Duplicating my Helix gig patch

Quad Cortex
1

I got my QC on Friday and got my goto Helix patch recreated today. I like to use stomp mode to mix and match effects depending on the song and how I’m hearing the situation at the moment. So I tend to use one Helix patch most of the night, only changing when the song needs something unusual. That results in a patch with quite a few effects and needs a lot of footswitches. Snapshots/scenes don’t work as well because you can’t combine scenes, you only get one at a time.

The signal path in my most used preset looks something like:

guitar > wah > fuzz  > mutron filter > compressor > phasor > pre-chorus (before distortion) > flanger > distortion > drive > overdrive >
amp > cab >
chorus (after distortion) > harmonic tremolo > Leslie > slapback | delay > reverb > EQ > FRFR

The core of my Helix clean tone is Litigator and an IR going into Powercab112+ or Powercab212 depending on the gig. For QC I used CA 1Star Clean 100W Tweed
and 212 CA Recto V30 ’98. This compared really well with the Helix clean tone, but was a bit cleaner (Litigator really never completely cleans up), wasn’t quite as scooped, and seemed to be more articulate and clearer. Helix has a brightness that we’re always trying to get rid of with hi cuts. QC has a brightness that seems to sound smoother, more musical, and more like a glassy Fender amp.

For overdrive, I use multiple distortion blocks gain staged similar to John Mayer and Jeff McErlain. In QC I used Obsessive Drive for distortion, Chief BD2 for a clean boost into the Green 808 for overdrive. The QC distortion effects aren’t as flexible as Helix, but they seem to sound more musical. In particular the Green 808 didn’t sound as compressed as Helix Scream 808. Again, maybe its how the high end in QC seems to hold up while it gets harsh in Helix. I had no problem reproducing my Helix gain staging in QC and was very happy with the result.

For other blocks I found:

  • The QC Flanger sounded more musical than Helix, and I might use it more
  • The QC Leslie is much better, a nice surprise
  • The QC cab model seemed to be great and I had no desire to move my preferred IR from Helix

I did encounter some QC issues:

  1. I use a Jesse Davey King Tone Silicon Fuzz, I didn’t connect with any of the fuzz blocks in Helix. The King Tone Fuzz QC capture I created wasn’t usable, it had way too much high end fizz. Looks like fuzz is hard to model or capture in the digital domain. I’ll stick with using the external pedal.
  2. QC has no support for a switch in an expression pedal, so I’m going to use a separate analog Wah pedal
  3. There’s no stereo compressor to put at the end of the signal chain. I decided leave it out, it’s not really needed
  4. There’s no way to turn off slapback and turn on long delay with a single footswitch without using a scene, and that’s too limiting. I found I could leave the slapback on all the time as long as it wasn’t too prominent. I really hope Neural DSP extends the stomp and MIDI capabilities.
  5. QC does not auto detect stereo/mono connections so I have to program it into two stereo vs. mono patches.
  6. Helix UniVibe, Phaser, all poly effects, chorus were better. If I need any of them with QC, I’ll use an HX Effects.

Bottom line, I had no problem replicating my Helix Litigator gig patch in QC, and will not hesitate to use it next gig.

1 Like
2

FWIW I’m using a Mission SP-1 and the toe switch works just fine. That function was added with the most recent update, so your new QC may not have that?

3

Oh! That update also included the ability to invert the range of a cc (expression pedal or latching switch, not cc), so you should be able to turn a block off while simultaneously turning another on. I’m using this to toggle between a Gain block and wah block, so its like a vol pedal at the front of the chain by default, then the toe switch turns the vol pedal off and wah on.

4

I was hoping to avoid MIDI, keep the floor simple. I’d prefer to be able to put multiple things on the same stomp switch.

5

No MIDI involved…just a latching switch…my bad–I see that I confused the issue by using “cc” instead of expression pedal. Exposing myself as someone who sometimes knows enough to be dangerous rather than helpful! LOL

So, to clarify, if you are running CorOS 1.1.0, you CAN trigger multiple things from a latching switch.

I’ve corrected that post.

6

But this only work on express switches, not stomp switches, right? I need this on a stomp switch for example to turn off the slapback delay (which is usually always on) when I turn on the long delay. Another example is to turn off one overdrive and turn another on with one switch to swap overdrives.

7

I don’t know what an express switch is, but this is a plain analog switch. In my preset it turns off the gain pedal and simultaneously turns on the wah and vice versa.

9

So here’s the setting for the switch (expression 2) for the gain pedal:

IMG_6434
IMG_64341920×836 124 KB

And this is the switch (expression 2) setting for the wah

IMG_6435 2
IMG_6435 21920×850 129 KB

ANd this is the switch

Switch
Switch1920×1502 172 KB

10

An expression switch is as you showed - a switch under the expression pedal that QC can detect. As you pointed out, you can do more with these switches than you can with the QC stomp switches. That’s the limitation I want to get around. Said another way, I want to switch between slapback and long delay using a QC stomp switch, not an expression pedal switch.

11

Ooooohhhh. I see. That was called “x-y switching” in my Fractal stuff. Thanks and sorry it took me so long to understand!!!

12

No problem, its great to collaborate. I got a Mission Engineering SP-1 today and hooked it up. I found the Wah auto bypass with Heel-Toe (inverted so the pedal is all the way down for off) works so well I didn’t bother with the bypass switch. That left the switch available for changing the Leslie speed.

So far QC is looking very good.

13

Agreed on all points!

And I really like these Mission pedals, despite their weight compared to others. They feel so much like “real” wahs and volume pedals. FWIW, mine was an EP-1. I added a 4PDT switch to make it an SP-1. I have been using SP-1s in my AX8 and FX8 rigs for several years.