NMD: NDSP Quad Cortex

[TubeStack]

Couple more "The Good" points to add:

- mic input + preamp + phantom power is cool and part of my interest in it
- I'm the main singer in my band and would like to try adding some simple voice effects for live use (delay, distortion, etc)
- captures take up very little DSP, so it really feels like I have endless space to add anything
- I'm running a preset now that has octave-down, two drives, three modulations, reverb, two delays, and two amps/captures, and a looper, and I'm only at 29%, for example

 

[JiveTurkey]

“Fluid Captures”

 

[TubeStack]

“Fluid Captures”

 

[JiveTurkey]

Couple more "The Good" points to add:

- mic input + preamp + phantom power is cool and part of my interest in it
- I'm the main singer in my band and would like to try adding some simple voice effects for live use (delay, distortion, etc)
- captures take up very little DSP, so it really feels like I have endless space to add anything
- I'm running a preset now that has octave-down, two drives, three modulations, reverb, two delays, and two amps/captures, and I'm only at 29%, for example

Careful on that phantom power!

 

[Los-D]

Have you tried the headphone out yet?

 

[TubeStack]

Have you tried the headphone out yet?

No, and don't need to, though I have read about the issues. (Thankfully I can play pretty loud at any time of day/night, family is very accepting and encouraging, very lucky.)

 

[Whizzinby]

I don’t think so, but others with more experience can say better, maybe @mbenigni @Mongillo19 @Achilles @Whizzinby ?

Switches seem extremely limited in what you can assign/customize, but I haven’t looked too hard, yet.

The mode/tempo switches are not user configurable, and hybrid mode is based on rows of switches, not per footswitch.

Then again I never leave scene mode because I don’t gig and there is zero need for me to have complex switching per preset in my use case as a desktop home studio device.

I have also only turned it on once in two months so there is that.

 

[Mongillo19]

I have also only turned it on once in two months so there is that.

Same.

@mbenigni is probably our resident QC expert at this point

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I dont own a QC and havent used one a great deal, but I found the built in models to be basically on par with their plugins and (for me) better than the captures. I'm always a little surprised that people prefer the captures to the models, when NDSP's background is making machine learned models of real amps.

I really like dialling the amps in with the poo switches, and the choice of amp models is pretty nice (maybe somewhere between Helix and Fractal for what I like, possibly even on par with Fractal).

I've had issues with noise when my mate has brought his QC to my studio, and I find the menus/navigating/I/O a little clunky. But I think if you're mostly into the AMP side of things, they're pretty great sounding and fun to use.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Honestly, the QC’s design (except for the power supply) is awesome. It’s really the company that’s more suspect.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Honestly, the QC’s design (except for the power supply) is awesome. It’s really the company that’s more suspect.

 

[Achilles]

^^^^ In all fairness, it has worked for some.

 

[mikah912]

Honestly, the QC’s design (except for the power supply) is awesome. It’s really the company that’s more suspect.

My only hardware quibbles are the footswitch rows are a bit tough to go back and forth between live (I typically stuck with just the top or just the bottom) and the touchscreen and wifi weren't the most responsive.

 

[TubeStack]

Also, to add to The Bad:

- it has a very long boot-up time, like the longest out of any modeler I’ve owned?

- tuner requires too long a press to turn on

- while I love the UI overall, my brain is still adjusting to which virtual knobs the real knobs are controlling, due to how they don’t line up with each other, though I imagine I’ll get used to it

And more The Good:

- I love how the LEDs for the activated knobs light up with the corresponding colour, when you tap on a block to edit it; simple thing but adds to the fun factor and is helpful

 

[GTR37]

I had an early one so minimal fx and amps
I will say IMO the Freidman HBE w boost in front was stellar as was the Jcm800 and 5153red
Great feel , tight lows but not sterile
Punchy mids , great harmonics and could go into a very natural feedback , really good stuff as good as the Fractal maybe better on the Freidman at that time
Was it more authentic who knows but it killed ,

The stinkers the Recto , Tremo , DZL not great but the SLO was so bad they have since gone back and fixed it and reports are it matches the plug-in much closer now

Effects again were sparse but delay was decent as was verb , chorus , I am not a huge effects guy so I could get by easily

The cabs in board were way easier to tweak than loaded IRs
My York irs sounded like crap and it was a nightmare to load them

Overall for what was there tones
GUI I would give it about a 7/10

I preferred the Heavy tones and Marshall’s over the Helix by a lot
But that was 3 or 3 1/2 years ago

 

[eggpl@nt]

- I love how the LEDs for the activated knobs light up with the corresponding colour, when you tap on a block to edit it; simple thing but adds to the fun factor and is helpful

Does this mean that, on the screen, a particular control will be highlighted in a color, and the footswitch encoder that changes that control will be illuminated with the same color?

If so, that’s cool. I don’t remember the behavior when I had one, but I do remember having difficulty making those connections—which encoder changes which control. I was constantly counting foot switches to correspond by number.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

With the recto, try the master volume below 1. It sounds great like that. I’m guessing they modelled it with the loop master on and maybe some weird settings.

When it’s below 1 it sounds and responds basically just like my Rev G. You have to add a lot of level afterwards too, but give it a try

 

[JiveTurkey]

Interesting on the Recto. I have heard a couple of really good clips from it (from who I have no idea at this point) but it always got a bit of shade out of the other amp models. Which is another red flag for my tastes?

 

[Orvillain]

Could I talk to you about our Lord and Saviour, the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier?

 

[Orvillain]

lmao. Sorry, totally cluttering up this thread with stupid shit!

I've had a properly frustrating day of trying to diagnose some plumbing+electrical issues, and I need to decompress with outlandishness!