Neural DSP Quad Cortex Mini Guitar Amp Modeller and Multi Effects Processor

Looks small. Plays big.

Quad Cortex mini delivers the full Quad Cortex experience in our most compact, usable format yet, without cutting corners. It brings the same processing power, audio quality, Neural Capture technology, and 7” touchscreen in a footprint that fits effortlessly into pedalboards, modern rigs, or on your desktop.

Built for exceptional performance at its size and price, Quad Cortex mini makes it easy to dial in world-class sounds, explore a vast range of amps, effects, and Captures, and build rigs without creative limits wherever you play. Whether you’re stepping into the Quad Cortex platform for the first time or already feel at home, Quad Cortex mini shares the same platform and workflow, making great sounds fast, intuitive, and deeply rewarding from the first note.

Full Quad Cortex processing power

Flagship performance in a compact format

Intuitive visual workflow

7-inch touchscreen with grid-based signal flow

Neural Capture technology

Create and play ultra-accurate digital replicas of real amps, cabs, drive pedals, and compressors

More than 50% smaller footprint

All the power of Quad Cortex, ready anywhere

Arena-level performance. Shelf-ready size.

A complete guitar and bass rig in a remarkably small footprint, designed to fit naturally into pedalboards, modern rigs, and desktop setups, from studio to stage and everywhere in between. With a footprint of just 22.8 × 11.8 cm and a weight of 1.5 kg, Quad Cortex mini delivers flagship performance in a form that’s easy to place, easy to carry, and simple to integrate into existing rigs.

A complete creative toolkit, ready to play

Quad Cortex mini comes loaded with a carefully curated collection of amps, effects, and cabinets, giving you everything you need to build inspiring guitar and bass rigs from the moment you plug in. From vintage-inspired and modern amplifiers to studio-grade effects and flexible cabinet simulation, every virtual device is designed to respond naturally to your playing and work together seamlessly.

• 90+ Amp models spanning classic, modern, and contemporary designs
• 100+ effects and utilities for building complete signal chains
• 1000+ Cabinet IRs with flexible mic placement

Neural Capture

Capture real gear. Play it anywhere. Neural Capture creates ultra-accurate digital models of real amps, cabinets, drive pedals, and compressors. Choose from thousands of Captures created by players and artists around the world, or effortlessly create your own. Dynamics, touch, and feel are captured alongside tone, so what you play reacts the way you expect. Roll back your guitar volume. Dig in harder. The response stays musical and familiar. The sounds you rely on stay with you, wherever you choose to play. Quad Cortex mini comes preloaded with over 2000 high-quality factory Neural Captures, so you can start playing inspiring, studio-ready sounds immediately.

Fast, efficient, and fully offline. Neural Capture V1 runs directly on the device and delivers accurate results for most amps, cabinets, and overdrive pedals. It’s ideal for everyday use, transparent gain stages, and building complex Presets without worrying about processing overhead.

Neural Capture V2 uses Cortex Cloud to process Captures with a higher-resolution algorithm, delivering increased accuracy for touch-sensitive gear such as fuzzes, compressors, and highly dynamic tube amps. It captures subtle behaviors like volume-knob cleanup, amp sag and bloom, fast transients, and blend controls with exceptional precision.

Cortex Cloud - An ever-growing world of tones

Cortex Cloud connects Quad Cortex mini to a constantly expanding library of Neural Captures and Presets created by artists and players around the world. Discover new amps, cabinets, and pedals captured by others, and bring them straight into your own rigs. Sounds load quickly and integrate seamlessly, so inspiration never feels interrupted. Share your own Neural Captures, explore new ideas, and keep your sound evolving over time.

The Grid

The Grid is the visual workspace at the heart of Quad Cortex mini. It makes building, understanding, and modifying signal chains intuitive, with no menu diving or hidden layers

Create rigs by placing virtual device blocks across a clear, grid-based signal flow. Rearrange blocks freely, split signals into parallel paths, and route any part of your chain to different outputs with precision and confidence.

Complex setups stay readable. Simple ideas stay simple. Everything is exactly where you expect it to be.

Designed for fast, intuitive control

Touchscreen and rotary footswitches

A 7” multi-touch display paired with four stainless steel rotary footswitches gives you responsive, tactile control at your fingertips and under your feet, whether you’re editing sounds or performing.

Parameter Focus System

When a block is selected, the rotary footswitches automatically map to the most relevant parameters. This makes it easy to dial in sounds by ear, adjust settings quickly, and stay focused on playing instead of navigating menus.

Flexible switching modes

Choose the control style that fits how you play:

• Preset mode for switching between complete rigs
• Scene mode for seamless changes within a single Preset
• Stomp mode for pedalboard-style control
• Hybrid mode for combining modes across footswitch rows

Gig View

A high-contrast, performance-ready layout with large text and clear visual feedback. Opposite Page Preview shows assignments from the other Page at a glance, so you’re never guessing mid-song.

CorOS 4.1.0 is now available

We are extremely excited to announce the release of CorOS 4.1.0 and Cortex Control 4.1.0.

This is the biggest CorOS update we have ever released. It adds Plugin Compatibility for five additional plugins, introduces eight new Virtual Devices for all Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini users, and delivers one of the biggest workflow improvements we've ever made with Device Presets.

To take full advantage of these additions and explore all the new features, we recommend that all Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini users install CorOS 4.1.0 and Cortex Control 4.1.0.

What’s new in CorOS 4.1.0

CorOS 4.1.0 adds Plugin Compatibility for five additional X-updated plugins:

• Archetype: John Mayer X

• Archetype: Petrucci X

• Archetype: Misha Mansoor X

• Archetype: Rabea X

• Archetype: Tim Henson X

Together, they bring more than 70 additional amps, cabs, and effects to Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini.

Archetype: John Mayer X

• Justa Boost

• Antelope Filter

• Halfman OD

• Tealbreaker

• Millipede Delay

• Harmonic Tremolo

• Spring Reverb

• Smooth Operator

• Headroom Hero

• Signature 83

• Three-In-One

• Smooth Operator Cab

• Headroom Hero Cab

• Signature 83 Cab

• Compressor

• Dream Delay (ST)

• Studio Verb Hall

• Studio Verb Plate

Archetype: Petrucci X

• Wah

• Compressor

• Overdrive

• Phaser

• Chorus 1

• Flanger

• Piezo

• Clean

• Rhythm

• Lead

• Cab

• Volume

• Chorus 2

• Delay

• Reverb

• Reverb Shimmer

Archetype: Misha Mansoor X

• Laser

• Horizon Devices® Compressor™

• Tape Echo

• Dual Octaver

• Horizon Devices® Precision Drive™

• Chaos

• Clean Amp

• Rhythm Amp

• Lead Amp

• Cab 1

• Cab 2

• Cab 3

• Modulator

• Stereo Delay

• Reverb

• Reverb Shimmer

Archetype: Rabea X

• Twin Blade Dual Compressor

• Chaos Bed Octaver

• Colossus Fuzz

• Paragon Overdrive

• Clean Amp

• Crunch Amp

• Lead Amp

• Cab 1

• Cab 2

• Cab 3

• Atlas Delay

• Aeons Reverb

Archetype: Tim Henson X

• Boost

• Compressor

• Overdrive

• Acoustic Amp

• Crunch Amp Ch1

• Crunch Amp Ch2

• Lead Amp

• Cab 1

• Cab 2

• Chorus

• Diffusion Delay

• Vintage Digital Delay

• Modern Delay

• Reverb

• Reverb Shimmer

If you own licenses for these plugins, you can now load the devices from these plugins directly onto your unit and combine them freely with other plugin devices, native CorOS devices, and Neural Captures.

With CorOS 4.1.0, every currently available X-updated plugin is now compatible with Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini.

Device Presets

Device Presets introduce a faster and more flexible way to build rigs on Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini.

While a regular Preset stores your entire rig, a Device Preset stores the settings of an individual Virtual Device. This makes it possible to save your favourite amp, cab, overdrive, effect, or utility device settings and recall them in any rig without rebuilding them from scratch or copying them from another Preset.

CorOS 4.1.0 includes more than 2,000 Factory Device Presets created by the Neural DSP team. They provide ready-made starting points for exploring unfamiliar devices, comparing different sounds, and building new rigs faster. Additional Factory Device Presets will be added in future releases.

You can also save up to 32 User Device Presets for each supported Virtual Device. They can be renamed, deleted, recalled in any rig, or set as the default configuration whenever that device is added to the Grid.

Device Presets recall parameter values, bypass states, and expression pedal assignments while preserving the Scene assignments already programmed into your rig.

Any customized device defaults created before updating are automatically preserved as a User Device Preset named My Default. Each supported device also includes a Neural DSP Default Preset, allowing you to restore its original factory settings at any time.

Presets for I/O Settings and Global EQ

The Device Preset workflow is also available for I/O Settings and Global EQ.

You can save and recall configurations for different recording, rehearsal, and live environments, making it quicker to switch between setups without changing every parameter manually.

Double-tapping a Global EQ parameter restores the value defined by the current default Preset. To ensure that I/O Settings parameters can always be restored to their safe default values, the Set as Default feature is not available in this menu.

Eight new Virtual Devices

CorOS 4.1.0 introduces eight new Virtual Devices for all Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini users. Each device includes Factory Device Presets to help you begin exploring its sounds immediately.

Multivoicer (Pitch)

Add up to four pitch-shifted voices to your signal to create rich, layered harmonies and arpeggios. Its voicing system provides control over root notes, modes, chords, and individual voices, with support for both scale-based and MIDI-controlled harmonization.

Originally introduced in Archetype: Tim Henson X, Multivoicer is now available to every Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini user.

Glitch (Morph)

A granular delay engine that chops your signal into repeating patterns. It can add anything from subtle movement to completely broken, machine-like textures. 

Originally introduced in Archetype: Misha Mansoor X, Glitch is now available to every Quad Cortex and Quad Cortex mini user.

Ring Modulator (Morph)

Creates metallic, bell-like textures that can completely transform even the simplest phrase.

Arpeggio Delay (Delay)

A multi-tap delay in which each repeat can be assigned its own pitch and stereo position.

Arrange the delay voices to create melodic patterns, harmonized echoes, and evolving arpeggios that move around the stereo field.

Crystal Delay (Delay)

Creates bright, shimmering repeats that sit above the original signal.

Vintage Digital (Reverb)

Based on the BAM Space Generator™ by OTO Machines®, Vintage Digital captures the unmistakable character of vintage digital reverb processors.

It can create everything from tight room sounds to huge atmospheric spaces and includes a Freeze function for sustaining ambient textures.

Douglas Shining Comp (M) (Compressor)

Based on the Hyper Luminal™ by Darkglass Electronics®, Douglas Shining Comp is a versatile, studio-inspired compressor suitable for both subtle dynamic control and more pronounced compression.

Plugin Parametric-4

Plugin Parametric-4 provides another option for precise EQ shaping with a four-band parametric equalizer featuring high-pass and low-pass filters.

Dual Footswitch Assignments

Dual Footswitch Assignments introduce new performance possibilities in Stomp Mode.

You can now assign a supported device's secondary function to a separate footswitch, allowing it to be controlled independently from the device's bypass state.

For example, Vintage Digital can have bypass assigned to one footswitch and Freeze assigned to another, making it possible to sustain a chord while independently switching the reverb on or off.

Currently, Dual Footswitch Assignments are supported by the Vintage Digital reverb, Aeons Reverb from Archetype: Rabea X, and Laser from Archetype: Misha Mansoor X.

Redesigned Favorites and Recent menu

The Favorites and Recent menu has been redesigned with dedicated categories for:

• Presets

• Neural Captures

• Impulse Responses

Each category can store up to 64 items. Once the limit is reached, the oldest item in that category is automatically replaced by the newest one.

This makes it faster to find presets, Neural Captures, and impulse responses without navigating through a single combined list.

Additional changes

• Mono Synth has been renamed Overlord Synth. The device remains available to all users.

• The EQ+ROOM parameter layout has been updated for all Plugin Cab blocks.

• Plugin Presets created by John Petrucci now feature a custom Grid layout that exposes all Amp blocks, except in the "Beneath the Surface" Preset.

• Scenes have been added to all Plugin Presets created by John Petrucci to represent the sections of the songs they were designed for.

• All Darkglass® references have been replaced with Douglas across Presets, Scenes, Neural Captures, and Virtual Devices.

• Improved USB audio stability when using Quad Cortex or Quad Cortex mini as a USB audio interface. Previously, dropped audio packets from the host computer could cause persistent audio artifacts that sometimes required manually changing the audio buffer size to recover. This workaround is no longer necessary.

Fixed

• An issue where the hardware display could go blank when resetting settings from Cortex Control while the Master Volume overlay was active.

• An issue where dragging Impulse Responses or Neural Captures to a subfolder, then performing undo and redo actions, could cause the items to disappear.

• An issue that could cause audible pop noises when accessing Neural Capture Version 2 while INPUT 2 PHANTOM 48V was enabled.

• An issue where the Edit Device Name button could disappear from the Device Information menu on Quad Cortex mini after logging in or out via Cortex Control.

• An issue where the Rabea Atlas Delay could produce different delay times for SYNC NOTE L and SYNC NOTE R even when both parameters were set to the same value.

• An issue where the Cory Wong Delay-y-y could produce incorrect delay times when switching to Dual Mode after a Tempo change.

• An issue that could cause the Fortin® Nameless Amp to temporarily mute its output when switching Scenes.

• An issue where certain parameter value combinations on the Dumbbell ODS Amp could cause a temporary drop in its output volume.

• An issue where the Directory Multi-Select feature allowed items to be dropped into empty areas of the Neural Capture folder list.

• Various crash fixes, bug fixes, and UI refinements to improve overall CorOS stability and reliability.