So, yesterday I finally got a Quad Cortex. It was somewhat strange check stuff up, because for months I saw pictures, videos, manual and finally got to check it myself the menus etc.
So my first experience:
I opened the box and first glance - it was much smaller than I though it would be but I found the form factor amazing, really portable.
The power supply feels “flimsy”, like it can break at minimal mishandling.
Connect everything up - I read somewhere that it would take more than a minute to boot up. That was not my experience at all… about 20 seconds and it was up… maybe because it just had Factory Presets.
First thing I did was connect to Wi-Fi - it found my network right away, although it mention a “weak connection - move closer(…)” message, but after I connect it showed the connection at almost full signal (minus one bar). This was flawless - but keep in mind I have power repeaters at every room in my house so the Wi-Fi is quite strong all thru the house.
I logged on to my NSDP account - again flawless.
I received the unit with 2.0.3 CorOS, so it immediately showed I had an update to perform. I did it, it took quite some time… 7/8 minutes maybe? Again the update was flawless and I ended up with the 2.2.2 CorOS version.
It was time to dig the sounds - as I play in a Queen tribute band, I immediately started by downloading some presets from the Cloud (that I selected in the past weeks). It’s important to state that I was using only phones (Scarlett headphones that came with my USB audio interface). The first attempts, although usable, were not entirely to my taste, meaning I still didn’t have the feeling it could replace my amp. After selecting a few more I finally got a sound that I could use live with no problem at all. Now for the sound and blocks:
Maybe it’s my ears but I never experienced a more amp like emulator in my life. I read people saying that I can get close with a Helix… I had an Helix - not by 100 miles! Of course, on the Helix, maybe I should I’d spend days and weeks fine tuning a particular amp and get close… but on NDSP was 2 hours! Even browsing thru factory presets I didn’t found a “sound” that was “bad”, maybe not for my taste but by any means it was bad or unusable. On Helix I found tons (disclaimer: I didn’t try or own a Fractal so just comparing with Helix).
Another thing that striked me was the clearness and overall tone/volume consistency thru the blocks. On Helix I had a lot of problems with gain staging as blocks started to saturate the next ones and it was hard to pinpoint. I guess this can happen on the QC as well but I didn’t find it so far.
Now for the effects themselves: again maybe ME, but I love the delays, chorus and the pitch shifter on this thing. In other words, for my particular case, I don’t need anything else. It all sounded very professional and usable in a live situation.
The problems some users report: I didn’t experience any ground noise or white noise with the supplied power adapter. Big volume knobs also works flawlessly. The tuner does show some minor lag but nothing relevant. Didn’t had a problem tuning the guitar and it was spot on. Tap Tempo does show up that screen which could be optional indeed but it vanished in two/three seconds tops.
Now what I’m afraid of:
The sound thru my phones were great but I kept volume knob at 50%, because it was unbearable more that that. As I turned the volume up, the sound became more mid (it looses warmth). I’m afraid that, when using it live, I end up with this more screechy sound. I hope it was my phones producing this. Anyone?
Problems people reported started appearing from nowhere and, worst, at a gig! I don’t have the money/funds to have a spare unit, it would be overkill for me. Because I know a lot of pro’s uses a QC but they have I’m sure 2 or 3 units already connected and ready to be “online” at a flick of a switch from the tech.
Sorry for the long post. I most welcome and encourage any comments that can help me out in this quest
Curious on the bootup being much shorter when you got it. Is it still the same since you updated?
I wonder if it is related to the number of presets as you said. Or maybe captures and IRs affect it too?
Might have to go through and delete a load that I don’t use as the long bootup time is one thing that I really don’t like.
Regarding the volume knob, NDSP recommends to keep at 100% which is in fact unity and provides the best SNR as the volume knob is an attenuator. And 15-20 seconds sounds about right for boot time ever since 2.0.0 was released.
most likely it is the phones; I’m not real familiar with that model but the tone of the QC signal should not change based on the master volume wheel setting. In my experience it doesn’t affect the tone thru a PA or monitors when you adjust the volume.
that’s pretty much a worry that’ll never go away. Applies with any piece of technologically advanced gear.
Just remember there’s always more people complaining online than people just posting to say they’ve had no problems so far. Don’t read too much into negative reviews or feedback.
This could be a Fletcher-Munson (equal-loudness) induced issue. As the volume gets turned up you perceive certain frequencies differently. This is why it is a good idea to do your final dialing in of your presets at as close to performance volume as possible (protect your ears). You may find that you need to employ a LPF and HPF or make strategic PEQ or GEQ cuts for sounds you are using at performance volumes that may have sounded fine without them at home practice volumes.
I do get a ground noise when it’s just connected to phones - all I needed to do was connect a XLR cable from my audio interface to Out 1 (the audio interface was disconnected - no power but this was enough for the ground noise to completely disappear).
A question: for my main Brian May tone I run a wonderful capture which is an already driven AC30 with Treble Booster - so no need for any TB block.
I’m getting a great sound but when I roll back the volume some gentle touched notes start to stutter and the sound cuts abruptly (because of the noise gate). This happens with the input integrated noise gate or Adaptative Gate. When I turn the gate off, the clean sound is perfect but I get a lot of hiss which is natural and the same as my real AC30 with TB with no gate. Any pointers to mitigate this issue?
Usually, you can find a happy compromise between the noise level and not cutting off your input signal too early, by adjusting the ‘Noise Reduction’ parameter in the Input block or in the ‘Adaptive Gate’. Set it as low as you have to. If you can’t get there, one option is to use a preset that is generating less hiss.
Have you tried the ‘Utility Gate’ with the input block’s gate off? Might find some combination of settings that work for you. If there is one block in particular causing the hiss, try placing it after that. Perhaps a compressor set to add some sustain in the signal chain, somewhere before the gate, might help.
I have found that using the integrated noise gate (the one at the input), that it really cuts off sustain on overdriven sounds, even at the lowest setting. I have written to NDSP about it and that it seems to be a bug. Although you may find that turning it on the lowest setting gets rid of the hiss for clean tones and is usable. I’ve found better success using a simple noise gate in the 1st block to keep the tone and sustain.
Yes!!! This did it for me, works in terms of mantaining tone and sustain much better than other options. I hope they fix the bug on the input gate. Many thanks for the tip.
Following this past days, I’m really enjoying the overall experience. I didn’t even felt the need to install Cortex Control - is really easy just do it from the interface itself.
I really like the effects on it, but (as I’m sure a lot of people) miss some nice ones I could use such as:
Auto Wha
More modes on the Minivoicer (such as Harmonic Minor, Diminished…)
Transpose (I’m hoping this land on the QC plugin integration as plugins do have a great Transpose function)
With these two changes I would really be 100% happy for my specific needs.
Overall, it’s the first modeler I really enjoy playing and don’t feel the need to turn the amp on.
Quick question: my main preset (generic Brian May tone) uses a wet-dry configuration. This is based on this preset:
What I can’t understand here: on Row1 Multi Out the pan is 50L and on the Row2 Multi Out is pan Center. So it means that the Row 1 is the wet signal? The first Delay block on the Row2 is a mono delay - does this means it will sum mono and come out equally on L and R? Also on Row2 there’s a Vintage Chorus.
Yesterday I quicky tried to change this to this:
This is a wet-dry-wet config but, when I turn the delays on, the volume kinda drops. Can you give me some pointers on how to achieve a nice wet-dry-wet configuration?
I didn’t download the preset (the second one you shared), but looking at it and your description, it looks like it has the row 1 multi out as the dry signal (panned left). The signal is being split to Row 3 where the Wet signal is being split with delays and then summed to mono with a reverb at the end of the wet chain. From my experience in some WDW setups, the delay needs to be set to 100% mix to avoid the volume drop issue, and then the mix can be controlled via how much wet signal you output. I also find I usually prefer the sound of the signal not being summed, but rather sent to its out multi-out. But each to his own ears on that. Davlav does nice presets. I can upload some of my setups too if you’d like. What sound are you going for and what are you listening through? FRFR, headphones, or monitors? The experience with WDW can be pretty different through them.
Thanks for the reply. I’m using phones at the moment - the goal is to go direct to FOH and use IEM and/or stage monitors with my guitar channel(s). And would love to check your presets out if that’s not too much trouble. Thanks!
shoot me your cloud name and let me know what kind of general type of sound you are looking for. I’ve made quite a few, so I can send you something more specific to what you are looking for.
When you have spent a good amount of time with teh QC, would you be able to either recommend some good B May presets which are currently on the Cloud, or some which you’ve created? ; I really should learn some Queen tunes and Brian May stuff, but when I’ve played with a few sounds here and there i haven’t been able to get close to getting say the Bohemien Rhapsody solo sound (re; the nice harmonics which seem to naturally come through - I know part of that is Pickup config on the BM Guitar, but I think i saw/heard pete Thorne get a pretty convincing BM tone using his Suhr+and amp+treble booster.
As a side note, playing using headphones sounds bad to me in general (weather that’s headphones straight from the QC or my sound Module- I have decent studio quality 'phones) - makes it sound like an old ZOOM peddle to my ears:-) - playing through a good FRFR speaker at fairly loud volume (or even studio monitors at volume) really let’s you hear and feel how good the QC is (I say that even though I don’t think i’ve really got the best out of my QC yet, as I haven’t messed with Hi/Low cut settings or tried many different IRs/purchased any commercially available IRs)
EDIT - forgot to comment on the input gate discussion!.. I found , especially with single coil/lower output guitars and with any guitar when you roll your volume right back, it defo cuts off notes, as is a little too aggressive. I think for live use it won’t be an issue for someone like me, but when recording at home, maybe in some situations I’ll disable the input gate.
Sure. As soon as I fine tune my QC for the Queen tribute gigs, I will happily share them on the Cloud.
Bo Rhap solo (and solos in Somebody To Love, Killer Queen…) use the Neck+Middle pickups out of phase, which really screams and you got those nice harmonics you’re talking about. May uses the middle + bridge IN phase (quasi-humbucker) 85% of the time for main rhythms and a lot of solos as well. You can get close with other guitars but I never found a guitar versatile enough to “do it all”. With a LP you can get that middle + bridge type of sound (humbuckers), with a Strat/Tele you can get close to that screaming sound. Thing is - on the Red Special that neck + middle out of phase is brighter and screams but at the same time haves some sweetness to it. Of course, with some EQ in could get you in the ballpark.
So… first band rehearsal last night… bittersweet feeling… I connected directly to mixer (Outs 1/2) in stereo. It sounded kinda “boomy”. On certain notes the tone I seek is there but on rhythms it lacked dynamic, it sounded almost liked a 90’s amp emulator (thinking Boss GT-5 that I owned in the past). Messed with the EQ but i it didn’t improve that much. Channels on the mixer were flat and no other EQ was connected.
Maybe the capture worked better thru my phones, I don’t know… I mean it wasn’t unusable… I could go thru a gig with it but it didn’t match the tone I have thru my AC30 + TB (I also tried to capture this this week so I could get my sound inside the QC but the results were not on pair). So it was not satisfying in terms of “I can sell my amp now” if you know what I mean. I see potential in it but May’s sound idiosyncrasies and the way the volume knob is what makes the sound go thru clean to full gain - I didn’t quite managed to replicate this.
