I’d love to see a proper Marshall ShredMaster distortion model added to the Quad Cortex.
There are some user Neural Captures of the ShredMaster on Cortex Cloud, and after trying several of them I’ve been genuinely impressed by how distinctive this pedal sounds. I have also tried to recreate the same character using the drive/distortion models and EQ options currently available on the Quad Cortex, but I haven’t been able to get particularly close.
The ShredMaster occupies a very specific territory: a big and powerful distortion with substantial low-end weight, a distinctive grain and compression, excellent chord definition, and especially the unusual behaviour of its Contour control. It does not simply sound like another Marshall-in-a-box or like a RAT/Guv’nor-style distortion.
Captures are useful, but a native model would be much more valuable, because we could interact with all of the original controls:
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Gain
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Bass
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Contour
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Treble
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Volume
That would allow the pedal to be adapted properly to different guitars, amps and cabinets instead of being tied to the settings used when a capture was made.
It is also a historically important alternative-rock distortion, particularly associated with Jonny Greenwood / Radiohead, and it represents a sound that I don’t think is currently covered particularly well by the native Quad Cortex drive collection.
Ideally, I would love to see a model based on an original 1990s Marshall ShredMaster, rather than simply approximating it with another Marshall drive.
Thanks for considering it.