Opened a song I recorded before I got the QC and was able to send the DI to the quad and record it back into Logic all over USB without leaving the digital domain. No more hooking up my Radial Reamp box and fussing over levels.
They really thought of everything!
Read lots of positive reviews on the Powerstage so I got the 700 with the QC and kinda forced myself to use it. No dynamics, very flat sounding, and had to add a bunch of EQ and hi-low pass filters to get it close to what I’m used to. Cleans are fine but any high gain down tuned metal sounded pretty bad to me.
First I tried rewiring my 480w Krank 412 from 16 to 4 ohms, and that helped a bit with getting the speakers moving, but it was basically the same but louder.
Tried the FX return of my 6505+ and instantly got a ground loop I couldn’t solve with any QC outputs or settings. There’s also no master volume on that amp so it’s kind of scary. Hit the wrong button or switch to the wrong preset and you’ll blow your head off.
Made a humbuster cable, slight improvement but still unusable ground hum. Tried an isolation hum eliminator box from Pyle, mild improvement but big tone suck.
Then I used my brain and did TRS balanced out of the QC into my Radial reamp box, TS out to the FX return, and enabled the ground lift on the reamper. Boom! Sounds exactly like a big tube amp now, cab is thumping, and the level knob on the reamper acts as my master volume so no scary surprises.
Not trying to put down the Powerstage, tons of people use it and love it, but it made my cab sound so bad I’d rather just play out of my Mackie Thump PA. Just thought I’d share my troubleshooting steps since I’ve seen people post the same issues.
Also, it’s not that I don’t like the “recorded amp” sound of the QC, since I usually play it through my studio monitors with IRs and love it. Sounds as good as playing and recording my real tube amp. My cab does not like the Powerstage at all. My buddies v30 412 sounded a bit more normal, but still flat and no dynamics.