There are millions of videos about the QC on YouTube, but it is really strange: There is absolutely nothing about the EQs of the Quad Cortex. Sometimes something in the context of preset building, but that’s it. I am just looking for some information/tutorials about the EQs in the QC because I am not such a trained person in this field.
2 Likes
Not sure what specifically you are looking for here. The QC supports graphic, low/high cut and parametric EQ’s. It would be difficult to explain how each works (QC or anywhere) etc., I would suggest searching YouTube for tutorials on each type of EQ which can be applied to DAWs and or other gear as well. The more knowledge you have with various EQ types, the better you will become at how/when to apply and what your expectations are with using the various types.
Another method to understand EQ’s and how they work, where they are applied etc., is to analyze other presets and determine what they are doing.
This might be a good start for you:
2 Likes
seems like I’ve seen quite a few posts on the subject, but not videos per se. I’ll see if I can scare some up.
I remember tips like using EQs first in the chain to process your DI guitar before it hits anything and how that can tighten up your sound before processing it and having to remove things later.
I was told some time ago that NDSP was working on some official, in-depth videos but all I’ve seen are update demos mostly. I know the staff changed a while back, so many there are still new tutorials coming eventually. Really need to update the official video channels, most of it is obsolete now
1 Like
I have seen that DI Guitar Video. It is the only one I could found and it is let’s say dealing with a very specific subject. I am just looking for beginner friendly EQ Guides related to the QC. In most cases the problem with the QC is rather option paralysis, but in this case there is NADA… 
Thank you for your advice and the video links. I think we are living in a world where everything is explained a million times, (Karl Valentin once said: Everything has already been said, only not by everyone. 
) but there seem to be some exceptions - like EQs on the QC.
1 Like
I have made some tutorials on my YouTube channel discussing various topics on the QC, but nothing on EQ…I feel that it is a subject that varies widely from user to user as not only WHAT is in the grid will change the sound, but everything from the guitar down to how you physically play the instrument has a role.
Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all method for EQ. My advice would be to put a simple EQ block in a preset that you currently like the sound of and just mess around with the frequency knobs. I.E. literally cut/boost ONE frequency at a time and ask yourself “Do I like this? How did it change my sound? Did it add to or take away things I like about my sound already?”
Doing this process, you will train your ear and it becomes useful in live playing (e.g saying to the monitor tech “I need a 2db boost of 2K for my guitar”)
Goes without saying, but you should be doing this tweaking on FLAT response monitors or the like…a guitar cab will not be a true representation of the sound going to a PA for example.
That being said, I’ll see if I can put some sort of video together on EQ, although it would have to be a fairly general one to boot.
2 Likes
It would be nice if we would have at least for every EQ type of the QC one tutorial which explains how to use it to improve a clean/and or distorted guitar tone.
TBH, this is not a QC-specific topic - essentially, it’s about how to use EQ to shape your tone. The QC just provides “typical” EQ types that you would also use in the “hardware” world to shape your tone. There’s tons of content on the interweb on how to use EQ pedals with your guitar:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=using+eq+pedals+with+guitar
Just some pointers on this: there are two main areas to use an EQ (there are tons more, but start with these two):
-
BEFORE the amp: shape the tone of your guitar going into the amp to affect the way it overdrives - typically used for driven / distorted tones. Clean out the low end to avoid boominess / flubbiness, boost the mids to get the guitar to cut through the mix better, etc.
-
AFTER the amp and cab: “polish” the sound to reduce any “nasty” frequencies resulting from the amp/cab chain or to increase “pleasing” frequencies, e.g. give the sound more “muscle” by boosting lower mids, give it more “shine” by boosting the high frequencies, or avoid “piercing” sounds resulting from your cab/mic combination.
Before the amp, typically an EQ pedal like the Boss GE-7 is used - it has dedicated EQ bands that are already tuned to the typical frequencies you’ll want to influence on a guitar. Closest to this would be the “Graphic 9” EQ on the QC. Use the faders to reduce or boost frequencies / frequency ranges. Work your way through the faders individually to see what they do to your guitar sound. Some ideas on using a graphic EQ pedal: see here.
After the amp: typically, you’ll use parametric EQs there to zero in on the frequencies you want to boost / attenuate. But of course, no one is forbidding you to use a graphic EQ there - it’s just easier to fine-tune once you got the hang of using a parametric EQ.
So really, it’s about learning to use EQ in your guitar sound - not so much QC-specific. The QC EQ models just allow you to pick the EQ type that works best in your specific workflow - again, I’d recommend starting out with a graphic EQ before the amp and a parametric one (start with the Parametric 3) after the amp/cab. Learn how to use EQ in general, then the QC models will make more sense.
Cheers,
Torsten
5 Likes
Thank you! I got some homework to do 
I always think that the first stop for EQ should be the amp emulation. I mostly use the Matt Schofield method for dialling in amp EQ (he explained it on That Pedal Show - search it). It seems very simple but it works for me. I might add separate EQ, particularly for Low Cut if the bass is too boomy, but it’s often not necessary.
I have commented a couple of times on Jason Sadites videos (on Helix). In one he set the Bass on the amp to 10, and then added a load of EQ to get rid of all the bass. A couple of weeks later he did another video setting a very high level of amp bass, and again needed EQ blocks to get rid of it. I queried why he would do this both times, but he never responded.
Just as a sidenote. I am not not a big tone tweaker. Basically I need sometimes more warmth and low end because I have a Neck Single Coil Pickup and sometimes I want to fake a Humbucker Neck Sound. I got an Eventide H90 which has a preset called “Leo to Les” with EQ and compression which does that really well. But I think I should be able to dial that in on the QC without the need of an external device. It is only that sometimes when I try to play with the EQ. Even drastic knob changes seem to have no effect at least to my untrained ears… Then sometimes with my not very aggressive Bridge Humbucker I want to make the tone a little bit more aggressive/scratchy. I haven’t found the perfect EQ settings/boost capture etc. yet for this purpose.
Another other basic thing is to help clean tones to stand out better in the mix. So when I have a Clean Funk Tone and I want it to have more definition, clarity… whatever I use the Bogner Harlow Pedal which does that very good when the treble knob is at about one o clock. So the higher frequencies get boosted a little bit. By the way there are captures of the Harlow for the QC, but only the tonal flavor is captured not the compression effect and to my ears those captures don’t make a big difference. But please don’t get me wrong. I appreciate every capture which is shared on the cloud, but finding “the right one” sometimes is not so easy. But what I want to say is that my goal would be to be able to help the funk guitar tone standout in the mix only with the tools which the QC has in the box without the need of any external pedal or internal capture. I just got to have to make my homework…
2 Likes
Torsten is absolutely on track here. Nothing about the EQs in the QC is QC specific. It provides the typical types of EQs you would use on a guitar pedal board or in the studio while mixing guitars. For me, getting better with EQing signals has been mostly helped by mixing related videos, not so much hardware based guitar pedal EQ tutorials. Just search for something like “Mixing Guitar EQ”, “Shaping your Guitar Tone EQ Studio”, “Mixing (or Creating) a <INSERT_GENRE_OR_ARTIST_HERE> Guitar Tone>”. But always remember that EQ, except for a few tweaks to remove typical “noise”, heavily depends on what kind of sound you want and what kind of input signal you have (you can’t boost or cut anything that isn’t already present in the source signal). Don’t fall for tips like “You always have to boost frequencies range XY”. Personally, I always approach building presets as if I were working in a DAW and therefore have fairly many places where an EQ is used: at the very front of the signal chain, somewhere in the middle (e.g. after the compressor or similar) and additionally at the end (after the amp and cab sim and all effects) to “polish” the overall sound again (as in the studio).
Maybe the Amp-Simulation (or some block placed after the amp block) reacts differently if you push it with a lot of bass and he likes this different behaviour (added overtones, slightly more overdrive, etc.), but not so much the added low frequencies, so he cuts the frequencies afterwards.
I use my QC for guitar and bass, and for a modern metal bass sound I do a similar thing: I push the higher mid-range frequencies by A LOT before hitting any overdrive / distortion, this leads to very guitar like distorted overtones in a specific frequency region. But this also leads to ear piercing loud high-mid content, therefore I cut a lot of the same frequency range afterwards. As a result I get the distorted content I wanted, but at normal level.
This thread is gold! Thank you to everyone for the tips and insights. I’m an EQ n00b and have clearly been underutilizing EQ in a number of ways.
I also like this thread. You don’t need an Eventide H90 for what I am going to show you, but these are just my quick and dirty solutions. The first screenshot shows a Preset called Discoguitar which can be used to make a Funk Guitar stand out better in the mix. At the same time you can you could use this to make a Rock Sound more scratchy. The second screenshot which has already been shard be me in another thread about Faking a Humbucker on a Strat is a preset which can be used to make a Strat sound a little fatter. It is called Leo to Les. I guess all these settings could still be finetuned, but I am just using the standard settings from those presets. I only modify the Wet/Dry relationship. So that you have more something like 40 percent wet and 60 percent dry roughly speaking.
Maybe one day we will be able to combine effects to effect blocks on the QC which could be shared on the cloud, but anyway here we go.
The settings you show could be easily replicated with the QC EQs, using 4 bands of the Parametric-8 (set one to low shelf, one to high shelf, the other two to bell, and replicate (roughly) your EQ settings from your screen shots - fine-tune by ear. For funk, add a separate compressor - key is to play with the attack time; too short attack will kill the “sparkiness” in your funk sound.
Here’s another video on pre-amp EQ - nice examples of what you can achieve with just seven bands of EQ:
It also contains settings to fake a humbucker with a single coil and vice versa.
The key with EQ is to get away from just using presets blindly - learn what they are actually doing and replicate the approach, not the exact settings. The key is to gain a feeling for what the individual frequencies do to your sound - that’s where a simple 7-band EQ pedal is excellent: set everything to neutral, then just push a single band fully up and listen. Next pull it fully down and listen. Reset and repeat with the other bands.
3 Likes
Thank you very much!!! It’s time to dive down into that EQ Wormhole!