Line 6 Review: DL4 Digital Delay Modeller

History:

Purchase: I 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.

What I Like About This Line 6 DL4 Digital Delay Modeller: 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?'

What I Do NOT Like About The Line 6 DL4 Digital Delay Modeller: 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.

Line 6 DL4 Digital Delay Modeller Quality Rating: It's very well made: a big strong steel chassis, weird-looking but tough. The digital sound is crisp and clear.

Review Summary: 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.

Rating of this Line 6 product: 5

This Line 6 DL4 Digital Delay Modeller Guitar Effects Review Submitted By: Gabriel Roth

Review Date: 2001-11-20