If you’re like us, you’re impatiently waiting for the release of the long-awaited CorOs 2.0 Update for the Quad Cortex modeller. In this post, we’ll pour over all the development updates and Discourse posts to see if we can deduce what is coming down the pipeline.
All images used in this post are from the development updates provided by Neural DSP.
What we know is definitively coming in CorOs 2.0
These things have been confirmed either directly or through screenshots shared from the 2.0 release.
A new UI and file manager
It’s no secret the user interface on the Quad Cortex is terrible. The way presets, captures, and downloaded items are sorted leaves a lot to be desired.
In CorOs 2.0, we will see a completely revamped UI, including a new search feature. The new search feature is welcome, given that the current search is broken.
With the new UI comes metadata changes which will make it easier to filter and sort presets/captures based on the type of instrument. It’s interesting to see vocal is a category, which might indicate we will finally get some vocal effects.
Captures finally get better management features. You can select the capture type depending on the type of capture (amp, combo fx, etc).
Another interesting addition is gain scores for captures. These are calculated based on the saturation from 1 to 10 (automatically), allowing captures to be sorted based on their heaviness (clean to distorted).
Hybrid Mode
The hybrid mode feature has been long demanded since the early product launch marketing materials displayed it as a feature. Sadly, until this point, the hybrid mode feature hasn’t shipped until CorOs 2.0.
As we have seen from development update screenshots and details, it is configurable, allowing you to choose between preset, scene and stomp modes. We knew this was coming, but it’s finally happening in 2.0.
Better cloud interaction
Before CorOs 2.0, uploading presets to Cortex Cloud was tedious and difficult. In CorOs 2.0, multiple presets can be uploaded to the cloud simultaneously with a new upload mode. Better yet, uploads are now handled in the background. Meaning you can upload and carry on with something else.
Uploads aside, the downloads functionality has been improved too. The silly star system has been removed and now you just download presets and captures.
Better search
The biggest annoyance of the Quad Cortex is the search. It has never worked for me. It doesn’t seem to ever find anything, so I always had to navigate endlessly through banks until I found it.
Not only has the search been fixed, but the results are now grouped into categories too and we get autocomplete suggestions as we type.
Global EQ
We finally can globally add EQ to outputs on the QC. This will free up a grid block space. Now it can be done as an output setting instead of an EQ block. While this is a quality-of-life improvement, it’s a welcome one.
IR Block
Another nifty improvement is the IR block functionality. Instead of adding a cab and then selecting an IR, you can just add an IR block.
Other things coming
These things have not been confirmed as shipping with CorOs 2.0, but they could if Neural DSP wanted to surprise us.
Desktop editor
We know it’s coming, and we also know that NDSP has had a team working on desktop editor support for upwards of a year. Doug confirmed on Discord close to the start of 2022 that a team had been working on it for months, so possibly over a year now.
I have long speculated that the desktop editor could only happen after the Quad Cortex’s UI was fixed. So, it’s possible the CorOs 2.0 changes were the final piece for desktop editor support.
Quad Cortex Marketplace
Another thing we know Neural has been working on behind-the-scenes and possibly as long as the desktop editor. In a similar theory, maybe the marketplace required changes to how presets were stored and support for additional metadata before the marketplace could happen.
The possibility of the marketplace launching alongside CorOs 2.0 is low, but possible shortly after it might.
Preset templates
This is something I have not seen Neural confirm they are working on or will ever implement, but we can dream. A preset template is simply the ability to create one or more preset settings for an FX pedal you can select. Picture presets for delays, reverbs, overdrives and perhaps even amps? I believe many other devices have this feature already, so it should hopefully inevitably come.
What’s coming in the Quad Cortex CorOs 2.0 Update?