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MGR/Gabriel Roth « Line 6 DL4 Digital Delay Modeller »
Published on 11/19/01 at 15:00I bought this at Guitar Center San Francisco. It was on sale for $250.
I bought it to add some delay and loop effects to my onstage setup.
The DL4 has two basic functions. FIrst, it's a delay pedal that emulates the sounds of
classic delay effects -- everything from vintage tape and tube delays to early
low-resolution digital delays to high-quality modern stereo, ping-pong, and reverse
delays. Second, it's a loop sampler that can record up to 28 seconds of your playing
and loop it back at you forwards, backwards, or at double-speed while you play
over it or add more loops. Both of these functions are in very high-quality 24-bit
digital sound. With some judicious tweaking, it's easy to get great delay effects, and
the loop feature produces incredibly cool sounds, especially when you overdub
backwards parts on top of one another. People will be scratching their heads and
saying, 'where's that sound coming from?'
Three of the footswitches can be preset to your preferred settings, which is great. But
there isn't a footswitch that makes the DL4 behave like a regular pedal: if you set the
knobs a particular way, then turn the effect off, if you step on a switch it'll go to a preset
instead of where the knobs are. A 'manual mode' switch would be much less confusing.
Once you've figured this out, it's not too hard to save each new setting onto one of the
switches, but you have to erase a previous setting. A minor complaint, though.
It's very well made: a big strong steel chassis, weird-looking but tough. The digital
sound is crisp and clear.
Modelling technology can get out of control: I still don't believe a digital model of a
vintage amp is as good as the amp itself. But delay effects lend themselves very well
to modelling, and the loop sampler is worth the price of the unit on its own. A great
purchase for any guitarist who wants to experiment with delays and loops.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
I bought it to add some delay and loop effects to my onstage setup.
The DL4 has two basic functions. FIrst, it's a delay pedal that emulates the sounds of
classic delay effects -- everything from vintage tape and tube delays to early
low-resolution digital delays to high-quality modern stereo, ping-pong, and reverse
delays. Second, it's a loop sampler that can record up to 28 seconds of your playing
and loop it back at you forwards, backwards, or at double-speed while you play
over it or add more loops. Both of these functions are in very high-quality 24-bit
digital sound. With some judicious tweaking, it's easy to get great delay effects, and
the loop feature produces incredibly cool sounds, especially when you overdub
backwards parts on top of one another. People will be scratching their heads and
saying, 'where's that sound coming from?'
Three of the footswitches can be preset to your preferred settings, which is great. But
there isn't a footswitch that makes the DL4 behave like a regular pedal: if you set the
knobs a particular way, then turn the effect off, if you step on a switch it'll go to a preset
instead of where the knobs are. A 'manual mode' switch would be much less confusing.
Once you've figured this out, it's not too hard to save each new setting onto one of the
switches, but you have to erase a previous setting. A minor complaint, though.
It's very well made: a big strong steel chassis, weird-looking but tough. The digital
sound is crisp and clear.
Modelling technology can get out of control: I still don't believe a digital model of a
vintage amp is as good as the amp itself. But delay effects lend themselves very well
to modelling, and the loop sampler is worth the price of the unit on its own. A great
purchase for any guitarist who wants to experiment with delays and loops.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com