hi everyone, just received the quad cortex. studio/live guy here, played all the famous amps out there, started the journey with kemper back in the day, a short side step to Mooer GE300, AXE FX II in the studio, mixing pro bands mostly live, metal music. I prefer Mesa recto tones and 5150 tones.
Setup:
guitar with bareknukle black hawks, into quad cortex into Friedman ASM-12, playing in a band setup, good sounding studio, practice room. I am an average metal shredder, not extraordinaory with the left hand, good shredding with the right (sorry for the self narcistic description, just that you have an idea where I am coming from).
The other guitar guy is using a Kemper, powerhead into a marshall box.
problem statement:
after resolving the really shitty sounding factory presets (using different IRs helped a ton, ML labs XXL mesa cab) and trying out recommendation presets from other users, I ended up having an ok sound but a nightmare of shizzle, hiss, hum… its like if you use an OD in front of a 5150 and push it too hard. like the gain staging (internally is to the max). I tried different amps (factory and user made ones, NOLLY (I usually like his stuff) and it’s pushed so hard, I have approx. the same amount of noise as I have sound. Yes, I know how to operate a gate this is not the problem.
I also looked at the input, output and general gainstaging inside the quad cortex and it looks ok as far as I can tell.
Comparison:
compared to the Kemper which is in the same room, the quad with the current setup is barely usable. the Kemper has a similar intense tone while beeing dead quiet. it sounds more “natural” and not so studio/production ready pushed.
question:
have you experienced similar behaviour? any tipps on profile, presets and dialing? I am newbie with the quad cortex and have to find my way around. I am sorry if my questions triggers someones “RTFM” nerves. I already did