My QC arrives tomorrow. I’m certain I’ll have weeks of fun just getting to know the ins and outs of it while I play guitar (that’s what it’s all about, right?)
But GAS can only be contained for so long. The question; Do you intend to use the QC as a standalone unit, or as part of a larger rig?
I’ve already begun measuring out its dimensions to account for at least a Line 6 G10SII wireless and expression pedal. Any insight on what power supply you might use to power your QC rig would be useful for others, as I’ve seen a lot of confusion about this. I’m debating between the Fender Engine Room LVL 8 or The CIOKS DC-7.
Maybe you’d include a looper pedal while waiting for NDSP’s feature dev team to add one in an upcoming release. Perhaps you’ve got a dirt or delay pedal you just can’t live without.
I will use it as a standalone. I did set it up with the FM3 for effects and looper also using the FC-12 but that seems counter productive to having a single device to do the work. If it took/takes all that I will just use the Axe Fx 3 and FC6/12.
So far the only thing holding up what I would typically do is footswitch flexibility (push, push & hold, wah auto on/off and multi-function switching). Everything else is hitting the need.
Board for me. My biggest frustration with my Helix was the size of my rig with my wireless, Polytune, FreqOut, and extra expression pedal. There’s an Eventide PowerMax (basically a Cioks DC-7) peeking out from under the wireless.
Stand alone for me. It’s got all the effects and attributes I need. I’ll have a pedal board flight case custom made for the QC, a Fractal EV-1 expression pedal, a small expression dial for the second expression pedal input (assigned to a 2nd lane output) and a hidden Mean Well 12V 8,5A power supply. The IEC connector will be on the outside of the case. Maybe also the outputs 1 and 2 will be routed to the outside. I use a Boss WL-20 wireless system that plugs into the QC and the guitar.
I’ll ommit the power supply if there is a sturdy battery powered solution that provides the amps the QC need and has at least 3 hours of playing time. Still looking for one …
Just like the guys running with a DC-7: hitch four 12V outputs together with 3 Cioks current doubler cables and you have 12V @ 2A, which is enough to make the QC happy.
I decided against any pedal power device. I will instead make a proper power supply with a MeanWell 12v 4,5A supply that will be housed in a quality aluminium housing. The housing will have a proper IEC power chord connector with an iluminated on/off switch and one output with 12v for the QC and another with 9v via a high quality step down converter for the wireless. It will sit on the board just like a pedal. I might add two 12v mini fans on the side that will feed air to the left vent of the QC.
I started out with it as a standalone, but got tired of dealing with the damn wall wart. At this point I have a small rack that houses my IEM and a mixer, so I put the wall warts for the QC and Freqout in there (there were already two others for the PSM900 and PM4). I just remove the front lid of the rack and it sits face up on the floor about 10ft or less away).
The board is just a piece of aluminum with handles. QC and Freqout are held on it with velcro; the Mission pedal is bolted down. Fits in a lightweight soft case (SKB 2111)
When all is said in done, its still a small footprint and between the rack and this board, I have a lot of control over guitar and in-ear rig. In particular, the IEM/mixer combination allows me knobs for instant access to guitar and band levels, and I pan guitar slightly right and band slightly left to help with clarity. I works really well, especially if you are on a quick set and go at a festival!
I’m powering my QC with a cheap 12v 3a laptop controller I got from Amazon.
Be careful if you go this route because the polarity is switched. I had a center-positive to center-negative adapter sitting around. I’m sure you could find one on Amazon, as well.
I’m happy with the QC as a stand alone. Using a cheap Ernie Ball volume pedal ad an expression pedal.
My QC was always meant for a board. I was using a Helix but then wanted stuff like the wireless, PolyTune, and FreqOut to go with it. I had a “sidecar” board with the Helix but with the QC I can do everything on one Helix-sized board.
I want a back up power supply and have bought two but am not trusting either. I found one that was negative center but was getting noise…the other was a + center with an adapter, but I felt like I smelled something after using it for a while…for sure, I probably need to look deeper into both of these, but haven’t had time. I will probably go with a Cioks DC7 eventually.
if you consider Quad Cortex + Vox Wah + Boss Expression pedal, a board…then its a board.
Otherwise standalone, I don’t plan to add anything to that, and the wah and ep are not fixed, hence I can put them where I want and trip on my cables WHEN I FEEL LIKE IT
I just put this together a few hours ago. I still have to go in and fix all the cables and route the power underneath, but I’m almost there. I want to come back and give my impressions after a week and half of use, but it’s getting late. I’ll be back…
I bought it with the idea of standalone, and that is what I really want… but until they roll out the looper functionality, it does not tick all of the boxes. I’m really looking for an update from Neural on the development timeline.
I have a QC patch that can be used standalone. But I have another that integrates HX Effects for some front of the amp effects into QC. This gives me 6 more footswitches, Helix effects where needed, and more DSP without adding much complexity to the setup.
The biggest question for me is whether QC pushes Helix floor out of my gig rig. I use a Variax JTV-69S that has a real nice neck and pickups I added. And I use either a Powercab112+ or Powercab212 for a stage amp. So Helix is pretty well integrated into that signal chain.
The motivation for the QC was to experiment, and encourage the exceptional design Neural DSP has produced. I’m hoping to get some simplicity, smaller footprint, and improved tones out of QC, at the expense of some flexibility. Today’s task is the tone test, we’ll see how it turns out.
