Gain staging when creating Captures with the Quad Cortex
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2022
- Gain staging when creating Captures with the Quad Cortex
Part 3 in a series Im making about how to use your audio interface and DAW to create Captures on the Quad Cortex. This video explores gain staging and how to get your signal to sound perfect from front to back, making your Captures consistent and awesome sounding.
Download the Live Set (v11.1 only) and the IR here:
drive.google.com/file/d/1WxsZ...
Download my Gain Test 1 preset here:
neuraldsp.com/cloud/p/3cab63ac-9d06-4868-b745-5000c27cfad4
Ceres DawSauce 1 Capture:
neuraldsp.com/cloud/p/7e80e31f-a162-48e6-a307-cf6fe929af83
Ceres DawSauce 2 Capture:
neuraldsp.com/cloud/p/ec5b41f0-0526-4c0a-8886-7e6c8954ded2 
Развлечения
Excellent post! Thanks for sharing!
Other than being able to switch devices with the Hosa, How is this any different from boosting the input level on Ret 1 where your guitar goes or any other input level like Instrument level on the last page before you start the capture?
Instrument level can be adjusted higher or lower but it will then effect the strength of the signal going into the pedal thats being captured. If youre not using the DAW before the pedal, you can totally do this. The problem with this, though, is that changing Inst1 does not change the volume of the Capture noises, so your capture wont have the same gain profile as when you simply plug your guitar into the pedal. Instead, you will get a different gain profile out of your hardware and then the QC will turn up the input gain on the Capture to make up for the lost gain. For me, I prefer to leave the levels alone on the QC and do all of my gain staging with the apparatus I built around the device Im capturing. By using the Hosa to A/B the guitar and the guitar+DAW signal, I am ensuring that I am getting an accurate signal at that point in the signal chain. It all depends on what your signal chain consists of and what sounds you want in the end.
@@jasonzdora Have you have satisfactory results using an amp with this scenario?
@@cast390 I havent done this with my amps yet but I do plan on doing a video for them soon (testing different load boxes and DI box methods) and I will be incorporating this workflow into it. The reamp box is definitely going to help, as I did a simple version of this a few months ago (QC > reamp box > amp > QC) and that definitely helped. The idea of getting the guitar to sound the exact same as when its plugged directly into the amp would seem to be the best use case. We will see! I will post those results when I do them.
@@jasonzdora Thanks
@@jasonzdora Could you explain this a bit more? (QC > reamp box > amp > QC)
Wow this is going to sound stupid but how did you get to this workflow? I thought you’re supposed to simply use the capture out into whatever hardware and then Input 2 as the return for the capture, done.
However I am having problems with a very high gain amp sound that just sounds like flubby garbage as a capture, so I’m wondering if your signal flow might be a solution for that?
I got into this workflow because Im a nerd, basically. I also wanted to capture some plugin chains that I like and that led to me thinking "what if I used plugins, then hardware, then plugins, to make as awesome of a tone as I can?" so thats basically how all that came together. The video is about how to get your signal flow right so it all sounds like its supposed to. By getting the gain staging correct, I ended up getting perfect captures.
The main thing I would suggest is to play your guitar through the input of the QC then out of the QC into your real amplifier and load box, then back into the QC. Get that to sound good, then make your capture.
Thanks so much for your reply. I fiddled around a bit more an you’re so right that even in a more simpler setup gain staging the capture input of the QC juuuust right (1-2dB difference can make a good or bad capture) is crucial. But I did have to go by trial and error and do a lot of captures before I got it right, because it doesn’t seem to be a certain number reading on the input gain for me. For example the same channel on the amp with a drive in front sounded better with 2dB less input gain at the QC. Do you have a way to loose that trial and error stage and to know before what input gain will be the right one? (I see you’re aiming at -6dB in the video, does that always do the trick for you?).
Also I wonder why you have to decrease the Level of the FX Loop of the QC like that. I measured that when I got it and have to decrease by -4.5dB to get unity gain. But if I use the Send 1 as an output on the right side of the grid then it is 0dB. I don’t get why that is…
@@rubolf2153Theres two things to consider:
1- the strength of the "training" signal (the weirdo noises used for training) going through the hardware you are trying to capture. This training signal should be as close in volume as possible to your regular guitar signal. Thats why I do this super complicated A/B switching thing in the video. Im trying to get the "training" signal to emulate my regular guitar plugged straight into my amp/pedal/hardware.
2- the strength of the signal leaving your amp/pedal/hardware thats returning to the QC for analysis. Ive noticed that high gain captures get error messages (failure to create a capture) when the QC receives a signal that is louder than 6db. I try to make my captures get as close to that failure point as possible. I have experimented with sending the audio signal at different levels (up to -6db and then as quiet as -18db) using exact same signal chain of hardware. The only difference I noticed is that the resulting captures will sound the exact same but they will be louder or quieter.
So #1 is the most important part to get right as far as tones sounding right and #2 is more about getting the resulting capture to be the correct loudness (so your captures are as loud as the regular amp sims inside the QC).
@@rubolf2153 Also, so glad to see you experimenting on your own. That is easily the best way to figure out whats going on. Dont be afraid to make like 10 variations on a singular amp tone. Try all kinds of different things and TAKE NOTES on what parameters you changed (making changes to your gain staging at the input/output of each point in your signal chain). Name the 10 different variations in a way that you can easily identify them. Check them all out against the real amp tone and see which ones get closest. Refine your technique, see which changes caused the greatest impact, make more notes describing how those changes caused the tone to change (made it too thin, made it too woofy, made the gain sound a certain way, etc) and then repeat the experiment all over again with another guitar amp or another piece of gear and see if the "good" settings you found in experiment #1 translate to your next experiment.
It sounds goofy but if you really want to dig in and get good, this is the way!
@@jasonzdora thank you so much for your advice! I’ll do that!