Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeller and loop sampler (Line 6 DL4)

Member Name: petachock

Product:	Line 6 DL4
Date:	22/06/09 (189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good array of echos and delays. Can reverse and alter speed of loops

Disadvantages: No undo/revert to original loop function

The line 6 DL4 is a delay moder pedal and loop sampler. I have mainly used the pedal for looping so this review will be more loop based. I will however start with talking about the delay side of the pedal.

The first thing you notice about the pedal is the amount of switches and knobs it has, which at first can be slightly overwhelming, but once you get the hang of it all it give you great control over the delay effects. In essence the DL4 models 16 different delays from space echo and reverse echo to ping-pong echo. The instruction manual goes through all the different types of delay and tells you which original analoge pedals they are based on. It also shows you some typical settings for all the knobs. The first knob selects the effect type, followed by delaytime, repeats, tweek, tweez and mix. I understand all but the tweek and tweez functions, which are actually pretty funky and do do some pretty strange things to your echo. All the knobs can be used in real time too which can give some odd spaced out echos...nice. I guess you don't need to understand what everything is, just mess about and you'll come up with some good sounds.
I would however say that the delay I used most often is a simple digital delay, and i couldn't quite get this pedal to work how i wanted.

The loop sampler on this pedal is pretty impressive and gives you some good effects to play with while your loop is running. To start your loop you press the far right switch and an LED flashes to indicate recording. You now have a choice, either finish the loop and keep on recording or finish just finish the loop (both options will start play back of the loop). You can now build-up your loop by overdubbing (recording additional music over the original loop) which is done in the same way as recording you first loop. Now this gets us too where this pedal gets a bit different.....you can put the whole loop in to reverse, or set it to half speed, AND THEN overdub as normal, so you could have a section of reversed stuff intermingled with non reversed stuff. The same also goes for the half speed option. Also you can start your loop off at half speed and then put it back to normal speed.....you've got double speed!! These are pretty fancy effects to have if you can find a use for them. If you dabble in experimental music this would defenitly be the right pedal for you and I have seen a couple of people use it for this type of music (and two in row).
Unfortunatly this pedal does not have an undo like the boss loop stations, or reset to original sample, like the Akai headrush, which i found very limiting and quite frustrating, and the plus points just didn't outweigh these for me and I sold mine on ebay.

The unit its self is very solid and has a diecast metal chassi, the switches are sturdy and you would have a hard time trying to break it. It can be powered by either batteries or a power suppliy (which is not included). You also have the option of inputting and outputting in stereo which is very useful if you want to attach more than just a guitar.

Overall its good but looses points on the inability to undo overdubs on loops, which may not be an issue to people who want a simple loop to play along with, but if simplicity is what you want you can get cheaper loop pedals. If mental crazy delay, echo and loopings' what you want, this is definalty the pedal for you.

Summary: If you want a crazy delay pedal this is for you