Dialing in QC captures & input gain

Quad Cortex
1

Hi! I’m new to quad cortex, and i have some questions. (formerly an FM3 user)

i’m trying out some amp captures(from tonejunkie).

they sound nice, but only when i apply some tweakings.

i played through my guitar → QC → headphone monitor, and i got a sound that is a bit muddy, less edgy, even though i was using the provided preset.

i understand that the capture environment might vary with mine, different guitars, different playing styles, different monitors, … etc.

my first guess was that the output level of my guitar is low, since i have a 60s-style fender CS strat.

i added a clean boost at the first block of the preset, and it got better.

my question is, is this common? a common use case of amp captures? did i solve the problem the textbook way? are there any better ways?

another question is, i could solve the problem by tweaking gain or eqs of the capture block, but by my understanding, the capture is an exact “snapshot” of that exact setting so the tweaking might not work as expected hence i should avoid tweaking the parameters on the capture block itself.

then how should i approach? my expectation is: to tweak gain, put a booster at the front. to tweak eq, put an eq after. is this right?

as a newbie any sharing of your experiences will be grateful!

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There are several different ways you can approach it. What you described will work just fine.

While the capture IS just a snapshot of those particular settings and will not react like the actual device would when you adjust it, there’s no reason not to if the results sound OK to you. Using the Gain control on the capture shouldn’t be any different than putting a Gain block in front of the capture, so that might save you a block by adjusting the setting in the capture. The capture EQ frequencies are 120, 750 and 1000hz- so if those are the general ranges you need to tweak, adjusting them from the capture block itself should be OK. However, if you need frequencies outside those ranges, it’s probably best to use an EQ block outside of the capture.

Have you adjusted any settings in the I/O swipe-down (from top of screen) menu? The gain and impedance settings there affect how your instrument is hitting the front-end of the QC; higher settings may make all amps and captures HOTTER than intended, and lower settings can clean them up. Most users probably leave those settings at default, but you might want to experiment with them to see if you’re happy with it.

personally, I’ve never found any TJ captures that work for me- it might be better to work with some factory models or captures to see if they’re easier for you to dial in the tone you’re expecting.

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i did take a look on the I/O menu, but decided to leave it at default since i have other guitars with different pickup outputs. i’ll just control input gains(or gain block, or adjust amp gain) at each presets.

good to know that my approach was valid! also, the information about EQ frequencies of the captures were very useful. thanks!

guess i should spend some time with “basic” factory things as you advised. hopefully it will help me getting used to QC

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sounds like you’ve got good instincts for the QC. Most of us leave our I/O at defaults and adjust at the preset level too. Making ‘template presets’ for specific guitars can be a good workaround till (if?) NDSP gives us Instrument input presets .

I think one of the best tools for getting up to speed quickly is just trying a few factory presets and seeing how things are configured. You can pick up some gain-staging and signal chain tips from how they’re set up.

I also found these linked documents VERY useful at times:

and this forum and the Discord Server can be relied on for quick answers of course. Welcome to the QC community!

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wow they do look very useful! i’ll pay a visit to the Discord server soon, after spending some time reading and experimenting :slight_smile:

thanks again for the tips!

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