External pedals

Community
1

I’m new to the Quad Cortex and not at all used to such things but understand time based pedals such as reverb and delay cannot be successfully captured so have built a small (NANO) pedalboard with 2 reverb pedals and 2 delay pedals which i can select individually on the board and i wish to connect these to my Quad but am not at all sure how (i believe it can be done via the effect loop but darent try it in case i fry something) and dont know where to put the effect loop in my chain on the Cortex, before the Amp, between the Amp and Cab or after the cab, any help please? (Keep it explicit needs as simple as you can please), thanks

2

Hi @ArnieMeadows, I am a heavy effects user and implement external effects pedals with the loops in my QC. Hopefully this will answer all of your questions. Also, I am assuming you are running your rig in mono:

  1. Choose which external FX Loop you want to use, 1 or 2.

  2. Connect the Send 1 (or Send 2) to the input of your pedal chain.

  3. Connect the output of your pedal chain to Return 1 (or Return 2).

  4. Add an FX Loop block to the grid. Choose FX Loop 1 or FX Loop 2 to match the connections you made.

  5. The FX Loop block can be treated like other blocks in that you can turn it on and off in Stomp mode, or adjust parameters in Scene mode, etc. It also lets you choose spillover, which may be good to leave on since you’re using delays and reverbs.

  6. You can adjust the send and return levels if you need. I don’t do this with my QC and everything sounds fine, YMMV.

  7. Experiment with the block’s placement on the grid. Delays and reverbs can have a noisy but ghostly quality in front of a distorted amp. There isn’t much difference if you put the loop in between the amp and cab, or after the cab. I actually use both FX loops (multiple delays!) and put them in between the amp and cab, because it more closely resembles using the effects loop in a tube amp. Do whatever sounds good to you.

NOTE: Using the FX Loops and running external pedals adds latency to your rig, obviously because the signal is being sent out of the QC and returning to it. I don’t have a problem with it personally. If you absolutely must have the shortest latency possible, you may want to consider ditching your external pedals and replicating your favorite delay and reverb sounds within the QC.

4 Likes
3

Brilliant, just what I needed, I will try it ASAP, thanks