Modes, scenes and setlists
A preset is a rig, a scene is a snapshot of it, and a mode decides which your feet are switching between. Get this right and the gaps disappear.
If your set has audible dropouts between parts of the same song, you are using presets where scenes would do. Scenes switch instantly because nothing reloads.
The three words, in the right order
A preset is a complete rig: the Grid, its blocks, and all eight of its scenes. A scene is one of eight saved states — A to H — inside that preset, sharing its blocks but recalling different settings. A setlist is a collection of up to 256 presets.
Almost every “why did my sound change” question on this device is really a question about which mode the footswitches are in.
Four modes, and what A–H do in each
Change mode with BANK DOWN and TEMPO pressed together. That combo is printed on the chassis — Neural drew a bracket between the two switches reading “+ MODE +” — which makes it the only multi-switch combo the hardware tells you about.
- PRESET — each of A–H loads a different preset. For sets where every song needs a genuinely different rig.
- SCENE — each of A–H recalls Scene A–H inside the loaded preset. For playing one song: clean verse, crunch chorus, lead.
- STOMP — each of A–H toggles an individual block. For working like a pedalboard, which is what you want if you came from one.
- HYBRID — splits the eight switches between two jobs. For real gigs, where you need a couple of rig changes and a couple of stompboxes on the same page.
HYBRID combined with PRESET halves your bank size — two presets per bank instead of four. Worth knowing before you plan a set around it.
Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0How to get hereChange mode with BANK DOWN + TEMPO pressed together — the combo printed on the chassis.
Same eight switches, four different answers
Nothing about the hardware changes between these rows. If standing on B does something you didn't expect, you are in a different mode from the one you think — that is the first thing to check, before anything else.
SCENE is the one that doesn't gap
Scenes recall settings inside a rig that's already loaded, so switching is instant. PRESET reloads the whole rig. Build one song as scenes A–H in a single preset and the dropouts between your verse and chorus disappear.
STOMP is the pedalboard mode
Each switch toggles one block on and off, exactly like stepping on a pedal. If you came from a real board and the Quad Cortex feels alien, start here — it is the most familiar the device gets.
HYBRID splits the row
Some switches change rigs, the rest work as stomps. This is what most people gig. Note the cost: combined with PRESET it halves your bank size, two presets per bank instead of four.
The mistake that causes switching gaps
Preset changes reload the entire signal chain. Scene changes do not — they recall parameter values inside a rig that is already loaded, so there is nothing to load and nothing to wait for.
Building the verse, chorus and solo of one song as three separate presets is the single most common cause of audible dropouts mid-song, and the fix costs nothing: build them as scenes A, B and C inside one preset instead.
Every new preset opens on Scene A, whatever scene you were on when you saved it. Build your default sound as Scene A rather than assuming the unit remembers where you left off.
Quad Cortex User Manual 4.0.0How much you actually get
3,072 user presets, 256 per setlist, ten user setlists plus Factory and My Presets. Eight scenes per preset. 2,048 user captures and 2,048 user IRs.
In practice the storage is not the constraint — finding things is. Ten setlists is enough to keep one per band, one per venue, or one per rehearsal room, and that is a better organising principle than filling a single list with 256 presets you cannot name from memory.