devices · Nano Cortex · reference · signal chain
signal chain
signal chain · nano (8 slots)
- Guitar in
- 1L / 2R
Mono until the IR Loader, stereo after it. Nothing in this chain can be reordered.
Neural Capture
Your amp. It holds one capture at a time, and that is a hard limit.
There are no amp models here, only captures. Only one can be active per preset, so you cannot stack a captured drive pedal into a captured amp. Reviewers cite this restriction when withholding a perfect score.
Nano Cortex FAQ · Guitar.com review · Guitar.com, NanOS 2.0This slot holds a Neural Capture, chosen by turning Footswitch I. There is no list of devices because there are no amp models—only captures.
The rules
limits that feel like bugs
- Nano Cortex User Manual 2.2.0 · Nano Cortex FAQ
The chain order is fixed. Nothing can be rearranged, and there is no effects loop.
- Nano Cortex FAQ · Nano Cortex device list
Mono in, stereo out. The input and the capture block are mono, and stereo begins at the IR Loader. Effects marked (ST) are the stereo versions and only exist in the post slots.
- Guitar.com review
One capture per preset. You cannot run a captured pedal into a captured amp on the device.
- Nano Cortex device list · Nano Cortex User Manual 2.2.0
Five effect slots plus the fixed gate. Neural DSP publishes no DSP meter and no per-block cost. The limit is the slot count, not a processing budget.
- Nano Cortex device list · Premier Guitar, NanOS 2.0 · Guitar.com, NanOS 2.0
Modulation, delay and reverb are each locked to one specific post slot, so you cannot put chorus after delay, or run two delays.
- NanOS 2.0.0 release notes · Sound On Sound, NanOS 2.0 & 2.1
Before NanOS 2.0.0 in April 2025 the slots were hard-wired with no device choice at all. Any tutorial older than that describes a different pedal.
If a capture already contains a mic'd cabinet, enabling the IR Loader for its low- and high-cut doubles the cab. Put a Low-High Cut EQ in a post slot instead. It is simpler and better than capturing a deliberately flat IR for the job.
Slot legality
14 categoriesWhat can go where
EQ is the only category you can put anywhere. Everything else is constrained, and three categories are locked to a single slot.
| Category | Allowed in |
|---|---|
| Input Gate | Fixed, first in chain |
| utility | Either pre slot |
| doubler | Post-FX 1 only |
| pitch | Pre-FX 1 only |
| guitar overdrive | Either pre slot |
| Bass overdrive | Either pre slot |
| wah | Either pre slot |
| filter | Either pre slot |
| compressor (mono) | Either pre slot |
| compressor (stereo) | Any post slot |
| EQ | Any pre or post slot |
| modulation | Post-FX 1 only |
| delay | Post-FX 2 only |
| Reverb | Post-FX 3 only |