Quad Cortex PCOM (Plugin COMpatibility) slated by Q2 2024

[mbenigni]

...the 9-band EQ has an updated UI.

Believe it or not, this made me curious enough to start a day one update. Something I've never done on QC. I hope I don't regret it LOL. But the Graphic EQ being the only EQ without graphics made me crazy. Long overdue.

The "pinned devices" feature sounds really nice, too. I'll want to see how easy it is to use. If they really wanted to take things to the next level, they'd let you pin your favorite Captures to the appropriate device lists, so you could have access to whatever you most frequently use in one place.

Update in progress...

 

[JiveTurkey]

praying the geq doesn't also come with a 47% CPU hit

 

[mikah912]

Believe it or not, this made me curious enough to start a day one update. Something I've never done on QC. I hope I don't regret it LOL. But the Graphic EQ being the only EQ without graphics made me crazy. Long overdue.

The "pinned devices" feature sounds really nice, too. I'll want to see how easy it is to use. If they really wanted to take things to the next level, they'd let you pin your favorite Captures to the appropriate device lists, so you could have access to whatever you most frequently use in one place.

Update in progress...

No, I'm sure any Quality-of-Life stuff is welcome. UX means a lot to me, and of course, they got a lot of UX/efficiency/simplicity right out of the gate and have (slowly) improved upon even that.

That being said, when both Fractal and Line 6 have dropped bonkers updates for their flagships recently (while still giving love to a ton of "lesser" SKUs), it's sad that the foreseeable horizon for NDSP is just....letting you port old PC presets months from now.

Well...the excitement is palpable?

 

[mbenigni]

The “actually graphic Graphic EQ” is cool. And Pinned Devices are going to save me YEARS all in. I really wish this had been a feature from the start. Very happy to have it now, at any rate. (Works for Captures as well as models, but alas, you cannot cross the streams.)

 

[Lysander]

Still from the animated (Yeah, I know....) announcement video. Their marketing truly leaves nothing on the table for even the smallest minutiae.

My god, they really put out an announcement video for a desktop editor.



Gotta hand it to NDSP, though. They play the social media game like no one else - that's a slick production.

 

[DrewJD82]

I can’t tell if I’m being overly critical/cynical in my thoughts about that update or it’s just the NDSP ick vibe they give off, but seeing a huge list of bug fixes for the beta they were working on for well over a year, which they released with a hefty list of known issues, doesn’t give me a “Look at us busting ass over here!” feeling, but more a “This bug list is over a year old with a few reported ones, but it’s gonna look good” vibe.

And congrats for users of MIDI-dependent outboard effects! (that definitely aren’t using other pedals for anything lacking in the robust QC effects department) That’s one less tap tempo switch you’ve got to step on before/after you hit a footswitch on the QC then a footswitch on a Morningstar to switch presets in the other gear! Don’t worry, those other MIDI commands are coming S O O N!

The Tap Tempo/Tuner swap was/is a head scratcher to me due to not understanding the ecosystem, I think. My assumption is that the tap tempo/tuner are both fixed to a specific footswitch that cannot be changed by the users, as are the ways of activating each function? Just let the users pick which functions they want to assign to which footswitches and how they want to access them.

Note: These are critiques aimed at NDSP and are not to be taken as a slight against your enjoyment of the Quad Cortex if you own a Quad Cortex. I understand you do not use/require/desire/ever thought to have/don’t need/don’t care/don’t want the functionality I discussed above. I know.

 

[mbenigni]

And congrats for users of MIDI-dependent outboard effects! (that definitely aren’t using other pedals for anything lacking in the robust QC effects department) That’s one less tap tempo switch you’ve got to step on before/after you hit a footswitch on the QC then a footswitch on a Morningstar to switch presets in the other gear! Don’t worry, those other MIDI commands are coming S O O N!

FWIW (probably not much) it's easy enough to program QC switches to simultaneously send MIDI to outboard gear.

Admittedly, it took too long for them to deliver MIDI Clock Transmit. I was fortunate enough to never have needed it. I do sometimes send MIDI Clock from other gear to QC, and that (MIDI Clock Receive) has been working for as long as I've had it.

Agree with you about making the switches more configurable. For the most part I just think of the QC as an 8 switch device. Between scenes, FX toggles, and half & half, it's sufficient for my modest needs. And it keeps the setup from getting too batshit crazy. (See Fractal Perception thread re: "balance".)

I'd certainly prefer to see a list of new amps and FX rather than a big "our bad" list of bug fixes. I think that goes without saying.

 

[DrewJD82]

FWIW (probably not much) it's easy enough to program QC switches to simultaneously send MIDI to outboard gear.

Isn’t it limited to a single PC change during Preset changes but nothing is able to be sent for Scenes or CC’s?

 

[laxu]

Believe it or not, this made me curious enough to start a day one update. Something I've never done on QC. I hope I don't regret it LOL. But the Graphic EQ being the only EQ without graphics made me crazy. Long overdue.

When the QC was released, Doug Castro himself said that adding the graphic EQ that looks like one would be "easy" and here we are 3 years later. It's been an absolutely ridiculous omission.

 

[mbenigni]

Isn’t it limited to a single PC change during Preset changes but nothing is able to be sent for Scenes or CC’s?

You can send multiple messages of any type on Preset change. I don't think you can attribute MIDI messages to Scenes per se, but you can associate one message of any type (CC, CC Toggle, PC) to be sent when a given footswitch is depressed. I configure my external footswitches to simply fire the onboard footswitches, so the behavior is consistent and easy to keep track of either way.

You don't have full SysEx or NPRN or any of that stuff, but I don't think any of the competing products do, either.

 

[mikah912]

When the QC was released, Doug Castro himself said that adding the graphic EQ that looks like one would be "easy" and here we are 3 years later. It's been an absolutely ridiculous omission.

Bro stayed writing "soon" and "shortly after launching" checks while the developers were like:

 

[DrewJD82]

You can send multiple messages of any type on Preset change. I don't think you can attribute MIDI messages to Scenes per se, but you can associate one message of any type (CC, CC Toggle, PC) to be sent when a given footswitch is depressed. I configure my external footswitches to simply fire the onboard footswitches, so the behavior is consistent and easy to keep track of either way.

You don't have full SysEx or NPRN or any of that stuff, but I don't think any of the competing products do, either.

The application I have in mind is-

Preset 1- Donkey Balls
Scene 1- Dry distorted sound, no outboard effects
Scene 2- Distorted tone + Preset 1 on Strymon and Preset 2 on Eventide
Scene 3- Clean tone + Preset 2 on Strymon and Preset 1 on Eventide
Scene 4- etc.

Then an expression pedal that can work with all of it, without adding an additional MIDI switcher.

 

[Whizzinby]

Gotta hand it to NDSP, though. They play the social media game like no one else - that's a slick production.

Thats one aspect that’s kinda of cool, assuming you’re happily in the ecosystem. Their website, plug-in visuals, social game, and marketing style is really strong. It gives a consistently fresh and sleek face to the company. Contrasted with Fractal, you go to their webpage and it takes some convincing to understand their devices are full beast mode. (Readily admitting that substance over hype wins everyday, but there is something to be said for user experience and engagement)

No, I'm sure any Quality-of-Life stuff is welcome. UX means a lot to me, and of course, they got a lot of UX/efficiency/simplicity right out of the gate and have (slowly) improved upon even that.

That being said, when both Fractal and Line 6 have dropped bonkers updates for their flagships recently (while still giving love to a ton of "lesser" SKUs), it's sad that the foreseeable horizon for NDSP is just....letting you port old PC presets months from now.

Well...the excitement is palpable?

Yeah at this point I’d be getting more jazzed if they were just hammering out new amps and effects. Instead the dev update and actual update are pointing to another 6 month drought between any content being actually added. (August to TBD)

The “actually graphic Graphic EQ” is cool. And Pinned Devices are going to save me YEARS all in. I really wish this had been a feature from the start. Very happy to have it now, at any rate. (Works for Captures as well as models, but alas, you cannot cross the streams.)

Pinned devices is cool. They should implement a “favorites” drop down where you can store multiple favorite settings for each block type. I always wanted that for the handful of effects I used consistently, but had a couple different settings I liked to rotate through.

 

[Aleksi]

The application I have in mind is-

Preset 1- Donkey Balls
Scene 1- Dry distorted sound, no outboard effects
Scene 2- Distorted tone + Preset 1 on Strymon and Preset 2 on Eventide
Scene 3- Clean tone + Preset 2 on Strymon and Preset 1 on Eventide
Scene 4- etc.

Then an expression pedal that can work with all of it, without adding an additional MIDI switcher.

I just sold my QC yesterday (it certainly seems to be very desirable, as it was sold within a few hours of listing it) because of several frustrating issues. Amp sounds were certainly not an issue, as matching amp models sounded nearly identical to the FM3. The FX are lacking however, which leads to my MIDI frustrations as I wanted to integrate an HX Effects into my rig.

You can send several MIDI messages when you load a preset, but after that you are limited to a single message per footswitch. So you could sort of have your wet donkey balls with very careful pre-planning. You could probably save copies of the presets on the Strymon and Eventide to matching preset numbers and switch them both with the same PC.

It's not all bad, however. The QC can actually send expression data over MIDI and apparently MIDI clock as well now, which the FM3 cannot do for some reason, despite having pretty robust MIDI capabilities otherwise. Right now I have my exp pedals plugged into the HX FX which is sending exp data and MIDI clock to the FM3. Line 6 probably has the best MIDI functionality of all three at the moment.

 

[Mongillo19]

I actually had the same issue yesterday, nothing sounded good. Had to chalk it up to 4 days in a row spent actively listening/tracking/mixing and needing a legit break. Went to track guitars for a song, went through every guitar I own with the same presets and wasn’t happy, once I started dialing in new ones I cut it short and took the night off. At this point I know it’s not a guitar/preset issue and it’s me!

Tonight was much better for me! Hopefully you can get back to it as well!

 

[mbenigni]

Pinned devices is cool. They should implement a “favorites” drop down where you can store multiple favorite settings for each block type. I always wanted that for the handful of effects I used consistently, but had a couple different settings I liked to rotate through.

Yes, yes, yes to effect and amp block presets!!!

 

[mbenigni]

You can send several MIDI messages when you load a preset, but after that you are limited to a single message per footswitch. So you could sort of have your wet donkey balls with very careful pre-planning. You could probably save copies of the presets on the Strymon and Eventide to matching preset numbers and switch them both with the same PC.

Yeah, I think it's fair to say that the QC wouldn't meet @DrewJD82's needs, without his having to "meet halfway" by configuring some other devices differently. Multiple presets per is the easiest solution, but then there's the audio gap, and the hassle of maintaining consistency across those presets. Probably too much of a PITA. (And the real problem IMO remains: that the QC should have a better suite of FX onboard, eliminating the need for outboard gear wherever possible.)

I know "plug shit into it" is a running joke around here, but everything that makes the QC appealing to me - its small footprint, touchscreen, encoders, etc. - make it less suited to the floor anyway. I don't really think of it as a floor processor anymore. To me, it's a desktop workstation. If I were gigging all week, I'd rather have a Helix Floor or an FM9. Or I'd drive a QC (plus outboard effects, if needed) with a robust MIDI floorboard.

With apologies for.

Line 6 probably has the best MIDI functionality of all three at the moment.

Agreed, and they manage to do it with a really clean, intuitive UI (c/o Command Center.) By way of contrast, FM3 MIDI configuration consistently makes me time travel to next Tuesday.

 

[laxu]

Line 6 probably has the best MIDI functionality of all three at the moment.

Totally agree with this. But all of them are a bit crap in the MIDI department once you move beyond "things you can switch with your foot" stuff. Augmenting parameter control beyond expression pedals is pretty terrible on all of them, for different reasons too.

 

[mbenigni]

Totally agree with this. But all of them are a bit crap in the MIDI department once you move beyond "things you can switch with your foot" stuff. Augmenting parameter control beyond expression pedals is pretty terrible on all of them, for different reasons too.

(Assuming I understand the point you're making...) This is exactly why I'd rather manage parameters on device on QC, and run an external MIDI footswitch on the floor. It's just so much easier to implement a set of footswitches than a set of e.g. encoders mapped to anything meaningful across multiple presets, etc.

And now that I'm typing this, I really wish QC would implement a Performance Page similar to Fractal's, where you could mix and match parameters from multiple blocks across the encoders.

(So easy to get this conversation tangled up by confusing MIDI Out functionality vs. MIDI In functionality.)

 

[Aleksi]

Totally agree with this. But all of them are a bit crap in the MIDI department once you move beyond "things you can switch with your foot" stuff. Augmenting parameter control beyond expression pedals is pretty terrible on all of them, for different reasons too.

For my wants the HX Effects and the FM3 can do anything I need, but then I just want foot switching. Right now I have the HX as the "master controller" plugged into a MIDI thru box which then goes into the FM3 and a MIDI loop switcher. The FM3 MIDI out is plugged into the HX and this allows me to send MIDI from both the HX and the FM3 to anything on my board, including to each other. The loop switcher works like the analog loops in the TBP allowing me to insert fx pre FM3 when needed.