Dang! Probably a mixed bag of disappointment and reliefI suppose my last post concerning said demo was ambiguous. No, I did have it in my cart for a minute, but I think that just scared someone else (who I noted already had it in their cart) into buying it.
The timing was just a little off. I need to give the FM3 a fair shake, and then offload some stuff, before I start buying Quad Cortexeseses in bulk.Dang! Probably a mixed bag of disappointment and relief
I think you'd be surprised! Demo models pop up very often and yeah maybe not at $1444 but $1500 which won't too far off. I'd definitely go the demo routeThe timing was just a little off. I need to give the FM3 a fair shake, and then offload some stuff, before I start buying Quad Cortexeseses in bulk.
But $1444 with a 2-year warranty? I'd be lucky to find that deal again.
Agreed. I'm not going to forfeit a return window just to save another $100 or whatever. Always have an escape route!
It sucks not being able to trust your preferred gear.
Without diminishing the seriousness any of those failure reports, I can't help but go into tech support troubleshooting mode and ask a million questions. As easy and entertaining as it is to say "NDSP is clueless and the QC is a turd", things generally happen as a result of actual causes.
I'd be curious to know how long these owners had run their QC's before they started exhibiting problems, and what, if any, variables were introduced before those problems began. If a QC fails in the first couple of weeks of operation, then it's possible/ somewhat probable it's simply a defective unit. (Like the first one I received.) If it runs for months and months and then suddenly doesn't, then something must have changed corresponding with that failure: physical damage, a firmware update, content (capture, preset, setlist) corruption, or some unprecedented, uncommon pattern of usage. (Notably, the last two explanations would indicate an OS bug.)
I had a brief spell (maybe a couple of weeks) after a recent firmware update where my QC wouldn't boot fully when I first powered up. (I think this was reported by a few other people as well?) I'd have to unplug DC and reconnect for it to fully boot. But I think the firmware change was coincidental (or only part of the problem); it seems more likely it was related to other devices on the power strip drawing a lot of current simultaneously. So I'd be curious to hear more about AC quality and power supply configurations being used by those reporting problems. Stock PSU or third party PSUs? AC strips/ splitters "upstream"? What else is on their boards that might be drawing a lot of current while the QC is trying to boot?
But most importantly: what changed since the QC last functioned properly? Is the failure now unrecoverable, or is it intermittent. Do efforts to change the variables identified improve matters at all? Etc. etc. etc.
I hear ya. I'm driving myself crazy trying to decide whether to (also) be a FAS guy. Either way I'll keep the QC, but I'd prefer to "pick a lane" and get back to focusing on the guitar. I must have changed my mind back and forth 5 times last night alone. There are a few things the FM3 does better than the QC, but for the most part I can get them sounding very close to one another, and the QC is just so much easier to program, configure, reconfigure as needed.
The good news is that the comparison has me digging a little deeper into the QC effects than I had previously. For instance, the Modulated Reverb is more useful than I expected. (It might be a better stand-in for spring reverb than the so-called Spring reverb LOL.)
You've read more of those problem descriptions than I have, so...
But having been in tech support on and off for years (and currently doing plenty of it even though it's technically not in my job description), I'm very skeptical of users saying there's no rhyme or reason, "nothing changed", etc. To be clear: I don't mean to put this on QC users or to excuse NDSP. The QC should be bulletproof and paying customers shouldn't have to go through any of this in the first place.
You've read more of those problem descriptions than I have, so...
But... trying to get users to accurately describe technical issues is like herding cats. I get at least some misinformation literally every time an end-user tries to describe a software failure to me. If NDSP had an experienced, effective technical support staff, they'd have compiled enough data points by now to establish a pattern (or patterns) despite this tendency. But instead, they do themselves, and their customers, a massive disservice by not being more public with this information. If they don't have the resources to gather all of these details and effectively analyze them, then they should be revealing as much information as possible about failures - including post-mortems of hardware that's been RMA'd - so nerds like us can do some of that analysis for them. For free! For no better reason than... Curiosity! Boredom!
Anyway. Some QC's are working. (Mine runs about 10 hours a day 3 or 4 days a week, and a couple of hours on other days, too. It's been rock solid for years now.) There's got to be a way to shore up all of these loose ends, explain them, and get things on track.
You’ve probably hit the nail (or at least one of them) on the head. For all my talk of identifying variables, I did kind of gloss over the point that my QC has been rock solid for years… on my desk. The foot switches have seen very few cycles in that time, and if the design is such that pressing them stresses a PCB, connector, solder joint… Well there you go.Hahahha I have to tell people regularly that the Up arrow on a thermostat is how you turn the temp up, I get it.
The first question that always pops in my head is “How much live/road use has it gotten?” because that’s obviously got the most potential for hardware issues to arise, but I can’t say confidently there’s more/less depending on live/home use. The only thing NDSP has disclosed is when they’ve had to re-flash a unit or replace the connector board, but their silence on the whole thing doesn’t leave me with a lot of confidence they’d be fully honest about it to begin with.
I found the other day that all the screenshots I’ve taken were going to my Cloud and not getting deleted when I’ve deleted them from my phone, while antagonistic me wants to wrap them all up in a Dropbox file with a bow, it might be beneficial for users to have all those issues/experiences in one place, the same way I’m going to put all the FM3/USB issue stuff in one place for users to reference until FAS has a fix.
so it’s a tough one to quantify. You have to just open these units up and see what’s actually broken.
You’ve probably hit the nail (or at least one of them) on the head. For all my talk of identifying variables, I did kind of gloss over the point that my QC has been rock solid for years… on my desk. The foot switches have seen very few cycles in that time, and if the design is such that pressing them stresses a PCB, connector, solder joint… Well there you go.
Some players are more… emphatic with footswitches than others
Like your,s my unit is on a lot of the time, and I record with it ..no problems. Make captures. Must be like 2 years now. And my other QC friend..no problem ( 2 years) He gigs that thing and in studio all the time
Watch out how you set the tap tempo
I haven‘t. Cancelled my 1st tier preorder as soon as I smelled BS.
Commitment TM@JiveTurkey, if you can believe that.
