Got any drive pedal capture tips? Mine are coming out a bit lifeless

Quad Cortex
1

I’ve been using the QC nearly every day for well over a year and am just now trying out the capture feature, specifically for my drive pedals.

The levels and gain are coming out very close (checked with my external VU), but the captures sound a little darker and with less sparkle than the actual pedals. They end up usable enough after tweaking the mids and treble, but the mojo just isn’t the same. Anyone else experience this?

I’ve watched some YT vids and searched the forums, and I find info about matching levels (mine are good) and signal chain placement (mine are 1st in line) but nothing about this loss of PEDAL RIZZ.

Got any tips from your own drive pedal captures? Have you found the secret sauce?

details: ts style pedal (Moxie), factory capture levels at capture page w/ no clipping, NO auto level, cap out>ped in ped out>input 2. No problems with noise.

2

First thing I’d check is the IN2 input impedance to make sure it’s set to 1MOhm and not lower. If that doesn’t do the trick, try bumping it to 10MOhm and see if it’s closer to how you expect the pedal to sound.

Another tip I can share is to disconnect everything from the QC (especially the computer USB connection) and just keep the bare minimum connections you need (IN1, IN2, Capture OUT and headphones/monitors) during the Neural Capture process.

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3

Thanks, 2dor. I hadn’t considered the impedance. My 2in is at 10k :hushed:. I’ll give it another shot tonight. :+1:

4

That’s probably the cause of your problem. I’m sure moving it to 1MOhm will sort it out.

5

Well, that didn’t do it.

I tried 1MΩ, 10MΩ and combinations of the two with lower input volumes, but the captures are still noticeably different than the actual pedal, as if a presence knob was turned down.

6

Ugh …must be too bright / gainy. The QC does struggle with some stuff - I can’t get it to properly capture my Salvation Audio Camerock preamp no matter what I try. Truth be told, it’s quite an aggressive sounding preamp - great to play through for the chugs.

7

Is it too bright or lacking low end ?

I posted a comment about missing low end on certain types of amp heads and drives a while back due to the 21ms of truncation on captures and IR.

8

10 o’clock drive on the Moxie is pretty low gain to me.

The captures sound closer to the pedal after bass is reduced and treble is increased.

9

How long are your cables going to and from the pedal ?

10

they’re both about 12" long

11

I unplug everything that isn’t necessary per QC’s recommendation and capture at the setting I normally play the pedals at (which are more volume, less gain in general). Then once captured, I increase the volume of the capture and decrease the gain. Typically by about 1db each and it gets pretty stinking close to the pedals I’ve captured.

And that’s how I play them on the QC

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12

OK, I just captured a Tumnus Deluxe at low gain and it sounded right on, first try, no tweaks needed.

??? I thought FUZZ pedals were the only ones that caused problems. That’s not so, huh?

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13

Nice!
From my very rudimentary understanding of this process and gear in general, I think it’s likely easier to create clipping of a signal (modeling), rather than listening to it (capturing). Conversely, it’s likely easier for the unit to listen to headroom (capturing) vs creating it (modeling).

Which is why think these units (most capture units - QC, toneX, etc) do a really good job of capturing and mimicking the intangibles of amps and pedals - sag, sparkle, and all of the buzz words that are used to describe the way we feel when we know an amp, or pedal, or whatever has that “it factor.”