Very pushed profiles/captures - very loud noise

Quad Cortex
1

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 :slight_smile: 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 :slight_smile:

1 Like
2

Hi there… funny… I wanted just post similar problem! So now I hook in here…

I am a Electronics-Hardware Developer and I can say, that the hardware guys did no good job there! Pops , cracks ans noise everywhere!

There seems to be a massive ground problem on the quad cortex! I guess this cones from that shi**y AC/DC adapter. Ideally this needs to be galvanic isolated completely for best results. The cheep chines crap isn´t.

Try using symmetrical connections on all devices. At least this is my next try but at the moment I do not have enough symmetric cables to test.

Additionally I will test a galvanic isolation in my lab the next days and give feedback here.

Best regards

1 Like
3

this is not the problem I am referring to but thanks for the hint.

4

Hi
Sorry to say I can’t really help. I don’t have these issues. It can get noisy but with the adaptive gate on it sorts out any issues for me.

I also have a Kemper and feel the QC is basically the same with the adaptive gate on. The Kemper also has a gate in the input and of course gates you can add in the fx slots.

I’m using a powerstage 170 and a two rock cab with the QC and use a powered Kemper with the same cab.

1 Like
5

ok.

  1. I will check on the grounding issue
  2. I will try more presets and fiddle around with it.

thanks so far!

6

I have gotten to the point where I add the adaptive gate (utilities) to almost every signal chain but I like the higher gain stuff anyway and need it for that style.

I also have the big knob always at 100%, my XLR Outs are usually 10-12db and tweak each preset to taste.

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thanks! I have it on every channel too. :slight_smile:

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On a related point the QC should just have the adaptive gate optionally in the input stage seeing as it’s needed a lot of the time anyway and takes up a slot :slight_smile:

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9

I find folks are making their captures to hot. Lots of unusable stuff out there.

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10

thanks! any recommondations which capture to check out?

11

Update:
After several month of trying, gigs, frfr boxes, power deuce pushing a 4x12, direct to PA and recording straight from a yamaha desk (lc5) of one of our live gigs where we had the same speaker/mik setup as the main act (but main act used real tube amps) I stopped trying with the qc stand alone.

I bought a 5150iii 50 watt and its like day and night. We also played gigs again with this setup (quad cortex hooked up with 4 cable method) and both our sound/tour guy and the recordings sound so much better.

So thanks neural for trying but the QC is still only a super computer with plugins.

FYI we play athmos death black whater gaze stuff and are either heavy or mild distorted.

12

Interesting. I noticed a lot of noise when using higher gain on amps together with a drive block in front. In the analog world that’s to be expected, but I don’t remember being it so obvious on other digital products. The noise vanishes when a gate in front engages but without a gate it seems to make no difference whether the volume pot on my guitar is open or closed.

Does the QC have a particularly noisy input stage where the AD conversion happens?

13

I dont know. I have now a lot of noise on the red channel with the 5150. I will try and report back what helps.