad at neural lol
@@xlilxillx of course the majority of their sales are from plugins. The Quad Cortex is a halo product. A lot of the people crying about limited plugin integration on the QC or lack of it on the Nano don’t even own a QC anyway. That said, by the same logic I’m sure the percentage of customers that exclusively use plugins has got to be quite high but pulling numbers out of thin air isn’t really the move.
@@TheDancingSaxophone shut up
I’d love the model only version of this, with maybe an overdrive in front of- SLO or ToneKing or Mesa. I don’t have the gear to capture and my head explodes when I try to pick some in the tone net
lets wait for the rebat of line6 :) maybe they are cooking something good
Which backing track is this at 1:22? Became a member and want to jam on this!
I'll add it up if it isn't already!
It sounded really close and good.
I have about 50 pedals. Carrying all that isn't logical. So something like this would be great to capture all those tones.
It seems like a decent product, but I already have the necessary HW to do captures with ToneX so I'll stick with the ToneX pedal.
It's like you're always stuck in second gear
The other thing with Tonex is that you can capture an amp/cab with 2 mics. The nano can capture only with one mic right?!
I really hope a future firmware update could make the capture in/out to be used as a loop in/out.
Yes having no loop is lretty stupid as 99% of people wont be capturing anything & the ppl who do will do it once then never use it again
I messed around with mine for about an hour. Got an unboxing and 1st impressions vid coming. I’m impressed.
For what I knew it could do and how I plan on using it, I feel like I’ve gotten my moneys worth. Neural can only make it better from here out.
RIP CHANDLER BING
Will you be releasing tabs and backing track for the amp vs nan section of the video?
I have watched a few of these videos on this thing, sounds great, honestly not sure how to make it work with a speaker (guessing power amp) but I think the main thing I would want it for is just great sounding silent playing at home using the headphone out, capture my amp and play at home late at night when volume is in issue. Most new higher end overdrive pedal aren’t that far off the price of this these days so I actually think it’s priced well too
Not for me but if you want to capture then looks like the way to go, good to know
I still wonder how many people want that but have to assume they did some market research as presumably would have been a lot easier (and cheaper) to make the device without capture.
As someone that does not gig--I play as a hobby--the nano is intriguing, but ultimately seems redundant. If I want to play an amp or a particular signal chain, I'll just play it. If I were gigging and wanted to bring that sound with me but not the amps, etc., it would make sense to potentially use the nano cortex. In that sense, then, it seems like it's geared toward professionals rather than beginners. However, if that's the case, then pros are just going to get the full-fledged cortex. I guess when the market is so flooded with products, you have to try to fit your product in somewhere. What a great time to be a guitarist though!!!
Are most guitarist's actually looking for a capture device ? Serious question. This does not appeal to me at all but I also may be out of touch.
Sincerely no offense intended (because I was thinking exactly the same thing at first), but as soon as I started wrapping my mind around the full extent of the possibilities with this device (now and into the future), I absolutely can't wait to get my hands on one. It's basically like a handy to-go box for all the cool amps, cabs, and tones I could ever want to play - with everything right there with a few pedal pushes or app clicks
It's a good question - in some ways I think it might be a good short cut for folks that don't want to deal with menus and stuff?
I wonder how good they are are bass setup tone matching
Is there no part of my life that is safe from F.R.I.E.N.D.S references
I had the nano cortex for one day and sent it back. It sounded almost identical to a tonex pedal. Nothing felt revolutionary about this pedal or its sound. Just sounded like an expensive tonex.
I a/b the sounds of the helix and it and the helix kicked that nano cortex’s ass.
When you played the intro I closed my eyes. Every time I could hear the sound change I opened them and that lined up perfectly with what was actually being used.
It did sound close, but especially the high frequencies sounded more open to me with the actual amp... BTW I was listening with cheap earbuds. So I guess there should be more obvious differences when listening with good loudspeakers and without UA-cam compression.
Can you capture a plugin via just the USB connection or do you have to come out of the audio interface and then into the Nano's capture input?
You'd need to pass audio through the Capture output and return
@@johnnathancordy Thanks for clarifying that.
Who owns enough amps to make capturing worthwhile? Most of us use captures from the cloud. BUT.... the one thing I've loved about the nano is capturing my Quad cortex. I can capture my Chase Bliss Preamp II, QC amp or capture, IR, eq and the Strymon Deco saturation all onto one capture and put it on the Nano. This makes the NC a valid way to take the core of my QC tones on a pocket sized unit as a backup rig. As a backup rig, I'm grateful for the single chorus, delay and reverb. I'm not going to complain if it saves my gig. The only two things I wish it had are a compressor and a way to access banks of 4 footswitch presets so I can use it for a variety of songs.
Okay the hair is getting really wild now. Im gonna predict a man bun pretty soon.
Lol I promise a man bun is not going to happen (never say mever though)
Isn't the sampling rate of this nano cortex only 48khz not 96khz like Line 6 Helix? I don't like that at all.
"So no one told it was gonna be this way..."
If you put a clean and a clean dly on the first footswitch, and driven and driven delay on the second footswitch, and want to go from clean to clean dly to driven and back to clean, how does that work? Does the first footswitch remember where you left it so it goes back to clean dly, or does it switch back to clean? In any case, some combinations of switching will need two presses on the same footswitch - is it fast enough that you don't find this an issue? I havent seen anyone mention this.
it's the same thing I've been asking for days, and no one answers
Seems like it would go back to the clean delay so would require a double tap so you would have to use midi to go to each individual preset.
How do you spell your name on the Cortex Coud, so I can follow you? :)
I will add this.
I now see why the helix is standing the test of time and still sells. By now I’ve tried a flavor of every major modeler except fractal. I will say that helix sounded the best. In the room none of these capture products sound like the real deal. In a recording probably, but don’t get sold on the idea you’re getting clones that sound identical to your amps or someone else. It’s all just marketing scams.
Honestly I’ve waited years to try a neural dsp product and finally they released a product that’s in my budget and I will say, I was very disappointed
Once you've got the software you can do the same things without the expression pedal witch is sold separately, at that point, do you really need it to play live or you'd rather go big?! I don't know. Namastè.
Awesome the captures were awesome put them in the cloud
The vast majority of people buying this or any of the other capture solutions are probably never going to capture anything… they either don’t have the amps they want or don’t have the skills or gear to get a good capture. People mainly buy these to run other peoples captures surely? Tonex have it right I think…
Once Helix comes up with Captures - it will take a large chunk of the market with it - how many agree?
Helix sucks compare to Neural
amp has more headroom
I have the large tonex and I’m still getting the nano, the being able to control it with an app sold me on it, I don’t care about profiling or captures, I’ll leave that to someone else
I had a Tone X and it sounded great, but the UI and UX of the software was horrible, this looks like a better workflow.
I bought one and already returned it. My Friedman IRX does plenty and there’s little need for me to fill my life up with more stuff
Then why did you buy it in the first place? 😂
Because I thought it would be able to do enough to replace multiple pedals and it turned out to be too limited. If all I’m really doing with it is using it to replace my IRX with captures I’m not gaining anything and spending a lot of money to do it. But sure, be condescending; I’m sure your mom will be very proud when you print out your comment and stick it on the refrigerator
@@nobodyimportant76467 Really I’m hoping she’ll stick it on HER fridge.
@@TheDancingSaxophone what? Are you saying you moved out? Not likely
Was considering an IRX, bought the Nano instead. It arrives this weekend, but I am already questioning if I made the right purchase. Thank goodness for return policies….
The nano is for a very tiny minority that have modelers and rigs but want to capture pictures of their settings for live use. Everyone else is paying money for a toy that will quickly or slowly stop being used. If you write music and tweak your sound then a capture sounds cool, but forces you to use one setting with very limited changeability. It's not that the nano is bad, it's that almost everyone wanted it to be something it's not.
Captures are for generic music in that you are not seeking that better sound. Captures are for Cover bands or people who play nothing but other peoples music at home... that's fine... but if you write, like actually write, captures are one of the worst options.
Cortex cloud has an increasing number of amps you can use. You act like this thing is useless if you don't already own other gear. You may want to do more research before you post.
@@giles3211 I get the feeling in a year the nano has vanished from discussion... I could be wrong, but it's already fading.
Lets capture a ton of sound's you cant actually tweak then find out that none of them fit in your mix.....what then? I'll tell you what then, you go back to your Neural Plugin and tweak it on the fly like i did today to fit my mix! At best, this is a practice tool that takes up no room.
No disagreement, but I assume that the audience for this is rather small. I know dozens of people with Kemper and Tonex devices, exactly one of them has ever done a capture once and found that without a) the proper know-how and b) the proper outboard gear and microphones, the results are not better than most models in a Helix or Fractal units with some tweaking and proper IRs, eventually worse. I went through hundreds of "free" captures on Kemper, QC, Tonex, and QC related sharing platforms - it is a colossal waste of time, the vast majority of captures are awful - I can get better tones from the HX Stomp in under a minute. Yes, a good DI capture from Amalgam for the Tonex, or from Michael Britt for the Kemper does cost around 20 bucks, but they outshine the amateur stuff by lightyears and truly show what these devices are capable of.
I have no doubt that the nano is better hardware than the Tonex pedal or the Kemper Player, and I do love these light rings around the knobs that indicate the actual settings, but the Tonex is cheaper and sounds better, and the Kemper has far far far better effects included and allows for far more tweaking. Personally, I would never use a device that is a literal brick without a cloud service - as long as I can't do a local backup/restore and load presets and IRs without the internet, they can stick it...
I don't get the popularity of capturing. Sure you can take a snapshot of a sound you like and then play through it but it is not super tweakable. A modeled amp is a simulation of the real thing and behaves like the real thing. You can tweak it to sound good or bad, just like the real thing. Does it sound 100% like a real amp? Who knows. What does any amp sound like? My XXXX amp sounds different to the same XXXX amp you might own. You set yours up differently to mine so they aren't the same and never will be. So an accurate capture means nothing to anyone else as the only person that knows how accurate it is, is the capper. To everyone else it sounds good like a typical XXXX amp with whatever junk is in front. I'm sure someone will invent a new tech to spend money on soon. Every amp is unique. A Twin Revb sounds like a Fender, A Marshell (sic) sounds like a Marshall. A capture sounds like the thing you capped. Can anyone really tell what they are listening to? If the music is good then let the band play on. Still, it is your money....
I thought the same thing but:
18months ago, I loved my helix, boss GX-100, Amplitube, NI guitar rig 5, positive grid Bias………..owned them all, dug them all, appreciated their differences.
Quality Tonex captures have ruined me. NONE of those sound or feel anywhere near as good as a quality Tonex capture. It’s like I’ve been drinking $40/bottle perfectly decent wine and then had $500/bottle wine. I’m ruined forever.
Blind testing is the true way to tell
The captures are just amazing on the NDSP stuff. How often are you making large adjustments on your amp when playing it anyway? Pedals are a bit different in that we tend to tweak pedals more than our amp settings (esp when playing live). You can capture your amp clean and then use pedals to tweak its tone or capture it when it’s clipping and add your favourite modulation pedal(s). Until you try it, it’s hard to understand just how good this sounds.
I didn't get the popularity of capturing either, never even heard of it until this came out. Why would I want to capture my amp, I said. But, then I found out there are a ton of amazing captures out there, for free. I can essentially have almost any amp sound in the world. Anything I hear on the radio that makes me go "wow", I might be able to find it in a capture. That is why I ordered one. I am not one to tinker with modeling, nor have time, so I don't care for it, rather, I let all the geniuses out there do it for me.
@@jamesearl389I will say I found the best sounding and feeling tone I’ve ever played in Tonex. I haven’t changed the sound in months because it’s so good. All I’ve really ever wanted was a great tone for lead and rhythm and Tonex had a capture of a boosted raging Marshall that was IT.
Plug a guitar into an amp and tweak some pedals. The hours saved will allow you to have more time to practice your instrument
If you own and use a Quad Cortex you don’t need the Nano. Since John sold his QC, I can see why he finds a purpose for owning the Nano 👍
The Nan has more treble. Other than that they are pretty much identical.
Answer: Nothing.
The requirement of the phone app is the deal breaker for me...this will be useless once thats no longer supported. Guitar products that have previously been known for longevity now have obsolescence built into the design. Bummer.
$799 Canadian for this thing, its a joke. Tonex big version $499 Canadian, and $179 for the single, does pretty much everything the nano cortex can do. Or you could save your money and get yourself a real amp, rather than trying to chase the real sound and feel through plugins and modelors. Then later you can just capture your amp to take with you anywhere with the cheaper option like a Tonex single. Just a waste of money to get this thing.
UA-camrs in line for damage control
Except they stuffed this up too as they put the capture input on the right-hand side of the pedal where the majority of your drive pedals would be on a pedal board which means you have to remove the nano cortex or your pedals just to use it. This product is simply useless on so many levels.
My drive pedal has the input jacks on the top so this actually works better for me 🤷🏻♂️
@@josephmaglio5411 It wont matter if your drive pedal has top mount jacks or side mount as you have to remove your entire pedal just to be able to plug a cable into the Nano just to capture anything with the Nano. If the input was on the left it would make much more sense as you don't need delay and reverb as it is built in. This way the nano could be the last pedal in the chain on the left of a board. However, it also does not have a drive block so you need drive pedals typically on the right side of the nano in a standard pedal board build.
Just get a 90° angled xlr and take a chill pill.
Fck, I hate to death you show us the most delicious playing in the world, amazing tones... but you don't respect the voice recording process and give us trash voice quality.
Like most youtubers...
These videos will last a long time for others to watch, why not put more effort into it?
Just get a TLM 103 and maybe treat the room you record in for reflections (no need to kill the room, I think) into an Apollo interface or something and that will do the trick.
First!
Friends theme song at 5:06?
5:06 Friends???
Damn it you beat me to it!! Lol.
True the users have nothing to capture most likely they missed that sailing ship...it should have been the opposite of what they did...
I got twenty dollars 🥲
Get a job brokie
Get tonex free edition and grab a one capture pack you like
@@xlilxillx haha lol, I think the nano cortex is a product afordable for musician that wants enter to neural gear.
@@7riX7er I think try how it works the tonex one with the effects in the line 6 pod 2.0 trought the tube preamp section by the pod.
But the nano cortex seems a good buy to Long term
Amp1 mercury edition or nano cortex?
...UAFX pedals!!
I had the nano cortex for one day and sent it back. It sounded almost identical to a tonex pedal. Nothing felt revolutionary about this pedal or its sound. Just sounded like an expensive tonex.
I a/b the sounds of the helix and it and the helix kicked that nano cortex’s ass.