well i am using the qc for 2 years now and i used it with a spark frfr cabinet .
now i wanted stereo so i connected my Marshall avt 150 to the qc. and after a while i started to noticed that its sounded better with the Marshall speaker without cab sim then the frfr with the sim…
is it something that happens to some of you ? any one think that way also?
or is that my frfr cab sucks?
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If you are running through a guitar amp with a physical speaker then you don’t use an IR. FRFR speakers are for ir’s.
frfr is a completely different sound than being in the room with an amp. frfr is basically a studio monitor with the sound of a mic’d up cabinet. it sounds very different than being in a room with a real cab that isn’t mic’d up.
frfr is like if you were in a studio and the cabinet was in a silent iso box. you are only hearing the signal from the microphone through the studio monitor. very different than standing in front of a loud guitar cab.
so, if i get you right as a fun oriented player who loves the roars i should buy real cab over an new monitors?
Most likely, yes. If that’s your overall sound preference. There’s a reason why modeler forums, etc are filled with people always trying to replicate the sound of an amp in a room. 99% of the time they’re trying to use an IR or frfr but don’t understand they’re two different things. Each has its own merit, but you’ll probably like the real cab more
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can you please elaborate more? i mean when do i want to use frfr and ir and when i want to use a cab, what happened if i will use both?
If you’re going to use both you’ll need separate output paths. One with the IR for the frfr, and one without the IR for the real cab.
You can use either setup with playing. Just depends what you’re going for and type of venues. They’re just different sounding approaches. Pick whichever you think sounds best to you
Real cab sounds so much better than frfr. No comparison. You experienced It, so no much more info needed man. I can understand no cab if you go straigth to line and listen to yourself using floor monitores or iem, but using a frfr cab for me sounds much worse in comparison. Again, people Will tell how they feel about this, but you just answered yourself as you like more real cab. And of course, not all frfr cabs sound the same
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i tell you all why i am so hesitating about this subject. i speeded too much money to make my quad sound like tube amp and i failed. so now i got few more hundreds for this subject an i need to know what all of you know so i could go to the shop and test less time then 4 weeks. i thinking about buying 2 cabs and stay with qc instead of a real tube amp and slowly buying effect etc…
There’s a reason why even one of the biggest figures pushing the QC still uses real cabs on stage. It always sounds better at venues blended with FOH or just by itself, unless you’re playing massive places.
It’s always awkward when a band is playing a venue with no amps on stage or tiny frfr monitors. I love the QC and rely on it for touring, but refuse to just put an frfr on stage or just do silent stage.
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Always real Speakers, but it also depends on your FRFR… maybe a Laney sounds more like a real speaker but that speakers heavy like a normal Cabinet, so I don’t see the advantage. I Use my NC with a Harley Benton GP 100 Poweramp into 2 1x12 Cabinets with a special fat design i build by myself and it sounds amazing… like a 4x12. Between the NC and the Poweramp i run an Art Tubepreamp for a little bit Warmth.
if i will use this setup QC->power amp->2X12 cab and i will put the same tube amp on the same cab, will i hear difference? and by how much?
That really depends. There will possibly be some sort of difference in the sound. Maybe the same as if you plug in two different tube amps that you might like.
The general feel may be slightly different with a tube amp compared to QC with a power amp. That’s a normal thing to notice when using a modeler and solid state power amp. The solid state stuff can feel more immediate or different in the low end.
There are so many questions as to whether you will hear much difference. I can tell the difference, but it doesn’t matter because of the convenience. I can notice the difference between two different 5150 II amps if they’re biased differently, or two similar tube amps. But does that mean one is better or worse? Not really. So I think you should see what feels or sounds best to you.
So many questions you could ask for whether you’ll hear the difference-
-What is the amp?
-Are you using a model of the same amp?
-What’s the power amp you want to use? Even tube power amps can sound very different from one another.
actually i really get it that there is no good or bad, what i am asking is about the feel. will i feel the air moves in the room? like a real tube amp? will i feel the warmth? i can try different amp’s models and cab to find what i like(well it will be mostly jcm 800 style for rock and fender blues for clean ). but the feel is what i am looking for. and why i bought the qc instead of a real amp is that i could be versatile with the style but get the feel of a real tube amp in the room which i really enjoy every time i go to the guitar shop.
The thing no one really seems to get or be upfront about with FRFR cabs is that it wont ever sound like the speaker you have modeled with your IR… it will sound like that speaker mic’d up.
Out of your FRFR cab, you are hearing the sound of the speaker and microphones on it, so what would come out of FOH, or stage monitors, or on a recording. You will never hear exactly what a (for example) Fender Twin combo sounds like right behind you.
FRFR cabs are just stage monitors rebranded/remarketed to appeal to guitarists. If that is what you want, just get a high quality stage monitor instead - companies have been working on and developing/improving them for decades.
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This exactly. The QC through a FRFR sounds like a mic’d amp through a monitor wedge…except better/more reliable/more refined/more “produced”. Just as it shines through IEMs or studio monitors. Because a FRFR cab indeed IS a rebranded stage monitor. And most FRFR cabs honestly pale in comparison with good monitors (from actual pro-level brands such as L-Acoustics, Meyer, d&b, you name it).
If you want the “amp in the room feel”, turn off cab sims/IRs and output it into some kind of power amp and an actual guitar cab. In which case it pretty much sounds and feels identical to “the real thing” (note that I don’t subscribe to the concept of “tube warmth”).
But then again, if you just want to feel air moving (especially if you’re primarily relying on IEMs) and get some of the guitar/amp interaction (which you can get from a floor monitor) that’s cool with being on stage with a loud amp, a FRFR cab can be a cheap but serviceable way to get that.
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I’ve been saying the same thing for years and everyone kinda acts like I’m crazy. I use a JBL EON612 stage monitor and it’s GREAT! sounds just like my guitar in the studio with a mic on the cab. I like it better than using a regular guitar cab, because it shows me how the audience is hearing my guitar and I feel like I can make sure the sound out front is what I would like it to be.
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what is your use case for your setup? Are you performing onstage or recording at home, or what?
What power amp would you be using? This can have an impact on your sound and the feel.
Hey!
I’ll drop my 2 cents here - I was chasing something similar as many of us do. There’s couple things I noticed.
- I used Quad Cortex through the fx return of a tube amp (Mark V) and the effects sounded muddied - absolutely not my cup of tea.
- Through Seymour Duncan Powerstage in to a Mesa cab - great sounding and good feel but doesn’t feel like a tube amp, well because it’s not. All amps kinda sound similarish. I don’t know what it is.
- Through a Laney FRFR - this is what I prefer because the cab sims definitely bring out the nuances of the amp and it just takes some getting used to.
To each their own though- happy playing!
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