Hello QC users, after two years of ownership, still feeling frustrated with downloading Presets from fellow users. Every preset that I download sounds terribly dull and lacks any high-end quality whatsoever. I follow people like Corey Wong and others on YouTube and their presets sound better coming through my TV than when I download their presets onto my quad cortex. I know my way around the QC pretty well but can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong. Any suggestions how to to solve this problem would greatly be appreciated. Thanks.
Maybe the speaker or headphones you are using is different then theirs.
Even using my DAW to studio monitors, using both powered and unpowered head phones or a powered FRFR. The results are the same? My friend who has a QC has the same problem. Thanks for responding
Check your input impedance setting. If it’s too low, you could get loss of high end.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I’ve already tried that with little success. I’ve owned the QC for a couple of years and have gone through about every iteration I can think of. I’m only using the amps that I have profiled myself. Any of the stock presets or the presets from QC website sound dull and muted. If you don’t mind try downloading some of Cory Wong‘s presets and tell me if it sounds like a real chimmey fender twin? Both my friend and myself have had the same lack luster results and I’m wondering if anyone else is having the same problem? Thanks again. Trying
Give me an example of a preset you think sounds dull and I’ll check it out.
Hi Jim, I’ve owned and sold a lot of processors. Generally I find most or all the factory presets sound terrible especially the clean tones like a Fender, or Vox. I guess I’m picky, but not deaf, haha! Anyway, I’m good for now that I know how to correctly use a global EQ.
Hello, I have exactly the same problem. Both the factory presets and the downloads sound very bad. I have FRFR laney112, line6 catalyst, for headphones, they all sound equally bad.
I have partly solved it with EQ… I placed 2 EQs in series after the cab.
First I place the Parametric-8, filtering all frequencies below 100Hz and above 5.5 Khz… I also use this filter to eliminate annoying noises (frequency couplings, resonances, etc.)
The second filter was the graphic-9, where I lowered almost everything to -12db below 500Hz, and highlighted the 1khz and 2khz frequencies (+4db).
You could try this preset and tell me (buscame como cokenavarro en la cloud)… I don’t know why I have to add so much filter to make it sound more or less good.
Hi Jorge, I’ve tried about every processor on the market and returned them all because their factory presets sound terrible. I purchased the QC believing in all their advertising hype but was gravely disappointed with their presets and their downloads. However, I decided to stick with the QC because it was easy to use and I hoped their presets would get better, unfortunately they have it. For the most part, I have profiled my vintage amps and have done OK with those. Through help of another QC user, he suggested I worked on the global EQ, and that has helped. I have attached a picture of my settings which you’re welcome to try and hopefully it will help with your overall sound. Good luck, Victor.
I am having the same issue as Gtrvic53
Regarding your preset: IMO there a better alternatives than cab IR: 412 CA Stand OS A V30 01 (M).
I would look at York Audio for some great Mesa cab IRs etc.
I actually thought the factory presets were better than most and sound great with the proper monitoring in place but Global EQ was a life changer for me. Wish we could save presets for different GEQ settings but that will probably come along in a future update.
I tried your preset. Are you attempting a clean tone, high-gain or in between? If going for high gain, you are using a clean amp then adding distortion/gain. Nothing wrong with that but not what I would use for high-gain stuff. The 2nd EQ block is killing the tone IMO. That may be the tone you are after but you might have better luck removing the cab/EQ blocks and replace with the IR loader and add your low/hi cuts there. Again, it depends on what tone you are looking for etc. Plus that would allow you to free up some DSP while making your preset easier to work with.
I know this is an old thread but instead of starting a duplicate I’m replying on it as I’ve had the same issue for a very long time. Last night I upgraded my Morgan amp suite to the X version and still getting this issue.
issue: default tone on neural dsp plugins and quad cortex sound dull and muddy. I find myself needing to boost a lot of high end and cut a lot of low end.
Context: I’m a big ndsp fan owning many plugins and a QC since early 2022. It’s been my main thing for years. Play live through a laney frfr, at home through Adams monitors and various studio headphones. I play mostly rock and blues stuff so even though a particular plugin may be metal based I use it for lesser gain, Nolly and Rebea being my favs. In QC I’m now using mostly pcom blocks from these. I play a balagure thicket HH with maple neck, fender tele, chapman ml3 traditional with P90s all of which are not known for being bassy guitars. All guitars have stainless frets and I use elixir bright strings, and playing unplugged they sound really bright and zingy. Over the years I played almost all Marshall tube amps like JVM, JCM 2000, 900 and others, and other modellers from zoom, boss, line 6 and struggled with too much treble. With my QC I Tried different IRs from GGD, ownhammer, York and found some success with IRS from a company called tone factor.
I’ve experimented with the impedance setting in qc, tried a di box tried different leads and interfaces like the RME babyface. But… and here’s my issue I find myself needing to do extreme things to get the core amp sound to the level it treble I’d expect.
I’m thinking it’s my hearing so got that tested and it’s fine and listening to music with flat eq settings is no issue.
I need to try another plugin brand I think.
Has any had such issues where basically all amps moddled (captured) in ndsp products need major work to boost high end to get them sounding normal.
thanks.
Hello.. I have to say I’m the opposite of this issue and I’m generally cutting more treble or highend out on the QC or the plugins…in general I cut the 16 8 kHz completely and then 65hz… And on the other a mate of mine is aggressive with pushing the eq settings on the amp and equilizer and more treble and when I listen to him play I really like alot of his presets so we exchange and when I try and use his preset and feel like this is a trebly mess… The factory presets are fairly bland on the QC and plugins I kinda wish I could delete them on the QC but ye I don’t need to use them anyway… My opinion you should leave the input on the QC at 0.0db that’s were I like to leave it..
On the plugin end of things using the QC as interface I leave the input the same…I think we all hear very different to each other in alot of situations and even if you feel like you have to apply aggressive settings to get the sound you want, it’s a so be it!!! type of thing 
I’d be more concerned if you can’t achieve a tone you like atal… I bought the rabea plugin thinking there would be nice cleans from what I read I don’t listen to him but alot of peeps said a great plugin for cleans but for me it’s a thin sounding trebly plugin…
Thanks for chiming in gtarguy and your right there if you can get the sound you like who cares what settings your using. I was concerned I was missing some special setting or something. I’m 100% going to try another plugin brand though just to peek over the fence.
Thanks
I wasnt saying not to try anything else… You might prefer or it gets you were want faster or you just prefer there sounds.. I did try the fractal plugin I think it was all Fender amps and personally didn’t like the sounds and the old looking ui… But it’s good to try stuff out and I hope you find your happy place with whatever you try