Drive pedals in front of QC or in the Fx loop?

Quad Cortex
,
1

Hi, I have tried both ways, I think the drive pedals in the fx loop sounds much better than in front of the QC, I am not quit sure if it is the volume difference, because the drive pedals’ volume in the fx loop are much louder than in front of the QC.

Plz let me know what you think, thanks

2

Recently did a tour where I used a distortion in the fx loop and it did sound better than when it was in front of the QC. Just happened to figure that out from trying various setups before the tour. Honestly curious if there’s a reason why.

Normally I use the QC for guitar live and am fine with the distortion from either the amp or a block within the unit. But, when using it for bass I found the distortions within the unit aren’t that great unless you want a slightly overdriven tone. Anyways, a darkglass pedal in the effects loop (not the QC input) did the trick.

1 Like
3

It might be because of the boost in dB that the FX loop gives, if I recall correctly it’s 4.5 dB on the send side, pushing the drive pedals, almost like having a boost pedal before them. Try setting -4.5 in the I/O page for the send output and see if it makes any difference.

I personally tried my pedals in the FX loop, but didn’t like them. I’ve already set the levels of the send correctly, but considering my pedalboard mostly has fuzzes, in the FX loop, they lose the impedance response of the pickups in the front, gaining some unnecessary high frequencies. Particularly bad was the Fuzz Factory, losing all the noises, sputter, and curses.

1 Like
4

I just check the I/O for both send and return from the fx loop, they are 0 dB level, um, that’s interesting. Because I also agree that the drive pedals in the fx loop sound much louder, but the level settings are 0 dB.

5

I’m aware of the level difference in the fx loops, and made sure that wasn’t influencing the decision. I could see why a fuzz that relies on impedance would be weird, and you’d put it elsewhere in the chain.

Can’t really explain why it was better, but just happened to work that way

1 Like
6

I don’t know if it’s a bug, or a feature for line in pedals, but the boost it’s when set to zero. To achieve unit level on pedal you have to set the send level to -4.5 dB, as it says in this topic.