Boss DD-20

A bit complicated, especially the memory functions and mode-specific parameters, but easy enough once you've got the hang of it. The displays are clear and well-considered.

This unit sounds excellent. The "analog" setting is great, and the quality of the loop in the "sound on sound" section is head and shoulders above that of the Akai Headrush, which I sold in order to buy the DD-20. The standard digital delay is crisp and clear, and the "Smooth" delay--a digital delay with reverb--sounds good, too. I like "Warp" too, which lets you introduce volume swells into your delay sound. But the "Twist" is only on there to have something neat to add, it is only marginally useful, and though it's pretty cool-sounding (kind of a reverse-whammy) you will not want to put it on more than one song. Also, though I like the tape sound on the Space Echo simulator, the tape flutter effect is too strong, and sounds a bit gimmicky at high feedback levels.

In a day and a half, it hasn't broken, ha ha!

It took me about five minutes to get a human on the phone. What I wanted to know was this: why is the 23-second loop (sound on sound) ERASED when you turn it off? This renders it much less useful when accompanying yourself over a chord progression in a song--you switch it off for a chorus, and then you have to re-enter the verse. The tech told me "it doesn't have a looping memory--it's not a looper, it's a delay." But of course this is BS--if it has 23 seconds of memory for delay and knows when the loop stops and starts, there is no conceivable reason why you shouldn't be able to turn it on and off at will. Except the obvious one: BOSS DOES NOT WANT THIS PEDAL TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE LOOP STATION. They f***ed up their own piece of technology so that it wouldn't overlap the market for another one of their pedals. This is the only thing I hate about this pedal, and makes me want to scream.

Except for the self-erasing loop, it's great, and worth the money.

Dialing a sound is easy, once you've read the manual, which is quite clear. You choose a delay-type and then it's just like your old digital delay pedals, level, feedback and delaytime. when you've ever worked with any multi-effect, you'd be able to figure out the dialing and saving of sounds. Some effects have extra features, which you can change when pressing the on/off switch for a longer time. By doing this you can change the 'tape-delay' from 1 to 2 heads, or the amount/speed for the 'modulated delay'. The second switch can be used for switching pre-sets or tap delay, when pressed for a longer time.
Off course there's much more to figure out like different display settings and different tempo functions...

I run my guitar (usually a les paul or a telecaster) through a Koch Pedaltone, into the DD20 and then into a Fender dual Showman 100w all tube amp, on a Marshall 4x12" cab. I used to own some digital delays from Boss and Ibanez, which are replaced by the DD20. Depends on what sound you choose, but I think the analog, tape and offcourse the standard digital delays sound very good. The analog has a very beautiful decay and the tape delays even simulates the detune you get with running tape. the digital delay is high quality, what you're used to get from Boss'former pedals. What's better than all the previous pedals, is that you have up to 23 seconds delay-time. Another major improvement is the tone knob, makes your digital delay sound less sterile, if that's your thing...
Then there's the more experimental sounds, like warp, twist, smooth and reverse. Reverse is fun, but doesn't sound very natural to me. No Hendrix here. The warp does nothing more than giving you maximal feedback and level, when pressing the on/off switch for a longer time.
The twist is supposed to be a simulation of weird tape manipulations. It sounds more like a car in a bad computergame to me, but perhaps useful in noisy soundscapes.
The modulated delay goes from light chorus to almost leslie sound on your repeats. The smooth delay adds a hint of reverb to the repeats, which is too subtle for my taste.(that's why they call it smooth, probably)
Finally there's the sound on sound mode, which let's you loop up to 23 seconds and then overdub, until infinity. Sounds very good to me, although it can be a bit hard to get the right timing, with holding and releasing the pedal on time.
What I really miss is the ability to make real noise by twisting the delaytime and feedback knobs, what made older models go into real noise. When you turn the delaytime knob, the time changes in steps and the pitch will correct itself. You can still make noise with it, but it's not like with the older pedals. Overall a very usefull pedal, with a lot of functions, of which some I will never find use for, but still enough to convince me into buying. The more conventional sounds are very useful.

Weighs a ton and looks like any other boss pedal, so will probably survive lots of gigs.

Haven't encountered any problems yet, but hope I won't, because the Boss company doesn't seem to be very helpful, if I may believe other reviewers.

Like i already mentioned, this is a very good delay pedal, although for my taste it has a few features that aren't really useful or good sounding. But I'll guess I just won't use them. The sounds that are good are too much fun anyway. You might consider keeping one of your older delay pedals to make noise with.

It's not as easy to use as the DD-3 or 5 or 6 but still it's not all that difficult to use the DD-20 either. Editing patches is just like a multi effects unit: you need to use your brain and hands and you need to play around with the unit and plan for how you will be utilizing it. The manual is a necessity as it explains the specialty functions of the DD-20 and the programming options. The manual makes sense.

The DD-20 sounds excellent! It has 11 modes (similar to the DD-5 and 6) but there are so many varieties that have previously been unavailable on a Boss unit before.

Sound on sound is a looper. It's not as user friendly as the Loop Station, but it's functional and does the job. Requires a little practice but you can do it. Has 23 seconds compared to the 5+ minutes of a Loop Station, 14 seconds of a Line 6 delay pedal, 23 seconds of a Headrush, 2-4 minutes of a Boomerang. Sounds as good or better than all of them.

Twist and Warp are special effects that are always on when in those modes. They become active when you depress the pedal and when you're not stomping on the pedal, they are basically digital delays. Both are very different from each other and can be useful IF you're willing to experiment. The Warp is featured on the DD-6.

Tape mode is a model of the old Roland RE-1 Tape Echo. It can mimic one or two heads (whereas the Line 6 can do 4 heads). Sound here is very good.

Analog is a recreation of the Boss DM-2 (Line 6 also has a good version of this). This delay sound fine; warm and dark. It's one of my favorites on the DD-20.

Standard mode is a digital delay. You all know how nice Boss does digital delays. Same great quality here.

Dual combines a short and long delay in a series. Takes some messing around with to get used to it but has great rhythmic possibilities.

Pan does just what it says.

Smooth mode is a basic delay but the repeats sound like there's a hint of reverb added to the tails. Very nice and lush.

Modulate mode adds modulations to the repeats of the echoes. It sounds very nice but not as juicy as a E-H Memory Man. The Line 6 version sounds a bit better to my ears. Still, it is effective (pun intended).

Reverse is just that taht tsuj si esreveR. Very trippy. Another one of my favorites. You just have to watch out that you don't start drooling when you get lost on this one.

Add to all of these options the fact that you have up to 23 SECONDS of delay mania to wallow in. There are no bad sounds here in my opinion and I am a delay/echo freak. If I had to give up all my other effects and keep just one, it would be delays. The DD-20 is quiet and provides so many options. Oh yeah, when you move through the 4 memory channels + the manual (that's 5 presets available to you) the echos trail off blissfully into the next without abruptly cutting off. Far out!

One of the reasons I am into Boss gear is reliability. Plus their stuff sounds good! I have a dozen Boss pedals, 2 Loop Stations, a V-Wah, a VF-1, and a BR-8. NEVER have had a problem ... yet. Don't worry that I will.

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The DD-20 rocks, and sways, and undulates, and swirls, and ...... I'm very into folkadelic type jam-based stuff for the past 25 years and having a pedal that takes the place of a few delays makes this a must have for all delay freaks. Over the years I've has delays from Electro-Harmonix, Akai, Korg/Toneworks, Line 6, Digitech, Rocktron, and TC Electronic, not to mention my Lexicon stuff that I still have. While the DD-20 may not offer the warmth of say a Deluxe Memory Man, or as many models as the Line 6 Modeler pedal, or the sound clarity of TC Electronics, it does offer great sound in its own right and a reputation for quality and is easy to use. In fact, I think it's much easier to use and tweak than the Line 6 pedal (which is really it's only competition). I use it in conjuction with a string of Boss pedals and it runs into a Loop Station. I trade gear all the time and the DD-20 is one of the first pedals in a long time that has really blown me away. I'd get another if something happened to this. Check it out, it's a fun pedal! Peace

This thing can do way more than advertised. I figure, "hey I've had the dd-5, what can be different" but once reading the manual man oh man did they integrate a lot on this pedal. Reading the manual is a must with this beast! You can't get by, by just tinkering(well you can but you miss out on a lot of the added features). This pedal wasn't purchased for its simplicity so I won't knock it for being advanced. . .just realize if you're going to shell out the bucks for this thing you should at least take the 10 minutes required to understand all the features.
Oh, and in addition to the last review; the reverse setting can be made to only have the wet signal on. You can mix the two(dry and wet).
There is a connection for an external footswitch(momentary or latch depending on how you wish to use it). This is so you can choose one of 3 options with the external foot controller: 1-on and off switch(latch style) 2-tap input(momentary) 3-memory switch(momentary). I was going to rack mount this pedal but I couldn't figure out how to switch memory settings untill I actually received the pedal and noticed this addition. BOY WAS I HAPPY! Now I can rackmoung the pedal and send a line to a momentary switch and just switch memory settings with that leaving the dd-20 in a solid housing.
Other features. . .Here's what I thought was REALLY NICE! The twist mode as well as like 3 others this pedal has to offer, is not only controlled with a tap tempo but what you can do is hold down the on and off pedal and a light comes on. . .what you can now do is press on the on and off pedal with any amount of pressure and the effect will react in that manner. If you've messed with the ps-5 you'd understand. Mild effect, light pressure. . .very pronounced pedal to the floor. So when you play with this pedal and switch to modulation and you wonder "why isn't this something different" well you have to mess with it first. Would I have known to hold the on and off to gain access to controlling the effects realtime without reading the manual? No way! BUT! that's why you take the time. Without coming across that bit I'd have dismissed the other options as being stupid or unsuitable for real applications.
Ok, just a few more features undocumented on websites:In addition to setting up repeat time there is now a display that shows what beats it repeats at. Before with the dd-5 I'd tune the delay time so that it repeated on beat; now I set the time signature(so to speak) and then mess with how long I want the delay, very nice and simple. The SOS(Sound Over sound feature) not only gives 23 seconds of recording but went without mention is the fact that you can apply your delay settings to the recorded part OR you can overdub several times over(crazy huh!) Let me see, what else can this do. . .Oh yeah, you can switch the output modes. The options are 1:stereo output(-20db) 2: A-DirectSound B:Effect Sound(-20db) 3:stereo output (+4db) 4:A-direct sound B-effect sound (+4db). One misc feature that has nothing to do with anything. . .you can change how the memory leds work(lol). There are 4 memory settings plus the manual. You can either have it to where the led above the number shines so signify which setting you're using ORRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! You can have the number of leds on symbol which setting you're using. Say you're using setting 2, 2 leds are on. Memory setting 4, 4 leds are on. I figure this is for dark stages when readying things tend to be difficult. Instead of wondering if the red led is above the 1 or the 4, you can just set it the other way and count how many leds are on to know which setting you're on.
To recap, 3/4 of the effects on the dd-20 have parameters you can change. So like I said before, instead of switching to "twist" and then scratching your head wondering as to why it hardly sounds different than any other setting, understand that the oscilating sound directly correlates with how you w

My Setup:
MesaBoogie Mark IV
Mesa Boogie 50/50
MesaBoogie Midi Matrix
Mesaboogie Abacus and 12 space rack
1 4x12 oak cabinet,1 mesa boogie 4x12 recto cabs, 2 2x12 mesa boogie recto cabs(totalling 12 12in vintage 30 speakers)
Furman Power conditioners, Korg Dtr Tuner, Sonic Maximizer 482
Boss pedals(EQ-20,PH-3,BF-3,Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus)

All in all the sound quality is superior than the dd-5 and I'd expect the dd-6. THere's an included "tone control" that will cut or boost the highend frequencies depending on your taste. I've only tried the pedal with reverb and clean(barely received the pedal yesterday) but it functions as my dd-5 did and I was very pleased. If you're familiar with boss' previous delay pedals know that this one is better. No hum no hiss no unwanted distortion, I'm pleased but it's what I expected from boss.

Can I depend on it? Yes
Would I gig without a backup? Yes because I don't have 400+ to buy two:-p

Boss Customer support sucks for the most part,bar none. If you want something replaced chances are you're not gonna get it for free (in a sense) what with all the homework you're gonna have to do to learn what their tech number is and how to get prompt service

This pedal is the shiznit! What can't it do? I purchased it for the fact that it seemed like 5 dd-5 pedals in one but man oh man are there soooooo many added features I never even knew they were adding into the pedal. The tone knob will be a Godsend to some people that complained about the digital tone. The added features will hand out erections to all the tech geeks(did you know you can physcially push in the delay setting pot and that further adjusts the delay setting?!) Compared to the Line 6 DL-4(is it?) pedal which is going at the same price, this thing rocks it hands down. This pedal isn't cheap but you get what you pay for. 5 years warranty and hands down one of thee most usefull pedals out there to date. Let the goodtimes roll!

Basic operation of this pedal is relatively simple, but as soon as you want to switch between delays or edit your sounds more in depth, you HAVE to reed the manual - there are a lot of things you can't find out without it. That would also be my biggest complaint - contrary to most other BOSS pedals I know this one is very un-intuitive to use.

So far it sounds great, like you would expect, no noise, good sounding delays... I don't necessarily like all the different delays it offers but that's a matter of taste. It lacks really special/weird delays though, like the Line6 DL4 offers.
Personally, I think the "warp" and "twist" functions are nonsense and could be replaced with something more useful, like a reverse delay that does NOT repeat the forward sound, but only the reverse... but that's the same in the DD5.

I just got it a few days ago but it looks like you really have to try hard to damage it. Like all the other BOSS pedals I guess.

wouldn't know.

I guess I'm one of the first people to ever buy this so I'm curious about other opinions... this pedal has a lot of functions so I won't go into too much detail. Just my personal viewpoint:
What I like about it:
finally I can program my BOSS delay! I''m using several DD5s to switch between different types of delay, now 1 pedal can do the job.
If you switch from one sound to the next, the first one rings out, for a long time if repeat was set long.
what I don't like: this is really an instrument that you have to practice with, a lot of it's functions like switching between sounds, editing certain parameters etc are working in ways that take time to get used to.
with the looping function, it is VERY inconvenient that you have to hold down the pedal while you overdub, and that you can't really switch the loop on and off - once it's switched off, it's deleted!
On the other hand, if you take the time to learn using this pedal you'll find out it behaves very differently from the other sophisticated delays like the Line6, the Akai headrush etc so it gives you lots of new possibilities.
If you are using delays a lot a lot (like me) this may be for you, if you just use it a bit for extra colour and space in your sound you may be better off with something else.