« When it works it's great »

This is a 24 bit digital delay made to emulate some of the classic delay sounds from pristine to grungy lofi. It has 16 models including Tube Echo, Tape Echo, Analog Echo, and Lo Res Delay for the warmer ambient sounds and digital, sweep echo, rythmic echo, ping pong, and more for the pristine and wild sounds. It also has a looper which for me is the best part about this pedal.

Stereo 1/4" inputs and outputs along with an input for an expression pedal and power input. 6 parameter knobs, 4 stomp switches for three presets plus tap tempo, and can store three presets for instant recall.

UTILIZATION

The dl4 sets up like most other effect pedals out there and is also easy to get a good sound out of. The controls are pretty self explanatory with the exception of the "tweak" and "tweez" knobs. These knobs do different things depending on which delay model you are using. The manual explains their functions well and with time you will probably have them memorized. This is however one of the few delay pedals I have where I occasionally refer back to the manual when things get a little foggy

SOUND QUALITY

I mainly used this peal in a guitar set-up and 90% of the time it was in looper mode. The majority of the available sounds are great but the looper is where this pedal really shines. I have owned a headrush and still own a timefactor and DD20 but the looper on the dl4 blows them out with ease. The start and play switches are very quick and make it very easy to get a seemless loop that locks in with a good drummer. There is a switch that can slow the loop in half, reverse it, or you can even record in 1/2 time then hit the switch to double the speed of the loop. Another great feature is the one shot which you will find on tons of songs by "Minus the bear". It is meant to let you have the loop only play once through without having to press stop but it also lets you rapidly restart the loop at the beginning which can make some great glitching sounds.

I also really like the analog emulation for it's smooth ambience, the lofi for gritty sounds, and the sweep is a great special effect. The digital delay models are pretty much what you would expect just clean repeats nothing special. The bypass is great in true bypass but it does color your signal a bit in relay mode. Unfortunately I much prefer having delays that trail after bypass and this is only possible in relay mode.

OVERALL OPINION

Now the bad part. This pedal is notoriously unreliable. It's seemingly constant failure is actually how I acquired it. I repair pedals as A side job and I fixed this one in particular so many times that the owner gave up on it and let me keep it. They are very picky about power and sometimes just shut down and will not power up unless you know how to reset the eprom chip. It is not a difficult fix but it dumps all your stored presets and it's not exactly something you want to be doing in the middle of a set. The switches can also fail at times leaving you stuck with either no delay or no control over the looper. It's really a shame because the pedal has some great sounds and it seems like these problems could easily be remedied by Line 6. The issues with the pedal are what keep it at home and on looper mode so I don't waste time writing presets that I will eventually lose. If the quality of this pedal was stepped up I would actually buy one to use live.