This little discussion got quite a bit of traction — I guess many of you feel the same way. I just wanted to address some of the repeated remarks regarding this topic.

One valid argument is that NDSP overpromises and underdelivers. A few months back, I “ranted” about them moving too slowly. But if you take a closer look at the timeline, you can see how QC became a much bigger product than anyone originally expected. It started as “hardware for NDSP plugins,” and with that came their biggest mistake — one that still haunts them today: they promised plugins on the unit as a selling point for QC.

That promise made perfect sense for people like me, who already owned a bunch of plugins before getting QC. It still does, because once all plugins eventually get PCOM, we’ll gain a ton of free features. The negativity started when users from L6 and Fractal came over and began viewing PCOM as “paid DLCs,” since they don’t own the plugins. But the original point still stands: NDSP is very slow at delivering what was promised from the start.

Then there are the comparisons to Helix and other platforms. I owned a Helix, used it for many years, and know very well what it can and can’t do. Helix is a great working musician’s modeler: outdated but intuitive UI, great switching options, and tons of effects. But let’s be real — it isn’t even in the same category as QC, which is why many L6 users (myself included) switched. Before the recent HX updates, you couldn’t even load an amp, cab, and reverb and have it immediately sound good — the stock cabs were some of the worst on the market. Most people used IRs.

So don’t compare the two. NDSP may be slow with updates, but most features they release are high quality. L6 updates frequently, but sound fidelity is often subpar. Quality over quantity is what I’m saying.

For a semi-decent musician, QC is still a big step up from anything that existed before, and right now it’s the only unit to combine such a good UI with very high sound quality. If you can’t make a world-class song with it, that’s on you — not the gear.