Catalyst 60 with Quad Cortex

Hey everyone, I have a quick question about connecting a Catalyst 60 amp and Quad Cortex. I’m not sure if anyone is familiar with the Cat 60 and the power amp in setting of the effects loop but here goes.

If I want to use amps and effects from the QC with the Cat (and no cab IRs), would it be best to connect it this way?

Set Cat effects loop to Power Amp In

Guitar → QC Input

QC Send → Cat Return

I don’t want to use any of the effects or EQ from the Cat when using the QC, I basically just want to use the Cat as a speaker only. I’m pretty new to modeling and this setup only uses 2 cables which seems weird to me so I want to make sure it’s the correct method of connecting the two.

Thanks!

Hi @zombiedon and welcome to the community! You can definitely take a QC output directly to your amps FX return and bypass the preamp etc. You would obviously not need a cab block or IR etc., OR if you were interested in using the QC’s effects with the Catalyst Amp, you could configure using 4 cable method which is explained within the current QC manual. It sounds like you just want to use the power amp/cab of your Catalyst so your first solution will do exactly that and should work nicely. Depending on how much the Catalyst cabinet/speaker colors the tone, you may need to add low/hi cuts for EQ etc.

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Thanks for the quick response, I appreciate it!

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Just to be a little more specific:

In the configuration you’re describing–guitar into QC into the power amp input–you have a few options for the send from QC:

Output 3 or 4, which are the “standard” TS cable outputs
Send 1 or 2, which are the QC effects loop sends

Either option will work fine going straight into the power amp input. But if you’re going for 4-cable method, like MP_Mod said, you will need to configure your setup in a different way. Hope this helps.

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Thanks @DiffractionCircuit , is there any benefit to using the outputs over send in my setup? Or vice versa?

When I think effect loops I always think of send and return, and since I’m using return on my amp I just assumed I needed to use the send from the QC.

@zombiedon You should be totally fine either way, just keep an eye on your output levels with either set and make sure you’re not clipping before sending to the power amp.

Outputs 3 and 4 are line level, so your power amp input should take it just fine. Start small with the volume knob on the QC and work your way up. Cheers.

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