Hey, I’m planning to use the Quad Cortex both on stage and when recording guitars in my home studio. I’ve got a question for you. Are IR impulses really necessary? Are they helpful for shaping live tones? When I’m recording guitar, I can clearly hear a difference, and IRs sound better to me. But is it worth using them for live performances?
Do you have any tips for crafting good rock/metal tones for the stage?
If you are going straight into foh from the QC, you absolutely want to us an IR/cabinet block. If you are going into an effects loop of a guitar amp and cabinet then no. You can use a combination of both live.
Most players feel the IR is probably one of the biggest tone-shaping factors there is. For many, it becomes a rabbit-hole of options- there are SO MANY IRs out there to choose from. You can make your own.
But yes, IRs are important for the rock/metal tones especially. Otherwise distortions will sound fizzy and brittle. Best bet, IMO, is find an IR of a speaker cabinet you like in ‘real life’ where you know what to expect.
One caveat to keep in mind: no factory captures on the QC include baked-in cabs or IRs, but some on the Cloud do. It’s up to the user who uploaded them to describe whether they do or not, so it can get confusing but you can generally tell by earballing it
Thanks - now it’s much better understandable!