Neural DSP

Last updated
Neural DSP Technologies
Industry Amplification
Founded2017;8 years ago (2017)
FoundersDouglas Castro, Francisco Cresp [1]
Headquarters
Helsinki
,
Finland [2]
Products Digital amplifier modelers
Website neuraldsp.com

Neural DSP Technologies is a Finnish audio equipment manufacturer founded in 2017 by Douglas Castro and Francisco Cresp. Headquartered in Punavuori, Helsinki, the company is best known for its flagship guitar amp modeler, the Quad Cortex, and for its audio plug-ins that create computer-based virtual amplifier and effects modelling suites. [3] The company is considered a leading developer of guitar signal processing technology. [4]

Contents

History

In 2016, Douglas Castro, the founder of bass guitar equipment company Darkglass, was approached by employee Francisco Cresp about creating an audio plug-in for the company. Castro was interested, and the pair—both Chilean immigrants in Helsinki [5] —ultimately decided to develop a range of plug-ins for both bass and guitar, in addition to a potential modeler. However, they chose to develop products as a new company to preserve Darkglass' bass-oriented brand identity. [6]

Neural DSP began recruiting designers in late 2017 and early 2018, and in that April released the "Darkglass Ultra" plug-in, followed in September by the "Fortin Nameless," [6] which was the company's first major success. [2] The "Archetype" audio plug-in series was co-developed with high-profile players such as Tim Henson, Cory Wong, and Plini. [7] The public profile these plug-ins created for Neural DSP allowed the company to pursue the creation of its companion hardware device, the Quad Cortex. With companies like Fractal and Universal Audio having achieved great levels of accuracy in recreating amp tones, Neural emphasized significantly improving the user experience as the route to the Cortex's success. [6] Neural soon ran into the slow and expensive process of programming numerous DSPs at the same time. To expedite the process, they utilized AI machine learning, with the assistance of Aalto University's DSP program. [8] Castro later described the Quad Cortex's development process as initially "a black hole of money." [7] Production was then complicated by supply chain shortages resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the company at risk of closing, despite millions of dollars in investment. [7]

The Quad Cortex debuted at NAMM 2020 to acclaim. Guitar World observed that such a young company developing as advanced a modeler as the Quad Cortex "flip[ped] the market on its head," and dubbed it the new "gold standard" in amp modeling. [9] By the following year, Neural's revenue was split equally between software and hardware. [7] Castro was subsequently named Finland's 2022 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year, [7] while the following year Castro and Cresp were recognized by Finnish President Sauli Niinistö for Neural DSP's success on the international market. [1]

In 2024, Neural revealed they had developed a robot—known as a Telemetric Inductive Nodal Actuator, or TINA—that manually controls an amplifier being modeled and records and annotates the results to facilitate audio processing, in a combination of robotic data collection and machine learning. The company has used TINA in the development of all its products, claiming its use removes human bias for greater accuracy, while greatly accelerating the speed at which DSPs are created. Castro and Cresp credited TINA with the company's ability to make up ground compared to their more established competitors. [9]

Products

Plug-ins

Neural DSP designs both amplifier series plug-ins and signature plug-ins for individual artists. Artists with signature plug-ins include Henson, Wong, Plini, Gojira, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, [10] and John Petrucci of Dream Theater. [11]

Quad Cortex

Upon its release in 2020, Neural DSP claimed the Quad Cortex was the most powerful floor modeler on the market, with 2 GHz in digital signal processing power via four SHARC+ processors. The Cortex shipped with 50 available guitar and bass amp models, 70 effects, and a thousand impulse responses. It also had features competitors like the Fractal Axe-FX and the Line 6 Helix floor modelers did not, like a touch screen interface, Wifi connectivity, and footswitches that combine stomp functionality with rotary actuators. [3] The Cortex also has companion software that allows users to "capture," or digitally recreate, their own analog guitar gear and share it with other users via the Cortex Cloud. [12]

Nano Cortex

Neural DSP released its second hardware product, the Nano Cortex, in late 2024. The Nano Cortex represents a smaller-format offering of much of the Quad Cortex's technology, via a simpler interface with a fixed signal chain and standardized control set, while notably omitting any kind of display. The company has stated they envisioned the Nano Cortex functioning as an "amp in a box" or as a pedal platform for use with a player's distortion pedals. [13]

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 "President Niinistö grants internationalization awards to successful Finnish companies". helsinkitimes.fi. Helsinki Times. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  2. 1 2 Edwards, Lewis Noke. "Expanding neural pathways: Neural DSP and their Quad Cortex". mixdownmag.com. Mixdown Magazine. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  3. 1 2 Vinnicombe, Chris. "Neural DSP Quad Cortex review: is this the game-changing guitar product of the decade so far?". guitar.com. Guitar Magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  4. ↑ Sattler, Steve. "INDUSTRY PROFILE: NEURAL DSP'S DOUGLAS CASTRO & FRANCISCO CRESP". musicconnection.com. Music Connection Magazine. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  5. ↑ "Riding on soundwaves: two entrepreneurs turned their passion into business and now Neural DSP is democratising access to world-class sound". paaomasijoittajat.fi. Paaomasijoittajat. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 Horsley, Jonathan. "Neural DSP CEO Doug Castro interview: "What I felt, until Quad Cortex came around, is that there was a false dichotomy in terms of power and usability"". musicradar.com. Music Radar. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Horsley, Jonathan. "Neural DSP supremo Doug Castro named Finland's 2022 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year". musicradar.com. Music Radar. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  8. ↑ Breathnach, Cillian. ""We could spend years trying to understand them on a physics level, or we could automate it": Neural DSP's Doug Castro on how machine learning can surpass human understanding of amplifiers". guitar.com. Guitar Magazine. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  9. 1 2 Owen, Matt. ""Fender mentioned that for the Tone Master Pro it takes about 3 months to model a channel. With TINA, we've got that down to hours": How Neural DSP changed the digital guitar gear game with the help of a robot called TINA". guitarworld.com. Guitar World. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  10. ↑ Cillian, Breathnach. "Neural DSP Archetype: Tom Morello – despite all the Rage, it's a bit of a cage". guitar.com. Guitar Magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  11. ↑ Breathnach, Cillian. "Neural DSP announces Archetype: Petrucci". guitar.com. Guitar Magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  12. ↑ "How Neural DSP's Quad Cortex can change the way music is released". guitar.com. Guitar Magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  13. ↑ Breathnach, Cillian. "Neural DSP's Doug Castro and Francisco Cresp on the Nano Cortex, and 'those' marketing videos". guitar.com. Guitar Magazine. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
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