Quad Cortex Quad-Core Digital Effects Modeler/Profiling Floorboard Review

Huge features in a small footprint

Long overdue review. Admittedly, I had to camp on it and run it through some paces. First, 5 star props to Mike Soper for his 'ear to hear' and sharing & caring to get this in the bag. Thanks Mike, best purchase in years. You are AWESOME! The QC may bot be a fit for everyone, but for my situation (wood shedding, writing, composing, songwriting, recording, and playing guitar, bass… read more and acoustic music), its what works better than expected. After carving out over 100 presets to build custom libraries, patches, and scenes for very workable quick recalls was easy. Routing options galore make for perfect injection other gadgets, stereo combinations, and more. The small footprint and simple patch building process flow, combined with cloud capture sharing of IR's and patches makes for building sounds simple. Found a few things like MIDI over USB to enable using Quantiloop, a 4 track looper for laying down ideas on the fly. Noting slack with the latest QC update's looper if one track looping is all you need, it beats others. Tough screen and rotary are great, I will wait for the UI app that will likely close the gap on Helix for desktop control. Only negative, and actually - its getting better; the effects. Quality & quantity is there and getting better. The first firmware was shy a few things for me and I paired it up with an HX Effects in the QC's effects loop, allowing placement of many variations of effects, anywhere in signal path, in stereo too. That combined with a couple expression pedals, one for the QC's 2 exp ports, 1 for the HX Effects 3 exp ports, both with break-out switches to control individually or at the same time, and an Airstep for the Quantilooper app (useful for many things actually), all direct- mounted to a Temple Audio board. Couldn't be happier. Thanks Sweetwater.

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Neural Quad Cortex

This thing is simply amazing. It was worth the 3 month wait to get it. Dave Yanes is a super wonderful sales rep. Now I will start to configure my temple board.

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Satisfying & Fun

I was just as excited about checking this out as anyone. It took about 3 months to receive after I put in my order. Keep in mind that this is my first modeler. Pros: -Time flies by trying Presets and mixing matching Captures -I'm personally a huge fan of not having Captures behind paywalls -get to try ludicrously expensive and rare amps (via captures) -customizable IR's that sound… read more quite good (may take a second to dial in) -intuitive Operating System -built well -easy to use App Cons: -I find the Captures of Pedals lack flavor/essence -lack of effects and pedals -some cabs seem to have more TLC than others when changing mics/positions -trouble picking up Wi-Fi Grey Area: -over promised possibilities? -infrequent updates?

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Versatility & premium guitar/bass tones

I am absolutely blown away by the Quad Cortex. Everything you love about the Fractal Axe FX, Line 6 Helix, and Kemper profiler is found in this gorgeous unit. As a former Kemper user, I have to say this is the superior product. The intuitive interface and touchscreen makes tone chasing easier then ever before, not to mention how convenient the WiFi connectivity is to have. The… read more tones out of this little box are INSANE. Even the stock presets are useable in a live or mix setting. I feature that took me by surprise was the pedal capture. Having the chance to try a Fortin 33 and other overdrives was a lot more fun than I anticipated. I would love to see additional amp models and effects added to the quad cortex but I know that in due time the appropriate updates will make this product an absolute monster, ESPECIALLY once the plug-in integration takes place. 10/10 would recommend.

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OK out of the box, but absolutely unstoppable coupled with a MIDI controller

As is pretty standard with this product, the order for my Quad Cortex went in about Jan/Feb 2021 timeframe and then finally received it in July. I furiously unboxed it and went to work. I then experienced the phases that all of us are familiar with when it comes to new gear: excitement at first (I mean, just the out of box JCM 2203 tone is out of this world), but then as you go… read more and tweak and adjust and tweak some more, you run into some road blocks...and then you get less excited and more overwhelmed, you watch 27 videos of others reviewing what they like and don't like...then your ears get tired...you run into phase and routing issues, you forget to save the preset a baker's dozen times and have to start from scratch, and then the dreaded buyer's remorse sets in as you start gravitating back to your old ways until it finally either secures a place in your sanctuary...or ends up on eBay :-/ Unfortunately, I had gigs coming up where I fell back on my Rockerverb and vast array of pedals and footswitches to play gigs this summer as I ran out of time to perfect the Quad Cortex...so I boxed it up and sat on my shelf for a couple months while I lugged a metric ton of gear around to each show. I'd look at it every once in a while but I was uninspired, almost convinced a few times to just sell it and not hold out. Fast forward to last weekend...I had just did a gig with my OWN tried and true PA, and I was not satisfied with the sound of my rig that I know and love, mostly due to not being able to juice my amp without overpowering the room...setting out on the journey again, I cracked open the Quad Cortex again, factory restored and updated it, and did a re-capture (dry) of my Rockerverb, and I fell in love all over again. Not sure what if anything changed, but it felt like night and day from my prior experience...but then I ran into the same issue of how to create a "footswitchable" neural capture (or amp block in general) and I just...couldn't do it...it doesn't exist. I'd have to swap between scene and stomp mode and it was just heading into dangerous territory for a live setting and was reliving the frustration all over again. I almost put it back in the box... Then I got a lightbulb moment: what about MIDI??? I settled on a Morningstar MC6 fully programmable MIDI controller and got to work fine-tuning my rig. Not only was I able to set up the QC to create two "Scenes" that would switch between two amp captures *while at the same time* staying in "Stomp" mode on the QC, I was now able to perfectly program banks onto the MIDI controller where I could switch between gig and flow view, hold the same switch down and go to the preset that I need along with the default mode of the QC ("Stomp" or "scene", depending on song) and name certain blocks generically (like "Delay" and "Dist" instead of the names that) on the MIDI controller. I spent about 8 hours putting in the work and then making sure I could play songs all the way through just using the MIDI controller and occasionally a stomp or two on the QC depending on the moment. Then I routed the pre-cab sim'd signal into a power amp into my cab and I absolutely could NOT tell the difference between the QC and the real deal. Then finally, I put it through studio monitors and thusly...I finally achieved what I set out to do since the original purchase - pack the tube amps and some of my outboard stompboxes away and go fully digital for the first time since I picked up guitar in 2001. I still have some pedals I can't let go of or get absorbed into the QC...but the modeler is now doing most of the work. I re-wired my pedalboard and brought it to practice the other day, where I have our own PA and monitoring system set up. I purposefully left my tube amps at home. This was it...if it didn't pass the test through a professional PA, I was probably going to put it up for sale. I plugged the XLR out to where a mic would normally go in front of a cab and my drummer and we let a song rip...wow...just, wow...not only was I grinning like an idiot, but in some respects, the sound was even more clear than a mic'd cab, especially since I wasn't battling resonance and feedback. The saturated tone was there even at lower volumes and it just sang in a way that I never thought possible. It sounds great with ALL of my guitars - Strat, Les Paul with P90s, SG with Seymours, Standard Tele...with some very minor adjustments, I can get the perfect sound out of every guitar now. So after months of hemming and hawing over this thing, I finally obtained what *I* needed out of the Quad Cortex and I can roll up to a gig with just my pedalboard if I really needed to now, especially in venues with a good PA. With my setup...if the QC is the heart and soul of the amp/effects, the MIDI controller is the brain which is why it's front and center in my board. You will feel like a wizard after you figure out what works for you!

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