There is a wide range of perspectives on the use of high end digital modelling tools. Some love the idea, some find the idea anathema, some look at the outcome more than the tools. Whatever you choose is right for you, but as I work through courseware, training and practice to become a better recordist, mixer and producer, I am making discoveries that might be of use to you folks.

Historically I was always the tube amp and microphone fellow. The reasons were simple. That was what I was recording. There is a feeling to the air being pushed around by a 4x12 cabinet or pair of them. Heck there’s a feeling that comes from a single 10” speaker. An Ampeg 8x10 cabinet is a feeling to behold, beyond even the incredible sound.

Consequently I spent time learning about microphone selection, the criticality of microphone positioning and how to achieve different goals in the recording. I’ve learned to record as clean as possible, leaving the mixing stage for adding effects and treatments, even equalization. This is a very different approach to playing live, where you handle things very differently.

I’m also a serious pedal dork. I love pedals and have spent far too much money on pedals over the decades.

I say these things to be clear that I am not dropping tube amps, pedals and microphones. I am adding high end digital to my toolbox.

Digital Devices

There are all manner of boxes to go between your guitar or bass and the input on your audio interface. This could be a DI out from a modern amp, a simple box like a Strymon Iridium or a DSM&Humboldt Simplifier to something more fully complete like a Fractal, a Helix, a Kemper or a Neural Quad Cortex.

I have never used a Fractal. I have owned or own today a Helix, a Kemper Stage and a Neural Quad Cortex. I think that they are all quite powerful with good overall tone, but in terms of the full package, for me, I get more out of the Kemper Stage and the Neural Quad Cortex. While I have become quite competent with the Kemper, when it comes to speed of go, I am quickest and least frustrated with the Quad Cortex because my life does not allow me to do this stuff every day and I am always at some level of reintroduction.

For some recent work, I had limited time, a very specific set of outcomes and so decided to use the Quad Cortex as the connection between my guitar and my UA Apollo interface.

Getting Connected

The Quad Cortex has balanced left and right outputs. I connected them to the balanced left and right inputs on the Apollo, set the inputs accordingly and that was that. I had been using a Boss WL-50 wireless to connect my guitar to the Quad Cortex when just playing, but when I charged the tracks in Logic Pro for recording, I was getting dropouts and almost a pulsing sound. I thought that I had messed something up and after faffing around for too long unplugged the wireless from the Quad Cortex and used a general purpose Pig Hog studio grade unbalanced guitar cable. End of pulsing and dropouts. Those Boss wireless units have been a hassle since day one. This particular one had a boot related accident immediately after being identified as the source of the problem.

Selecting an Amplifier in the Quad Cortex

Like the Kemper system, the Quad Cortex has a number of Neural built presets as well as a community rich with owner built presets. I have a preset built to accurately replicate a Marshall 2203 head into an old Marshall 1960 cabinet. I can validate the accuracy of the preset because not ten feet away from the Quad Cortex is a real Marshall 2203 Custom Super Lead Mark II head sitting on a 1960A / 1960B stack. It’s a lovely amplifier with a very unique sound, however if I am doing recording at 2am, there is this issue with volume as to get the tone that I want, it needs to be feeling its oats, meaning the volume is up past 1.

With the Quad Cortex, I can get the tone that I want going direct to the Apollo and the only sound that I hear when monitoring the recording is in the headphones. I made a decision a year ago to spend the coin on great over ear headphones and use a pair of Focal headphones. I hear nuances through the Focals that are missing in other headphones.

Effects in the Quad Cortex

The Quad Cortex has four CPUs so you can make it work very hard. I wanted to keep things a bit simple, so in building (more correctly modifying for my own use a delivered preset) I set up my chain as follows. Remember that the chain you build is your own, you are under no limits to use the chains that come as presets, or to use the one that I describe here.

The guitar feeds first into an Adaptive Noise Gate that is off by default. I turn it on when using a guitar with noisier single coil or P90 pickups.

The second device in the chain that is also off by default is the Neural model of the Klon Centaur. They don’t call it a Klon but if you see Myth drive, that’s what it is. I have it set like my Centuria drive which is a pretty darn good Klon clone, so the diodes are working and the device is more than just a clean boost. I can say that the Myth drive implementation is very darn accurate.

The third device in the chain, also off by default is called the Brit Governor, which is as you might expect the Neural implementation of a Marshall Govnor pedal. I rarely use it on its own, most often I will gain stage the Myth into the Governor for a really creamy overdrive with neck pickups

The fourth device in the chain, also off by default is called the Rodent. It’s the Neural implementation of the Rat. It does exactly what you expect when you want some distortion to push the amplifier simulation.

And that amp is what is next. Unlike some modellers which make pretty graphics of the amp being modelled, the Quad Cortex gives you the controls on the amp being modelled with the controls built to act like the ones on the actual amp. Each footswitch is also a rotary control so getting precise settings of each virtual knob is incredibly easy in edit mode. It is like being in front of the actual head.

The amp runs into the cabinet emulation in this case a 1960A cabinet with 30 watt speakers. Very classic and in my opinion, I prefer the tone of the lower wattage speakers over the 75 watt options that Marshall also built. Every cabinet simulation allows for up to two microphones each with its own position and distance settings. I am using a Shure SM57 for microphone one and a Beyer 160 for microphone two. Again Neural does not call them by their real names, but a little research reveals the intent. The use of a dynamic microphone paired with a ribbon microphone is a proven methodology for miking a guitar cabinet, but without the concerns about setting the pad on the ribbon so the sound pressure doesn’t blow the ribbon to shards. The resulting tone is really nice with the right combination of drive and cleanliness in accordance with the guitar pickups, guitar control settings and amp settings. I have to admit that the level of granular control gets me to the tone I want faster than working to mike up a cabinet. Please note that Neural cabinet simulations are full length Impulse Response files that behave and sound like real speaker cabinets, not just an EQ patch designed to fake out a cabinet. The difference between a generic cab sim and a Neural IR cabinet is enormous.

Following the cabinet I have two post effects created but turned off. The first is Neural’s mono tape delay. I am not certain which tape delay it is modelled on, but as it has only one virtual head, I think that it is an Echoplex EP-3. It has that right sound when I use it to create a bit of space and because the Quad Cortex allows for splitting channels, I can put the tape delay on its own output fully wet and leave it off the main output completely. Since I run my live amps wet / dry all the time, this capability in the Quad Cortex really appeals to me. The final effect is Neural’s room reverb. In general when playing live, I like a bit of reverb and that amplifier does not have built in reverb. The Neural reverb sounds natural without being overly digital or boingy.

Quad Cortex Operation

I have my Quad Cortex set up in stomp box mode, mostly because I am recording and don’t need to jump from custom preset for one song to a custom preset for a different song with one switch press. It’s no problem to go to the proper preset using the foot switches when I want to make a change. A live player would probably set things up differently.

I don’t have a digital switcher for any of my live pedalboards, but the Quad Cortex can act like one with drag and drop if I want to quickly change pedal order, or split a chain, or build a wet dry wet rig. I would say that I have barely scratched the surface of what the Quad Cortex is capable of and why this impresses me so is that I am able to make recordings without knowing all the potential ins and outs of the unit. Neural also does regular upgrades that are incredibly simple to apply so I feel like I am not left behind what is coming as soon as the purchase is made.

In the DAW

While I have set up the Quad Cortex for the amp and pedal configuration that I want to use in this example, nothing prevents me from building a preset that has no effects at all in it that is just an amp and cabinet where all effects are done post recording in the mixing stage in the DAW. I have a number of presets for amplifier and cabinet combinations that I do not own specifically to do this, partly because they do not exist as good sounding plugins at this time, or because the plugins that do exist don’t sound quite right to me.

Per my classes I avoid mixing wearing headphones. I use Focal Studio Monitors for this purpose. The teacher said you will mix differently when using headphones instead of studio monitors and in my practice, I have learned that he is completely right. What sounded good in headphones was weak in the monitors. What sounds good in the monitors is also good in the headphones.

The ability to have more amps than I have is one of the boons brought to me by the Quad Cortex. It also has send/return loop capability so if there is a pedal that there has no pedal model in existence, I can use the real thing. I am very picky about Leslie type pedals and ambient reverb pedals and nothing prevents me from using them with the Quad Cortex.

On my amp want list are a number of amplifiers that I have neither the physical space nor funding for. I do have them in my Quad Cortex though so while I do not have a Two Rock Classic with their large cabinet, I have both clean and dirty models in the Quad Cortex. I love the sound of the mid sixties Fender Super Reverb, and while I could possibly buy a reissue, I am already deep in Fender amps (that wet dry thing) and have no place for a Super, so I have one in my Quad Cortex. I am in the process of looking for a Magnatone implementation in the Quad Cortex.

The other thing that I can do when recording now is use different guitars into different real tube amps for some tracks and other guitars (or the same guitar) into a Quad Cortex amp. This versatility makes my learning experience in recording and mixing more rewarding, more fun and while it is more work, it’s work that I am enjoying.

If after reading this, you are thinking more about a full range digital option and wondering which route to go, I will share my opinion. First, I can offer no feedback on the Fractal gear. I have never used one nor even seen one, so nothing I would say would have much value other than you can only buy them direct.

I think that the Line6 Helix has the widest range of pedal options still to this point. I also think that they are decent implementations. As I am a pedal dork, this is not a big driver for me and in my opinion their amp and cabinet simulations out of the box are not as rich as in the Kemper or the Neural Quad Cortex. The learning curve on the Helix is very short and the user interface is superb.

I think that Kemper still at this point has the widest range of amp and cabinet simulation options and the largest community of users sharing their presets. Kemper is, in my opinion, the least wide ranging choice for pedal options but it does do send / return so this may not be so big a deal. It is reasonably quick to learn the basics, and works a charm. The user interface is rather dated and the screen is small. Too small for me to see well when standing above my Kemper Stage unit. It does have multiple expression pedal inputs and I recommend the superb Mission expression pedals built for the Kemper. They cost no more than any good expression pedal and are built like proper tanks.

The Neural Quad Cortex to me brings the best of all worlds. It has a wide range of amplifier and cabinet simulations. It supports send and return for external pedals. It has multiple ins and outs that are easily controlled and the CPU density means that you can build really complex rigs. The user interface is superb and very easy to use. It’s also large, easy to see and uses colours effectively. The switches are quiet and double as control knobs and it is a nice small package. Mission Engineering does a Quad Cortex specific expression pedal but they are like hen’s teeth right now. In terms of being up and running fastest with the greatest amount of future proofing, I would recommend the Quad Cortex today. This does not mean that I regret either the Helix or the Kemper. Both are still very viable and while I use the Helix rarely now, the Kemper Stage still gets a regular workout.

Until Next Time

Thanks very kindly for reading. If you have questions on this or any other related topic, please fill out the form here to send in your query. Until next time, peace.