Hi all,
I’ve been using the QC live for the past months and i absolutely love it.
I’m pretty cautious with my gear and always make sure that i have a back-up for everything. guitars, cables, in-ears, strings etc. etc. , but i don’t have a back-up for the QC yet. The build quality is fine so i don’t expect to need a back-up for it. But still i’m slightly worried that that one drunk dude at every gig will eventually drop face first on my baby or his entire beer will will pierce through every little opening in the QC when he drops it.
What gear do you guys use as back-up for the QC? My band uses in-ears and no amps at all. Another QC would ofcourse be the best option. But well… money… I tried my 14 year old boss GT10, but unfortunately it wouldn’t start anymore. maybe someone can recommend a cheap multi-fx unit that has decent clean/crunch/lead channels? or maybe there is another good option that i’m overlooking.
Maybe integrate a computer into your setup for plugins etc. Otherwise, you have the choice of all the available modelers, a friend used a cheap Mooer GE-200 for a backup which worked okay and can be found in the $200-300 range
I had my QC go down at morni g rehearsal before church. Luckily our sound guy had traded for my Helix LT and I pulled it out and ran a Worship Tutorials Plexi patch and use the toe tap for timing delays. It worked but was no where near the QC. I now have a Headrush Prime as a backup as my QC is on the way to customer service. The Headrush is OK, sounds good but doesnt have the granular adjustments i like to make as i run two amps in stereo panning the IRs to FOH on the QC.
If you want the full capabilities of your main rig in your back-up, the only real option is to simply have two QCs - makes things super-simple and requires no re-building or re-thinking. At pro-level where cost is not an issue, that’s probably the default solution. Given the size and weight of the QC makes this a no-brainer.
If cost IS an issue (as for probably the majority of us here), the better option is a cheap alternative that sounds decent, doesn’t cost a lot and at least allows us to limp through a gig if the main rig breaks down.
I doubt the audience will really hear the difference; as long as you prepare your backup so you have either approximations of your QC presets or a “universal bank” with the essential bread-and-butter sounds that let you get through a gig, you should be fine…
My band uses a digital PA (X32-Core) and so we need a computer as the interface to the PA. So my backup is a plugin in the computer into a USB AUX track in the X32-Core. For plugins, I would use S-Gear or the Mesa-Boogie NSDP plugin. I’ve never had to use it though.
I agree completely. I chose the Headrush because i also busk w my wife occasionally and the vocal tools like autotune appealed to that need. I also have an HX Stomp that could do the job in a pinch
A duplicate QC would be ideal, but cost is a consideration. When it comes to backup devices, I prefer something relatively small, light, easy to get a good tone on quickly so I can spend minimal time on my backup device, and not overly expensive in case it gets stolen or nightmare, forgotten. I’ve tried getting much smaller devices with less switches for backups, and even modeler/effects in a single pedal size, but I find that, at least for my purposes, the lack of switches on these makes for a poor backup. The smaller “Core” versions of various modeler brands with less footswitches would probably work for me with the addition of a MIDI controller and expression pedal.
There are plenty of other options but I’m currently using a Boss GT-1000 as backup. I just happened to have one. They are light and relatively small for a full featured pedalboard that includes an expression pedal and can be found for reasonable prices on Ebay. They require a minimum of fiddling with to get a decent sound which is key to me in a backup. Unless my backup is a duplicate of my main rig, in which case I can just copy the presets, I want my backup to require as little preset editing time as possible.
I recently worked though this as an exercise and found I could do pretty well with a preamp stomp box (Darkglass for bass / Strymon for guitar in my case) into a TC Plethora X5 with stereo out to bass or FRFR amps and cabs. The backup gear is compact and provides good tones and effects. The big caveat is that you don’t get scenes – Plethora boards are roughly analogous to QC presets. It would work for me though.
Tech 21 has a number of Fly Rigs that work really well as a backup. They are small (fit in a case or gig bag) and provide an amazing amount of functionality for such a compact package. As a bass player, I have three Tech-21 DP-3X (dUg Pinnick signature) pedals as backups in various cases.
The DP-3X features a tuner, a compressor, EQ, overdrive, cab-sim, and a DI all in a pedal about the size of two decks of cards laid end-to-end.
There are several guitar and bass models available. Check them out!
In my situation, my backup is a Boss Katana. I run my QC into the Katana power amp in instead of a traditional FRFR. I have never had to use it, but figure if the QC would ever go down, all I have to do is bypass QC and jump my cable into the Katana input. My tone would suffer, but I would survive the gig. The soundperson would obviously have to address the issue with a mic.