Greetings. I play a full range instrument, touch guitar, tuned Bb0-D4. I am considered a QC but I have a few questions.
How far apart are the foot switches from one another? It looks tight compared to EG my Line 6.
Is there a way to blend cab IRs like Fractal Audio does, where you can align them in phase with one another?
I’ve read about latency issues. Is there a general recipe for avoiding them?
I’ve read about power supply. What’s a good recommended 3rd party power supply?
Right now my pedalboard is POG-fuzz (VFE Wood Chipper, amazing bass fuzz based on a brassmaster)-Rat-like-bass distortion-Xotic Bass BB-H9 (diatonic pitched delays, regular delays, modulation)-2nd H9 (reverbs, whammy, extra weird stuff). Will I be able to replace all this with the QC? I know about the possibilities and limits of tone captures.
For reference, I am not a huge fan of the Darkglass distortion sound for myself – I guess I like “older” sounds for my distortions.
I replied over on Talkbass- I see you’re getting more input there.
Cool to see another full-ranger (my bandmate plays Chapman Stick)- welcome!
The new IR loader has several functions and can invert polarity, but I don’t believe you can adjust alignment otherwise.
Latency seems to increase the more you load the grid, but even at its max it is generally in the “imperceptible” range.
The power supply is fine (you MIGHT get noise if you only use headphones and no other connections) Many users get the Cioks units for their pedalboard setup.
The foot switches are a bit snug. The trade-off for keeping the QC compact. They are roughly 2-1/2 inches apart, side to side and 1-7/8" between top and bottom switches.
Yes, what Xush said. I’m fairly latency intolerant (gave up on guitar synth because of it) but I haven’t noticed any excessive latency from the Q.C. Also, there are some claims that adding lanes 3 and/or 4 in series with 1 and 2 adds some latency although I’ve tried removing 3 and 4 and couldn’t feel any difference. using the effects loop adds a little due to the extra D/A-A/D conversion. Haven’t tried it myself.
The original supply is fine but the cord is a bit stiff and flimsy. It might be worth getting a spare.
I can’t comment on your double IR question.
I’m not sure about your effects question. The QC is a bit limited in effects, especially bass FX but the vast majority of the FX it does have sound fantastic. The capture function works really well for most distortions so you could probably capture the pedals you mentioned. Neural continues to add to the QC FX library.
During my month of experience with the Quad Cortex, I’ve found it to be incredibly versatile and easy to program (even without a laptop ap) and it sounds fantastic! There are a few odds and ends to be worked out and some functionality (i.e more MIDI capability) to be added but I’m confident that they’re working on it.
Thanks Pete. I’m not so concerned about specific FX models as being able to tone-shape what I want. And 2.5" seems to be about the same as my HX stomp. I might order one from a mail order place to try out.
The double IR question is because I’ve always preferred other approaches to modelling to IRs, because I hear a sort of “ringing” in them. For years I just used a Tech21 VTBass instead, which does it differently, and one could argue less “accurately” but in a way I found more musical. I’ve also used low pass filters and EQ, which I also prefer to cab IRs.
But Fractal Audio allows mixing of IRs in a single cab block, and it’s possible to phase align them, which means no comb filtering. Phase is a problem when microphones are placed at different distances from a speaker, so if one IR is recorded at 1" from the cab and another at 1.5", you hear the difference as phase. Using two phase aligned IRs, I get a very nice sound without any of the ringing I hear in a single one.
Of course, I could use my VTBass with the QC, but the whole point of these things is to not need other pedals.
Interesting, I wonder if you’re hearing a harmonic of the IR’s sampling frequency or perhaps a high harmonic based on the IR’s length. I also wonder if you’d hear ringing in a captured speaker as apposed to an IR. Have you heard the ringing in other devices or just from your Fractal? Maybe it’s related to their proprietary IR format.
I love my AX8 but I can’t say that I’m missing it right now. I’ll be curious to hear how the Quad Cortex works for you.
I hear it with all IRs – Helix is the same, and so are native options. It’s just my taste, not saying there’s anything wrong with IRs for other people. It just bothers me. I DO in fact put out more harmonics since I’m playing a 34" scale instrument so that may also be the issue. For some reason the VT bass tames it, as does an old analog cab sim pedal I’ve tried.
Fractal tends to go through a power amp and Barefaced cab; at home I’ve got Adam A7 monitors, or a power amp Phil Jones bass speaker (those go up to 12k, so don’t have the usual roll-off).
Because nobody has mentioned - if “Diatonic Pitch Delays” are very important for you, keep in mind, that the QC does not have such an algorithm. I’ve moved from Helix to QC and compared to this the choice of delay algorithms on the QC is very basic, some Analog/Tape/Digital-Delays with Modulation - thats it. No Reverse Delays, Pitched Delays, Filtered Delays, Ducking Delays…
I’m playing mainly Chapman Stick and Warr Guitar and purely sound quality wise the QC is the best unit I ever owned.
there are definitely quite a few FX types missing still, but many can be recreated by combining a block or two- that’s something I’ve been focusing on lately.
Filters, pitch, mod, and splitters (especially the freq crossover split) can all be incorporated in various ways to expand the delays and revs that are available
Thanks for the reply. I wound up mail ordering one from a place that accepts returns which is good because…I am going to return it.
The drives sound fantastic and so do a bunch of the neural captures. The interface is also fantastic.
BUT
→ while I can get serviceable fuzz sounds, I can’t get the sounds I am used to on my pedalboard
→ the delays and reverbs sound good, and I was able to reconstruct some of my H9 chains, but those chains don’t sound as good as the H9. The pitch up especially has a bit of an ice-picky tone I can’t seem to get rid of with their MF-101 filter or EQ.
One could say “well, in a live situation, who’s going to notice except you?” or “well you can always add other pedals” and they’d be right on both counts, except I can already reach the “good enough” level with my HX Stomp, and my goal for the QC was to not need other pedals (I already have a multi-pedal pedalboard–I don’t need another one).
And the kicker:
→ I am a large person with wide feet and poor balance and am finding the switches a bit close together for my tastes. Feels like an elephant tap dancing situation.
So back it goes. Thanks for all your help everyone, and hopefully this thread helps out someone else in the future.
and thanx for your input 