A quick note regarding my Neural Captures and if I will be posting them; (copied from my response to another comment on here) I haven’t quite worked out if I plan on sharing pedal captures or not. There is no way I would consider captures to be a replacement for a pedal itself BUT I know there are people out there who would skip buying, say, the sick as if they can just grab my four favorite captures of it and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I am huge fans of the builders I use; there’s a reason I use them / capture them over using the built in versions of the klon / blues breaker / whatever else and I wouldn’t want to run the risk of undercutting them.
I do get that but I would actually counter by saying that I feel like captures actually provide 'more' interest in the pedal/amp and can lead to them getting sales. For example, I actually bought a Suhr Badger 18 after trying the WorshipTutorials capture! I absolutely loved it and HAD to have this amp. Ive also got some other drive pedals too. While the capture does a great job, sometimes you still need the flexibility of getting more options and having the pedal is needed. I do love that despite there not being a fully realised marketplace that people are sharing some great captures of gear. I would never had had an opportunity to try these amps. I now have 3 or 4 amps on my wishlist!
@@sleepingatsea3420 the Suhr Badger got me also. I was like how have I never tried this amp in person, and I’ve been looking for one when I visit shops. Also there is a Carr Mercury in the cloud that is unreal. Makes me want to own one for sure.
@@TheMrMulligans it's SUCH a good amp! I am beyond stoked with it. But yeah, I would never have come across it otherwise. I have to try the Carr! I think that's by Amalgam and I actually got their Magnatone Twighligher pack, another amp on the dream list lol
Agreed. All these innovative effects and stuff need to start advertising with anything besides metal to really get to the masses. Although I get why since the gain structure is so realistic in this unit.
Mark- in an effort to NOT create a deep-dive review of the QC, you have created one of the best real-world reviews of the QC and its capability. Thank you.
Dude, I have a Quad Cortex and I'm jealous of your tone. These are some of the most usable and difference-making tricks I've ever heard. And I've watched a ton of videos on it... Thank you so much! You've got my sub.
Thats great to hear. There are so many insanely talented people using the QC in much more "technical" genres that it can be a little intimidating to try and offer my own "new to the space" insights into the device. The response to this has be so encouraging.
Love the sounds you're getting, sounds great! I'm kind of at a crossroads with my QC - at the moment I use it exclusively in the band (melo death metal) and quite literally push it to its limits. We run two guitars, a bass, backing tracks and click tracks through it with an iPad connected via the QC's USB port running Camelot. The iPad sees the QC as a DAW and also sends Midi CC changes to it to change scenes as we play the songs. I have a video on the setup, but I'm not here to self-promote...Long story short, the QC is mind-blowingly amazing for the band stuff... However, for my own stuff, which is dark ambient, drone, noise, etc, I'm hesitant to take the plunge. I use a bunch of pedals, one of them being a Sick As (got a story on that pedal if you're interested) and like what you've done with your profiles on it. I think I can ditch my Freeze and POG almost immediately and use the QC versions, then run the rest of my pedals in a hybrid fashion. Not sure why I'm sharing all this, I guess it helps to gain clarity on what I want to do. Cool video, thanks for creating and sharing it.
Mark. Thank you so much for doing this vid. Vids like this for Quad are really needed as others have stated. Especially utilizing music and tones of not just heavy styles. I’d love to see future vids on setting input/output levels, using unit as fx unit only with amps, utilizing with fx loop and non fx loop amps.
The QC is actually fantastic - the user interface is the most straightforward and immediate on any of these beasts, the capture facility is the best (I captured my AC15 HW, and my Swart Mod84 and have since sold both as they became redundant) and the compact form is a pure joy. I use clean ambient sounds most of the time, and the QC has some great Revs and Delays and Mods. It does everything better - and without infinite menu diving. Yes if you have a truck, roadies and pots of money, then take amps and fx boards, but in the real world this is a rig in a rucksack. Plus, you can get your sound anywhere, any time and at any volume with no compromise. This is a great overview - I have learnt a lot - thanks!
I’m a month or so into my QC, so was stoked to see this pop up, valuable to get your perspective (will try the VCA comp end-of-chain !), as well as sanity check (similar tastes in delay and reverb and ended up with near identical settings, will slow down my constant tweaking). Even with a more casual vid, looks and sounds great. Get and respect your capture stance (tho they do sound amazing), thx for the solid work and info!
I’m pleasantly surprised that you are using this. I’ve had QC for about a year, use it almost exclusively for ambient tones, and have not looked back one time. Good stuff 🖤
Hey Mark, been dialing my QC for a couple months now. I was pretty set but felt like I was still missing "the thing". While trying to tone match a song from Leland called Inhabit I stumbled across putting a plate reverb up front, like really upfront. So it's my slight pitchy octave block, compressor, a light plate reverb then into my drive and amps. I know it seems unconventional but, for me, it added that magic you get from the real things. I basically run it at 30% mix and leave it on all the time. Anyways, great video thanks for taking the time! Cody
Tried this plate trick today and… it’s great. I don’t know that the plate can be made as subtle as I want it in that spot, might try the room BUT it’s a great change to the feel. Thanks for the insight
I’m not one to make comments but I’m about to buy one of these so please make more videos sir. Love watching your vids and hearing you play. Keep the train rolling man
I'm using mine with 5 CBA pedals as an amp, a midi controller (although it could do with improvement there as it's limited) and a USB interface.. it's absolutely brilliant and the only major gripes I have are how bouncy the tuner is and the power supply for something that costs so much is a ridiculous 😅 Oh, I've set the stock Plexi Algo up with the exact settings I use on my amp (Marshall SV20C) the amp is now up for sale, I'm absolutely blown away by the thing and honestly all I want from is more outgoing midi control.. other than that, the QC is spectacular.. never had a modeler before this and I don't think I'm gonna go back.
Excellent video. You really demonstrate how solid some of the built in effects can be. I often read on forums, complaints about the effects. Claims that they're weak and that surely Fractal is better. I think it sort of demonstrates most people have no idea what they're really hearing, so instead to sound knowledgeable they just parrot what they've read elsewhere, assuming experts must be right and I can't disagree or risk looking foolish. At the end of the day, the QC is more than capable of utilizing effects to produce top tier tone. You prove that here. Thank you.
Do u have more QC vids?? U simply do the best reviews on the net. Next to p thorn. Congrats! I wanted simply to listen to the fukn thing, effects, sounds, and u are the only proper place to do this. Thnxx brother. Rock on!❤
excellent content, always enjoy your work. I'm pairing the Meris LVX w/ my QC (your LVX video sealed that deal for me). If you do decide to add any captures to the cloud for sharing there's a great new feature that lets you upload a picture of the settings for each cap. Would love to see at least some of your presets on the cloud, you're doing great things
This is the best Quad Cortex vid I've seen and I think may have tipped me over the edge into getting one, long time amp and pedal guy though so I am apprehensive 😬 Feels like at this point though the best thing to do is bite the bullet and try one.
Admittedly my amps have been largely digital for a long time but I am also a dyed in the wool pedal nerd and I have been really impressed with this. The long term goal is to build out a hybrid rig that keeps some of the gear I am deeply affectionate about (CBA Thermae, Walrus Eons, likely Timeline/Bigsky) but being able to still love my tone with this all-in-one just brings such a sense of relief.
@@markjohnstonofficial I think what caught my attention in your video was the approach to just capturing the settings of a particular drive pedal and just building a bank of those flavours and also stacking them, I could really see me translating that part of my pedal board in the same way. There’s just certain more unique delays and reverbs that I can’t be without so i imagine it would just be a case of having those in a loop and switching them in and out. It’s definitely very tempting to also have a library of captured amps and have it all accessible per patch when playing live which again highlighted in your video looks easy in terms of the workflow. Great stuff anyway Mark, I’m a new subscriber and I’m loving your channel having had a bit of a dive in, thanks very much!
Your video is excellent! If it's possible in a future video, could you talk about how to configure the 4 rows of the grid to use 2 amp's in stereo and how to configure the in/out of the rows too? Cheers!
Whenever you get that QC deep dive done, I'd love to see what you can do with the new H90 from Eventide, especially in the context of a bass rig. Seriously considering replacing my Synesthesia for an H90. The only thing holding me back is _oof_ that price tag
Why? The quad has all the better stuff in there. You’re truly missing out waiting for plug ins. It’s the best modeler I’ve ever had. And I’ve had the two big guys. Both sold. Amps, pedals stay but I really love this. The feel and sound. UI and easy workflow.
@@Utube-g3g it's also an option paralysis thing. I've had the Kempers, axe fx's, etc.,. But currently find I get a lot more out of my ua Dream and Ruby, as I dial in a simple sound and then I'm set. With these types of modelers I'm usually too busy adjusting shit or always tweaking to actually play/write music. Not so much of a quality thing as it is I'm a big dummy and I don't think I would utilize the quad cortex well.
Great video man! I've had the QC since launch and it's definitely the 'hub' of my studio. So great for running outboard gear and I still love using pedals with it or using captures and putting it in front of my real amps. So flexible. On capturing, my best tip is to set up a patch with an amp model (AC30 eg) and put the drive pedal in front and set the volume to where works best for you. Then capture it there. It should be damn close then when you A/B. Some captures are too quiet or too loud and they've set by looking at the level meter etc. If you want to check out my Suhr Badger 18 captures search for Sleepingatsea 👍
Yeah my system was auditioning and setting up the pedal in context and then changing the patching over to the capture. I just wish there was a way to capture something without having to do a bunch of cable management. The "you have to set it up this way and then listen to it again in a totally dry environment" is a little bit of a bummer.
In response to "What I want to know", I am curious if it is worthy of outsourcing the wet effects through the effects loop vs using the native wet effects in the QC 🤔 Great video as always my brotha
Think of each line as a processor and parallel multi-threads. You can only stack so much on a core before it just can't handle it all. So, you can have 4 amp models, but they need to be spread across the different cores/lines so one isn't doing too much of the heavy lifting. A caveat to that (I think) is that if you split and return at the end of line 1/3 to a complete line 2/4. The second line has to wait until the first line is done, and then it runs its blocks. You've essentially put these two parallel paths in series, therefore there's not enough time to run all the heavy algorithms.
I purchased 3 Archetypes from Neural DSP. They are all amazing. I have been looking at this Quad Cortex for about a week. If there was some way to take the Archetypes I purchased and put them inside the Neural Quad Cortex I would buy one tomorrow.
I like the idea of the profiler/capture and the tones sound good, but I can't justify dropping that kind of money on it without going all the way to the FX III...
Great video. A a side note someone on your level of operational excellence could make money giving QC lessons in person. Do you offer zoom? Just an idea.
I like the idea of adding an compressor before the QC for visibility. The 2026 isn't easily available; got any other favourites to use as input compressor?
Depending on my mood my favorite compressors are the 2026, walrus Mira, origin Cali76, empress compressor mkii, and the Diamond optical comp. All provide visual feedback
Hey Mark! I would love to try this preset minus the captures if you're willing to share it. It's giving me plenty of inspiration to try some new settings!
I'm mad at that pink offset tele configuration, just because I just modded a pink offset tele but yours is cooler. Mine's still pretty cool though. Put those TV jones pups in
Awesome video, man. Love hearing what you’re doing with it. I saw another comment posit the idea of sharing the preset sans pedal captures and I second the idea. The way you’ve got stuff dialed in sounds really great. If nothing else, what cab and mics did you have setup for the Vox model? I’ve been trying to dial in almost that exact amp tone for a while now.
Awesome video! Love the casual approach and awesome playing. I'm considering getting the QC and it sounds amazing here but the only thing that makes me hesitate, the power supply gripe I hear from some folks. I can hear it when you pause to talk. Is it a huge issue or something you can live with?
Worth noting that I have power issues in general in my studio so most of my videos will have some amount of ground noise no matter what. But yeah, the power supply is sub par and my long term solution will be to switch to something like the Cioks to alleviate
Is the effects loop pretty transparent? One problem I had with the effects loop in the HX Stomp is that it added this weird artificial sound when I was using it
I don’t find any coloration in the loop but I know people have raised issue with having to work to find tune the levels of the send and return on the loop.
@@markjohnstonofficial Gotcha. I've got a QC coming this week and would probably only throw a BigSky in the loop so I could run it before the amp blocks. Do you still use the QC some? How has it held up over time?
@@markjohnstonofficial Yeah, that totally makes sense--a genuine ethical quandary. I have my favorite drives I want to capture as well, and definitely wouldn't want to undercut Mythos or Greer sales by making them available for free. I'm super new to QC, though, so I was more hoping for the architecture of the preset than the captures themselves. Did you create this one from scratch, or use something extant as a starting point?
Serious question. My only amp is a two rock studio signiture. I'm thinking of selling that and getting the Quad Cortex so I can have options for amps. Also getting a power amp and speaker cab to get the feel of a tube amp as well. I'm worried though it won't sound as good as my two rock. What do you think?
Why not use your amp’s return fx and use your guitar cab. It sounds great. I would wait to sell only because I love the quad but I love my amps and pedals too.
I am split on this. I havent managed to get any of the built in Fender amps in the QC to sound as good as the dream does but I think I prefer the AC30 in this over the Ruby by a decent margin.
Not currently. I responded to a different comment on this thread re: my musings on if I am going to or not. I'll pin their comment so it's more easily accessible.
Thanks for running this! I LOVE my QC and there are not many creators covering it. Looking forward to more videos! Also, are you going to be uploading your captures to the Neural Cloud?
I haven’t quite worked out if I plan on sharing pedal captures or not. There is no way I would consider captures to be a replacement for a pedal itself BUT I know there are people out there who would skip buying, say, the sick as if they can just grab my four favorite captures of it and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I am huge fans of the builders I use; there’s a reason I use them / capture them over using the built in versions of the klon / blues breaker / whatever else and I wouldn’t want to run the risk of undercutting them.
@Mark Johnston I appreciate the response! And I respect your dedication to the whole industry. I have wondered about the legalities around selling captures etc. as it seems like the equivalent of movie piracy. While I respect your choice, I'll definitely miss out on being able to use it 😜 Thanks again for creating content for the QC!
Ya, I’ll stick with my pedals and awesome collection of real amps! QC is for a small budget all in one box that checks all the gig ready boxes. If you want real authentic tones, it will cost you. That’s the reality of it. And this is true for pretty much all the other modeling units out there. They have a market and a purpose for sure. But for studio quality and flexibility, you’ll need to get the real “stuff “!
A quick note regarding my Neural Captures and if I will be posting them; (copied from my response to another comment on here)
I haven’t quite worked out if I plan on sharing pedal captures or not. There is no way I would consider captures to be a replacement for a pedal itself BUT I know there are people out there who would skip buying, say, the sick as if they can just grab my four favorite captures of it and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I am huge fans of the builders I use; there’s a reason I use them / capture them over using the built in versions of the klon / blues breaker / whatever else and I wouldn’t want to run the risk of undercutting them.
I do get that but I would actually counter by saying that I feel like captures actually provide 'more' interest in the pedal/amp and can lead to them getting sales. For example, I actually bought a Suhr Badger 18 after trying the WorshipTutorials capture! I absolutely loved it and HAD to have this amp. Ive also got some other drive pedals too. While the capture does a great job, sometimes you still need the flexibility of getting more options and having the pedal is needed. I do love that despite there not being a fully realised marketplace that people are sharing some great captures of gear. I would never had had an opportunity to try these amps. I now have 3 or 4 amps on my wishlist!
Would you copy the preset without your captures and share it?
@@sleepingatsea3420 the Suhr Badger got me also. I was like how have I never tried this amp in person, and I’ve been looking for one when I visit shops. Also there is a Carr Mercury in the cloud that is unreal. Makes me want to own one for sure.
@@TheMrMulligans it's SUCH a good amp! I am beyond stoked with it. But yeah, I would never have come across it otherwise. I have to try the Carr! I think that's by Amalgam and I actually got their Magnatone Twighligher pack, another amp on the dream list lol
pedal companies are always copying each other in the first place.
Welp, I knew I shouldn’t have watched this. Haha. This is by far the best I’ve heard the QC sound. Plus it’s amazing to hear a non metal play through
Agreed!
Agreed. All these innovative effects and stuff need to start advertising with anything besides metal to really get to the masses. Although I get why since the gain structure is so realistic in this unit.
Mark- in an effort to NOT create a deep-dive review of the QC, you have created one of the best real-world reviews of the QC and its capability. Thank you.
Dude, I have a Quad Cortex and I'm jealous of your tone.
These are some of the most usable and difference-making tricks I've ever heard. And I've watched a ton of videos on it...
Thank you so much! You've got my sub.
Thats great to hear. There are so many insanely talented people using the QC in much more "technical" genres that it can be a little intimidating to try and offer my own "new to the space" insights into the device. The response to this has be so encouraging.
I'm waiting for one now. Great video. I'm looking forward to more in-depth.
Love the sounds you're getting, sounds great! I'm kind of at a crossroads with my QC - at the moment I use it exclusively in the band (melo death metal) and quite literally push it to its limits. We run two guitars, a bass, backing tracks and click tracks through it with an iPad connected via the QC's USB port running Camelot. The iPad sees the QC as a DAW and also sends Midi CC changes to it to change scenes as we play the songs. I have a video on the setup, but I'm not here to self-promote...Long story short, the QC is mind-blowingly amazing for the band stuff... However, for my own stuff, which is dark ambient, drone, noise, etc, I'm hesitant to take the plunge. I use a bunch of pedals, one of them being a Sick As (got a story on that pedal if you're interested) and like what you've done with your profiles on it. I think I can ditch my Freeze and POG almost immediately and use the QC versions, then run the rest of my pedals in a hybrid fashion. Not sure why I'm sharing all this, I guess it helps to gain clarity on what I want to do. Cool video, thanks for creating and sharing it.
Mark. Thank you so much for doing this vid. Vids like this for Quad are really needed as others have stated. Especially utilizing music and tones of not just heavy styles.
I’d love to see future vids on setting input/output levels, using unit as fx unit only with amps, utilizing with fx loop and non fx loop amps.
The QC is actually fantastic - the user interface is the most straightforward and immediate on any of these beasts, the capture facility is the best (I captured my AC15 HW, and my Swart Mod84 and have since sold both as they became redundant) and the compact form is a pure joy. I use clean ambient sounds most of the time, and the QC has some great Revs and Delays and Mods. It does everything better - and without infinite menu diving. Yes if you have a truck, roadies and pots of money, then take amps and fx boards, but in the real world this is a rig in a rucksack. Plus, you can get your sound anywhere, any time and at any volume with no compromise. This is a great overview - I have learnt a lot - thanks!
Not a modulation fx user but best modeler imo. Love it.
I’m a month or so into my QC, so was stoked to see this pop up, valuable to get your perspective (will try the VCA comp end-of-chain !), as well as sanity check (similar tastes in delay and reverb and ended up with near identical settings, will slow down my constant tweaking).
Even with a more casual vid, looks and sounds great.
Get and respect your capture stance (tho they do sound amazing), thx for the solid work and info!
Now following you on the Cortex app :D
Always loved your vids, can't wait to see what you can come up with!
Quite a compliment to the QC to say it’s your favorite digital AC30, when you previously said you have every UAFX pedal (so presumably the Ruby❤).
I’m pleasantly surprised that you are using this. I’ve had QC for about a year, use it almost exclusively for ambient tones, and have not looked back one time. Good stuff 🖤
Hey Mark, been dialing my QC for a couple months now. I was pretty set but felt like I was still missing "the thing". While trying to tone match a song from Leland called Inhabit I stumbled across putting a plate reverb up front, like really upfront. So it's my slight pitchy octave block, compressor, a light plate reverb then into my drive and amps. I know it seems unconventional but, for me, it added that magic you get from the real things. I basically run it at 30% mix and leave it on all the time. Anyways, great video thanks for taking the time!
Cody
Tried this plate trick today and… it’s great. I don’t know that the plate can be made as subtle as I want it in that spot, might try the room BUT it’s a great change to the feel. Thanks for the insight
great video, playing and sounds! I hope you share this preset setup on the QC cloud!
I’m not one to make comments but I’m about to buy one of these so please make more videos sir. Love watching your vids and hearing you play. Keep the train rolling man
Excellent not a review, review. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I am very close to pulling the trigger on a QC so was great to hear your initial thought on it
I'm using mine with 5 CBA pedals as an amp, a midi controller (although it could do with improvement there as it's limited) and a USB interface.. it's absolutely brilliant and the only major gripes I have are how bouncy the tuner is and the power supply for something that costs so much is a ridiculous 😅
Oh, I've set the stock Plexi Algo up with the exact settings I use on my amp (Marshall SV20C) the amp is now up for sale, I'm absolutely blown away by the thing and honestly all I want from is more outgoing midi control.. other than that, the QC is spectacular.. never had a modeler before this and I don't think I'm gonna go back.
Wow, great stuff - and seeing your glass, I want to play my QC and sip something from my glass. Thank you! “While my guitar gently…”
The silver jubilee in the QC is awesome. I have a real one and I just use the QC to record with
Excellent video. You really demonstrate how solid some of the built in effects can be. I often read on forums, complaints about the effects. Claims that they're weak and that surely Fractal is better. I think it sort of demonstrates most people have no idea what they're really hearing, so instead to sound knowledgeable they just parrot what they've read elsewhere, assuming experts must be right and I can't disagree or risk looking foolish. At the end of the day, the QC is more than capable of utilizing effects to produce top tier tone. You prove that here. Thank you.
It’s not true. It is imo my favorite modeler after amps and pedals. It’s great. Sold off the Kemper and helix.
Do u have more QC vids?? U simply do the best reviews on the net. Next to p thorn. Congrats! I wanted simply to listen to the fukn thing, effects, sounds, and u are the only proper place to do this. Thnxx brother. Rock on!❤
excellent content, always enjoy your work. I'm pairing the Meris LVX w/ my QC (your LVX video sealed that deal for me). If you do decide to add any captures to the cloud for sharing there's a great new feature that lets you upload a picture of the settings for each cap. Would love to see at least some of your presets on the cloud, you're doing great things
Very musical. Thanks for not just going high gain!
This is the best Quad Cortex vid I've seen and I think may have tipped me over the edge into getting one, long time amp and pedal guy though so I am apprehensive 😬 Feels like at this point though the best thing to do is bite the bullet and try one.
Admittedly my amps have been largely digital for a long time but I am also a dyed in the wool pedal nerd and I have been really impressed with this. The long term goal is to build out a hybrid rig that keeps some of the gear I am deeply affectionate about (CBA Thermae, Walrus Eons, likely Timeline/Bigsky) but being able to still love my tone with this all-in-one just brings such a sense of relief.
@@markjohnstonofficial I think what caught my attention in your video was the approach to just capturing the settings of a particular drive pedal and just building a bank of those flavours and also stacking them, I could really see me translating that part of my pedal board in the same way. There’s just certain more unique delays and reverbs that I can’t be without so i imagine it would just be a case of having those in a loop and switching them in and out. It’s definitely very tempting to also have a library of captured amps and have it all accessible per patch when playing live which again highlighted in your video looks easy in terms of the workflow. Great stuff anyway Mark, I’m a new subscriber and I’m loving your channel having had a bit of a dive in, thanks very much!
IDEA - If you want more grit on the delay taps, route it parallel into a drive pedal!
I just read up top what you said re Kemper . And the quad is actually fun as well as great. I totally agree. Nice video Mark.
Been waiting for this one. Hey Mark! Hope all is well.
So glad this is NOT a review. Lol
On a serious note, this thing sounds absolutely fantastic man. Love it
Full review is gonna run in theaters with an intermission. As a trilogy.
Your video is excellent! If it's possible in a future video, could you talk about how to configure the 4 rows of the grid to use 2 amp's in stereo and how to configure the in/out of the rows too?
Cheers!
Whenever you get that QC deep dive done, I'd love to see what you can do with the new H90 from Eventide, especially in the context of a bass rig. Seriously considering replacing my Synesthesia for an H90. The only thing holding me back is _oof_ that price tag
I've actually never once laid hands on an H9... I would be super into checking out the H90 though haha.
I planned on holding off until the Neural Plug-Ins are able to be added, but this thing seems like such a beast.
The sounds are all technically there, you would just need to do a little research to see what the amps in the plugins are based off of
Why? The quad has all the better stuff in there. You’re truly missing out waiting for plug ins. It’s the best modeler I’ve ever had. And I’ve had the two big guys. Both sold. Amps, pedals stay but I really love this. The feel and sound. UI and easy workflow.
@@Utube-g3g it's also an option paralysis thing. I've had the Kempers, axe fx's, etc.,. But currently find I get a lot more out of my ua Dream and Ruby, as I dial in a simple sound and then I'm set. With these types of modelers I'm usually too busy adjusting shit or always tweaking to actually play/write music. Not so much of a quality thing as it is I'm a big dummy and I don't think I would utilize the quad cortex well.
Great video man! I've had the QC since launch and it's definitely the 'hub' of my studio. So great for running outboard gear and I still love using pedals with it or using captures and putting it in front of my real amps. So flexible.
On capturing, my best tip is to set up a patch with an amp model (AC30 eg) and put the drive pedal in front and set the volume to where works best for you. Then capture it there. It should be damn close then when you A/B. Some captures are too quiet or too loud and they've set by looking at the level meter etc.
If you want to check out my Suhr Badger 18 captures search for Sleepingatsea 👍
Yeah my system was auditioning and setting up the pedal in context and then changing the patching over to the capture. I just wish there was a way to capture something without having to do a bunch of cable management. The "you have to set it up this way and then listen to it again in a totally dry environment" is a little bit of a bummer.
In response to "What I want to know", I am curious if it is worthy of outsourcing the wet effects through the effects loop vs using the native wet effects in the QC 🤔 Great video as always my brotha
Think of each line as a processor and parallel multi-threads. You can only stack so much on a core before it just can't handle it all. So, you can have 4 amp models, but they need to be spread across the different cores/lines so one isn't doing too much of the heavy lifting.
A caveat to that (I think) is that if you split and return at the end of line 1/3 to a complete line 2/4. The second line has to wait until the first line is done, and then it runs its blocks. You've essentially put these two parallel paths in series, therefore there's not enough time to run all the heavy algorithms.
I purchased 3 Archetypes from Neural DSP. They are all amazing. I have been looking at this Quad Cortex for about a week. If there was some way to take the Archetypes I purchased and put them inside the Neural Quad Cortex I would buy one tomorrow.
It's coming...
@@Knorrhannes That would be great
What’s in the quad is better than the plug ins.
With the release of PLINI X we are even closer to having the Archetypes available in QC.
@@lorne678 That would be great. Looking forward to getting a QC once this is done.
What are your thoughts on the IK Tonex software? I've never been an IK fan, but, I have been very impressed with the quality of tones and ease of use.
I like the idea of the profiler/capture and the tones sound good, but I can't justify dropping that kind of money on it without going all the way to the FX III...
Great video. A a side note someone on your level of operational excellence could make money giving QC lessons in person. Do you offer zoom? Just an idea.
I like the idea of adding an compressor before the QC for visibility. The 2026 isn't easily available; got any other favourites to use as input compressor?
Depending on my mood my favorite compressors are the 2026, walrus Mira, origin Cali76, empress compressor mkii, and the Diamond optical comp. All provide visual feedback
Hey Mark!
I would love to try this preset minus the captures if you're willing to share it. It's giving me plenty of inspiration to try some new settings!
Hey mark! Would love to know what cab you are using with the vox and how you have set that up!
Just wanted to plus 1 on their AC30 model. It sounds almost exactly like my head/can model with Greenbacks
Does it have analog dry through?? Can I simply pass the analog signal through it in any way?? Thnxx brother ❤
I'm mad at that pink offset tele configuration, just because I just modded a pink offset tele but yours is cooler. Mine's still pretty cool though. Put those TV jones pups in
Awesome video, man. Love hearing what you’re doing with it. I saw another comment posit the idea of sharing the preset sans pedal captures and I second the idea. The way you’ve got stuff dialed in sounds really great.
If nothing else, what cab and mics did you have setup for the Vox model? I’ve been trying to dial in almost that exact amp tone for a while now.
Hi great video.
Qwestion how do uou set up the VCA comp in the en of the signa chain?
Awesome video! Love the casual approach and awesome playing. I'm considering getting the QC and it sounds amazing here but the only thing that makes me hesitate, the power supply gripe I hear from some folks. I can hear it when you pause to talk. Is it a huge issue or something you can live with?
Worth noting that I have power issues in general in my studio so most of my videos will have some amount of ground noise no matter what. But yeah, the power supply is sub par and my long term solution will be to switch to something like the Cioks to alleviate
Your pedalboard looks like mine. I have a huge pedal board with my QC and that’s about it 😂
Is the effects loop pretty transparent? One problem I had with the effects loop in the HX Stomp is that it added this weird artificial sound when I was using it
I don’t find any coloration in the loop but I know people have raised issue with having to work to find tune the levels of the send and return on the loop.
@@markjohnstonofficial Gotcha. I've got a QC coming this week and would probably only throw a BigSky in the loop so I could run it before the amp blocks. Do you still use the QC some? How has it held up over time?
I use it a ton. It lives on my desk always plugged in for when I need it and it’s my go to for live use. It only gets better over time.
Yo Mark! Love this content. Any plans to make this preset available on the Neural Cloud?
pinned a comment regarding this.
@@markjohnstonofficial Yeah, that totally makes sense--a genuine ethical quandary. I have my favorite drives I want to capture as well, and definitely wouldn't want to undercut Mythos or Greer sales by making them available for free. I'm super new to QC, though, so I was more hoping for the architecture of the preset than the captures themselves. Did you create this one from scratch, or use something extant as a starting point?
Serious question. My only amp is a two rock studio signiture. I'm thinking of selling that and getting the Quad Cortex so I can have options for amps. Also getting a power amp and speaker cab to get the feel of a tube amp as well. I'm worried though it won't sound as good as my two rock. What do you think?
Why not use your amp’s return fx and use your guitar cab. It sounds great. I would wait to sell only because I love the quad but I love my amps and pedals too.
Can i find your music on spotify?
Great video man. For me the UA amp pedals still sound better and are hard to beat right now.
I am split on this. I havent managed to get any of the built in Fender amps in the QC to sound as good as the dream does but I think I prefer the AC30 in this over the Ruby by a decent margin.
@@markjohnstonofficial how is it now? I’m torn on wether to get the Ruby/Dream combo or the QC to go along with my pedalboard. Cost isn’t an issue
For bedroom tones (i.e. no playing out or gigging), QC or plugins?
I tend to prefer hardware whenever possible but thats just my own preferences for workflow. Plug-ins (Neural and otherwise) have gotten damn good.
Do you use earbud monitors for live performances?
❤❤❤
nice... did you have your capture on cloud to download ?
Not currently. I responded to a different comment on this thread re: my musings on if I am going to or not. I'll pin their comment so it's more easily accessible.
Thanks for running this! I LOVE my QC and there are not many creators covering it. Looking forward to more videos! Also, are you going to be uploading your captures to the Neural Cloud?
I haven’t quite worked out if I plan on sharing pedal captures or not. There is no way I would consider captures to be a replacement for a pedal itself BUT I know there are people out there who would skip buying, say, the sick as if they can just grab my four favorite captures of it and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I am huge fans of the builders I use; there’s a reason I use them / capture them over using the built in versions of the klon / blues breaker / whatever else and I wouldn’t want to run the risk of undercutting them.
@Mark Johnston I appreciate the response! And I respect your dedication to the whole industry. I have wondered about the legalities around selling captures etc. as it seems like the equivalent of movie piracy. While I respect your choice, I'll definitely miss out on being able to use it 😜 Thanks again for creating content for the QC!
Ya, I’ll stick with my pedals and awesome collection of real amps! QC is for a small budget all in one box that checks all the gig ready boxes.
If you want real authentic tones, it will cost you. That’s the reality of it. And this is true for pretty much all the other modeling units out there. They have a market and a purpose for sure. But for studio quality and flexibility, you’ll need to get the real “stuff “!
that didn't remotely djent
Wow, that was boring:.: I would be interested to know if it can do the 1981 DRV with all it's high end harmonics