

Find the best pedalboard power supplies here If you're looking for wilder, space-cadet sounds, then - unlike with the Boss and Line 6 units - you'll have to look at expanding to at least a couple of extra pedals alongside this floorboard.Īlso, though it looks good on paper, the touchscreen is often more annoying to use than a regular joystick or arrow keys. Though the HeadRush has the normal array of effects you'd expect - vintage delays and choruses, modern versions of the same effects and some stereo variants - there's nothing truly outside-the-box here. Drives have rich higher-order harmonics and plenty of headroom, interacting in a startlingly amp-like way with the on-board amp models and performing excellently when being used to boost a real-life amp in the room.

With a huge amount of processing power on offer, the distortions on the HeadRush are really something to write home about.

Read the full Fractal Audio Systems FM3 review Full audio interface capability, and the ability to run directly into a PA in full FRFR style makes this a highly capable, extremely interesting package for the stage or the studio too.

The audio quality and overall sonic potential still remains in the elite tier, with more effects, amp models and other tools than you’ll realistically ever need, yet the smaller overall footprint makes it easy enough to sling in a backpack. This compact, full-featured multi-effects unit might still cost slightly north of $/£1k but it’s being positioned as a portable, all-in-one gigging and recording machine which could place it firmly on the radar of a new audience of tone-conscious players. With the Fractal Audio FM3, however, that might be set to change. With all that kudos, however, comes a huge price tag which puts paid to most people’s attraction. Read the full Neural DSP Quad Cortex reviewįractal Audio has always existed as this kind of aspirational brand, the stuff mere bedroom guitarists see their favourite pros swearing by. We’d find it nigh-on impossible to run through the full feature-set here, so be sure to check out our full review which is coming soon, but if you’re serious about guitar, and have the cash to support your aims, then the Neural DSP Quad Cortex should be front and centre of your shortlist. You can stack amps, effects and anything else as far as your imagination will let you. What you’ve got, essentially, is a floor-based supercomputer where every calculation, every process, every action and every interaction is designed purely to achieve the most advanced levels of tonal control and sonic fidelity there has ever been. A big claim, sure, but it’s easy to see why. But how much tweakability would be considered too much? Have we reached peak tweak? Not if you ask Neural DSP, whose Quad Cortex is, it claims, the most powerful floor modeler on the planet. All those glorious sounds, just waiting to be tweaked and changed. Part of the attraction to multi-effects units is the sheer potential for experimentation.
