NDSP Quad Cortex

[paisleywookiee]

What’s the draw on the QC? Do you just have to use two 500mA outputs?

 

[Orvillain]

Not to my knowledge.

NDSP does have on their site how to reduce noise and essentially states for the best experience, you need to have other equipment plugged into the QC to ground it, from the sounds of it.

Who knows

crikey!

 

[Mongillo19]

What’s the draw on the QC? Do you just have to use two 500mA outputs?

I use 4 at 500mA from the Cioks DC7. I don't think 2 would cut it?

 

[Achilles]

What’s the draw on the QC? Do you just have to use two 500mA outputs?

Did Sweetwater stop selling the 3rd party PS for the Cortex? They currently sell a direct replacement for the factory one.

 

[paisleywookiee]

I use 4 at 660mA from the Cioks DC7. I don't think 2 would cut it?

View attachment 16437

Holy fuck. That’s kinda tedious, to have to run all that IMO. I guess if you wire it cleanly and it solves the problem, then it is what it is.

 

[Mongillo19]

View attachment 16437

Did Sweetwater stop selling the 3rd party PS for the Cortex? They currently sell a direct replacement for the factory one.

2A will do the trick fortunately. Not sure what you mean by THE 3rd party PS. There are multiple you can use but the Cioks DC7 seems to be the most popular

 

[Mongillo19]

Holy fuck. That’s kinda tedious, to have to run all that IMO. I guess if you wire it cleanly and it solves the problem, then it is what it is.

I goofed, I run 4 at 500 but yeah same idea

 

[timbuck3]

wait....qc didnt change the power cord since that whole noise issue? wtf

 

[Achilles]

I don't have any ground noise issues with mine.

Back to review notes then!
Have you tried the Boss Waza CE-2 yet? I did an AB with a real one and it was really close - close enough to not be able to pick a favorite.

 

[FPFL]

Have you ever broken the power cable on a pedal, or audio interface? I certainly haven't. Being able to power the QC with a good pedal power supply is a plus in my book.

No but I have had people not pack correctly more than twice - and one off power supplies from any vendor are tempting Murphy's Law. I've also had the other guy in my band, who brings a big pedalboard, have noise problems when some skinny power cable and those little jacks get bent and go bad in some way, but still work. Gremlins love small things. I love big pedalboards for creativity, but not for travel gigs.

That said, with a QC why on earth would I need more pedals live? I'm not Vernon Reid. : )
The QC does more than enough by itself.

I want standard pieces whenever possible. TBC, I'm not picking on QC alone here friends. It was one bad design choice in an otherwise nice piece of kit. It's part of why I alternate between Amp1 and FM9. Simple rigs that each do a lot with few pieces (and look same IEC cable for both!) Less can go wrong.

 

[Jarick]

What’s the draw on the QC? Do you just have to use two 500mA outputs?

I think it's about 2A and 12V although the stated requirements are 3A and 18V.

Back to review notes then!
Have you tried the Boss Waza CE-2 yet? I did an AB with a real one and it was really close - close enough to not be able to pick a favorite.

Yes and it sounds quite good! I think the chorus effects may be better than Helix but maybe not as good as Fractal. I could be wrong there.

 

[Jarick]

I did shoot another capture, and boosting the volume and return gain of the Friedman quite a bit helped the EQ side of things, but the input gain is still too low. If I compare the capture against the real pedal and boost the gain of the capture by 3 dB and drop the return volume by 4 dB, it's fairly close. The real thing is still a little cleaner and more articulate sounding. Need to do some more research I think.

 

[Mongillo19]

I did shoot another capture, and boosting the volume and return gain of the Friedman quite a bit helped the EQ side of things, but the input gain is still too low. If I compare the capture against the real pedal and boost the gain of the capture by 3 dB and drop the return volume by 4 dB, it's fairly close. The real thing is still a little cleaner and more articulate sounding. Need to do some more research I think.

Mind taking a pic of the send return levels? You need to get those tickling the red as they say

 

[northern_fox]

Has it ever been conclusively linked back to their PSU, though? Like, someone was able to clearly and consistently demonstrate a problem that can't be attributed to any other variables, and then eliminate that problem by substituting another PSU? I've heard people make vague hints to this effect, but I've never seen it backed up as clearly as: sucked with stock PSU; was fine with product X. My next question would be, what's the cheapest product X that improves matters, and exactly why does it work?

Noise floor isn't a PSU issue unless it's specifically ground noise. The PSU is one of those things that was one specific problem, but people started basically blaming it for everything. I got so sick of seeing people respond to literally every issue with "you should replace that crappy PSU" lol. There was a specific ground loop noise in specific use cases that was caused by the PSU - that's the only real problem I'm aware of.

 

[northern_fox]

I did shoot another capture, and boosting the volume and return gain of the Friedman quite a bit helped the EQ side of things, but the input gain is still too low. If I compare the capture against the real pedal and boost the gain of the capture by 3 dB and drop the return volume by 4 dB, it's fairly close. The real thing is still a little cleaner and more articulate sounding. Need to do some more research I think.

If you wanna get real specific with it, you can measure voltages and use a clean preamp between the QC and the preamp to make sure the input level is precisely correct. However, it might be easier to just raise the gain a bit for capture and lower it back down for comparison. I usually aim for -10 to -15 dB on return level for best results. Inst level does nothing.

 

[Mongillo19]

Noise floor isn't a PSU issue unless it's specifically ground noise. The PSU is one of those things that was one specific problem, but people started basically blaming it for everything. I got so sick of seeing people respond to literally every issue with "you should replace that crappy PSU" lol. There was a specific ground loop noise in specific use cases that was caused by the PSU - that's the only real problem I'm aware of.

So in theory, by connecting say an XLR, you are then grounding the unit?

 

[northern_fox]

So in theory, by connecting say an XLR, you are then grounding the unit?

Yep, or any other line. It was predominantly an issue for headphone users that had nothing else grounded at all

 

[SeeD]

Still trying to figure out why you think this. I think the majority (if not all) the QC owners on here use a 3rd party power supply

Not me, and it works fine for my use case.

 

[Orvillain]

Our old guitarist used his QC with the band at quite a few gigs, and was forever plagued with noise problems. He had a ton of pedals connected to the loops, and it never really ever was plain sailing for him.

In fact it was one of the reasons that solidified my decision to sell my unit about 8 months after owning it. The other thing was, having it side-by-side with Helix and Axe FX III, and figuring out where the gaps were in terms of functionality and sonic quality. There were many.

 

[la szum]

100% Glorious Fizz and No Bottom end
then one has to wonder all these anti Modelling folks that say off Modelers have too much fizz and Bee's ...huh ???

Michael Schenker was not sitting in his bedroom with headphones on trying to dial in "his tone."




Let that be a lesson to us all!