NMD: One Hour To Sound Better

[andvari7]

Good afternoon,

I like the sound of the Kemper Profiler. I am also a fan of their dogged determination not to render their hardware obsolete with new models, and The build quality is reassuringly German. However, I am not a fan of the interface, and the fact that, although it took a few minutes to get a good straight amp sound, it was a chore to get the Remote set up, and get more than four effects assigned to it. That killed it for me, and I didn’t realize it, until the other day. My brother is enjoying his cheap Line6 Pod Express pedal - that newer one - and, when we jammed the other day, he was able to dial in decent, usable sounds, while I was having a hard time getting my rig to play nicely.

That is why, this past Monday, I took the Kemper rig to GC Middleton, and traded it in, along with a fair amount of money, for a used Quad Cortex, which I received two days later, from GC Oklahoma City. Aside from the shipping box coming from an Oberheim TEO-5 - to their credit, GC OKC packed it pretty securely - and the Neural box not being in the best of condition, the QC is in good shape. I have been working ridiculous hours lately, thanks to a new job transfer, so I hadn’t really been able to program it until today. For the amount of time I’ve really spent with it, which was about an hour, I have not only managed to come up with something competent, but I have all but one of the effects I want (that would be a ring modulator, which I will admit I haven’t worked too hard to find; I also do not have an expression pedal, which I will try to remedy tomorrow), in a pretty good two-channel - sort of a JCM800 2210 deal, with a Plexi clean, and JCM800 crunch - chain.

It has a significantly better UI, and the switches are knobs. That is beyond cool, and makes my habit of turning knobs on my effects a brilliant reality.

Is it perfect? No. Here are the problems:

1. While it has editors for Windows and Mac, most people use Android or iOS. Would it be too much to ask to come up with apps for them?
2. Not all of the features promised at launch are available, but they do update, and Neural is closer to the floor on their product development than the ceiling. With the Helix and Kemper - both very good units which I have owned (and, in the case of Helix Native, still own), the opposite is true.
3. I would prefer ten programmable switches, rather than the eight Neural uses. Yes, I know there are eleven button/knobs, but three of them are to select presets, tap tempo and tuner.
4. The power supply is 12VDC, 3A. They should have used an IEC plug, with a universal internal power supply, like Quilter uses. There is a whole heap of controversy, because the stock config is apparently very noisy. I haven’t encountered it yet, but, as I have only spent an hour or so using it, I wouldn’t know.
5. The user base is a little cultish. Not Fractal bad, but they do like to justify their decisions to buy Neural, a bit more than I would like. I hope I don’t come across as one - I like the interface, and I think it sounds very good. That’s all the justification I need.

Next time I try to make music with my brother, I’ll still suck, but it’ll be because I haven’t played regularly in months, not because I can’t figure out an amp modeler.

Thank you.

[andvari7]

A few points I forgot to mention:

1. The touchscreen is very responsive, and the QC doesn’t take forever and a day to boot up. I like that.
2. I was having issues with the output, as in a lack thereof. It took a few minutes to determine that it was my headphones that were causing the problem. A few tweaks later, and it worked, but I don’t trust them. I will need a new set of mastering headphones, with 1/4” plug AND a long cable. The stock 1m doesn’t work. EDIT: I found the Sennheiser HD 490 Pro Plus. They’re $500, and there is no way I’m buying them right now.

[greatmutah]

I have no practical experience with the QC but I did see a cool coverband where all of their members with stringed instruments had QCs on their boards and they sounded excellent. They were doing 80s pop and rock hits (Prince, The Cure, Bowie) and they sounded awesome.

[Guitarbilly]

Yeah I've heard some good tones from the QC. It seems to sit in a mix a bit better than the other modelers. I'd love to try one out but the price is a bit too steep for me.

[spawnofthesith]

My Bass player has a QC. Definitely a cool unit, UI far and away the best of any modellers. He has some good bass tones dialed in from it for sure. I’ve only lightly dabbled with guitar tones on his, seems solid, probably better than HX stuff. I feel like the NDSP plug-in stuff sounds better than the native amp modeling though (although there’s a handful of plugins you can load onto the device)

[greatmutah]

Neutral’s SLO and Fortin Cali are outstanding.

[andvari7]

Update: Two Dunlop DVDA pedals later, and HOLY SHIT, I HAVE WAH, WHAMMY, AND TWO FREE BUTTONS. Yeah, I’m a believer now.