MIDI

What a controller can actually reach, and the one setting that fixes the dropout everyone blames on the unit.

The basics

Ports: A proper 5-pin MIDI IN, and a second 5-pin socket that switches between THRU and OUT. Unlike most floor units, this one can send as well as receive.
Gridleak: read off the unit · Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0
Where the settings are: Main Menu on the Grid, then Settings. That is also where MIDI over USB is switched on.
Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0
Changing presets: Program Change picks the preset. CC#0 and CC#32 pick the bank and setlist around it.
Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0
It can drive your other gear too: Each preset can send its own MIDI messages out when you load it, so switching a Quad Cortex preset can also switch your amp channel or a rack unit.
Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0

The dropout nobody explains

If your sound cuts when you tap the switch you're already on

Watch out

Some controllers re-send the same Program Change every time you tap. If you are already on that preset, the Quad Cortex reloads it — and reloading a preset causes the same brief dropout as changing to a different one. It sounds like a fault and it is not.

Turn on Ignore duplicate PC in the MIDI settings. The unit then ignores a Program Change for the preset it is already on, and the dropout stops.

Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0

What a controller can reach

Every footswitch, and scenes on their own control

Grouped by what you'd want to do rather than by number. If you only take one thing from this page: CC#43 selects scenes, and scenes are the gap-free way to change sounds inside a song.

CC#35–42

Footswitches A to H

One CC each, in order. Works in every mode, so a controller can press any footswitch for you.

Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0

CC#43

Scene select, A to H

Values 0–7. This is the one you want for song sections — it changes scene without reloading the rig.

Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0

CC#1 and 2

Expression pedals 1 and 2

Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0

CC#44