Darkglass / NeuralDSP moving into hardware???? UPDATE: The Quad Cortex

[Al Krow]

41 minutes ago, bjelkeman said:

Yup. So did I. And apparently 980 others joined us. Dipoug said in another forum that they have preorders for 98% of the first batch already. 

98% of the first batch of 1,000 already sold within 48 hours of launch! => They can invest with confidence in some really good sim software, which is only going to result in additional sales.

Wow - this thing really is going to take off! 

[CameronJ]

Yup. Preorders are now past the initial batch of 1000 and are now into “Tier 2” with an estimated shipping date of November (as opposed to September for Tier 1)

[Kev]

It's crazy, really.  Technically, first bit of hardware this company has made, no demos, no real sound samples and they have made 200K in deposits in a weekend.  Seems Doug wasn't content with dominating the bass effects world!

Long nine months await...

[cattytown]

2 hours ago, Kev said:

It's crazy, really.  Technically, first bit of hardware this company has made, no demos, no real sound samples and they have made 200K in deposits in a weekend.  

Wow!

[fretmeister]

13 hours ago, Kev said:

It's crazy, really.  Technically, first bit of hardware this company has made, no demos, no real sound samples and they have made 200K in deposits in a weekend.  Seems Doug wasn't content with dominating the bass effects world!

Long nine months await...

It does feel a bit like a Kickstarter approach.

I hope he manages to deliver the units on time.

[Kev]

6 hours ago, fretmeister said:

It does feel a bit like a Kickstarter approach.

I hope he manages to deliver the units on time.

I am confident he will, Darkglass usually ship out a fortnight or less after an announcement, so I am sure he has got the timing right on this if he's giving it nine months. 

Also, 1000 people have just paid a £170 refundable deposit on £1370 of gear, there will sadly almost certainly be dropouts.  Saying that, Tier 2 (November shipment) is filling up from what I hear as well...

Edited January 13, 2020 by Kev

[fretmeister]

Unfortunately it's not the right time for me to be spending money on toys so I couldn't join in.

I would have loved to though - even if to just annoy the church of line 6 on facebook.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love my Helix, but the reaction on the main facebook helix group has been quite pathetic from some users. It's not quite at Fractal levels of evangelism, but it's in danger of getting there.

Nobbers.

[fretmeister]

Live Q&A on now

 

 

 

[Cuzzie]

Didn’t catch it all but it was interesting what I did catch.

One of The questions I wanted to know was being able to handle multiple instruments can different guitarists have different controls or do you have to stomp on the same console 

You have to stomp and cross swords on the same console.

Otherwise - looks good - they should be proud

[fretmeister]

It made me a bit concerned.

At the beginning Doug said that the algorithms aren’t finished yet! That’s the reason for the”long” lead period.

 

In software development 9 months is nothing.

I hope I’m wrong but it feels like he’s launched a year early.

[EBS_freak]

Indeed. There's one thing showing off a product at NAMM. And one thing actually getting the product to market and in your hands. And that's before we even talk about software bugs and the like.

I'll let everybody ride the hype (which is what it is) before I take too much notice. I can see that it looks good... -it may even sound good (although the social media platforms are probably not best used to determine such things).

I've been caught up in this sort of game before.

Can people remember the Octavius Squeezer? I bought a X-Deep Black Dive Computer.... bit of a problem that the screen is now out of production (18 months after it's release) - and guess which bit is the common failure point. On top of that, inaccurate depth and temperature measurements. I'll let other people have the ballache before I play this type of game again.

[EBS_freak]

16 hours ago, fretmeister said:

It made me a bit concerned.

At the beginning Doug said that the algorithms aren’t finished yet! That’s the reason for the”long” lead period.

 

In software development 9 months is nothing.

I hope I’m wrong but it feels like he’s launched a year early.

Ahem... MasterFader 5.1 from Mackie for their DL mixers. I think it's more than a year overdue now.

[Owen]

2 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

Can people remember the Octavius Squeezer?

"This is going to be the best thing ever". It was not. 

[EBS_freak]

23 minutes ago, owen said:

"This is going to be the best thing ever". It was not. 

Yup. The Internet is a crazy place. Only takes a few people to hype a product and suddenly based on nothingness, it becomes the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Of course, given all the people that have signed up, not only have they got to get the product out... but they got to do before people start going "you've got my money, where is it?"

Any slight manufacturing mishaps and the company will be dead in the water with lots of angry punters. Again, seen it before far too many times.

Me? Negative? No... just realistic.

I'll be looking forwards to when I can hold it in my hands at a shop and have a proper nose and play (and of course, read about all the bugs being ironed out before I even consider going there... that's a lot of money to throw into a rapidly depreciating asset!)

[Al Krow]

I seem to recall that the Helix Floor came down in new price pretty sharpish within 12 months of launch.

There'll no doubt be a fair few QCs coming up used in 12 months' time. Well I'm hoping that'll be the case anyway 😉

Edited January 14, 2020 by Al Krow

[EBS_freak]

10 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I seem to recall that the Helix Floor came down in new price pretty sharpish within 12 months of launch.

There'll no doubt be a fair few QCs coming up used in 12 months' time. Well I'm hoping that'll be the case anyway 😉

Of course there won't. Have you not heard their plugins?

 

(Because plugins immediately make you a boss in manufacturing and physical distribution etc etc etc...)

[Bigwan]

Neural and Darkglass are sister companies so it's not like they're starting from scratch with regards to manufacture and distribution.

[EBS_freak]

That's a good starting point!

Nothing to worry about then!

[Al Krow]

I think you're being unduly pessimistic.

DG have established themselves as a top name in bass amplification. You don't do that in the space of a few years by being a mickey mouse outfit. 

Sure they will make mistakes along the way (hey who doesn't - remember that small company Apple nearly going bust? Or Sony not cutting it with Betamax?) and indeed their first gen cabs could be said to fall into that category. But it's ALWAYS great to see innovation and great design coming together, rather than folk sitting on a bye-gone era's laurels (Gibson anyone?).

Bravo Doug and DG, I say.

[EBS_freak]

What people do with their money is fine by me (as long as it’s legal)

Just my personal preference and experience. Not unduly pessimistic, just acting upon past lessons learned!

Yes I am interested. Yes it does look awesome.

[CameronJ]

Just leaving this here, particularly for @Al Krow:

[krispn]

That price though It’s eye watering!

Edited January 14, 2020 by krispn

[Kev]

1 hour ago, krispn said:

That price though It’s eye watering!

Is it though? Always the default response to anything Doug is involved with, but this is in direct competition with Fractal and Kemper and it’s cheaper than both?

[bjelkeman]

Yeah, not bass. But a lot of people have been wondering if the prototypes actually make a sound. The UI could be really ace though. 

 

 

[CameronJ]

Yeah that UI looks great! I’m really liking the rotary footswitches - the more I see them the more they make sense. Having so many immediately tweakable parameters (reducing the amount of menu diving) whilst simultaneously reducing the overall footprint of the unit and keeping the front panel clean/minimalist is a great design choice IMO.