Over the past few years I’ve compiled a few tips for dialing in a more realistic response/feel/tone on my QC. There have been lots of videos and posts- these are the tips that have been most useful to me. If you have others, post them here please.
hi/low pass 50-80hz, 8k -10kHz
compressor last in chain - tames the top-end, glues fx & prolongs trails, adds ‘sag/squeeze;’ keeps higher gain tones from having an inordinate volume boost (-20dB, 4to1, level=unity)
subtractive EQ after cab; notch out ‘artificial-sounding peaks’
soft clipping = slight OD. emulates speaker breakup/power amp saturation. On QC = power amp capture after amp/cab achieves this effect.
fx placement ; before amp/cab blocks simulates pedalboard setup. After amp/cab emulates studio-style post fx
Those are all pretty much electric guitar-centric, and ‘starting-points’ only- YMMV and of course everything needs to be tweaked for your own personal setup.
For bass and acoustic guitar I usually find amps and cabs are not always necessary- sometimes it’s better for clarity not to use them in the chain. Acoustics with piezo pickups benefit from acoustic IRs (many of which are available as captures on the Cloud) which warm the tone and give the impression of body and resonance.
Thanks Xush. It’s a nice collection of tips, especially helpful for those who are new to the QC and/or modeling in general. If I might add…don’t be afraid to run your high-cut lower or your low-cut higher, especially if you’re struggling with too much “fizz” on your overdriven tones or too much mud in the bottom end (respectively) . Ignore the numbers and let your ears decide.
For overdrive pedals, I like having an additional compressor block (usually the Jewel) with a light threshold right before the overdrive block to add a little extra squish and sag. In stomp or scene mode, I have it so the compressor and overdrive are both triggered by the same footswitch. This especially works well with Neural Captures of overdrive pedals in my experience.
For acoustic guitar presets, I don’t like using amps or cabs either, but I have gotten some good use out of Neural Captures of mic preamps. Someone uploaded a capture of an Avalon U5 studio preamp to Cortex Cloud that I think works great with acoustic guitar! After hitting the preamp capture block, I also like adding an impulse response of an acoustic guitar in row 2 and splitting my dry signal so it’s partially processed by the IR block. You can blend the IR block in with the dry signal using the split mix controls.
settings on amp block… reduce input/preamp volume -4.8 db and increase master/output volume +3-4 db. This could be a gain staging thing, but it seems to bring out more tubey sound.
(only in stereo, not a fan of mono reverb) on bass, if i want to loosen the sound i use an empty ir block (st), and on page 2 add room mix 5-15%. This reverb sounds drastically better than the reverb block room, could be me though.
How do you find using a Power Amp capture compares to just cranking the ‘master’ setting on the actual amp block? I thought that’s what that control was for?
Higher Master = more midrangey, compressed sound as you would get with power tube drive.
it’s a much more pronounced saturation with the additional PA, no doubt from the cascading effect. Also, it’s adding character and depth and a thickness that just increasing the amp model master vol doesn’t quite offer. And it’s usable on captures where you can’t adjust that setting at all.
Come to think of it, I might go back and edit ‘cascading gain’ into the initial post; that’s something I haven’t seen discussed much in modeler forums.
I built as much into this one as possible. The post EQ is not engaged or adjusted, that will need to be done on an individual basis.
XP1 cross-fades between Lane 1(clean) and 2(cascaded gains).
Dual ‘87’ comps emulate the OE Slide Rig dual-compressor for ultimate squish. Disable 1 for an 1176/Cali76 tx (dialed in against my Cali76tx unit) feel.
Toggle the post Comp for the ‘sag/trails glue’ effect.
The Myth Drive at 0% gain adds to the soft-clipping/transparent boost effect along with the Power Amp capture (in this case placed before the amp and cab)
(the crazy wet cascading delays are just my usual ambient explorations, feel free to disable those or dial down to taste)
It’s pretty ‘full’ but still only at 59% CPU
I’ve been going back and forth with the good people Neural DSP, I got my unit two weeks ago. I spent some time trying to run it through an actual cab minus the cab block on the unit but it just always sounded fuzzy and thin. Today I tried to run it directly into my Yamaha HS7 speakers in stereo, using the rhode XLRs. I’m using the factory preset to test the tone, unfortunately it’s the same fuzzy high fizz sound no matter what I do (I’ve also made sure to play with the input gain, ensuring it isn’t peaking) I’ve also set the impedance to 1M ohm. I’ve not been able to achieve a usable tone. It sounds like a fuzz pedal or out of phase amp. If anyone has any advice, I am willing to invest in new speakers or any equipment that’s missing. I do have the walrus DI box though I don’t know if this would be useful. I had no issue playing my synths through the Yamaha speakers I got beautiful sounds through them. I’ve also utilized my Scarlett audio interface and never had issue with synth sounds both analogue and digital, using instrument cables.
Just an open sound I mean, the EVH 5150 50w III I have in my room sounds good with a horizon pre amp for example. I am testing the unit with my Ibanez RG J Line tuned half a step down, the bridge has a BKP juggernaught and so I’m getting the above mentioned sound when I use the factory preset 1F. I did load the nameless suite and played with that but it sounded the same, thin and snappy. Like a metal zone, I would describe the tone I’m getting like the metal zone, not like what you hear on the Misha Mansoor archetype Amp that was recently released for example - I didn’t think I would have to sit for a long time sound engineering the tone. FYI I did load OWN HAMMER IRs and also MDL tone IRs (after the amp) and it did give me a different thin tone, it just doesn’t sound like a metal guitar or it sounds like the volume has been turned down (it hasn’t it’s turned up)
I’m guessing all these guitar tones I see on YouTube have been stacked? Also thank you for the advice much respect to you I will place the eq in the position you’ve mentioned
Thank you so much, I did try some tones from boutique tones, Choptones(fear factory DC pack), sinmix etc - I also made my own preset while watching MDL tones and used the same noise gate, Amp, IR + EQ - he didn’t touch the EQ when he made the preset - it sounded like a guitar (when I asked what his set up was he said just computer speakers). The mid range and low end could be heard even though it wasn’t a tube amp in a room, it was the signature Neural DSP sound. Im not getting those sounds, I did check the inputs and outputs to ensure nothing was clipping or going red - the tones are always the same it’s like a metal zone. Maybe I’ve gone partially deaf and cannot hear the lower frequencies or I may be in fact tone deaf? I did jam prior to writing this post on my EVH stealth that goes into a cab loaded with a Hesu Demon and creamback H75. I’m not looking for the exact same tone I jam with but if the QC unit can’t do what it’s supposed to do there must be a setting or something I’m doing wrong or not setting right.
Strange days and disappointing, I’m lost with this.
are you able to record your tones and share them here? Either phone video or DAW recording?
This seems like a bit of a mystery here- it’d help if we could see it in action to further diagnose what might be happening. Perhaps your QC is faulty, this could help confirm or rule that out.
(have you tried the ‘less is more’ approach? Many high-gainers find that LESS gain is preferable for heavy tones, you may not want to max out the gain levels for a balanced distortion tone)
I agree with the other post. Sometimes you can overdo it with too much gain. Just fool with lowering it a bit put up the volume maybe some mids. Lower the drives before the amp app and btw I’m going through the return input of an amp and straight into a regular guitar cab. Good luck. Think you’ll figure it out.
i don’t turn the gain all the way up no, usually 12 o’clock or I lower it just to see what or how it will react to my playing. I do have videos but I don’t know if these can be posted on here? Let me know how I can share them.
I might try this to see if it remedies the situation but I’m getting this metal zone tone through whatever I do, I did the power stage to 2x12 cab turning off the cab block on the QC and it was the same high frequency tone. I went straight into my Yamaha HS7 monitors and it was the same thing. Happy to share videos I took if there’s a way. I did use eqs and different IRs to remove the nasty high end but the brittle tone remained. When I bought the tone packs for example from
Choptones and SinMix they do sound amazing on YouTube, when I load the captures myself the depth and tone is missing, it’s the same sound across the board - I will take the unit to the showroom today and ask them to assist me in finding out if the unit is faulty and if someone would like to have a look at a video I have, I would be very happy to share it. I don’t believe this is what this machine is capable of only.
Thank you Dave, we did try this with the TONEX Cab the FRFR one, thats back in the shop now. Yes i did play with the knobs at the back (dB)
Just FYI i have used the Yamaha with the scarlet focusrite, I used synths from Roland, Oberheim, Sequential, even VST instruments, i did manage to get good low end, great dynamics from the analoue synths. The Speakers are amazing for this sort of thing. For High gain metal or like realistic breakup cleans i havent gotten the tones we hear on neural DSP (using custom presets, captures and IRs)
Ive been looking at some videos of these amp modellers, live and in the studio, there always seems to be some sort of Pre amp or Rack style audio interface coupled with the device.
Or it could be the case where i am Tone deaf. I just dont see how i can get real amps to sound the way they should utilized boost pedals, using specific tubes, using warmer speakers like the creamback as opposed to V30 for example, Opening the cabinet back or closing it, i do these things with my real amps and cabs. for example if you compare a H-75 to a V30 you can hear the difference between both, so maybe youre right i dont like the sound but what are these sounds on youtube and on neural DSPs official page? the archtype etc all these sounds are apparently through computer speakers only while the guitar is going through an audio interface and DAW.
I remember in 2000, i bought the RP2000 from Digitech, i did manage to get it to sound good through a 100 w crate amp, it was similar to Machine heads rhythm tone.
Maybe youre right i simply dont like the sound of what im hearing but i like all the demos online and whats officially being shown.
I will look at some options i was thinking about the Adams but if you say they wont make a difference (on paper they seem to make a difference) but reality is something else.