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How to create sounds for a professional tour with Quad Cortex
Creating sounds for a professional tour is very different from simply creating a good guitar preset.
Aldo Pellegrini, sound designer for Tour presets.
A preset intended for a large stage must work in conjunction with bass, drums, keyboards, vocals, and other guitars, through in-ear systems and professional PAs. It must also be reliable, easily manageable by the musician, and consistent across different live situations.
In this article, I recount the work done for Stefano Cerisoli, a professional guitarist, in creating the sounds used in Marco Masini's tour with Neural DSP Quad Cortex.
From a complex rig to an optimized system
My collaboration with Stefano began after he purchased some presets from my store and started using Quad Cortex.
The initial goal was to simplify the rig while maintaining the sound characteristics he was accustomed to.
Before starting the programming, I gathered all the necessary information:
- recordings of his in-ear monitor mix;
- previously used effects and amplifiers;
- guitars and pickups used in different songs;
- indications on the desired sound;
- specific artist requirements;
- guitar tracks from the previous tour.
This last point was particularly important. Having the original guitar tracks allowed us to work directly on the actual show material and understand how the different sounds fit into the mix.
A preset for every musical need
One of the most interesting aspects of the project was observing how different the needs of the various songs were.
Some used only one scene, others three or four, while some medleys reached eight scenes.
Clean, crunch, distorted, solo sounds, delays, tremolos, and stereo ambient effects had to be organized to allow Stefano to quickly follow every moment of the show.
The goal was not to create "a great guitar sound," but rather a system of sounds consistent with the entire setlist.
Bringing the character of an analog rig into Quad Cortex
Stefano had a precise sound identity and used references such as a VoxAC30 amplifier and Klon and Vemuram pedals.
In the new rig, we tried to maintain these characteristics using the models available in Quad Cortex.
For example, some amplifiers were chosen for clean tones, others for crunch and distorted tones, while various effects were used to recreate functions already present in the previous rig.
The advantage was being able to concentrate everything in a single unit, while simultaneously maintaining the ability to have specific presets and scenes for each song.
Equalization: the sound must work in the mix
One of the most important aspects of the work was equalization.
When listening to a guitar alone, it's natural to seek a very full sound, rich in bass and high frequencies.
In the mix of a professional tour, however, this approach can create problems.
The guitar must share the spectrum with bass, kick drum, drums, keyboards, vocals, and other guitars.
For this reason, we focused mainly on the 150 Hz range to give body to the sound, while simultaneously controlling the area around 300 Hz, which can easily make the guitar sound too boomy.
The very low frequencies were also filtered, roughly around 100–116 Hz, to leave space for the bass and kick drum.
A mid-focused guitar can sound bigger in the mix
This is a fundamental concept.
A guitar that sounds slightly more "mid-focused" on its own can sound much more present and defined when the whole band comes in.
Mid frequencies allow the instrument to remain intelligible even when the overall guitar volume is not particularly high.
Stereo, delay and ambiance
Stefano wanted a very open and stereo listening experience.
For this reason, parallel lines, delays, and reverbs with a stereo distribution carefully designed according to the different songs were used.
In some presets, the effects were shifted more towards the right or left, creating a very wide ambiance in the in-ear monitoring.
Another element used was a small Room reverb, designed to simulate the feeling of having the amplifier inside a room.
It’s not necessarily about hearing an obvious reverb: the goal is to give the guitarist a more natural and three-dimensional feel under their fingers.
The guitarist is part of the preset
A preset cannot be considered independent of the musician.
The same setting can react completely differently with another guitar, another pickup, or simply another playing style. For this reason, the project continued with a day of work with Stefano in Arezzo.
We used his guitars, his Quad Cortex, and the show's backing tracks, directly testing:
- levels;
- EQ;
- delays;
- reverbs;
- dynamics;
- effect placement;
- response of different scenes.
This step allowed us to transform the "remote" work into a rig truly built around the musician.
The real test: the stage
After programming, the most important moment arrived: tour rehearsals.
The system was tested within a professional production, with all musicians using in-ear monitors and a dedicated audio team managing the stage and PA.
The Quad Cortex output level was also checked with the sound engineers through peak tests.
Once the correct level was established, the output was kept fixed.
In a professional tour, predictability is crucial: the sound engineer needs to know exactly what level they will receive from the modeler, and the musician needs to be able to rely on the system remaining consistent.
The sound in headphones is not the sound of the PA
This is probably the most important lesson from the entire experience.
A perfect sound in headphones is not necessarily a perfect sound live.
A large PA can reproduce low frequencies with much greater energy than an in-ear system.
For this reason, it is often a mistake to build a preset with too much bass simply because it sounds fuller in headphones.
The guitar must have body, but it must also leave space for instruments that naturally occupy the lower end of the spectrum.
The same applies to high frequencies: overdoing the treble can produce a pleasant sound in headphones but an excessively bright sound through a PA.
The solution is often a more balanced sound, with present mids, controlled lows, and not excessive highs.
When the preset needs to change
During one of the first dates of the tour, it was possible to hear the system live directly. In that particular situation, the guitars were slightly too bright, and lacked some body.
We then made some small adjustments:
- controlled increase around 150 Hz;
- reduction around 800 Hz;
- slight reduction around 7 kHz.
This does not mean that the original preset was wrong.
It means that the preset must be considered within the system in which it is used.
A setting that works perfectly in one venue may require minor adjustments in another.
How much to boost a solo?
In this project, the scenes dedicated to solos had an increase of approximately 6–7 dB compared to the rhythmic sounds. This is because the band has 2 electric guitars, an acoustic guitar, and keyboards, so the general frequencies are saturated, and more volume was needed.
But even this should not be considered an absolute standard.
The sound engineer can intervene from the console based on what is actually happening on stage.
The drums might play louder, the bass might change dynamics, the arrangement might become denser.
For this reason, the work of the guitarist and the sound engineer must be complementary.
Quad Cortex as a tool for live performance
Programming wasn't just about sound.
Quad Cortex was organized to allow Stefano to quickly identify scenes through names and colors and to switch from one preset to the next with the minimum number of operations.
In a tour, this aspect is fundamental.
During a show, the musician shouldn't have to worry about which effect to activate or which parameter to change.
They simply need to know where the sound they need is located and recall it at the right moment.
The most important lessons
This experience confirmed some principles that can be applied to any modeler, not just Quad Cortex:
1. The preset must work in the mix, not just on its own.
2. Don't overdo the low frequencies.
3. Mids are crucial for making the guitar stand out.
4. The in-ear sound is not necessarily the PA sound.
5. The musician's guitar and playing profoundly influence the result.
6. There is no perfect preset for every stage.
7. The sound engineer is an integral part of the system.
Conclusion
Creating sounds for a professional tour means much more than choosing an amplifier and adding some effects.
It means knowing the musician, listening to their needs, analyzing the repertoire, understanding the role of the guitar in the mix, building coherent presets and scenes, and above all, testing everything in the field.
The experience with Stefano Cerisoli and Marco Masini's tour was an important confirmation: the best preset is not the one that sounds biggest on its own.
It's the one that works best with everything else.
And this principle applies to Quad Cortex, Helix, Headrush, and any other modeler used in a professional live setting.
