r/QuadCortex

Been using a Helix LT for many years... gigged it hard, and it held up ok, but the preset knob is buggered, the volume knob is broken, and it was... tired. I seriously considered the new Stadium, but I've been using Neural's plugins for a while and was impressed so I pulled the trigger on the QC today and... wow. Just dialling in some fairly complex 3 input (Guit/Mando/Harmonica) for a zep thing I've got coming up, and it just eats it up. I will mostly use it for bass though, been a bit of a learning curve but it's really straightforward and has some decent advanced features. Looking forward to festival season with this!

I just uploaded 3 captures - clean, edge of breakup, and dimed - of my year 2000 Marshall 1962 JTM45 Handwired reissue head, #205/300.

Figured some of you might be into it.

Not sure if there’s a way to link them but I use the same username on cortex cloud as here!

Let me know what you think if you give them a try. I recommend the 4/12 Brit silver stereo cab block. Have not posted any presets for them yet, I take a lot of time with those.

There apeared a loud humming from now to then only on xlr out 1. I send it back tonthomann bit they couldnt find the mistake. Im still in contact with them to search for an solution. But I also wanted to ask if anybody knows this problem and have tipps for me or a solution. Thomann first told me just to put another cable from another output seperatly to a mixer to give it ground. It works but its just a workaround because the humming is only on xlr out 1 and really came from now to then. It worked fine for months and now its always humming. I cant explain it to myself but thinking its broken somehow.

Hey all! I've been really wanting to get a great pop punk tone, think The Story So Far or Knuckle Puck, on my quad cortex. I've gathered that it's mostly probably just a Marshal 800 with a tube screamer into it, but I can't seem to get a perfect tone. So, I've tried a few different things: A tube screamer into both a JCM 800 and a JCM 900 with a 2x12 v30 cab (an IR in this case of course, a blend of mostly sm57 and some Royer 121). I've tried this with both my Tele and with my other guitar that has humbuckers to see the difference. I started tweaking them by myself and also asked some AI if there was any info on the web about those bands setups/settings. Let me know if I'm getting something obviously wrong, here's some clips. Forgive any sloppy playing and bad mixing!

Tele through the 900, by itself and with other instruments:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/iwj8h1ipl9g06kxi6r39b/Tele900.mp3?rlkey=tawljruvgaaue2kv9f4t7uz3p&st=e54hy71i&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f8zhq96qzou1rrk31azgv/Tele900Band.mp3?rlkey=9ias98gu92z6agj1ru7n6dvey&st=5ndgu20k&dl=0

Tele through the 800, by itself and with other instruments:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u6xd3jjl1wlyhr0ginc05/Tele800.mp3?rlkey=fzmsmg86tuq0n0x5ibnpmbd2a&st=zubv9qh6&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/okjvcm94h0o8k6t6i86dh/Tele800Band.mp3?rlkey=yym7nyeaop8mvjh1h4z31evki&st=ajfilq8q&dl=0

Humbuckers through the 900, by itself and with other instruments:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/psg1bs5qgi1q1tlythsh5/MM900.mp3?rlkey=usgjqfaxriiw0htbwff6g2anq&st=5h3580eu&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kfb3tu7if8aywl8k6tlp5/MM900Band.mp3?rlkey=30fqu0wlpo65cf81ogwjfjg2v&st=vnim4ei9&dl=0

Humbuckers through the 800, by itself and with other instruments:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/d1m4nex58o4hurel707tn/MM800.mp3?rlkey=qi726amjf7gryqm2co2x7hv9m&st=9nyd97ct&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tt6lbf2kqv3pnj7eqv3pq/MM800Band.mp3?rlkey=6g4dz3og8a90jguzbizwny8ln&st=295v9vqt&dl=0

Obviously quite different tone's, but the 800 was hard for me to get sounding right.

Settings

TS808: Overdrive 0, Tone 6.5, Level 8.5

JCM 900: Gain 5.4, Bass 4.3, Mid 6.8, Treble 5.3, Presence 6, Master 4.5

JCM 800: Gain 5.7, Bass 3.6, Mid 7.1, Treble 6.8, Presence 6.8, Master 9

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I feel like I'm just using them wrong since I don't have a ton of experience with high gain amps.

Like the title says. I owned a QC back in the day and never really quite gel'd with it and had a few gripes and just recently came back with the announcement of John Mayer PCOM coming and I'm blown away by the differences, so much so that it feels like a different unit.

Between the v2 captures, more creators in the third party preset market, the newer units having a significantly better quality power supply and the QC not overheating as much (maybe my old one had an issue, but I could just about cook an egg on my old one haha), quicker preset switching, gig view/scene toggle via foot switch, more devices added- I'm super happy with this thing. It could just be firmware updates, but the screen seems more responsive than my old one too. Could be wrong though. But having been around the block and trying everything, I strongly prefer QC's modern UI over everything else.

I owned the Helix Stadium and while I appreciated the convenience of BT audio, it's actually more of a hassle since it's so cumbersome due to being larger, heavy and reliant on a computer. While BT audio would be nice, I'd argue having to plug one cable into the QC is less time consuming than getting your heavy Helix out of the case and onto your desk. Even though Stadium's screen is larger, I can actually see the QC's screen better because fonts and block sizes are larger and the screen and LED’s are capable of being significantly brighter in settings. And man did I miss the Cortex Cloud app. Needing a computer in 2026 is kinda crazy. I'm confident in saying the amp modeling is still better on QC too. It's not even close. So much more "high fidelity" sounding to my ears. Even though Helix has more effects, the effects that were modeled in QC are the effects I actually want. The Micro Pog and new Strymon reverb are sick.

Hi there, sorry if this has been asked but I recently got a quad cortex through a trade. I have it paired with a fender tone master fr-12. It sounds amazing but think it may be a little overkill for my use. I don’t record or play live gigs, just a hobby I do at home and specifically just for guitar. I was curious if I were to sell it, and use something like a MacBook m1/m2 with a Scarlett solo connected to the fender tone master if I would get the same or similar sound from it. I do have the nolly x plugin already. I’m not too familiar with all of this stuff so not sure if the Scarlett is good enough, or if I would need additional equipment to get the sound.

Also, with the nolly x plugin, I mainly purchased it as it has the kill switch engage preset (engage the curse) and it doesn’t sound the same through the quad cortex as it does via the YouTube video. It sounds a lot brighter on the quad cortex and not as heavy. Not sure if this is due to it being played through the fr12 instead of studio monitors but curious if anyone else has experienced this.

Again, I think the quad cortex is great, but saving a couple $$$ and getting something that can provide a similar sound experience I figured was worth looking into. I only have the nolly x as of now as I don’t think plugins to me are necessary because of all the sims that come preloaded on the cortex, but would get more if I went the MacBook/scarlett route.

Any help would be appreciated.

Preordered the mini, still waiting on it to come in. Wanted to know what are some pedal types that you think the qc doesn't do well? Compression? Overdrive? Modulation? Lemme know what you think, and what never leaves your board even with the qc.

Read lots of positive reviews on the Powerstage so I got the 700 with the QC and kinda forced myself to use it. No dynamics, very flat sounding, and had to add a bunch of EQ and hi-low pass filters to get it close to what I’m used to. Cleans are fine but any high gain down tuned metal sounded pretty bad to me.

First I tried rewiring my 480w Krank 412 from 16 to 4 ohms, and that helped a bit with getting the speakers moving, but it was basically the same but louder.

Tried the FX return of my 6505+ and instantly got a ground loop I couldn’t solve with any QC outputs or settings. There’s also no master volume on that amp so it’s kind of scary. Hit the wrong button or switch to the wrong preset and you’ll blow your head off.

Made a humbuster cable, slight improvement but still unusable ground hum. Tried an isolation hum eliminator box from Pyle, mild improvement but big tone suck.

Then I used my brain and did TRS balanced out of the QC into my Radial reamp box, TS out to the FX return, and enabled the ground lift on the reamper. Boom! Sounds exactly like a big tube amp now, cab is thumping, and the level knob on the reamper acts as my master volume so no scary surprises.

Not trying to put down the Powerstage, tons of people use it and love it, but it made my cab sound so bad I’d rather just play out of my Mackie Thump PA. Just thought I’d share my troubleshooting steps since I’ve seen people post the same issues.

Also, it’s not that I don’t like the “recorded amp” sound of the QC, since I usually play it through my studio monitors with IRs and love it. Sounds as good as playing and recording my real tube amp. My cab does not like the Powerstage at all. My buddies v30 412 sounded a bit more normal, but still flat and no dynamics.

Hi all! I recently purchased a QC after finding that some of my favorite acoustic percussive guitarists have been using it for live shows. I was hoping it would sound the same for recording and I wouldn’t need the Clarett+. When I started playing with the QC, it felt amazing with my electric guitar! I don’t want to give it up! However, when I did a test recording vocals, it is almost night and day. The Clarett+ made my vocals sound like they do when I hear them in my head. I’ve never had any recording machine be able to do that.

As much as I love playing electric guitar and exploring so many different tones and effects, my current goal is to re-record my past written songs, focusing on making my acoustic guitar sound as good as possible mic’d, and/or amped. And especially my vocals.

In comparison, the QC sounded darker and not nearly as warm. I used a blank preset with the QC so that it would be a fair comparison.

For a singer songwriter focused mainly on acoustic and vocals for recording and live music, I’ve been told by a pro audio specialist that I would want to stick with the Focusrite for now. Playing so much electric is actually a bit detouring from my goal. The internet agrees. But then I asked the internet if it’s possible to make the QC record as good quality vocals as the Clarett+ and it responded that the QC is more than capable of doing so!

This situation has been giving me anxiety for a few weeks now. I want to have the portability to jam in different rooms. And although, the Clarett+ could be portable, it really seemed like I was not having as much fun with it like having the QC and getting lost in so many different sounds that I want, but don’t need. For someone who wants it all, Momma would say, “Champagne taste with a beer pocket book.”

Has anyone had the opportunity to compare both? Or any other audio interface designed for recording? Have you been able to dial something in to make vocals just as warm and analog sounding?

It’s more important I get the best recorded sound possible. But; it’s so much more fun just to jam out with the QC! I really want them both.

Many on the internet have commented, “It’s redundant to have both.” However, I must say the recorded sound of the QC is coming out like my old Tascam. The Clarett+ seems to have the accurate sound reproduction I’ve always been wanting. I’m thinking of maybe getting a 2U rackmount case to combine with my power conditioner to make it portable so long as I include a laptop.

But, I’m really kind of hoping someone could talk me into keeping the Quad Cortex that has some recording experience with it. Particularly, with vocals and acoustic instruments. Google did say with the right choice of IR cabs just as good sound can be recorded using the QC with acoustic instruments and vocals I figured in order to test them both properly, I would just do a simple line in with no effects and leave them both flat. I am under the impression that whichever one sounded better flat, it would clearly be the winner for my particular need.

Has anyone else had this experience that records vocals? Is the QC more for recording ideas conveniently? Do many of you use them separately in different instances and has both!

Thank you all! I appreciate your time!!

Mark

I bought a Quad Cortex to upgrade from my Line 6 HX Stomp XL. At first, just plugging the guitar into the Quad Cortex through headphones or a monitor, I was having a blast. However, I'm a one pedal board guy, and I wanted to incorporate my Quad Cortex into my normal rig, which includes tube amps and regular pedals like I used to with my HX Stomp XL. Sometimes I play direct into the pa system, sometimes I'm running tube amps etc. However I'm having a terrible time getting a good sound with the effects loops and 4CM.

First, I can't get my pedals to sound good through FX loop 1. I've read all sorts of discussions on how the QC is line level so I reduced my send by anywhere from 4 to 20db and increased the return at various levels, but I cannot get my pedals to sound good. Even on bypass, there is a huge amount of tone suck. I'm using drive pedals like the Suhr Eclipse, Wampler Tumnus, and D&M Drive. I even tried putting my old Boss TU-2 to put a buffer before it incase that was the issue and I am still getting terrible results. Is there any guide or video somewhere that can help me make this work.

Second, I'm trying to 4CM through my Marshall TSL100, and I'm getting a similar issue. There is a huge volume drop-off and tone suck going from the send to the amp's input. Even running it into the amp's return to use as a power amp (after amp and cab blocks in QC) sounds drained. If I boost the send signal, it ends up clipping and going out and is useless.

Am I missing something really simple here? Is the QC just not right to be my all-around routing rig solution?

I'm really loving the sound and small form factor of my new QC Mini but I'm frustrated with accessing the tuner. I want to put it to my right side while I sit and play pedal steel, so I need to be able to exit the tuner by hitting the left side of the pedal, but apparently there's no way to do so? Furthermore I'd be happy using an external footswitch to do it but it also seems that is not an option and only the B pedal can be used. Is there something I'm missing or is this that way it is? I like the QC far more but my both my old HX Stomp and FM3 were able to do this easily.

Thanks

Hoping some of you that use the QC for live stuff can help me out here. I’ve been thinking of getting one to have a unified hub to run bass guitar, vocals, and synth through for shows. I’d mostly need reverb, delay, then maybe light modulation or distortion on vocals. I know the QC isn’t really made for vocals, but it would be nice to have an all in one solution that I could also use for bass and synth effects.

My question is, would I just be better off bringing a laptop and interface and running things through that since the effects would be less guitar centric? I’m just hesitant to bring my laptop to shows because I’m afraid of something happening to it and losing all my recordings.

Third option is just using my cabsim pedal for bass (Darkglass element) buying individual pedals for synth as needed, and letting the sound guy deal with vocal sound. I’ve read the latter might actually be better than doing my own effects since they know the room better, but it also just feels like a dice roll. There are also dedicated vocal effects too like the boss ve 500. Dealing with a bunch of separate gear could be unwieldy, though.

Hoping you can weigh in. Am I just misusing the QC and/or wasting money to irritate the sound guy, or is this a good idea to have the QC as a compact central hub for all instruments and vocals for easy switching between tones?