I bought a Quad Cortex and it Rocks!

[Deltaphoenix]

I am traveling/moving starting in a month. Among the million considerations; one has been what is my downsized music situation going to be?

I love tube amps + big pedal boards to be a part of my arsenal. A few years ago I had a Helix Floor, I liked it but didn’t love it. I wasn’t inspired enough to want to learn it deeply and I sold it.

I got clearer that a modeler might be the way for me to travel more easily while being able to play bass and guitar along with having fx. I started researching, talking to people and listening. My takeaways were:
Axe FX sounds great, has a ton of fx and flexibility but the interface is a bit obtuse.
Fender Tone Master was in the running but I just could not get past the fact that there is nothing for bass players on it. Dude, Fender you sell more basses than anyone, WTF. Now, I don’t think I would enjoy the TMP nearly as much as the QC. It seems too simplistic to me now.

I really didn’t consider many other units. I have been quasi following the Quad Cortex since its launch. I like some Darkglass pedals and I like Douglas Castro so I was interested when he started NeauralDSP. I knew I wasn’t early adopter material but as of this July, the time was right for me to grab one.

The Quad Cortex sounds so damn good! It’s easy to make complex routings, signal chains in parallel (up to 4). The interface overall is fantastic. There are a pile of great sounding amp models and they can take fuzz pedals like an amp. There is a solid selection of FX but there is more that I hope to see added. Additionally there are a pile of amps, preamps, boost, ODs, distortions and fuzz captures. It’s crazy cool to download captures from the Cortex Cloud app on my phone to the QC. I am about to start to capture some of my pedals.

The NeuralDSP VSTs becoming compatible with QC wasn’t a need for me but I bought my QC (used) a few weeks ahead of the 3.0 firmware upgrade and I got a free VST. I grabbed the Gojira one for the Chugs, Pitch Shifter and Shimmer Verb.

I would say that FX that need to be added are: ring mod, synth, more verbs and delays. It does have a stereo send/return (or dual mono) so it’s easy to add any must haves that aren’t there now.

I have to say that this is the first time a piece of gear has made me say the future is now.

[coldbrightsunlight]

This stuff really is becoming more and more impressive. I'm still on the real amps for anything playing with other people, but for recording at home I use a lot of plugins and it's really at the point where I can't tell the difference or the plugins are better because of flexibility and the ease of getting to a great sound.

Are you just using it quiet/headphones at home or in louder setups too?

[Phosphene Audio]

Similarly, I ditched my tube head and moved to Quilter in 2022. Then, I bought a Line 6 HX Stomp XL and just use the Quilter power amp in, with two ported 1x12s. I previously used 2 Avatar 2x12 cabs.

At home, I use Helix Native.

[Deltaphoenix]

@coldbrightsunshine - Agreed that it’s become impressive in the past few years.

I have a little mixer for some drum machine and synth action as well. So, I run XLR out to the mixer and I use Yamaha HS8 powered monitors. Sometimes I just play guitar or bass w/headphones.

The QC is a dope audio interface too. I have been using it a bit with Logic Pro iOS.

[Deltaphoenix]

@ phoshphene audio
I have sold my Orange AD200b and I am about capture and sell a tube bass preamp/di that I like.
I might go Quilter type route for bass. I have an Orange Rocker 32 stereo combo for guitar that I like. I might experiment with plugging the QC into its return (and turning off the cab IR).

[Phosphene Audio]

@ phoshphene audio
I have sold my Orange AD200b and I am about capture and sell a tube bass preamp/di that I like.
I might go Quilter type route for bass. I have an Orange Rocker 32 stereo combo for guitar that I like. I might experiment with plugging the QC into its return (and turning off the cab IR).

Yeah, the presets I use in the HX with my band are effects and amp models, with no cab model. We don't play too often at places with great monitoring, so I keep the power amp and cabs.

I do have a couple of pedals before the HX, distortions. There are some great sounding distortion in the HX, but I have my main band preset set up with 6 effects that aren't distortion or boost. I suppose I could have gone up a step to Helix LT or full blown Helix to just have one piece of gear, but I am pretty satisfied with it now.

I had wanted to try modeling for a long time and I actually bought a Pod Express when it came out. It sounded great, but It mainly convinced me to take the bigger plunge. I tried a 2nd generation bean shaped Pod a loooong time ago and hated it, oddly.

[D.o.S.]

one of my death metal homies tours with a Quad Cortex and it's crazy how you really can't tell the difference from an honest-to-satan HM2/Marshall, no idea what his settings are but it sounds wicked.

[coldbrightsunlight]

@coldbrightsunshine - Agreed that it’s become impressive in the past few years.

I have a little mixer for some drum machine and synth action as well. So, I run XLR out to the mixer and I use Yamaha HS8 powered monitors. Sometimes I just play guitar or bass w/headphones.

The QC is a dope audio interface too. I have been using it a bit with Logic Pro iOS.

Nice!


Regarding the power amp thing, for bass I've moved to pretty much exclusively using a preamp pedal (Moose Cosmic Trigger) into a power amp (if I'm bringing my own amp it's my Quilter, or it's just whatever amp is at the room/venue!). On bass I'm not really very fussy about speakers so it's just a super consistent tone, with only a pedalboard. Only need to bring my cab if there's no cab to borrow! And honestly I'm very intrigued about just running it DI into a PA to see how it sounds to see if that makes any difference vs. a "proper bass cab".

[Deltaphoenix]

There is an update coming by end of the month.
Fx being added are: OC-2, Meatbox, Harmonic Tremolo, Crybaby from Hell
Some amps bring updated. Nameless and Fortín plugin compatibility.
Some quality of life additions too like momentary switch functionality.