# Some new captures sounding bad 2203 1987 - troubleshooting **URL:** \ **Category:** Quad Cortex\ **Created:** [December 13, 2025, 5:23am UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415 "2025-12-13T05:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tkm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@tkm](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/tkm)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 5:23am UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/1 "2025-12-13T05:23:15Z")
Hey, I just picked up a used Quad Cortex on a pedal board running off a Ciock DC7 with Crux. Checking out some new captures but I’m finding some stuff that doesn’t sound right. Some stuff is sounding like it’s almost clipping or something. Specifically, the 2203 97 v2 captures mostly sound like there’s a gnarly fuzz funning into the amp even though I don’t haven anything but the amp and cab. Any thoughts? Other models and things sound pretty good so I don’t immediately suspect hardware issues. ---
**Author:** ![tkm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@tkm](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/tkm)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 5:35am UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/2 "2025-12-13T05:35:14Z")
Does guitar pickups make THAT big of a difference because total garbage and sounding normal? ---
**Author:** ![jonnix](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/unity.neuraldsp.com/jonnix/32/4905_2.png) [@jonnix](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/jonnix)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 11:02am UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/3 "2025-12-13T11:02:05Z")
It’s alchemical … the snapshot itself was created with a certain set of hardware in a certain room on a certain day, when you load it into your QC the closer you can get to those conditions the better it will sound, starting with your pick up selector and input gain. Those capture blocks aren’t really designed to tweak too much, you’re better off getting your gain staging etc to match the capture, or find a closer match. IMO Personally I liked no.6 … tame enough for my humbuckers! ---
**Author:** ![tkm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@tkm](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/tkm)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/4 "2025-12-13T14:19:59Z")
Hi. Thanks. Yes 5 and 6 were about the only usable captures for me. Do the others simply sound “off” with your guitar or do they sound like there is a massive fuzz or bit crusher in front the amp like mine does? ---
**Author:** ![MP\_Mod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@MP\_Mod](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/MP_Mod)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/5 "2025-12-13T14:53:24Z")
Try backing off the gain, but also look at the details for the captures as some were done with a drive/fuzz in front of the amp. ---
**Author:** ![tkm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@tkm](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/tkm)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/6 "2025-12-13T15:40:38Z")
Turning the gain _all of the way_ down does bring it from bit crusher to ALMOST useable but still off. where is the capture signal chain detailed for factory captures? ---
**Author:** ![xush](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/unity.neuraldsp.com/xush/32/5100_2.png) [@xush](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/xush)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/7 "2025-12-13T15:54:43Z")
They’re in the Capture descriptions in the Cloud. There’s also a user-made pdf file available ---
**Author:** ![Andyjcp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/unity.neuraldsp.com/andyjcp/32/2996_2.png) [@Andyjcp](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/Andyjcp)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/8 "2025-12-13T17:17:02Z")
Is your gain on the input of the QC turned up maybe? If you go close to clipping here as some people recommend, every model and capture will be driven much too hot. Try with the input gain around 0dB or even lower for hot pickups. Maybe you can tell us which capture specifically and post an audio file then we can compare. ---
**Author:** ![tkm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@tkm](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/tkm)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 8:31pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/9 "2025-12-13T20:31:56Z")
So I’m returning to Quad Cortex after being in Fractal land for a while. I didn’t know there were descriptions of the signal chain on cortex cloud and that many of these have distortion pedals in front of the amp…. Problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![xush](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/unity.neuraldsp.com/xush/32/5100_2.png) [@xush](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/xush)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/10 "2025-12-13T20:33:53Z")
yep, they finally uploaded the settings for the Factory captures. There’s a pdf version of the new V2 captures, but not for the original V1 Factory Caps yet. ---
**Author:** ![MP\_Mod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@MP\_Mod](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/u/MP_Mod)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/some-new-captures-sounding-bad-2203-1987-troubleshooting/20415/11 "2025-12-18T18:02:59Z")