The latest news turned out to be very interesting, but it seems to me that the tuner has too small font to be seen standing up. Also, do not forget that there are people who see something like this:
Of course, people with poor eyesight will have to fine-tune the device with glasses, but for performances on stage, it will be enough for them to see the footswitches and key indicators of the tuner, and they can refuse glasses.
The idea of āā"Default Parameters" has already been implemented, so I want to add my thoughts on āblock-level presetsā. Since this feature can be implemented using the ācopy-pasteā method, developers just need to eliminate some inconvenience - they need to put the command āLoad parameters from presetā here in this menu:
After clicking, we will see a list of presets (even better, only those that contain a similar block) and we will be able to select the desired, if there are several of them in the preset, it will be necessary to clarify. Also, somewhere in the load window, checkboxes will be required specifying the need to load all scenes or just one, and copy controller settings
P.S. It might even be better to put the command āload block from presetā in this menu. This will reduce the number of actions when creating a new preset from blocks of old presets.
I have not seen anything yet that outlines how deep the QC amp models go into covering off on all of the various switches and voicing modes on a given channel for a particular amp. Are there any details out there on this kind of stuff yet?
For example, the Blues voicing mode on the Red channel of the tremo verb is one of my holy grail tones that I have been wanting in a digital model forever, but it is not clear if the QC might only be modeling Modern voicing, since that is arguably the more iconic tone from this particular amp. AND I shamelessly NEED the Mark IV Lead channel with the ability to use the pull fat/bright/presence modes as well as the switching between harmonics/mid gain voicings.
For what itās worth, I am waiting to see the Mesa Mark IV on the amp list with all of its various switchable modes before I jump on the preorder list. I canāt live without that amp and will be āstuckā with my Axe Fx III until these features are available in the QC. I have been a very happy Fractal user for the past 6 years now, and the Axe Fx III is an absolutely fantastic unit that I love and adore, but I really need a quicker to breakdown and setup, self-contained floor unit that is full featured with the ability to run dual amps in stereo.
The MK 4 amp has been a mainstay model for virtually all of the other players in the digital modeling amp game, so I am basically astonished to not see it on this list. The lack of the JP-2C is surprising as well. I would love to have a fully modeled Crunch voicing on Channel 2 of the Mark V. Finally, I am a bit sad to not see channel 1 and its pushed clean mode from the Dual Rectifier on the list.
I am brand new here and still getting up to speed, so please forgive me if these features are already available, in the works, or mentioned before.
Quick preface, I have been a digital modeler user since 2003 back with the first Line 6 PODs that were available and have been a happy Fractal Axe Fx II & III user for the past 6 years. So I love the convenience of digital units and this QC unit looks like it could be a really great next step in evolution of these kinds of units, especially with the fantastic and innovative user interface. With that said, there appears to be some features that I have seen in other competing units as well as some things that no one has completely addressed yet that I wanted to throw out as feature requests for this unit that would help it get closer and closer to perfection (weāll leave the all important tone part of the equation out of this discussion).
It would be quite beneficial to have a separate, yet fully integrated foot controller for instances where the QC is being used extensively on a desktop, or simply for additional foot switching options. Having MIDI integration is better than nothing, but it is such a pain to setup and looking like an outdated technology for foot controller solutions for digital guitar modelers these days. The way that the Axe Fx III and FC 6/12 foot controllers integrate is a game changer and the Helix Control looks pretty slick as well. However, there does not appear to be an existing input on the back to be able to make this happen. For example, others have used ethernet or a proprietary XLR system for their integrated foot controller systems.
2a) I hope for the ability to very quickly and easily control the relative mix of backing tracks that are being piped in via USB audio. Like either the ability to have one of the knobs always available to immediately adjust the mix, or to engage that control after the press of just 1 button.
2b) I also hope for the ability to control which outputs these USB audio backing tracks get sent to. For example, including it on the XLR outputs to monitors while excluding it in the TRS signal to a solid state amp that is hooked up to a guitar cab.
3a) The wifi integration is really intriguing. I assume/hope you would be able to use a laptop/tablet/phone (donāt leave Android out!!!) to tweak parameters and changes scenes and presets wirelessly.
3b) You could couple 3a with a long range wireless guitar and IEM systems, and you can quickly just grab your stuff and roam around your house and setup patches, practice etc. without having to move and setup your entire rig or need to be connected to a power outlet. But that kind of rig would be unreasonably expensive for just home/studio use, especially decent wireless IEM systems, so an even better option would be the ability to wirelessly stream to and live monitor the QC output from the wirelessly connected devices. If Audiofusion can do it, thenā¦ (https://audiofusionsystems.com/)
3c) A wireless yet fully integrated mini foot controller coupled with 3b is my ultimate pipe dream.
3d) Wireless MIDI capabilities could be an interesting feature as well and allow me to achieve my dreams in 3c. The quickest solution would be for Neural to get with Boome to pair the QC with the BoomeBox. (https://www.bome.com/products/bomebox)
I hope the single volume knob can easily set different levels for each of the outputs. If it has a press down capability, then doing so will toggle between controlling XLR, TRS, and headphone.
I hope there will be independent global EQs for each output and also for the ability to have a menu of presets for these EQs.
The ability to include or exclude power amp and cab modeling on a per output basis. For example, sending the XLR signal to monitors with the full similation while excluding power amp and cab modeling on the simultaneous send on the TRS signal, which is going into the FX Loop Return on a tube amp then off to a real cab.
Are the foot switches already setup to be able to send different, customizable commands on a single tap, double tap, long hold (with the ability to set how long until this is triggered), and pressing 2 switches at once (like switches on the top and bottom rows)?
It would be great to have the foot switches to be able to send USB commands to a computer or mobile device to trigger play, pause, rewind, etc. on a program that is running your backing tracks.
Global Blocks with auto updating, which is a borrowed idea from Fractal. This would be the ability to save settings for amps, effects, etc. to named block presents and then access a list of these Global Blocks when creating a new preset.
It is important to also have auto update linking abilities where a child block links to and auto updates if there are any changes to the parent Global Block.
You would want the ability to turn the auto updating completely off or, if turned on, also toggle it on/off at each individual child block level.
And you would want the ability to adjust the settings on a child block and save the new setting to the parent Global Block so that the changes can be pushed back down to all of the other child blocks if you want (or save the settings to a brand new Global Block).
The ability to audition presets that are saved on your computer or available online without having to download to the device first before trying out.
More preset storage!!! 256 sounds like a lot, but once third party preset generators and profilers get involved, 256 is going to feel highly restrictive very fast. The ability to audition without having to take up preset slots as I suggested in #10 will go a long way in alleviating this issue. But storage is cheap and it would be nice to not have to spend a lot of time filtering and trying to figure out what will make the cut to be saved to the restrictive number of preset slots on the unit.
Last but not least, some kind of magical solution that makes it easier to set volume levels between presets and scenes. I donāt have a good enough answer on how to do this yet, but one of the single biggest pains of the endless tweaking with digital units is having to constantly work on trying to keep volume levels relatively consistent. Part of the challenge is that you naturally want variations in your volumes.
I guess one simplifying thought is as I am modifying a bunch of stuff in scene, I just want my eventual scene volume to hold constant at a predefined level that is consistent across all of my other scenes and presets. I guess you could call this the Master Scene Volume. But you would want a handful of normalized levels that are a couple of shades louder and quieter than the average baseline volume. Or maybe you can set a predefined average baseline for your Master Scene Volume and then have a control that allows your to fine tune your desired deviation above and below this.
Yes they old way we have all done it this whole time works, but we are in desperate need of a better solution for setting consistent volume levels in digital units and it is time we start to address this need!
Okay, so I think this is maybe one of my most important comments, and I think my first thought on a solution is a really good start to solving this inherent problem.
Good ideas, but there is one very very bad. Although, judging by the appearance of the device, it takes a different approach, but I will still say a little about this, because every effort must be made to prevent this concept from being picked up by manufacturers, like the hysteria with the terrible blue LEDs that came to the market was much later and were more expensive, which turned them into a kind of symbol of futurism and luxury. To this day, manufacturers continue to produce various TVs, monitors, keyboards and mice with a blinding blue indicator, which is difficult to look at even in the daytime, let alone at night.
Itās about item number 2 - the volume knob that allows you to separately adjust the volume of the outputs. This implies the use of digital volume control, and this in turn carries a potential hazard. There is a simple truth that should be law in the world of audio engineering: The last volume knob in the chain (closest to the monitors) must be analog. No digital device is immune from malfunctioning of the control program, and this is very unpleasant when a failure occurs that sets the volume of the device to 100%. For example, when 150-watt monitors are connected to your device, this error causes shock and cold sweat, I experienced this with the Motu Microbook IIc several times and even sold it because I was afraid one day I would die of fright.
The analog volume knob is the last bulwark separating you from the limitless power that lies dormant in a good audio system, and only a human, not an occasion, determines when this power should awaken.
I donāt disagree, and I suppose that it looks like the volume knob could be analog anyway, so you might not have anything to worry about.
I personally would prefer 3 separate volume knobs for each output. The issue that I have is my high end IEMs are very sensitive and donāt require much volume to get overloaded. On the other hand, my FRFR setup requires a higher volume setting to get to a comparable listening volume as my IEMs.
Call me crazy, but one of the key reasons I wound up upgrading from my Axe Fx II to the III was so I could have separate volume controls for my XLR outputs and my headphones. I had gotten very close to causing damage to my $1,500 JH Audio headphones because I forgot to unplug them once or twice with my II when I was using my FRFRs and cranked the volume to have some fun. I was able to justify the the cost to upgrade solely as the insurance policy for my gear. Then the second silly reason is I needed to do away with an external mixer that I had been using to balance the relative volume for backing tracks and my guitar tones for live tracking. So I was able to consider the rest of the benefits of the upgrade as āfreeā benefits.
For what itās worth, I am not saying there is not currently or will not be in the near future, a workable solution for separate volume controls for the XLR and headphone outputs and also a convenient mixer control for backing tracks. But if those do turn out to be unaddressed features, then the QC will not be a good enough solution for my personal needs (i.e. it might satisfy some of my unaddressed desires with my Axe Fx III but it would simultaneously backtrack and resurface old issues that would require me to need a separate mixer, which would make the Axe an overall better option for my particular needs).
I have used the USB audio feature with my Axe III from my andorid enough using USB Audio Player Pro to know that the USB audio in feature would probably be a deal breaker for me given that the reason I am looking at the QC in the first place is my need for a super portable and minimalist rig that is silly easy to breakdown, transport, and setup, all while being fully capable and featured unit and a flagship product getting constant updates (I am talking about you FM3). A big part of what I have been wanting is a grab and go solution for the scenario where I just grab my guitar
Also, if the wifi capabilities could allow for these same USB audio and USB recording capabilities but wirelessly, then we would really be living in 2020. I already know this is already technically possible and commercially proven with computers but there is not a commercially proven solution for mobile devices yet as far as I know.
I recall hitting a snag with trying to pull off wireless USB connections a year ago between my Axe III and android phone using the Silex DS-520An wireless USB Device Server (Connectivity Solutions > Device Connectivity > DS-520AN). My memory is that the issue I ran up against was needing the android app developers to add in code to be able to make their apps connect to the Silex device. The problem was that Silex did not have the ability to create the same solution on mobile devices that they do for PCs and Macs that more or less tricks your computer into thinking it is physically connected to a USB device so that it would be available for any program to connect to it. Mobile devices are different and each app would need to use Silexās API so that the app could attempt to connect to a USB device that was available on a network and not physically connected, or for apple and google to add this feature in to the operating system. All of which is a pipe dream.
Neural might already be solving a lot of these problems theoretically with their mobile app development alongside the QCās wifi capabilities. However, as far as I know, the wireless recording feature would probably require them to create their own mobile DAW solution within their app or a companion app to make it work. So letās probably consider this as unlikely to ever happen.
No, the analog volume control can control only one channel, or several, but simultaneously and proportionally. That is, you cannot turn off the sound for the headphones, but leave it unchanged for the other outputs. If you organize a switching circuit, simply using a resistor as a rotation tracker, you will get the same digital control, since you will need memory cells in which the loudness values will be stored, it is these cells that carry the threat potential.
However, about your requirements for equipment, you most likely have nothing to fear - the QC has the following control panel:
Here all volumes are controlled separately and can be balanced. I also prefer separate controls, especially for the headphones and the main output, and I hope the developers will implement the ability to use rotary actuators for this. Although it will be digital control, it is still better than nothing.
Will the QC have an auto engage for the expression pedals for things like wah?
Also i know not a true acoustic sim
But a model like Neural Pure Clean Model that has the blend knob that blends in a piezo shimmer kind of like the Tosin would be really cool to have
I am back with a few additional thoughts and suggestions.
I hope that the Capture feature will allow the ablity to type in and store tags, notes, and potentially even pictures along with the captures themselves. One practical use for this would be to jot down amp settings as well as any other pertinent details in the signal chain in case we wanted to go back and re-capture the tone with some minor tweaks. This could also be a very helpful feature for sharing captures with the community (e.g. the notes could also reference the preferred cab and mic pairing for a direct amp capture, guitar and pickups that the amp was dialed in with, etc.).
It would be incredibly useful to be able to do āmerged capturesā digitally using software (i.e. blending two different amp captures/stock amp models/drive pedals using the editing software of directly on the Quad Cortex itself).
Merged profiles are possible with a Kemper, but it requires you to have access to two amps and run them simultaneously while doing your own blending and EQ using external hardware.
There are some individual amps that I would like to dial in two separate ways, and blend these two tones into one single capture. But I wonāt have access to a second copy of the amp to do this the Kemper way. And it would make the most sense to be able to do the blending, EQāing, etc. within the Quad Cortex itself or using the editor software on a computer. Also, I would like to try out blending some real amp captures in with some of the stock modeled amps, and I would really prefer to avoid instead having to run multiple amp blocks in a preset and do this kind of blending every time.
The next best alternative and back up option would be to allow the QCās capturing process of a live amp to be able to also simultaneously blend in an existing capture or one of the amp models while going through the capture of a live external amp. Also, I can envision a scenario where you might want to be using one of the modeled drive pedals (or a capture of an external one) in front of the live amp the is being captured, while running the already captured amp on a second signal chain in the grid, then running an EQ on each signal chain before a mixing block that then eventually connects to the capture block at the end of the merged signal chains. However, none of the screenshots of the capture process show the grid being involved in the capture process, so this might not be a feature that is currently available. However, apparently some of the Neural plugiuns are mergers of multiple amps, so perhaps merged captures might be part of the plan in some way, shape, or form.
I have not been able to tell how many channels/instances/whatever you want to call it of a block (amp, effect, cab) you will have access to in a single preset or if there will be any limitations on how many blocks you are able to use in a preset.
The best way to describe the question is by relating back to the Axe Fx III. The Axe will allow up to 2 amp block instances in a single preset. Within each amp block, there are 4 independent channels that allow you to store whatever amp and settings you want.
Given the existing commentary from Neural about running 4 amps in the QC without breaking a sweat, the number of instances of an amp block or anything else does not sound to be limited by anything other than the CPU usage from the overall preset. Perfect if that is the case.
But I donāt see anything about the equivalent of channels within a given block in the QC. Could it be that there is the equivalent of 8 channels in a block (i.e. the option to choose something different for each of the 8 scenes)?
A global pitch shifter would indeed be amazing! I use pitch shifters frequently instead of tuning down all the time (and i expect neural to have a better pitch shifter than the ones ive used), so thatād be great.
Iām new here and am considering buying a QC, but I still have a few wishes:
Autoengage at least for the WAH is very important (expression pedal). How else can you turn on/off the wah?
The possibilty to set virtual switches on an expression pedal. What I mean:
I have 2 Yamaha expression peadals with pressure points. E.g. values from 0 to 120 (=up to the pressure point) are assignet to 0 to 127 volume or an EFX parameter, the rest from 121 to 127 are assignet to a another CC like Reverb or Delay Hold (momentary switch) or a CC working as on/off switch (changeover switch). It may be, with the new Midi stuff it is already possible, is it?
This option would extend the expressions to a total of 4 instead of 2.
Sonic Enhancer (Doubler) to get a wide stereo image, something like in the AX-FX, where I love that sound.
Pitch shifting is a make or break kind of thing for me too, and I am kind of giving Neural the benefit of the doubt on providing something that works great.
I am hoping the implementation will allow for the level of flexibility that the Axe Fx III does. It allows you to effectively have global pitch shift capabilities with all out flexibility as well. Good thing it is not all in vein the since performance of the Pitch shift is top notch as well (regarding deminimis latency and undetectable audio degradation).
In the Axe the Pitch block can be selectively placed on the grid within a given preset. So you can run a DI of your guitar out before of after the pitch shift.
Then you can link the Pitch block to a Global Block (for global pitch shift control of the amount you want to shift up or down) and/or a Control Switch (for pitch shift on/off control across the scenes within a preset). Also, this Control Switch can be tied in with a quick access performance screen that alleviates the need for menu diving if you are not linking it to a foot switch. Finally, you can also add a control to the quick access Performance Screen for the amount you want to shift up or down.
It is truly a perfect and powerful solution in the Axe, and it is something I use heavily and to its fullest extent. I am hoping the QC will be able to offer something comparable.
One of my biggest wishes for effect would be the boss Rc300 multi 3 track looper, i saw somewhere a headrush would get that practice or gig tool. Now i am wishing this the quad cortex to be among the future tool.
