The Grid
Four rows, two paths, thirty-two slots. How routing actually works, and the one build worth learning first.
Rows 1 and 3 are one path, rows 2 and 4 are the other. Learn that pairing and half of this device's mysteries turn into arithmetic.
Rows, and the pairs they form
Neural's own wording is “four rows, each containing eight device block slots”. What that leaves out is the part that matters: the rows are not four independent lanes. They pair — and Neural's names for them actively mislead.
Neural call rows 1 and 3 “Path A” and rows 2 and 4 “Path B”, which reads as though 1 and 3 are joined to each other. They are not. Path A means MAIN row and Path B means SPLIT row: row 2 splits off row 1 and merges back into it, and row 4 does exactly the same for row 3.
So the pairs are 1-with-2 and 3-with-4. That is the unit the processing limits are enforced against, which is why the reverb rule is “one on the 1/2 pair and one on the 3/4 pair” rather than one per preset. Get this and the DSP lesson stops being arbitrary.
The build worth learning first
A parallel wet path is the standard reason to touch the Grid at all, and it solves a real problem: big ambience without the reverb eating your note definition.
- 01Build your amp and cab on row 1.
- 02Add a splitter after the cab, so signal continues along row 1 and also drops to row 2.
- 03Put the reverb and delay on row 2 only.
- 04Mix the rows back together, and set the wet row's level well below the dry row's.
Solo each row before you commit. A parallel path that is 3 dB hot sounds like a fine idea in a bedroom and like mud through a PA.
Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0How to get hereThe Grid is the Quad Cortex's home screen — it's what you see when a preset is loaded.
Row 1 is your main path
Signal enters at the left and runs right. Amp and cab go here. If you never touch a splitter, this row is your whole rig and the Quad Cortex behaves like an ordinary pedalboard.
The splitter sends a copy down
It takes what has reached this point on row 1 and drops a duplicate onto row 2. Both then run in parallel. The S icon lives at the far left of row 2 and cannot be deleted — only dragged.
Row 2 is the parallel path
Reverb and delay here sit alongside your dry signal instead of on top of it, so ambience gets big without smearing note definition. This is the single most common reason to touch the Grid at all.
The mixer merges it back
Row 2 rejoins row 1 here. Set the wet row well below the dry one — a parallel path 3 dB hot sounds fine in a bedroom and like mud through a PA.
Rows 3 and 4 are a second, unused pair
A whole other main-plus-split pair, empty in this preset. When the unit refuses a second reverb while the CPU meter reads a third, this is where it goes — the limit is one per pair, not one per preset.
Splitters and mixers will not go away
Rows 2 and 4 carry a splitter and a mixer that cannot be fully deleted. This confuses everyone once.
To clear a split: drag the S icon fully left and the M icon fully right, then exit to Grid view and delete the empty split rows. That is the whole procedure, and it is not discoverable.
You can also place up to two side-chain devices per pair of rows within the same preset.
Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0