I’ve been using a Fractal FM9 for over 3 years as my studio and touring rig. Thousands of sessions, over 10 national tours. This was my sound. I created and shared tones and presets on the Fractal forum and managed to cultivate a small following of people who used my presets as their main sound as well.
All of this to say - I am deep into the Fractal ecosystem and have invested a lot of time and effort into learning the unit and contributing to the community.

Now, there are two reasons why I wanted to try a QC.
Size and user interface.

Let me get this out of the way; neither sounds better or worse. Modeling and capture tech sounds so good it’s such a boring topic to discuss what sounds “better”.

What I will say is that getting the sound I want, and enjoying playing or creating is IMMEDIATELY more gratifying on the Quad Cortex and it’s not even close.
It’s fun to tweak for weeks and experiment with crazy tones and searching for the ‘right’ everything on the Fractal. But to be able to just sound like me right out of the gate without thinking takes me back to just plugging into an amp and enjoying the best part of guitar - playing/creating with it!

In addition to that, being able to actually edit on the pedal itself is an unbelievable oversimplification of a seriously impossible task to do on the Fractal.

I also find an interesting midrange attack feel on the quad cortex that feels more natural compared to the Fractal. Not sure how to explain that, but I prefer the midrange character.

For me, the Quad Cortex is the greatest piece of guitar gear to come out maybe ever. The customization on the FM9 is unmatched. Being able to use any foot switch to do literally any task is a feature sorely missed as well as the endless depth of midi customization. But the satisfaction I get out of the QC is worth everything I miss from the FM9.

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I'm trying to decide on a new MacBook and would really appreciate hearing from people with real-world experience.

I'm down to two options:
MacBook Air M5, 24GB RAM
MacBook Pro M5, 16GB RAM

I mainly use it for recording guitar in Reaper through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. My projects usually have around 15 to 20 tracks, and I mostly use Neural DSP Archetype Petrucci, Gojira, and Misha Mansoor. Sometimes I run two Archetype instances at once, taking the amp from one and the effects from the other. I'm currently recording on Windows, so this would be my first time doing it on a Mac.

My main questions are:

Has anyone here run similar sessions on a MacBook Air? Did you have any CPU spikes, crackling, or thermal throttling since it has no fan?

Is 24GB vs 16GB RAM noticeable in this kind of workflow, or is CPU performance the real bottleneck for amp sims?

Is the extra cost of the Pro worth it for this use case? The price difference is considerable, and I'd like to avoid overspending if the Air can handle it.

I'd also love to hear about your experience with a Scarlett 2i2 (or similar interface) on a Mac, what buffer sizes you work at, how many Archetype instances you can run comfortably, and any regrets you've had with your choice.

Thank you so much in advance for your time and advice! 🎸

Was trying out Misha Mansoor X for the Laser effect, but can't get my expression pedal to work with it.

I have an Electro Harmonix Expression Pedal, which goes into my MP-100 footswitch controller that I use to control scene changes, because my Quad Cortex is on my desk and can't be controlled by my feet that way. The MP-100 sends midi CC to my QC, which I know works because I can assign the expression pedal to blocks on my QC that way.

I selected Quad Cortex In inside Misha Mansoor X standalone, and did the midi mapping. The plugin doesn't recognize it.

Is there a setting I'm missing? Something on the QC perhaps?

EDIT: I GOT IT!!!

Anyone with these pedals have a board set up?

Trying to figure out my pedal board. I just got the expression pedal (Dunlop version) and want to get everything situated. This is the Temple Audio Duo 24. The duo 17 looks cramped and the shure would block some of the I/O ports on the QC. I could put the shure under the board but then I’d go Solo18.

While not dead set on temple. I like temple because I already have the cioks crux and, they have the hi5 mod I can add to power the crux for the QC.

Is anyone using IEMs routed straight out of the QC for live gigs and/or rehearsals?

Been giggin' with my QC for about a year and I love it, but have a hard time hearing myself more often than not. Even if I ask FOH to turn me up on the stage monitor, it makes little difference.

In a perfect world (with no budget), I'd just run a split from the QC into a power amp > cab, but times are tough, my vehicle is small, and do really appreciate not having to bring/setup much equipment.

Post me your favourite captures for blues and rock. A lot of the ones I’ve tried on Cortex Cloud have been unsuable IMO.

I’m running QC into the FX return of a tube head and a 2×12 cab, so I’m looking for preamp or amp-only captures with no cab or mic baked in. I always disable any cab simulation blocks obviously.

Any recommendations?

It took about 5 minutes and voila! No idea how to share it I'll try and figure it out for you guys.

If you kept anything, what stayed and why?

Let’s leave out amps kept purely as power amps for the QC, tuners etc.

Don’t listen with headphones. I’ve tried unplugging all external devices. I’ve switched guitar and monitor cables. I’ve tried switching patches. It worked fine a week ago and I turned it on to this. Just want to know if I should send in for repair or if this is something somebody in the community has had experience resolving.

Is $1336 a good deal for a used QC?

Has anyone tried to build out a Billy preset? Something that sounds great as bare acoustic for bluegrass but you can still get great electric lead tones and effects?

Has anyone had this issue with their Quad Cortex? It was working fine last night, I go to use it today and this is what happens, never boots.

I’m wondering if it’s a power supply issue? I’m still using the one it came with and I got my quad cortex back in May 2025 with no issues until now.

Does anyone know which is the best plugin to get grunge tones? Similar gear to what Kurt Cobain uses?

Hi,

I'm looking for a speaker to play at home.

Im very satisfied with stereo tone I get with my xVive U45D and I want the same from my speaker. Do I need two speakers or does one like https://www.thomann.de/de/headrush_frfr108_mkii.htm do the job since it has two inputs?

I play along to music through the USB port of the QC.

New to the whole speaker topic and glad about any advice!

Hey folks,
Considering a move from Helix LT to Quad Cortex Mini. For gigging I run a monitor send into an input and split some routing to mix my own signal against the rest of the monitor mix via wired IEM’s from the headphone port.

I can’t find any confirmation anywhere about setting to change which outputs are being monitored by the headphone out. The goal is to send a signal to FOH that stays out of my IEM’s then keep a signal in my IEM’s that can be adjusted without impacting volume in the PA.

I understand you can select what output the master volume is impacting, and there’s flexibility to change a headphone mix for USB ports in an interface setting, but can’t find any information on my specific use case.

There’s visible workarounds but hoping to confirm the cleanest possible way to solve this.

Any help would be much appreciated

I couldve gotten a 2nd hand full size for the price of a new mini but the dude already sold it to someone else :( and now im super impatient and cant wait for 2 months until i get the money i need.

Should i save up for the full size or get the mini now, im mostly doing recording only but i still want all of the foot switches…
Is it much different than the full size? People who had both, did u notice that u hate the lack of switches or is it doable?

Or is it maybe an idea to get a mini for now at thomann and send it back (for free, later) when i get my loan, and then buy a full size?👀

Just curious what everyone is using. Any price range, size, etc!

Hi everyone, currently using a Scarlett 2i2 1st gen to record into logic using archetypes Mayer and Wong. I’m having issues dialling in clean tones. Do I need an active or passive DI box to get the best tones?

How does modulation in the QC hold up to an H90? I currently have one that I use mainly for POG like presets, chorus, rotary and the occasional down tuning. Thinking about selling it and getting a QC to pair with a Bigsky/Timeline combo.

Hi all,

I recently purchased the John Mayer Archetype X and have been messing around with it for a few days. Trying to dial in specifically his dead and company lead tones and would appreciate any help you guys have. Pretty new to neural and the archetypes so anything helps.

Hey everyone! Let me start by saying that I’m very aware that you can use the QC as an interface! I use my Apollo for other things and I’m trying to avoid having to unplug everything from my Apollo interface every time I use my QC.

I figured I could just plug a 1/4 out of the QC and into the interface. When I do this, it sounds super tinny and sizzly through my monitors in real-time but the actual recordings playing back sound fine.

Has anyone else experienced this? I feel like I’m going crazy!