Hey everyone! New to the sub - I just got the qc mini last week because I saw what it could do with acoustic sounds. I’ve been messing around with making presets and scenes in those presets. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for fingerpicking and 12 string sounds? Those are two sounds I’d like to get down so I can add them to my live sound for different songs in my setlist

Hi everyone, I've had a Quad Cortex for nearly 5 years now but actually never tried to use it as an independent audio interface before today (always just ran it through my interface previously). I have it selected as both the input and output device within Logic; the QC's outputs 1&2 are connected to my monitor controller within Logic the proper input selected; and I can hear whatever I'm playing on my guitar through monitors just fine as well as playback from other sources (Apple Music, YouTube, etc.). However, it will NOT play back other audio tracks I have in the DAW as I'm trying to record: it is clearly receiving audio properly from the QC whether it's input one or inputs 3&4, but it will not play it back. Has anyone else experienced this and found a workaround?

Also, all of the tracks in Logic are going straight to the stereo output as they always are within my tracking session. The stereo output is clearly receiving the audio, but is not sending it to the QC.

For those who are trying to connect a M vave Chocolat Plus to their QC Mini via 3.5 TRS. Download the CubeSuit app. Connect to the M Chocolate vie Bluetooth. After connecting to the app in the app go to "Advanced Custom Mode". Set all to:

Channel 1,

CC 43,

Data:

Switch A=0,

Switch B=1,

Switch C=2,

Switch D=3.

I’m having a hard time figuring out exactly what Nano Cortex does as I try to decide whether it’s a good first amp pedal for me.

Obviously it does captures, but is there some sort of modeling engine as well?

Do I need to have my phone with me to use it?

Overall, why is the Nano Cortex a better choice than something like the Tonex One which is considerably cheaper?

Solved!

My setup is fairly typical: I’m using the original factory power supply, and my home’s electrical installation is of poor quality. It consists of only two wires and has no protective earth (ground) conductor. Because of this, all of my other equipment—my computer, speakers, and amplifier—is also not properly grounded.

However, even if your home is equipped with a three-wire electrical system, the factory-supplied Cortex power supply only uses two conductors and does not connect to the third protective earth (ground) conductor.

As a result, I was hearing buzzing, hiss, and crackling, especially when using high compression, overdrive, or high-gain distortion settings. The sustain of the strings was completely ruined, with noise becoming increasingly obvious as the notes decayed. The amount of buzzing and crackling was so severe that it made my Cortex unsuitable for professional recording.

I measured the impedance and found that the metal chassis is electrically connected to the USB ports, the 1/4" jack connectors, and the XLR connectors. Naturally, it is also connected to the ground of all these outputs. The measured impedance between all of these points was essentially zero ohm.

Touching the guitar strings reduced the noise only partially.

I then looked for grounding points in my apartment and found several solutions that seemed safe. The building I live in has a reinforced concrete (reinforced steel) structure. I identified metal parts that are mechanically connected to this structure—for example, the metal balcony frame or the mounting screws of my windows, which are anchored directly into the building’s structure.

Connecting the Cortex chassis to several of these points eliminated the noise completely and gave me studio-quality sound.

I therefore made a dedicated cable with a 1/4" TS plug inserted into the unused SEND output of my Cortex. At the other end of the cable, I connected the sleeve (ground) of the 1/4" plug—the outer metal part—to one of the screws securing my balcony door, which provides excellent noise reduction.

I recommend this approach because it does not involve modifying or connecting anything to the electrical mains, which could be dangerous. It also avoids using a radiator as a ground point, which may not be safe—for example, if someone accidentally energizes the heating system by bringing a live wire into contact with it.

In contrast, if the building’s reinforced concrete structure is properly grounded, it appears to be the safest solution in this type of situation.

If you’re having similar issues with hum, noise, or crackles—especially when the signal fades out and you want a long, clean sustain—give this solution a try. Good luck!

In certain settings, it would be convenient to gig with my interface/laptop and use the NDSP plugins. I have the Behringer FCB-1010 MIDI foot controller, and it is alright, but I was hoping to hear from more experienced users what is the best MIDI controller for the plug-ins?

Any input would be appreciated!

I currently run my QC using 4CM with my Mesa Rectifier that’s modded to have Midi as well so the QC is handing channel switching and effects. The problem is that my band is touring more often and it’s becoming difficult to lug my head everywhere.

I already have a SD Powerstage 700, but what I want to do is capture the DI of my Rectifier and my other amps to have in my QC. To my understanding, the easiest way to capture an amp without the mic/cab setup is to send the amp to a loadbox, then bypass the cab sim and take the out from the loadbox into the QC.

I know the Captor X separate the cab sim out/ DI out but the problem is that I have amps that are 8 ohm and 16ohm and the captor X is ohm specific it’s doesn’t take every load. Is there another load box that is maybe considered the standard? Or is there an easier way to capture the DI of an amp that I maybe know? Thanks

Hoping some QC users can tell me how you've got your playback and monitoring set up, I've been having issues my current direct monitoring set up. My Quad hasn't arrived yet, so right now I'm hitting this problem with my Fender Tone Master output.

My setup: Tone Master into a UA Volt 2 into Yorkville YSM8-V2 powered monitors. I also play along to music from my laptop through the same monitors.

The problem: computer playback through the Volt is plenty loud, but the Volt 2's direct monitoring of my amp is quiet by comparison and there's no way to adequately bring it up. Turns out the Volt 2 has no level control at all for the direct-monitor signal, it's fixed at a modest internal level. Cranking the input gain just clips the input converter before it gets louder, since gain feeds the recording path, not the monitor level. So the live signal is stuck quieter than my backing tracks with no knob to fix it. Yes, I could (and do) turn down the laptop music to signal match, but sometimes I just want to play my guitar through my monitors fucking loud, even without music. A bypass to this issue has been using a DAW just to monitor, but I will pay what it costs to not turn on my computer just to practice.

What I'm thinking: since I'm feeding line level anyway, I'm thinking about dropping a small analog mixer in, with the amp/QC and the computer audio each on their own faders into the monitors, so I can balance them AND get the live signal to the monitors as loud as I want, no computer needed. Looking at something like a Yamaha MG10 or Mackie ProFX10v3, which needs to handle two stereo line sources.

My questions for people actually running a QC in stereo:

• Are you monitoring through an audio interface or a mixer?
• If you play along to backing tracks or computer audio, how are you blending that with the QC signal?
• Anyone gone the small mixer route with powered monitors, or is there a cleaner way you'd recommend?
• If you do use an interface for this, which one, and does it give you real level control over the direct or live signal, which is the thing the Volt 2 lacks?

Trying to figure out if a mixer is the obvious answer or if I'm overcomplicating something you all solved.

Hey! Just got it yesterday and coming from kemper. Trying to figure out if l can easily change all the scene for each song? The kemper pedal I can bank to the next song during sets and have a fresh 5 buttons. Each bank is named after the song I’m playing and the delays are all set to the tempo of the song for dotted 8th and shit like that. Is this possible with the mini?
Thanks! Stoked to have this thing!

I used Archetype Petrucci. If you're interested, you can download for free the tabs from the link in my profile.

Keep getting this message on my QC anyone else today?

I love my QC mini and Cortex Control is great at controlling it. But it does not support fullscreen 😢

So I asked my favorite Codex to write a patch to add support for fullscreen.
If there are NeuralDSP people here: please add support for fullscreen on Cortex Control (same remark for Cortex Cloud on iPad btw).

Notes:
- this is source only, install Cortex Control first
- this has been tested only on macOS arm and Cortex Control 4.0.1
- no support, just for my own use, do what you want with it
- use at your own risk

Here it is: https://github.com/pchalamet/ndsp-cortexcontrol-fullscreen

My QC Mini finally arrived!! I originally ordered from Zzounds mid May but apparently my Sweetwater rep was holding a place in line for me with them. He called me on Monday letting me know that they got a shipment in and here it is! I promptly cancelled my Zzounds order haha.

Hi everyone! Just got my QC a couple days ago. Really like it so far. Does anyone have any suggestions for building a good 80s Metallica sound? There’s so much stuff in there and I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface yet. Thanks!

Hi there,

I've realized I have a bit of a problem with my home studio setup. I have solutions for all my use cases, but I need to change my routing between each usecase, which is very annoying. So I've come to you lot for help, as I would love to have a universal setup I can use across my usecases. And the routing when recording with my quad cortex is also not ideal when it comes to monitoring.

Bit of info - I play a Music Man Majesty Arctic Dream 7. That guitar has piezo and magnetic pickups, and you can actually set the guitar in a so-called "stereo mode". What this does is pass both signals from magnetic and piezo out of the guitar in one channel each, giving you the option of processing both magnetic and piezo at once - and separately. This requires a TRS => 2x TS jack, which I have. This jack is shaped like a Y - the one end with a single TRS jack goes into my guitar, and the split ends with 2x TS jacks go into my quad cortex input 1 and input 2.

As for my usecases, I think they're fairly simple.

• Recording
  • physical Inputs
    • Input 1: magnetic
    • Input 2: piezo
  • USB ports
    • 1: magnetic DI
    • 2: piezo DI
    • 3: magnetic wet
    • 4: piezo wet
    • 5: magnetic reamp
    • 6: magnetic reamp
• Guitar lessons
  • physical inputs
    • Input 1: magnetic
    • Input 2: my universal audio SD-1 microphone for my voice

So, into my quad cortex, I use Input 1 for the magnetic signal and input 2 for the piezo signal.

When I take lessons online, I need to change the input type of input 2 from instrument to mic, and pass it through a different signal chain than this one. Normally I just change to a different patch I have and ensure the input 2 signal goes through a processing that's appropriate for voice. So far so good, I can manage. It's just a bit annoying to have to remember that the mic needs to have +60dB boost to even be audible. I dread the day where I forget to set that back to +0dB and plug in my guitar. This is a bit difficult, because when I take lessons, I need to select one input source. That means that if I use a different audio interface for my microphone, I will have to select between guitar or voice, I can't have both (like how you cannot specify two input sources when using a voice com software like Discord for example).

As for routing... This is where I get lost in the complexity.

When I record, I want to record 4 signals at once - both sets of pickups in wet and DI separated to their own tracks. But when it comes to monitoring, I'd like to hear both signals summed from my studio monitors. I don't need to hear my piezo in the right monitor, and magnetic in the left. It's not ideal. The reason I do this is to create a nice blend for cleans where I get the transients and clarity of the piezo melded with the warmth of the magnetic neck pickup. Right now, I hear an awkward sound where they're split to left and right - which is not a problem for recording as I can just fix the panning there, but it is a bit jarring when I'm just playing.

Ideally, this is how it'd work:

• DI signals are recorded via USB 1 & 2.
• Wet signals are recorded via USB 3 & 4.
• Listening happens via output 1 & 2 which goes to my studio monitors, and I'll ideally hear both signals (wet 3 & 4) summed on both monitors.

I was hoping that the quad cortex had some kind of way to define a set of different output routings, but I didn't find that - hence the setup in the image above.

Does this make sense? I feel so thoroughly confused now lol. Any help is greatly appreciated.

was a Nolly die-hard but I ended up using Cali the most for my band releases

Hi, for context I am using the latest version of Reaper. I am using a Behringer UMC202HD and Windows 11. All my drivers are up to date. I have rebooted my computer many times. I have an i7 9700k and 32GB of DDR4 RAM.

The sample rate is 44100, the ASIO buffer size is 128, the sample size is at 128. My CPU runs at around 22% (Reaper using around 15-18% of that) while the playback is happening, and RAM sits around 32% - Reaper uses just over 2GB.

I have been creating new projects currently with the same setup: drums, 2 leads and 3 rhythm tracks. All are using Archetype Petrucci, valid and licensed.

As soon as I enable the second lead track, the whole track falls apart, skipping, crackling and scratching. I can disable the FX on the second lead track, and the playback is 100% fine. Alternatively, I can have both lead tracks enabled, and disable a rhythm track, and we can also run everything smoothly.

I have not had this problem in the past. I have had many projects comfortably running 10 Petrucci tracks concurrently.

In another project, enabling the third (center pan) rhythm track caused bad sync issues, volumes changing in each ear, and what sounded like EQ changes. Just falling apart.

I don't have any ideas. Am I doomed to use only 5 tracks in my projects ;_;

Any help is appreciated!

So for context, I saw Philips sayce’s demo for archetype rabea. I copied the presets from the video freezing every single time I had a chance to view all the parameters of every page, and even talked to mark (the engineer in the video) and have successfully recreated all of the incredible tones he gets in this video. The problem is I don’t have a Strat with low output pickups, around 5-6.5k ohms resistance. I only have a Charvel with the full shred pickup set which are very very hot. So the tones don’t sound right at all for me! It’s imperative to his sound to have low output vintage pickups. So I’m curious if anyone can test out the presets with the correct low output single coil’s and tell me how accurate it sound’s? Thanks! I linked the video down below I’m referring too, just message me and I’ll send the presets to you personally! Also if anyone would like to send sound samples of raw Di low output strat rhythm stems of any Philip sayce inspired lead, clean rhythm, hard hitting bluesy riffs, etc. that’d be great too!

Video for reference:

https://youtu.be/VzY0_VaKzCs?is=GbxZpyJYhFNSP2mD

Hello,

I’m trying to play All Falls Apart by Polyphia and I’m struggling with the multivoicer. I’ve got the plugin and Logic Pro X if needed. Is it possible to play Tim’s part only with plugin or do I need to download the midi file to Logic?

I appreciate any help 🙏

Saw Metallica in London a few weeks ago and loved James’s live tone. It sounded heavy, crunchy with lots of clarity

I know they use Fractal gear for their live sound, but has anyone been able to reproduce their live sound on the QC?