Your first capture
The two level controls that do completely different jobs, and the numbers that make your captures sit alongside Neural's own models.
INST LEVEL sets how hard the device being captured is driven and does not affect the capture. IN LEVEL is the return signal, and that is the level the capture is actually made from.
The distinction that governs everything
This is buried where nobody finds it, and it is the reason most first captures come out wrong.
INST LEVEL controls what leaves CAPTURE OUT and hits the amp or pedal. It sets how hard that device gets driven — so it changes the tone you are capturing — but it is not the capture's level. IN LEVEL is the signal coming back from the device, and that is what the capture is made from.
The diagnostic follows directly: if the capture sounds right but sits at the wrong volume, IN LEVEL was wrong. If it sits at the right volume but the drive response feels wrong, INST LEVEL was wrong while you were dialling in.
INST LEVEL — on the way OUT
Sets how hard the amp or pedal you're capturing gets driven. Leave it at 0 dB so the amp sees real guitar level and breaks up the way it would in the room. It does NOT affect the capture — it affects what the amp does.
The device being captured
Amp, cab and mic for an amp capture; the pedal alone for a pedal capture. Get the tone right here first, monitoring through the Quad Cortex, because a capture is a snapshot and cannot be improved afterwards.
IN LEVEL — on the way BACK
The return signal from the device. This is the level the capture is actually made from, and the one that decides how loud your capture ends up. Wrong volume means this control; wrong feel means the one above.
Set IN LEVEL by what the amp is doing
About −12 dB for clean amps, about −6 dB for distorted ones. Follow it and your captures sit at levels comparable to Neural's own models and to each other. Skip it and every capture needs its own trim before it's usable.
Capturing a pedal
Set the pedal's gain, tone and volume the way you actually want them in a realistic signal chain first — not in isolation — and only then move it into the capture loop. Placement changes behaviour, and a pedal dialled in on its own rarely sounds the same in context.
Then set both IN INSTR LEVEL and IN LEVEL to 0 dB. With both at zero the capture block's gain and volume match the original pedal, which is the entire point of capturing it.
Do not use Auto-set for pedal captures. It produces inconsistent gain and volume between captures of the same pedal, which makes them impossible to compare.
Quad Cortex Wiki: Capture TechniquesCapturing an amp
Amp, cab and mic all go into the capture loop. Monitor the whole thing through the Quad Cortex while you set mic position, and get the tone right before you capture anything — the capture is a snapshot, and it cannot be improved afterwards.
Set IN INST LEVEL to 0 dB so the amp sees real guitar level and distorts the way it would in the room. Then set the capture level by how the amp is behaving:
- Clean amps — about −12 dB.
- Distorted or clipping amps — about −6 dB.
This convention is worth following even though nothing enforces it. Captures made this way sit at levels comparable to the Quad Cortex's own amp models and to each other. Skip it and every capture needs its own level trim before it is usable.
Quad Cortex Wiki: Capture TechniquesFour documented mistakes
All of these are avoidable and all of them are common.
- Using Auto-set on a pedal.
- Leaving both levels at 0 dB for an amp capture — that leaves no headroom at all.
- Adjusting instrument level while dialling in the amp, which captures a different drive response from the one you were listening to.
- Ignoring mic sensitivity and room volume. A hot mic on a loud cab needs a different input level, and there is no single correct number that survives changing either.
Write the signal chain into the capture's description while you still remember it. Placement significantly affects how a capture behaves, and future-you will not recall whether that was a 57 on the cone or off-axis.
Quad Cortex Wiki: Capture Techniques