Neural DSP Quad Cortex mini

The Neural DSP Quad Cortex mini is a compact digital amp modeler, multi-effects unit and Capture device: one floor pedal that models amplifiers, runs more than a hundred effects, and can clone real amps with Neural DSP's Capture technology. Neural DSP unveiled it at NAMM in January 2026, promising, in the company's words, "the full sound, processing power and Neural Capture technology" of the larger Quad Cortex in a much smaller box¹. It launched at $1,399².

Guitar.com's reviewer put the size difference plainly: the mini keeps the Quad Cortex's functionality intact "but in a form factor that's roughly a third of the size"³. What you give up is footswitches and panel space, not processing: Guitar World reports that under the hood it has the same processing power as the Quad Cortex⁴.

The controls: 7-inch touchscreen and four footswitches

The center of the mini is its seven-inch touchscreen, the same size screen as on the larger Quad Cortex⁴. Most editing happens by touching the display, but the four footswitches carry a lot of the workflow, and several of them do double duty as rotary controls.

The three modes work as they do on the full Quad Cortex: preset, stomp, and scenes, which Guitar.com describes as "effectively presets within a preset"³. Each preset can support eight scenes or stomps, but with only four footswitches, only four are available for immediate access².

MusicRadar's reviewer found the mini's knob-and-screen editing, which he called "Etch-A-Sketch style editing," easier to use than the bigger Quad Cortex's parameter assignment, and concluded that this makes it "the easiest modeller/capture device to use when it comes to those compact, space-saving units"².

Connections and the shared effects loop

The rear panel carries MIDI, XLR outputs, stereo inputs and outputs, a USB-C jack, headphone out, and an effects loop⁴. USB-C also gives the mini a 16-channel audio interface function⁴, and the unit connects over Wi-Fi as well².

The biggest connectivity change from the full Quad Cortex is the effects loop. The larger unit has dual effects loops⁵; on the mini, the two loops are condensed into a combined input/output pair, and you need a TRS insert cable to use both loops³.

Expression pedal support is similarly trimmed. The mini has one expression pedal output; running two expression pedals requires connecting the second via MIDI³. On the full Quad Cortex, which has two expression pedal inputs, pedals can be assigned to almost any parameter in the virtual devices and can control multiple parameters at once, and the unit works with expression pedals from many manufacturers⁶. Over MIDI, the Quad Cortex maps expression pedal 1 to CC# 1 and expression pedal 2 to CC# 2, values 0 to 127⁷, which is how a MIDI-connected second pedal reaches the mini.

Effects and amp models on board

The mini ships with 90+ amp models and 100+ effects⁵, along with 1000+ IRs (impulse responses, the captured speaker and mic tones), 2000+ Captures, Neural Capture V1 and V2, a 16-channel USB-C audio interface, and access to the Community Capture library⁴.

MusicRadar's review details what those effects include²:

• Drives: Green 808 (Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808), Rodent Drive (Pro Co Rat), Obsessive Drive (Fulltone OCD), Facial Fuzz (Fuzz Face)
• Amps: Brit 2203 preset (Marshall JCM800), US Twin Vibrato preset (Fender Twin Reverb Vibrato channel)
• Delay: nine delays, or 15 counting the stereo duplicates of the mono versions
• Reverb: Room, Hall, Plate and Spring, plus less conventional tones like Blossom and Cave
• Modulation: MX Phase 95, based on the MXR Phase 45 and Phase 90, with controls for syncing to tempo
• Pitch: a Transpose function that tracks well across its two-octave range (one octave either way) on single notes
• Synth: an oscillator built for single-note playing with an arpeggiator and filter
• Freeze: adjustable via Attack, Release, Dry Gain, Freeze Gain, and a High and Low Pass filter

Neural Captures, the cloned amps, offer limited tweaking after the fact: just Gain, Bass, Mid and Treble, with a more limited range than you get on an amp model².

A smaller Quad Cortex in the Cortex range

The mini sits deliberately between the full Quad Cortex and the Nano Cortex in Neural DSP's range, though Guitar.com notes it "offers a much more complete package" than the Nano³. The full Quad Cortex has 11 footswitches⁸ and dual combo inputs and dual effects loops⁵; the mini cuts both to fit the smaller enclosure, which Morningstar's writeup frames as the inevitable trade-off of shrinking a device from 11 footswitches down to 4⁹.

The Mini sits deliberately between the full-size Quad Cortex and the Nano Cortex in Neural DSP's Cortex range, offering what Guitar.com called "a much more complete package" than the smaller unit while keeping the QC's functionality intact in a form factor roughly a third of the size³. It carries over the same three modes as the bigger unit: preset, stomp and scenes, which Guitar.com described as "effectively presets within a preset"³. The trade-off is footswitch count: the Mini shrinks from 11 footswitches on the Quad Cortex down to just 4, and each preset can support eight scenes or stomps, but only four are available for immediate access⁸.

What reviewers said

Reviews of the mini were positive, with a few shared criticisms.

Guitar World rated build quality at four and a half stars, describing an aviation-grade matte gray metal enclosure with a glass screen covering that "looks sleek but robust"⁴. Its overall verdict:

Guitar World's review⁴

MusicRadar found the build solid despite the glass top: "The glass top may well be disconcerting for some, but it's a sturdy feeling unit nonetheless," awarding build quality four and a half stars². Its main criticism was the touchscreen: "The touchscreen isn't the most responsive on the mini, which is also a common criticism levelled at the Quad Cortex," though the reviewer called it far from a deal breaker². The site's overall verdict was that "this is an incredibly powerful, incredibly versatile pedal that crams gold-standard modeler experiences and sounds into the smallest form factor possible"⁴.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions