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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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If you are gigiing at a venue with a limiter that kills the power if you trip it then it can be a real problem
I use an AxeFx3 which is safely tucked away at the back, and control it all from a board with either an FC6 or FC12 and an expression pedal. I guess in a pinch if a pint went on my board I could play with fewer tones selected from the front panel of the Axe, whereas with floorbased units you lose the lot, but even if it were an amp, footswitch and pedals it's still a risk.
If the push from companies is all in one floor units then making them water resistant like smart phones, headphones etc has to be a priority
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/41u37laovs8fkpe/AACyN5L2gFGX-IRoA8huIN1ba?dl=0
6 clips there. 3 are the real amp. 1 is the Quad Cortex. The other two are the Kemper - refined, and not refined.
Please have a guess at what you think they are!
1 - Quad Cortex
2 - Real amp routed through Quad Cortex
3 - Kemper not refined
4 - Real amp routed through Kemper
5 - Kemper refined
6 - Real amp routed through Kemper
We used a looper pedal for the DI, so it's the same performance in each take. Basically - Kemper sticks out like a sore thumb I think. I can't hear a difference between the QC and the real amp.
BTW - these were DI'd profiles of the amp. No mics or cabs. I slapped an IR on afterwards as a test. Same IR in all cases.
1. Very easy to use. I feel a little dirty admitting it, but the touchscreen is amazing. MUCH MUCH MUCH quicker to get around a patch than the Helix and Kemper. Didn't need to look at the manual once.
2. The footswitches feel great. The way the caps turn feels solid, and I don't think they'd fall apart at all. The caps wobble a little bit, but they're definitely not flimsy. And they're very intuitive to use in terms of changing parameters in a selected block.
3. I was very worried about the delays and reverbs, since they're a core part of my sound. Okay, so the choice is very limited... but they actually sound very good, and are easier to dial in and get the sound I want than the Kemper. Also, the way the mix and feedback parameters work is much nicer to my ear than the Helix. The Helix gets too washy and lacks definition and cut at high mix and feedback levels. The QC does not. I was very pleasantly surprised, because I expected to be bummed out by the QC's options here.
4. Neural Capture - in a word, very impressive. It takes a lot longer to run all it's test signals, but once it's done.. no fucking around with refining, no second guessing yourself .... all of the did I do it right? Why doesn't this sound closer? How can I make it better? type stuff that I always think when I'm profiling with the Kemper.... just not a thing with the QC.
5. Footswitch proximity.... yeah... this one is a real concern for me. I think it would get better over time, once I became more familiar with it... now it isn't really the horizontal spacing between the switches, it's the vertical. A few times I meant to hit a switch on the top row, and ended up hitting a switch on the bottom row as I took my foot away. Something to think about.
6. The power supply... yes.... annoying that it's not an IEC. But I think I can live with it. Once the QC is on a board, make sure that the PSU cable is properly secured, and it shouldn't ever come out accidentally.
7. Naming presets - again... touchscreen makes this a piece of piss. Both the Helix and the Kemper are way more annoying to use. Kemper is more annoying than the Helix in this respect. In fact, the Kemper user experience is from stone age compared to both units.
8. The pitch effects on the QC ... they're serviceable. The whammy has the warbly whammy thing to it.... it's okay... good enough for my needs, but if you're super super super picky about this, you might wanna keep your whammy hanging around! For me, the QC is better simply because the whammy block offers a wet/dry mix control, which is essential for a few atmospheric pitchy things I do.
9. EQ's are great. Not a lot to report here - they do what you'd expect, and don't destroy the sound of your guitar. Nuff said.
10. Drives - I didn't go through these exhaustively. But the tubescreamer sounded like a tubescreamer to me!
11. Stock 'neural captures' - they have tons of stock neural captures.... I paid attention mostly to the Fryette Sig:X ones because I know that amp like the back of my hand. They sound just like the real amp - and this is an amp that the Kemper has a lot of problems capturing for some reason.
12. Built in amp models - the Friedman BE100 was LUSHHHH.... I really loved it. The Hiwatt was better than the Helix one, sounded more 3D and real and in your face; all the usual tripe we all say about amps.
13. The QC in general sounded more "believeable" than the Helix to me; which I grit my teeth to admit, because I really am a huge Helix fangurl.
14. The tuner on QC is better than the tuner on Helix. Without a shadow of a doubt. I actually can't believe the Helix tuner sometimes. I just stopped using it - coz it fucks with my brain. I hate it.
15. Final point - pedalboard friendliness...... yessss m8...... floor real estate and weight are real concerns for me. I know I can do the same thing with the Helix and Kemper.... add in a few pedals.... but for a live show.... it's just a huge pain in the ass. So I always take the hit on the sound quality in favour of simplicity. I wont have to do that with the QC on a board.
Things it wont do (yet):
- Proper chaotic delay oscillations. Nope. Not even the tape delay.
- Huge shimmery ambient pad reverbs. The cave gets close. But it's no Big Sky Cloud or MXR Reverb Pad mode.
- Reverse delay. C'mon Neural. Fix up.
- Pattern tremolo. I really need this; which is why I still have the Mobius.
Things I didn't try:
- midi switching other pedals
- expression pedal assignment
- 4 cable method
- noise gates
Not sure what else to say.... I'm sold.
Was it noisy with the supplied PSU?
I didn't notice any noise issues with the supplied PSU. I am wondering if there is a way to power it from a Zuma or another pedalboard power supply.
The cioks something or other was what one of the Neural guys was using with a current doubler
So I could power the HXFX and a load of other pedals.
I've had a look and it's 3A and I don't think that True Tone make something with that much power supply, and other power supplies will be what they say on the output, so I don't think there's much that can power it but potentially something like the Zuma can, but you'll need quite a few of them surely? It's a bit like a laptop.
This thread has some ideas.
https://unity.neuraldsp.com/t/quad-cortex-psu-amp-requirements/3450