I’ve noticed that I don’t get as good a tone with going usb out of QC into my Mac versus verses XLR out of the QC to my Soundcraft SI impact, then using that as my interface.
It was even worse when I used the Tonex Pedal usb into the Mac.
I didn’t realize the difference until I found some older recording from where I went into the SI Impact… It was like night and day.
So now this Apollo should be even better. I’ve noticed many of my favorite Demos of the Quad Cortex were made using an Apollo….From guys like Pete Thorn and Paul over at The Studio Rats Channel on YouTube to many others.
So what interface do you use and like with the QC? Has anyone else had this issue?
Unless I am capturing a plugin etc., I use the QC as my main USB audio interface to take advantage of the routing and I/O as well as lower latency etc.
Using your interface, you would capture the tone from the plugin(s) out of your interface into QC following normal capture process. Gain staging is important, avoid digital clipping but otherwise its the same as capturing an amp and or pedal.
I’m dying over here trying to figure out how to route my signal chain to use my Hi-Z instrument input on my Apollo x4 and route my signals via hardware I/O between my Apollo and QC so I can create captures of my plugins. If ANYONE has successfully managed to create Neural Captures of their plugins using the Apollo, QC, and Logic Pro, please let me know how in the world you did it!
I’ve done it with that chain except my interface is a Slate VRS8. Pretty much same advice as JT2501- cables depend on your I/O jacks on the interface, but otherwise just like capturing a pedal. Only variable might be that the UA stuff often has proprietary limitations on the interface vs other gear
You’re going thru a DAW, or trying for the standalone plug-ins?
My advice would be to just have it open as a standalone. Anything you capture into the QC should be mono so turn off all the delays and reverbs and all that…. Make sure mics in the IR section are panned central and then if your line out from UA isn’t working, just unplug one of your speaker outputs and go from there. Turn other speaker off so you don’t hear the profiling noises
@john.taylor2501 thanks man but I’ve digressed to simply trying connect my QC to my Apollo x4 so I can play my QC and route it through my audio interface. What I’m doing is connecting my QC Out1/Out2 (via XLR) directly to my Line Input 1 and 2 (via XLR) on the x4 as it suggests in the QC user manual, and I get an observed output signal from the QC, but not sound to my monitors. The following is my signal chain:
Instrument → Hi-Z input 1 (front of x4)
Line Out (x4) → QC Input 1
QC Output 1/2 (XLR) → Line Input 1/2 (x4)
I’ve configured my QC I/O as follows:
Input 1 → Out1/2
Lastly, I’ve configured my x4 I/O Matrix as follows:
Line Input 1 → Monitor L
Line Input 2 → Monitor R
What am I doing wrong here? I feel like it’s a digital configuration issue. And I’ve heard a lot of talk about using virtual channels, but I’m relatively new to home recording and thus I’m not familiar with how to use virtual channels to route signals paths to output to my monitors. I’d appreciate any additional help bro. I’ve been so busy over the Summer with my kids I haven’t had a chance to mess with it since my original post, but now I’m determined to figure this out. Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated.
Firstly the way you’re doing it will have so much latency and AD conversion it is not worth it. What you need is a setup for playing and a setup for recording. Also you need to select which output is being used on your computer for the monitors. If you don’t have a program with virtual channels then you can use a DAW with the monitoring switched on. All that said, I set mine up like this:
Gtr > DI box (splits signal to path 1 and path 2)
Path 1 > Interface input > Outs 1 & 2 to monitor controller
Path 2 > QC Input > Out 3 to FRFR speaker, Out 4 to input 2 of interface, Outs 1 & 2 to monitor controller
This gives a variety of options. You can record the DI from your interface and just reamp through the QC as you please without having AD conversion. You can record through the QC as per normal. There is zero latency when monitoring while recording with the FRFR and you can play through your monitors using output 4. It’s been the best setup ive had thus far but you need a monitor controller and something that split the signal before going to the interface/QC. A boss TU-3 tuner could also work for this purpose but a DI box is the most useful.