For what it’s worth, I’m not happy about it, because I love the potential of this machine, but I can’t keep ordering QC after QC until I get one that isn’t broken.
This is what I sent to Sweetwater:
“After completing all possible troubleshooting, reading a million online threads and getting no help from Neural on the issue, I am deciding to return the Quad Cortex for a refund. After sending in what I thought was a defective unit and then experiencing the same exact issue with a second unit, it’s my understanding that the issue I’ve been experiencing is some preamp/noise floor/grounding issue inherent in the hardware of the QC. You can reference this small thread for more audio samples of what I’ve been experiencing: https://www.reddit.com/r/QuadCortex/comments/152s5ay/quad_cortex_noise_issues/. The recordings this gentlemen posted sound precisely how my unit sounds. I cannot for the life of me understand how Neural could manufacture a device that creates such noise, when apparently no other floor modeler on the market has this problem. Any exposed guitar tone from the QC in a studio environment would sound terrible. So either people who are using this device don’t notice or just don’t care. Or there are widespread manufacturing defects that did not affect every consumer. My friend brought his Line 6 Hx Stomp to my house and hooked it up to my studio setup: no noise at all, whatsoever. Crystal clear tones. This fact about the QC should really be made transparent to Sweetwater’s customers, as I’ve really wasted a significant amount of time testing out guitars, cables, locations, and researching endlessly to find a solution. My setup has been compromised for nearly 2 months now. If I’d have known about this caveat, I’d have purchased another unit. So I’m going to buy a fractal.”
(End of Email)
I’m pissed that Neural had nothing useful to say to me about a known issue. To me, it’s honestly sleezy business-dealing. I recognize this issue does not happen in every unit, but come on, I get two in a row that don’t work properly? Leading me to run in circles and think that something is wrong with the rest of my gear? My house’s electrical? RFI in my town? Anything but two units in a row being faulty. But there’s no other explanation. Again, I for the life of me wanted the QC to work. I tried very hard. But goddamn if I don’t have gripes with NDSP at this point. Kudos to you if you got a working one and are satisfied, I can honestly say I’m a little jealous.
Thanks to everyone on this forum who has been a help to me over the past couple months. Maybe at some point when the percentage of defective units drops below some apparently staggering percentage I’ll get one and have a good time.
Your link is blocked. I have no noise in mine which I know you probably don’t want to hear. Too many variables to try and discuss and you state you went in circles troubleshooting. Have you had a qualified electrician check your power and test for RF interference? Yes the QC grounds different from the Helix so comparing the two doesn’t tell you anything. The QC HAS to be connected to something that is seeing ground. Sorry you didn’t get it worked out I am really enjoying my QC and the capture I did of my own amp has become my goto.
I understand that the majority of these units don’t have issues. I can see from the perspective of someone who’s not had problems that it would be hard to imagine there being many units out there with problems. When did you purchase yours?
I have not had a qualified electrician check power and RFI, but the issue I was having persisted regardless of location and outboard gear. Don’t worry, I know the QC has to see ground. I cannot have an electrician on retainer for when gigging for a unit that grounds differently than every other modeler on the market that does not have this issue. I will correct myself and say that I did not go in circles troubleshooting. Rather, I hit a dead end. If Neural would have responded to my qualms admitting that it is a known issue (Sweetwater sales rep told me he’s been hearing about many Quads needing to be sent back, other forums have people getting defective ones and needing to send them in for repair), maybe this would be a different story. Maybe I’d exchange mine out for a third? Seems ridiculous. I can’t come to any other conclusion aside from there being a large amount of QCs being manufactured that are defective, because I’d be hard-pressed to know that people either aren’t hearing what I’m hearing, or if they are, that they don’t care.
Third option: the majority of users don’t have any noise issues.
I’m sorry that this happened to you, and you have every right to return your unit; but assuming that everyone just doesn’t care is not accurate. (I’m an electrical engineer–I care a lot about noise, but I don’t have issues with my QC in that regard.)
Right, I’m saying I’d have a hard time believing that to be the case. People do care and would notice. I don’t know what the odds are of me getting two bunk QCs in a row, but I don’t know what else to think. I really am bummed because I love everything about the QC. I just don’t know if I can keep exchanging them out until I get one that functions properly. Because there’s nothing left to troubleshoot but the unit itself. Different setups, locations, cables, gear, grounded power supply. How much can a guy go through, really? It’s been a source of much anxiety for me over the past couple months. I have an FM9 on the way - I suppose if there are noise problems I’ll be eating my words, but I’ll report back when I have that information.
I feel your frustration, but I do think You got two defective units. Even I got a defective unit at first and then exchanged it with sweetwater.
Possibly issue is if you did purchase it through sweetwater as a demo model……those are sometimes customer return units. The labeling of demo unit is kind of inaccurate since it’s not just a unit they demoed in a video or in their store. If that’s the case it’s possible you got two different units customers returned.
Neither one was purchased as a demo model. Both new from manufacturer. So it’s hard for me to believe I won’t get another defective unit if I were to exchange again. At some point I may try to buy one again, but for now I’m crossing my fingers that the FM9 won’t have the same issue when it gets here.
that’s a bummer and we’re all sorry to hear you’re going thru that amount of frustration over a piece of gear. Based on your experience, I think we’d all react the same.
It does seem like there was a stretch of time where there were a LOT more defective units being processed, perhaps a faulty batch of parts during the pandemic scrambles which didn’t show up till later. From my perspective there have been fewer of those lately, but for a while it was looking bad.
Hope you get things worked out to your satisfaction.
Thanks, man. That possibility at least adds a little clarity to the situation. Part of me does regret pulling the trigger on a used Fractal and not just exchanging the QC again, but I think me and the QC just need a break for some time lol. I think it would also be different had Neural been transparent and come out with these facts about defective units, because it would save people an enormous hassle in trying to troubleshoot their own gear. I realize there’s probably a lot of user error that can be fixed and NDSP doesn’t want people exchanging QCs at the drop of a hat, but there’s got to be some sort of middle ground here. Pretending it’s not an issue when I contact support and treating me like I haven’t done everything possible to ameliorate the situation does not sit well with me.
Unfortunately my unit has the exact same hissing issue, even with clean sounds. I thought it was just a preamp hum, but it seems like many others don’t have this problem. When playing live it’s not a big deal, but in the recording session it’s a huge headache for me.
Not sure if this will help, but here’s my experience (so far):
I get that hum with some of the presets that come with the QC. The one I remember clearly is the 2203 preset that comes close to the top of the list. I don’t get it with most other presets or captures. So perhaps you could try going outside the range that you are currently using and see if that’s the case. If so, then some preset tweaking may work.
I also used to get a lot of buzz on occasion - every strum was just a jangle of buzz on my monitors. I tracked that down to a USB issue with my Arturia audio interface - the solution was to turn it on after my Linux desktop had finished booting. A weird one, but that was the solution.
To be perfectly clear, I get the hiss/hum/buzz even when there are no patches activated, going straight into studio monitors or PA, all locations, all cables, all instruments.
The only time I got mystery noise was when someone was running a vacuum cleaner in another part of the house. Crazy electrical noise. That’s it, though. I’m assuming you’ve tried all kinds of power sources?
Input level at zero and the noise still occurs. Regardless, the output signal has to be boosted in order to get proper gain staging, and this just boosts the noise anyhow.
@BackBeatSound I feel the need to announce it so that people are aware of widespread issues that are not based on user error. I’m by no means talking shit here. I was a participant on this forum well before I decided to throw in the towel. Again, I’m frustrated, but I have no inherent bias toward the QC itself. I would love to have a working one at some point. I just think that there needs to be better documentation of known issues out there so people can potentially avoid what I went through in trying to deduce this, and I think Neural should be more transparent about it. That’s all.
I think you will find the QC users to be extremely meticulous about their sound that’s why they use the QC. Sorry you are having problems but Mine works great no buzz. QC just keeps getting better and better. Now if they would just get the arch types working on QC I would be happy!
Even with out the Arch Types the QC is just an amazing piece of equipment.