Hello from Germany,
just received my QC today and wanted to know if i will i get besser sounding presets with external IRs. Just asking because the presets doent sound that amazing. Verry dull and no really good sounding clean tones. Even the Cory Wong presets from the app sound totally different then the ones in his videos. Especially the wah effects. Here I also noticed that the bulid of the preset in the video looks totally different then the one i downloaded. Luckily I did find some very good sounding cleans that make me keep the unit and work on my own presets.
Welcome @PerfectStranger ! Before directing you to third party stuff, what are you monitoring through? Monitors, headphones, playing through a FRFR cab, etc?
Third party IRs sound fantastic but I think the ones that come with the QC are really good too. I would also make sure your input gain is set correctly as this greatly affects the tone. I’ve never found the QC cabs to be dull
I have played the qc through RCF, KRK Monitors, blues junior and olso a Kemper Cab and headphones. Yes, input adjustment and all has been set to slightly move into the red. Also tested this out with various pickups. The point is that i have found some presets that sound good which tells me that my setting are ok. But maybe not if you say that for instance the cory wong presets sound exactly the same on the qc as on the youtube videos. I must say that i have found a lot of people complain about the preset quality with is i guess a classic in preset based instruments.
If you’re having trouble with dull sounding tones using NDSP plugins, I’d check first your audio interface to make sure you are using a High-Z input impedance, and then that your studio monitors are accurately reproducing the tone. I have had great outcomes from NDSP plugins (and others including Helix Native and S-Gear). So this should work.
Hmm. Personally I play around with the input settings and try to avoid hitting the red if you can. I’ve found the input going in to the amps, specifically the clean amp models, are a bit hot and have come up in this forum many times.
As for the cab & IR settings I personally haven’t found them to be dark or sound bad at all. If you’ve found some presets which sound good to you I would use those as your base and start replacing amp & cab models and save as new presets, if you haven’t done so already. You may find some presets have some gate & EQ settings which can help you get the sound you’re after.
Lastly, 3rd party IRs will always affect the tone. Some users swear by them, others get great tones with the stock QC cabs. I have some I like to use for certain sounds. This will always be the case with any modeler or even plugins… IRs to me are like a pair of jeans - very personal and so many variations!
QC also has a setting for input impedance on the I/O page. It should generally be 1M unless your guitar has active pickups, or you’re looking to adjust the guitar tone by loading the pickups to replicate what some pedals and high-capacitance coil chords do.
Out of interest, what’s the recommended setting for active pickups. Both my main guitars have EMGs and I’ve set impedance at 1M. Sounding good to me but if there’s improvement there I’ll take it.
This is the only modeler I’ve heard very few people complain re the presets. Idk I use return fx of my amp and use a real guitar cabinet. I don’t use a lot of modulation fx because I don’t like them. This is the best sounding and feeling modeler I’ve ever played. Keep trying. Watch videos and good luck.
@BrendanMacLean I don’t know about recommended settings for active pickups per se but I’d use the same philosophy - keep it under the red, healthy signal, and adjust input gain driving the amp until it sounds & feels how you like. I like a slightly hot signal going in to high distortion amps and a lower signal going in to clean/edge of breakup amps. Sometimes I even like a lower signal going in to high gain amps for some rhythm guitars, depending on the track.
I think the guidance for the correct impedance setting for a modeler when using active pickups is pretty broad. Let your ears be the guide. I have seen recommendations for extremely low settings at 25k as well as more commonly 250k - 500k. It is also perfectly ok to run at the standard 1Mohm.
Lower impedances tend to deemphasize the highs and take some edge and brightness off the tone. If your guitar is consistently sounding thin, harsh, brittle, or too crispy on properly EQ’d presets, you may want to try a lower impedance. Ultimately it comes down to what sounds best to you.