I will give my 2 cents, for me I’ve toured with a ton of boards and this one has been the only one that has the “feel” This means the nuances are articulate and my ideas come more freely to me! I find myself spending less time chasing tones and more time playing which is my #1 goal when purchasing gear! Great video man!
Thanks Austin!! I could see that. The dynamics are solid on the QC. And I definitely agree on the QC allowing you to focus more on actually playing guitar. Once I got my sounds right, programming takes way less time than it did with my pedalboard.
Justin, thanks for making this. I am an old hack 64 yr old punk rock guy that enjoys all the new music being created. I run a Dr Z and pedal setup but mostly play thru my HX Stomp and pedals to create music. In Logic I run Neural DSP plugins and damn, it's amazing. Seriously thinking about a QC for creativity on the road. That being said, I'll never sell my pedals and tube amps. Something different that just makes sense.
Having owned and used many brands and devices including several iterations of pods, helix, boss gt, fractal, and just about every pedal you can think of outside some of the meris and chase bliss stuff, the quad cortex is by far the easiest UI to use. Now that being said, any UI that you put multiple hundreds of hours into will become very easy for you once you learn it but the learning curve on the quad cortex is amazingly simple especially if you already understand signal path and where to place your effects. Yes I would say that some of the delays and modulation have a long way to go before they are as good as stand alone units but the amps and drives and capture features are the best on the market to my ear. That is all personal preference so trust your ears and find your sound but I think you will be very pleased with the quad
7 months in for me and I gotta say the unit is exactly what I wanted in a rig it’s easy to work it sounds good and I don’t even think about pedals anymore. My next plan is to make a small board to just fit mine on it so I can use my power supply instead of the one neural gave.
Great video, Justin. I used to love my expensive analog gear, but decided to give it a shot and bought the QC in December 2023. Two weeks later, with most of my gear captured into the QC and my presets and scenes all up and running, I ended up selling almost all my analog pedals and amps. The QC paired with the Fender ToneMaster FR10 give me much more tone and feel than I need. Love it.
Thanks so much dude! That's wild- I knew going in that I wouldn't be selling my pedals, even if it was simply for sentimental reasons hahaha. But that's awesome you've gone full commit on the unit AND that it's giving you all of the tone you need! Really cool-
@@Deathspade66 do not worry about me haha I kept top analog stuff for the studio. It’s great to have the best of both worlds and use it accordingly. Cheers.
Thanks everyone for tuning in! It’s been a fun year with the QC. If you liked the sounds you heard in the video, I have presets available through the link in the description! And of course, let me know whether you think the Quad Cortex is worth it in 2024?
I've owned all of the professional digital units and although the tonemaster pro has been my favorite from an ease of use and effortless to tweak on stage, my heart pulled me to the QC after a brief stint with the nano cortex. My situation was a bit convoluted though. I typically use a tube amp and OX box on stage for my full band shows and then I normally use a ditto looper, TC helicon mic mechanic and my FM3 for my acoustic shows and that's it's own separate "acoustic only" pedal board. I don't love the Helicon but it's okay and the FM3 does great for processing my acoustics at those gigs but the splitters I need to get the sounds where they need to go at the acoustic shows is a headache and the tonemaster pro I had for demo was absolutely fantastic for acoustic shows. The price tag made that one hard to swallow but I could see it replacing not just the acoustic pedal board but also taking over for full electric band duties as well as I was able to easily get great high gain rock sounds from the TMP. The problem with the TMP though is that I heard how incredible the captures I got of my tube amps sounded from the Nano and it was game over for both the TMP and my FM3. Using the QC this past weekend for both an acoustic show and a full electric band show was amazing on stage and let me consolidate all my pedals into 1 unit other than my Wah and volume pedal and the routing for the vocal signal and guitar signal was easy to setup and control just like the TMP. I am breaking even cost-wise returning the nano and selling the FM3 and it'll be nice to just have 1 pedalboard for all shows now and, in my opinion, a no-compromise sound/setup. Until I heard my captures in the nano, every digital unit has been somewhat of a compromise on the sound because they never sounded exactly how I wanted because they were trying to approximate a sound of an amp that I loved (my silver jubilee) and once I captured it with my nano, it wasn't just an approximation or recreation of a jubilee, it was MY silver jubilee and splawn cabinet exactly how it sounds in my studio but now coming from a tiny little box. The compromise is over. I would say that the quad cortex is a bit more powerful with it's internal signal routing capabilities than the TMP but not as intuitive to work with as the TMP.
Wow!! That's such a journey! I've heard some good things about the TMP, but I've never tried one myself. that's really cool you were able to get such a great capture of your Silver Jubilee! I've definitely had to experiment a little to get captures to my liking, but when you get it right, it's just like you said- it sounds like the real thing!
I’ve gotten a couple of units and always ended up selling them and going analog again… not with the QC, it has something that just makes it sound and feel as closest to real while still being easy to use. It’s been a game changer for me at least. I don’t see myself selling this one 😂
I have had mine since it came out in 2021. It has aged sweeter just like wine. The new update is one I’ve been looking forward to since it came out. I’m excited more about expanded midi capabilities since I’ve rebuilt my board and now I’ve been able to use the QC as my controller. Captured my Matchless Spitfire few years ago and it’s still my daily.
Great video of the QC capabilities its a great unit ....but please Neural please make a larger unit with better spread apart foot switches for the love of God lol 😆...to me its the only giant weakness. Helix is perfect with that . Maybe next QC will address that issue. Id be happy with less switches and better spacing even. Otherwise all you Elf feet peeps lol will love a QC 😎🤘🏻
Hahaha I think you just get used to it honestly. I've definitely hit the wrong switch before, but I do it less now than I did in the beginning. Thank you!!
@@JustinMuncy lol 😂 dude there is none of us that don't hit the wrong button time to time... Please enjoy the QC is routing is the best right up there with the boss stuff. Hopefully soon it can do gapless like the boss. Have a blessed day dude 😎👊🏻
I really want the QC for the capture ability, but I have had a Helix LT and an HX Stomp forever and am so used to the user interface. Being able to copy and paste my tones from Helix Native is great… I feel like I should just hold out for the Helix V2 by now! haha
Yeah I could see that for sure!! The Helix is approaching the 10 year old mark now right? So it seems like an update is due… but then again, you look at Kemper and that’s pretty much stayed the same outside of software updates for I think about 13 years now haha! I feel like if Line 6 were to offer a capturing feature, that would be pretty game changing! I know their models are fantastic, but there’s something really cool about getting to put the other gear you have into your unit-
Played through a friends and loved the tones but wouldn’t own one until they get rid of the power adapter style plug. I have zero confidence in those tiny cords and wall wart adapters.
I haven’t personally used an FM9 so I can’t give an accurate opinion. But based on what I’ve heard online, I personally don’t think it sounds better. Plus the QC has an edge with the capturing ability IMO.
I just sold a FM9T and replaced it with a QC, I much prefer the QC, the FM9T has a few limitations that became a nuisance, mainly its the pitch block, you can only have one instance, I was amazed at how many times I wanted 2 pitch blocks.. also a max of 2 delays, 2 drives at one time, the QC lets me run a vocal path with pitch and delays plus guitar paths with multiple pitch and delay blocks, and it never seems to run out of dsp the FM9 did.. the FM9 forces you into using their "layouts" for button assignment you can over-ride per preset but its a royal pita. the QC handles button assignment within scenes way easier, also my FM9 needed 3 factory resets inside a month because it started distorting randomly, Tech Support "fixed" it by suggesting I do a reset, which worked. but after the reset you've lost all your custom layouts which if it happened at a gig means you need a PC to do a restore or you have to do it by hand, probably only 2 minutes work if you can remember which menu the assignments are on (Think 1985 PC bios menu diving) .. but still.. I don't want to do that at a gig. No regrets switching to the QC, yes it has less amps and effects to choose from, but who needs 2000 IRs? My overall opinion is the QC is much more fun. And fun is good.
Spending over 1500 on an unit just to get unsatisfactory results 🤷♂️🤷♂️.If you could turn back time would u still purchase it or other options.(Line 6, Kemper,bossgt100) There's a new player in market hotone ampero stage ii people are comparing it to quad Cortex. Would love to get ur opinion on that
Haha I think you didn’t watch all of the video because all of those questions are answered. I had an unsatisfactory result for me in the beginning, but 7 months in, I got it to sound nearly identical to my pedals and amp. The QC is my favorite by far-
Main reasons for me: the Kemper is a much older unit and I find the interface to be clunky. Drive captures was a big plus to me, and I personally think the Quad Cortex sounds better.
That tweaking And perfecting process is not specific to the quad cortex by the way. That's anyone chasing "their tone" on a modeler. The biggest feedback specific to the quad cortex in this area, Is it failure to have great tones out of the box. Other modelers have better presets out of the box but still require tweaking to get perfected.
I remember I had the QC in the cart. I was about to click the "buy" button (literally speaking) when I remembered I had the Line 6 Variax guitar, so I got the Helix LT instead. I am definitely happy I did. Besides the fact that I'd have no software connectivity with the guitar, I didn't know they #1 still had no pc interface (that's a big no for me since I simply use a laptop to tweak live sound so I don't have to kneel down - too old and blind man!) #2 I sincerely thought the plugins were compatible. That meant a huge investment, since each plug in is around $99! (plus the $2k of the QC!) So, I am happy with the Helix. But like you said, it is what's good for each. No, I didn't mention sound 'cuz those high end units all sound really good. Keep it up man!
Yeah, I'm that one outlier who never cared about having a software companion. The QC is so small, I just leave it on my desk when I'm trying to make a bunch of changes or program a set. But, kudos to NDSP for cranking out a desktop editor. It may not have come as fast as people would like, but at least they did follow through on it! And, I also have no NDSP plug-ins so that's sort of a non issue for me. But my friends with NDSP plug-ins seems very excited to be able to use those on the QC. That update is just around the corner. What I personally would love is if they were to provide 3rd party plug-in support. That would be pretty game changing cause then you could add stuff like Valhalla Delay and the Strymon BigSky on here.
EARLY BLACK FRIDAY SALE! 25% off all Presets and Bundles from 11/18/24 - 11/28/24.
QUAD CORTEX PRESETS: justinmuncy.etsy.com
I will give my 2 cents, for me I’ve toured with a ton of boards and this one has been the only one that has the “feel” This means the nuances are articulate and my ideas come more freely to me! I find myself spending less time chasing tones and more time playing which is my #1 goal when purchasing gear! Great video man!
Thanks Austin!! I could see that. The dynamics are solid on the QC. And I definitely agree on the QC allowing you to focus more on actually playing guitar. Once I got my sounds right, programming takes way less time than it did with my pedalboard.
Justin, thanks for making this. I am an old hack 64 yr old punk rock guy that enjoys all the new music being created. I run a Dr Z and pedal setup but mostly play thru my HX Stomp and pedals to create music. In Logic I run Neural DSP plugins and damn, it's amazing. Seriously thinking about a QC for creativity on the road. That being said, I'll never sell my pedals and tube amps. Something different that just makes sense.
Ahhhh the ever ending quest for tone. And solid tip about buying what you see now instead of what will come later on
Hahaha it never ends!! Thank you!
@@JustinMuncy yea buddy
Having owned and used many brands and devices including several iterations of pods, helix, boss gt, fractal, and just about every pedal you can think of outside some of the meris and chase bliss stuff, the quad cortex is by far the easiest UI to use. Now that being said, any UI that you put multiple hundreds of hours into will become very easy for you once you learn it but the learning curve on the quad cortex is amazingly simple especially if you already understand signal path and where to place your effects. Yes I would say that some of the delays and modulation have a long way to go before they are as good as stand alone units but the amps and drives and capture features are the best on the market to my ear. That is all personal preference so trust your ears and find your sound but I think you will be very pleased with the quad
Well said!! I appreciate your insight.
Love the tone of the white falcon in parallel. That’s so cool that you built it from scratch! Your tone is Amazing! ❤❤❤
Thank you so much!!
7 months in for me and I gotta say the unit is exactly what I wanted in a rig it’s easy to work it sounds good and I don’t even think about pedals anymore. My next plan is to make a small board to just fit mine on it so I can use my power supply instead of the one neural gave.
Nice!! I love that!! Throwing it in as a part of a pedalboard can be pretty sweet!
Great video, Justin. I used to love my expensive analog gear, but decided to give it a shot and bought the QC in December 2023. Two weeks later, with most of my gear captured into the QC and my presets and scenes all up and running, I ended up selling almost all my analog pedals and amps. The QC paired with the Fender ToneMaster FR10 give me much more tone and feel than I need. Love it.
Thanks so much dude! That's wild- I knew going in that I wouldn't be selling my pedals, even if it was simply for sentimental reasons hahaha. But that's awesome you've gone full commit on the unit AND that it's giving you all of the tone you need! Really cool-
@@JustinMuncy cheers, mate! Thanks for your response here - much appreciated!
Nooooo! Never sell your gear!
@@Deathspade66 do not worry about me haha I kept top analog stuff for the studio. It’s great to have the best of both worlds and use it accordingly. Cheers.
Thanks everyone for tuning in! It’s been a fun year with the QC. If you liked the sounds you heard in the video, I have presets available through the link in the description! And of course, let me know whether you think the Quad Cortex is worth it in 2024?
Great video, thank you. I just ordered one after years of saying ‘I will never leave pedals…’ I will definitely be taking some shortcuts 😅
@@georgebrooks1218 I don’t blame you haha!! I hope it’s awesome for you!
I've owned all of the professional digital units and although the tonemaster pro has been my favorite from an ease of use and effortless to tweak on stage, my heart pulled me to the QC after a brief stint with the nano cortex.
My situation was a bit convoluted though. I typically use a tube amp and OX box on stage for my full band shows and then I normally use a ditto looper, TC helicon mic mechanic and my FM3 for my acoustic shows and that's it's own separate "acoustic only" pedal board. I don't love the Helicon but it's okay and the FM3 does great for processing my acoustics at those gigs but the splitters I need to get the sounds where they need to go at the acoustic shows is a headache and the tonemaster pro I had for demo was absolutely fantastic for acoustic shows.
The price tag made that one hard to swallow but I could see it replacing not just the acoustic pedal board but also taking over for full electric band duties as well as I was able to easily get great high gain rock sounds from the TMP.
The problem with the TMP though is that I heard how incredible the captures I got of my tube amps sounded from the Nano and it was game over for both the TMP and my FM3.
Using the QC this past weekend for both an acoustic show and a full electric band show was amazing on stage and let me consolidate all my pedals into 1 unit other than my Wah and volume pedal and the routing for the vocal signal and guitar signal was easy to setup and control just like the TMP.
I am breaking even cost-wise returning the nano and selling the FM3 and it'll be nice to just have 1 pedalboard for all shows now and, in my opinion, a no-compromise sound/setup. Until I heard my captures in the nano, every digital unit has been somewhat of a compromise on the sound because they never sounded exactly how I wanted because they were trying to approximate a sound of an amp that I loved (my silver jubilee) and once I captured it with my nano, it wasn't just an approximation or recreation of a jubilee, it was MY silver jubilee and splawn cabinet exactly how it sounds in my studio but now coming from a tiny little box.
The compromise is over.
I would say that the quad cortex is a bit more powerful with it's internal signal routing capabilities than the TMP but not as intuitive to work with as the TMP.
Wow!! That's such a journey! I've heard some good things about the TMP, but I've never tried one myself. that's really cool you were able to get such a great capture of your Silver Jubilee! I've definitely had to experiment a little to get captures to my liking, but when you get it right, it's just like you said- it sounds like the real thing!
I’ve gotten a couple of units and always ended up selling them and going analog again… not with the QC, it has something that just makes it sound and feel as closest to real while still being easy to use. It’s been a game changer for me at least. I don’t see myself selling this one 😂
I hear you!! The QC was the modeler I finally pulled the trigger on for similar reasons. I really enjoy it!
😅😂😅😂😅
I have had mine since it came out in 2021. It has aged sweeter just like wine.
The new update is one I’ve been looking forward to since it came out. I’m excited more about expanded midi capabilities since I’ve rebuilt my board and now I’ve been able to use the QC as my controller.
Captured my Matchless Spitfire few years ago and it’s still my daily.
For sure! It’s cool that platform keeps getting better!!
Niceeeeee!!
Great video of the QC capabilities its a great unit ....but please Neural please make a larger unit with better spread apart foot switches for the love of God lol 😆...to me its the only giant weakness. Helix is perfect with that . Maybe next QC will address that issue. Id be happy with less switches and better spacing even. Otherwise all you Elf feet peeps lol will love a QC 😎🤘🏻
Hahaha I think you just get used to it honestly. I've definitely hit the wrong switch before, but I do it less now than I did in the beginning. Thank you!!
@@JustinMuncy lol 😂 dude there is none of us that don't hit the wrong button time to time...
Please enjoy the QC is routing is the best right up there with the boss stuff. Hopefully soon it can do gapless like the boss. Have a blessed day dude 😎👊🏻
I really want the QC for the capture ability, but I have had a Helix LT and an HX Stomp forever and am so used to the user interface. Being able to copy and paste my tones from Helix Native is great… I feel like I should just hold out for the Helix V2 by now! haha
Yeah I could see that for sure!! The Helix is approaching the 10 year old mark now right? So it seems like an update is due… but then again, you look at Kemper and that’s pretty much stayed the same outside of software updates for I think about 13 years now haha! I feel like if Line 6 were to offer a capturing feature, that would be pretty game changing! I know their models are fantastic, but there’s something really cool about getting to put the other gear you have into your unit-
I have the Boss GX100 and an Eventide H90. I definitely understand how much time and effort it takes to dial in great tone.
For sure!!
Great video. Thanks.
Thank you!!
Played through a friends and loved the tones but wouldn’t own one until they get rid of the power adapter style plug. I have zero confidence in those tiny cords and wall wart adapters.
Hahaha I'm not sure why the power supply bugs so many people! An IEC version would be cool though-
you’re asking if QC is still worth it in 2024, but i’m still using a kemper toaster 🤣 love the kemper. gonna try out tonex one sometime this year!
The toaster… what an era LOL!
QC or Fm9? i still believe that fm9 is better overall, except the user friendly interface. idk thooo lool
I haven’t personally used an FM9 so I can’t give an accurate opinion. But based on what I’ve heard online, I personally don’t think it sounds better. Plus the QC has an edge with the capturing ability IMO.
I just sold a FM9T and replaced it with a QC, I much prefer the QC, the FM9T has a few limitations that became a nuisance, mainly its the pitch block, you can only have one instance, I was amazed at how many times I wanted 2 pitch blocks.. also a max of 2 delays, 2 drives at one time, the QC lets me run a vocal path with pitch and delays plus guitar paths with multiple pitch and delay blocks, and it never seems to run out of dsp the FM9 did.. the FM9 forces you into using their "layouts" for button assignment you can over-ride per preset but its a royal pita. the QC handles button assignment within scenes way easier, also my FM9 needed 3 factory resets inside a month because it started distorting randomly, Tech Support "fixed" it by suggesting I do a reset, which worked. but after the reset you've lost all your custom layouts which if it happened at a gig means you need a PC to do a restore or you have to do it by hand, probably only 2 minutes work if you can remember which menu the assignments are on (Think 1985 PC bios menu diving) .. but still.. I don't want to do that at a gig. No regrets switching to the QC, yes it has less amps and effects to choose from, but who needs 2000 IRs? My overall opinion is the QC is much more fun. And fun is good.
What rues “worship” mean in the context of guitar?
Lots of Americans seem to play in church bands on Sundays. The genre seems to have lots of reverbs and delays and whatnot.
Spending over 1500 on an unit just to get unsatisfactory results 🤷♂️🤷♂️.If you could turn back time would u still purchase it or other options.(Line 6, Kemper,bossgt100) There's a new player in market hotone ampero stage ii people are comparing it to quad Cortex. Would love to get ur opinion on that
Haha I think you didn’t watch all of the video because all of those questions are answered. I had an unsatisfactory result for me in the beginning, but 7 months in, I got it to sound nearly identical to my pedals and amp. The QC is my favorite by far-
what was the reason you didn’t go with a kemper ?
Main reasons for me: the Kemper is a much older unit and I find the interface to be clunky. Drive captures was a big plus to me, and I personally think the Quad Cortex sounds better.
That tweaking And perfecting process is not specific to the quad cortex by the way. That's anyone chasing "their tone" on a modeler.
The biggest feedback specific to the quad cortex in this area, Is it failure to have great tones out of the box.
Other modelers have better presets out of the box but still require tweaking to get perfected.
Tatum!!!!!!
🐶 ❤️
I remember I had the QC in the cart. I was about to click the "buy" button (literally speaking) when I remembered I had the Line 6 Variax guitar, so I got the Helix LT instead. I am definitely happy I did. Besides the fact that I'd have no software connectivity with the guitar, I didn't know they #1 still had no pc interface (that's a big no for me since I simply use a laptop to tweak live sound so I don't have to kneel down - too old and blind man!) #2 I sincerely thought the plugins were compatible. That meant a huge investment, since each plug in is around $99! (plus the $2k of the QC!) So, I am happy with the Helix. But like you said, it is what's good for each. No, I didn't mention sound 'cuz those high end units all sound really good. Keep it up man!
Yeah, I'm that one outlier who never cared about having a software companion. The QC is so small, I just leave it on my desk when I'm trying to make a bunch of changes or program a set. But, kudos to NDSP for cranking out a desktop editor. It may not have come as fast as people would like, but at least they did follow through on it! And, I also have no NDSP plug-ins so that's sort of a non issue for me. But my friends with NDSP plug-ins seems very excited to be able to use those on the QC. That update is just around the corner. What I personally would love is if they were to provide 3rd party plug-in support. That would be pretty game changing cause then you could add stuff like Valhalla Delay and the Strymon BigSky on here.
Huh? The QC is an interface and also has control software.
If you'd only followed Rabea Massaad, you'd never have gone through this
The answer is yes. Stop with this click-baity shit.
You don’t have to watch it. Quit your complaining 😂
You clicked and commented so… thanks for your engagement. 😂
Jesus would only play through tube amps and analog pedals brother.
This popped up in my feed on 7/29/24 and the answer is very simple. no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. No No No No.
Jesus would only play through tube amps and analog pedals brother.
It is written
Lmao
Amen 😂
They know not what they do
Second the Amen 🙌