I am an avid user of the Quad Cortex since summer of 2021. Have gigged well over 100 times with it with ZERO (non-user induced) issues. I use it in conjunction with a Morningstar MC8 PRO which is unstoppable (I’ve had a variety, I buy the PRO series as soon as they hit the market). Now that I have the 8, I can actually rack the QC and have it live in my backline rather than my pedalboard (reduces risk of accidental damage / water/drink spillage, and running balanced converted DI to guitar level from my pedalboard to backline has actually improved my overall sound). I’ve programmed enough visual feedback on the MC8 PRO where I don’t necessarily need to see the screen of the QC.
Unfortunately I have used every switch as a stomp to turn on/off the effects with the Morningstar controller. I still have 3 stomps that I use “analog” because I need them so often (gate, volume, and a clean boost) that I would just rather port digitally but:
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There is not more than 8 “stomps” because there are no customizable MIDI commands additionally to power blocks on/off, you have to assign it to a physical QC button. I do not want to use scenes to work around it I can change scenes with the stomp mode in effect which is why I got the Morningstar in the first place (way before there was Hybrid mode).
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Even if I do get the above, I wouldn’t be able to do a volume because there are only two MIDI expression options (the physical one can be mapped with said MIDI controller). I have a Wah and Whammy/other expression pedals but I need them assigned specifically to what they do, not change them on the fly. So the volume wouldn’t even be able to be used.
I have no choice but to DI send the signal from the rack (where my wireless is) to the front pedalboard with a DI box (in reverse) and then send it back via another DI (in normal direction) XLR and hook that up to the QC. So I literally need 3 DI boxes just to manage my setup. I would rather turn my pedalboard into two MIDI controllers, one to control gate/clean boost/volume and then the other set up the way I’ve always had it, and then I literally can just run from my rack wireless directly to my racked QC. Would love to see this overcome with using more MIDI CC messages that are assignable at will (understanding the additonal expression pedal might be daunting, the other should be as simple as just assigning that block’s power to an unused and unreserved MIDI CC with any value).
Other than that I am in love with this product…I have two, one is out for physical repair for weird impedance mismatching and the infamous “jackhammer” noise on power up (it was one of the preorder ones, they are still willing to fix 4-5 year old products!!!)