Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler

Remembering what the parameters of the 'tweak' and 'tweez' knobs will take a little time, but with the amazing range of sounds to be conjured, it's worth the little bit of time it takes to learn.

Very quiet, except when by design; great simulations of analog classics, only some of which I've heard enough to comment on directly (that's one of the appeals, I guess; you have better than decent simulations of stuff that's out of reach because of rarity and/or price). The analog delay is very close but noticeably inaccurate. That is not a bad thing; it just makes it different. The 'sweep echo' and 'dynamic delay' are my early favorites. I tried it on vocals, too, and it works beautifully. Again, no noise! I love it.

Definitely well constructed; I'm not very concerned about the knobs.

I have a bevy of effects pedals, with a nice mix of vintage and vintage-style new school effects, and this pedal fits in beautifully. I was wondering when someone would come out with a digital delay that was as good in its type as something like the Way Huge Aqua Puss analog delay is in its, and this is it. (By the way, the guy who made the Way Huge pedals had a big role in this pedal, apparently) I am wowed by the discrete stereo in: extra flexibility. I think that the effort to do good simulations and to mae a good basic digital delay was obviously painstaking and very successful. I would buy it again in a heartbeat. I have a DOD DFX94 and a Boss DD-5 that have been pretty much put out of business (pretty much, but not completely). I particularly love the Multihead (Roland Space Echo) setting. It takes a little getting used to, as any pedal with this much flexibility usually does, but there's nothing that I would complain about. It's what, maybe double your standard high-quality digital delay? With 20x the functionality, and 5x better sound in the core functionality, it's worth it.

Very easy to use, just wish that it was faster to save a preset. It acts nearly like a normal stomp box except that you must hold the button for 3 sec. to save your new preset. It also turns off the previous delay if you turn on one of the other two. They did a great job on making the expression pedal easy to use though. Plug in, set the heal down sound, move to toe down, set toe down sound, hold the button to save.

I can't tell the difference between this thing and analog pedals. It emulates perfectly.

I've already played live with it. No problems, but I do reccomend you buy a power adapter because it eats batteries. It loses reliability points with me only because of the lack of coming with a power supply. Dead batteries really suck.

You can't buy their expression pedal yet when it says in the manual you can buy it online. They need to ship the pedals and power supplies. Otherwise, they were helpful in telling me how to hook their boxes up in stereo on their amps. For those wondering, I bought an Ernie Ball Volume pedal as an expression pedal. Very heavy duty and works great.

This is the best delay on the market. I look foward to buying their MM-4 when it comes out. The expression pedal is a must have though to make it substantially different from other delays. It also takes getting used to programming the presets, but it can be done effectively live.

At first glance it looks stomp-box simple, however there's a little more to it than meets the eye and a good reading of the instruction manual is in order prior to successful first-time operation. The manual itself covers both the Delay and Modulation pedals. It is well written, relatively thorough, and easy to understand. It is also quite interesting to read as it describes in detail the different delay effects which the DL-4 simulates and gives a brief history of each effect. The first thing that may not be obvious is that the three stomp switches need to be "programmed" with a preset before they can be used. The instruction book says that they come with factory presets, but this was not the case with mine. For those sick and tired of programming rack-mount or multi-effects units, don't worry about the DL-4. It's easy. Just select a delay model (there are 15), turn the knobs until you get the sound you're after, and then hold down any one of the three stomp switches for three seconds. That's it. You just programmed a bank. The only thing that can get confusing is trying to remember what functions the "Tweak" and Tweez" knobs control for each different delay effect. The reason these two knobs have generic names is because they are assigned different functions depending on the delay model. For example, on the Tube Echoplex model they control the amount of tape wow and flutter and the tube gain, while with the standard digital delay they adjust bass and treble response. You may need to keep the manual on hand until you are familiar with each mode. While I think the DL-4 is easier to use compared to even the simplest digital multi-effects processors, there is room for improvement. When you rotate the model selctor to a new delay model it comes up to a factory preset sound and the current position of the knobs is irrelevant. It would make more sense if the newly selected model would instantly conform to the current knob settings. Instead you must rotate each knob slightly and the unit will suddenly "recognize" where the knobs are set and then adjust the sound accordingly. Also, if you work hard to get a sound you like you MUST save it to one of the DL-4's three memory banks, otherwise you will have to get on the floor and re-do all of your settings. Remember, the stomp switches don't just turn the effect on and off, they are recalling a delay setting from the memory. I should also mention the tap tempo switch, which is the fourth stompswitch. How did I ever get along without one of these!? Two taps on this switch will adjust the time of the delay repeats on the fly, and there's even a blinking red LED to give you a visual indication of how fast or slow your delay repeats are set. Very handy.

OK, here's the most important category. How accurate are the DL-4's delays? I have experience with three of the vintage delays that this unit emulates: The Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man ("Analog Delay w/ mod"), the Boss DM-2 ("Analog Delay"), and the solid state Echoplex ("Tape Echo"). For the Memory Man model I did extensive A/B comparisons and found that, with the modulation turned off completely, the DL-4 was about a 98% exact copy of the real thing. The real Memory Man was just a *little* thicker sounding, but I only came to this conclusion after A LOT of very careful listening in a quite room. Given that the DL-4's model is dead quite and has up to 2.5 seconds of delay, compared to the Mem. Man's inherent noise (even when bypassed) and limited 550ms delay times, I'd say that this is a more than fair trade off. Again, the only way I could tell a difference was through extensive A/B comparison, otherwise I would probably guess that it was exactly the same pedal. I sold my Boss DM-2 a few months ago, so I couldn't do an exact comparison, but to the best of my recollections (I owned the pedal for almsot two years) the "Analog Delay" model sounds dead on with exactly the same kind of muddy, dirty repeats that my DM-2 had! I also had the fortune of playing through a mid-70's Echoplex (solid-state version) about 1/2 hour before testing out the DL-4's "Tape Echo" simulation. Again, if it isn't *exactly* like the real thing, then it must be so close that you can't tell without a side-by-side test. This delay mode has the same cloudy, ethereal quality that the real Echoplexes have. Through my pre-CBS Fender amp it sounds exactly like the delay that can be heard on Eric Johnson's recordings or in either of his instructional videos. This one is my main delay sound. Also of note is are the true reverse delay and the "Lo Res Delay" which is supposed to simulate the sound of an early 70's digital delay and lets you adjust the resolution from 24 bits all the way down to 4 bits for some neat techno/dance type textures. On a final note, I should say that what the unit sounds like when it's NOT on should be as important as when it is on. The DL-4 has true bypass switching and does not affect the tone when bypassed (thank you!!). However, you can turn the true bypass function off, so that your delays trail off naturally. A very cool feature, and fortunately the signal in the non-true-bypass mode is not seriously degraded.

This thing really eats batteries. The four C's that came with it lasted about 4 hours. Definitely invest in the AC adaptor and you won't have to worry about it. Construction throughout seems very sturdy, maybe even overkill.

You can download manuals off of the Line 6 website. Every manufacturer should be doing this by now. Thank you Line 6!

I'll give this a 10 because it's one of those things that I wish I had thought of. It's easily the bst delay on the market right now, digital or analog. It has so many useful features and recreates the delay sounds that most guitarists want: analog delay, tape delay, digital delay, plus it throws in a few new twists such as the Reverse and Lo Res setting. I'm definitely not a digital knid of guy, prefering analog almost all of the time. However, there are some things that I think digital can excell at, such as sampling and delay. As such, this is the only digital effect that I use or probably will use. My other effects include Fulltone, Mesa/Boogie, and a Sweet Sound Ultra-Vibe. The DL-4 takes it's place among these other high-end pedals and does it's job outstandingly well. If the price of this unit is out of your reach, but you still want a good analog delay simulation, check out the Ibanez Tone-Lock Delay/Echo. It will do an amazingly realistic simulation of an analog delay pedal (sounds just like the "Analog Delay" model on the DL-4) plus it has a standard digital delay mode and costs less than $100. This would be my second choice for a versatile modern delay with vintage sound capabilities and I think it would work as a great back-up for DL-4 users, or when you just want a smaller box to carry around.

Um ... like turn it on and it makes good sounds. Editing is incredibly easy -- knob twiddling encouraged. The manual is nice, especially how it goes into each "model", complete with a picture of its vintage equivalent and sometimes a musical reference -- not totally necessary, but it shows they have put some thought into the product. My only complaint is that their explanation on the use of the expression pedal (not included) is a bit short. My biggest complaint is that more presets are not available and that you cannot change the "model" with a switch. Perhaps this is just not possible -who knows.

I use it with an American Strat, a Jazzmaster reissue, and a late 60's Fender Dual Showman. A Fulltone Fulldrive2 overdrive pedal, Boss DD5, Boss DD3, and Boss Pn-2 Pan/Tremolo complete the f/x setup. This thing is very quiet. The sounds are absolutely amazing, I know no other way to put it other than that. I played this thing and almost hugged the guy in the music store -- I had my wallet out and was salavating all over the counter. more on this is ...

It is, indeed, built like a tank. Some others have complained that the knobs wobble, but I believe that this is by design -- most things that are design well to be moved in the same motions over and over again have "play" in them. If I'm right - nice going. Big metal switches=good. Metal chasis=good. Runs just fine off of my Pedal Power power supply. Recessed knobs=good. Back-up - do you have "back-ups" for $250 stomp boxes?h

Haven't talked to them nor do i plan to.

The answer to my prayers -- a 24 bit, totally quiet stomp box with more versatility than any I've ever seen. I play sort of spacey indie rock a la Mogwai, Built to Spill, Red Stars Theory, Tristeza - so perhaps you can see why I am so elated. I plan to use the thing live and in the studio on guitar, keys, samples, vox - you name it. I have owned both the echoplex and a roland space echo and love them dearly, but neither are what you would call quiet, reliable, versitile, or "stompable". This thing DOES sound like all those vintage beauties from the other decades - maybe not "exactly" for those of you audiophile freaks who claim that you can hear hummingbirds sneeze, but the rest of us humans will hear some amazing stuff. Get the expression pedal, especially if you are going to use it live - it's worth it. I do not work for this company and I don't normally even review stuff -- it is just a killer product.

It just arrived today and tight out of the box amazing tones I haven't edited too much yet. Great manual , very informative!!

Wow loop heaven for less than a cheap strat copy!!!

Too soon to tell but it seems sturdy and well made!!!

Awesome product though I think everyone will want one!!
I bought it on October 2 and have waited 2 months for it to be delivered in Canada! I am not disappointed one bit!!!!!!
Wow hail line 6!!!!!!!!!

Read the manual before using, and you'll have no difficulty operating this unit. Its well thought out, but to keep production costs down the knobs do different things depending on the echo/delay machine model you choose. It could be labeled better, but it works very well.

Excellent. Analog and tape simulations are quite convincing, and there are plenty of paramets to adjust for personal taste. The unit is also very quiet.

Only had it a few days, but construction quality looks very good. As others have mentioned, the knobs are a bit wobbly, so only time will tell. In fairness to any product under review here, I think this category should be taken with a grain of salt, as you can't really judge reliablity until you've used a product for some time. You can't fairly rate reliability on a new product.

I sent email and got some vague replies about the features. Answers were prompt, but inconslusive. I don't want to judge the company based on the comments of one person, but it was the "customer support" I got.

Great pedal for my needs. Given the wide range of features, ease of use and high caliber sound quality, this pedal is a winner. Its well laid out for live use, and sounds good enough for studio use. Its possible they could have allowed for a few more presets, better knobs, and a better "interface" but I think they did an admirable job. No real complaints from me. If the other Line 6 pedals are comparable to this pedal, the other pedal manufacturers will have to do some serious retooling to stay competitive.

1st of all - it is easy to get a great sound out of it.... but
this pedal is pretty different in basic ways - for example - if you dial in a delay setting that you like, and then you bypass, when you go back to it, the settings will have reset to the defaults UNLESS YOU SAVE YOUR SETTING. it takes a little getting used to, but then it's easy to work with. also, in the loop sampling mode, takes some fancy footwork to get it to reverse without first switching speeds for just a microsecond. it's not a big deal tho... i give it an 8.

im using an ibanez roadstar 2 and a 66 fender tele w/bigsby bar, thru a musicman, or a little antique solidstate jordan. not that it matters.... but they asked.
it is NOT NOISY AT ALL. in fact sometimes, i wish it was - cause the delays that it's modeled after sometimes ARE really noisy, and that's sometimes a great thing.. but.... no , not noisy at all, this pedal. that's 24 bit dsp for you...
the delays sound great... really great! there are so many different types of sound that you can pull out of it.... i've been able to really closely approximate some of the space-echo swoops and feedbacks with it - that's one of the best things about it - it will let you feedback (tho not as much as i'd hoped, still great).
the loop sampling can give you 29 seconds on 1/2 spd mode, and it still sounds great.

it seems VERY reliable to me. the knobbies are plastic, but recessed. the body is HEAVY mettle.

never dealt with em.

this is a very useful pedal. i'm loving it - playing with it hours every day so far... i love messing with the loop sampler... it's fun to build texture with it. prepare an ambient loop before you start a song, and then just kick it in when you want it in the background... works magic! one of my fave petals in my 8 yrs of playing and collecting. it's been out for just a couple weeks and i know some 10 people who have them already. damn! i think i would definitely buy another if this was lost... i was thinking about the boomerang, but this outdoes it as far as i can tell, in versatility, mostly. i wish that it would feedback more easily and crazily, but with the 'analog echo' setting i can get what i want usually. some of the original delays this was modeled on will feed back, but the DL4 won't when it's on those settings (deluxe memory man, space echo). still, this pedal is FAN TAS TIC and i vote it in for mayor.

Ok, I don't even own one, but it's obviously kickass in the sound department. I'm thoroughly miffed that there are only 3 presets and one of them is bypass for such a great sounding and versatile Delay Pedal. How stupid can they be?! Why do we have to rig up a damn rack unit if we want more than one and a half freakin' presets from a pedal?

Everyone says it's incredible. Whoohay. Yipee skipee. Rah Rah. Even the Echoplex on the brain Rockabilly purists love it. I love that too, but I also love the other stuff it can do. Too bad I can only call up three stinkin' presets on my stinkin' cover band gig. Oh yeah, there's an expression pedal that might offer some extra off the cuff changeability. More stinkin' real estate.

What's with the wobbly knobs. Must be nice to afford backups. Who the hell knows.

Once again, who the hell knows.

It's large, but I'd forgive that if it had more presets. Why can't any one make a damn delay (with modulation) in a not too big pedal that has more than 2.3 prests? I use a ill-fated Ibanez PMD which scrolls through 10 settings. It's high res digital, which is not the greatest sound, but at least I can go from slapback to China Grove to Space out to Pseudorotor without having to bend over. Jeez.

The user interface is not the most obvious one if you're used to BOSS, Ibanez, or MXR units. When i powered up the DL-4 i wasn't immediately aware that you must engage one of the first 3 (preset) stomp switches to start the ball rolling. Then you can select one of the 16 models and start dialing in a sound. One caveat though: You must then store these settings in one of the 3 memories if you want to bypass the effect and return to it. If you don't, stomping the footswitch again will recall the stored settings and NOT your present knob settings. Once you get the hang of it, this is a clever feature.
I wrote over the factory presets right away. Also, it was not abundantly clear that the fourth switch for tap delay settings works with all 16 delay model selections. This is very cool since your active preset can be modified 'on the fly' for a different delay time in mid-song. The LED for footswitch #4 also blinks to indicate the delay rate. Again, very cool. The User Manual for the DL-4 is superbly written too.

I've used the DL-4 for about a week now, mainly with a Les Paul or PRS into a '68 Fender Bandmaster head and Marshall 1936 cab. I've also tried it with a Fernandes Sustainer Strat with great results. All of the delay effects in this box are cool. Many of the Analog Delay models can go into runaway feedback for raygun-like noises if you want that. I know of no other digital based pedal that will do this with dead on accuracy as though it were an old Analog or Tape delay. Yeah baby! The 14 second looper (with an embedded 800 ms delay as well) is icing on the cake. This pedal is also very quiet. One model worth mentioning is one that allows you to vary the sampling bit rate from 24 to 6 bits. There are so many options in this thing for achieving hi-fi and cool lo-fi effects.

Too early to tell if it can take the wear and tear of live use. It does seem rock solid. The recessed knobs are a nice touch and while they feel a touch shifty, i don't expect problems.

Weeks before the unit came out, Line 6 posted the Modeler User Manuals on their site available for PDF format download. I was able to read up on the Delay and Modulation modelers and get a feel for what they do. READ the manual, the capabilities of this unit are vast. I've also e-mailed Line 6 about some concerns with the DL-4
and my questions were addressed promptly and politely.

I've been playing for 20+ years and have been through loads of amps,
guitars, effects (rackmount and pedal) I use several other delay units and i believe the DL-4 will cover most (if not) all the bases.
The unit may seem a little pricey to some, but it is a real bargain to me. I got it for the Echoplex models, but is has much more than just that to offer. I plan to use it for ambient instrumental recordings (on guitar AND drum samples) and for aggressive rock guitar work too. I suspect it would work great on vocals too if needed.

Its operating logic is not clear until you've played with it for a few minutes, but its truly awsome. It has a HUGE array of delay emulations and each has a number of controls to fine tune the delay or echo as needed. It's VERY easy to dial in whatever delay or echo your're pursuing. The manual is fantastic. While it describes each delay option and a reference to the "original" device it is emulating (echoplex's...roland space echo... analog delay etc),It would have been helpful to see some "recognizable" presets, like some Danelctro effects deacribe in their manuals. The footswitches (3 for choosing a user defined preset, one for controling delay tempo) are strong and well thought out, alowing you to switch between dif. presets in the middle of a song.

I play mostly rockabilly and pyschobilly (yes, it is a musical genre). The DL4 has allowed me to recreate Cliff Gallup's sound to a reasonable degree. Ive also been able to approach sounds that come close to some Brian Setzer-like sounds. I have listened to recordings and live preformances of people using echoplex's, and the DL4 nails it amazingly well. Its unbelievable. Until now I was using an Ibanez AD-99 analog Echo and thought it was great...but the DL4 can recreate analog echo as good as the AD 99 PLUS so much more. For example, You can choose Tube Echoplex (50's model, pre-transistor era as used by Cliff Gallup, Eddie Cochran, etc.) and you can control the amount of magnetic distortion and tape "wow-and-flutter" to get that warm gain stage that a REAL echoplex allows you to. The device has no noise, and is TRUE BYPASS (Danecho, for example, is not). I play a 1967 Gibson 345 with a Bigsby tremolo, through a late 60's Fender Super reverb. My only effects are the DL4 (formerly the AD-99) and a tube screamer ts-9 for a little overdrive on leads. The DL4 makes the whole rig sound richer without unwanted coloring of sound (echoplex's do what they do..and the DL4 does that too to your sound). I will be buying a vintage Gretsch very soon, and I know it will be "like buttah".
The controls allow you to fine tune the echo/delay to match ANY recording you can think of (at least within the rockabilly-ish realm).

The first unit I tried was faulty. The Line 6 rep was at the store (just delivered the units) and seeing me trying to figure out why the thing would "hang up" making me unplug and re-plug the input jack to "reboot" the device, he tried it out and said the selector switch was bad. I got another unit and for the past 12 hours of use more or less...its worked fine. It seems built VERY strong (steel case) but the dials seem a little wobbly. The footswitches against the heavy gauge steel chassis seem tough and made to be stomped. While Its too soon to have an opinion on its reliability, I think its as good as the most of the decent gear out there in terms of construction. I bought it mainly for its "vintage" echo simulations (tube echoplex, solid state echoplex and Space Echo) and it does all these amazingly well.

I met the rep at one of the big stores here in L.A. (not gonna advertise for them.....). He was reallly into the DL4's specifics..and knew his prduct well. He also played a mean guitar. Its good to know that they are not just sales guys...but musicians too. never dealt with customer support. knock on wood.

I play mostly Rockabilly, and this effect allows me to learn from some of the guitarists I admire by aproximating their sound to an astonishing level of acuracy. After all the horror stories ive heard of owning and maintaining an Echoplex tape echo or a Roland Space echo...this device seems to be a godsend. I have great, expensive gear and I avoid connecting toy-effects that make my $2000 guitar sound like 50 buck pawn shop job. The DL4 is NOT a toy. Its a true professional-grade complement to any noble guitar rig.

I had no problems getting this to work after reading the informative manual. It isn't the simplest, but it could be alot worse.

The sound quality of the delays are superb, anyone can find a usable sound from any of the patches it offers, of course some tweaking is required. I use a strat with noiseless pickups through a peavy classic chorus, I also have it hooked through a bunch of other stuff. I can't say I have a favorite preset, they all sound phat.

It seems to be reliable, I've only had it a day and my only complaint would be the knob for the effect selection has a slight flimsines, I'll report back.

I haven't dealt with them since purchassing the pedal, but when I called before with questions, they were always polite answering my questions to the fullest.

overall with the style of music I play(anything goes) this has been the best sounding delay I've heard period. I've owned others, dod fx96
which sucked, dan-echo decent for crap and an ibanez dl10 which was my main delay until this. the price was well worth it.

The manual is great, it even has pictures of the original machines it models (Echoplex, Space Echo...) The only real reason you need to use the manual is to learn what the universal knobs tweeze and tweak do for the different models. One thing I still can't figure out is how to switch the unit on and off like a regular delay pedal, because when you step one one of the first three switches, the unit calls up a preset (the fourth switch is for tap tempo). So once you've set up a sound, if you want to turn it on and off without losing your settings, you have to save it as one of the three presets (a long hold on the switch saves the sound). Not a big deal, just a little peculiar for a stompbox.

The machine is very quiet, I've been playing bass and guitar through it and the only noise I get is from the pickups. The sound of the analog models is very believable, I have never used an Echoplex nor used a Space Echo enough to know for sure how close a copy the sound is but I was playing through one of the Echoplex models and accidentally hit the sound at the end of Radiohead's "Karma Police" and it was dead on (not knowing what that sound on the album was to begin with). The only inaccuracy I have found is that it is not possible to get the Memoryman setting (Analog w/ Mod) to overload like an actual Memoryman will (Though the straight "analog delay" setting will). Also, using the looper and some delays I had to set the mix level at just past 1 o'clock to get a 50:50 dry/effect blend. However these complaints are insignificant when considering the overall performance of the pedal.

I have not had/used it enough to know, but I plan on performing live with it and have no worries. The chassis feels very sturdy, is solid metal, and the knobs feel strong are set back so there's not much chance of damage there.

Called them once and emailed them a few times, harassing them for information and they were always prompt and helpful.

I would buy it again, I used to have an Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro and recently bought an Akai Headrush as a low cost alternative to the Oberheim but traded it in once I saw this. There is not much comparison, the Headrush overloaded/distorted very easily and switches were hard-click switches, the DL-4 is very warm sounding and the switches are very smooth which makes a big difference when using the loop function. The pedal seems expensive but the sound quality, construction, and considering the alternatives make it well worth the cost. People may knock retro modeled devices, but there's a lot to be said for reliability, compact size, and overall efficiency of Nordleads, PODs, etc. Creative processes can sure be stifled by sitting in front of a monitor and mouse or dragging out a few cumbersome museum pieces from the attic.

I tried this pedal at the Line 6 display at the summer NAMM show. It was very easy to use. The knobs are large and easy to grip, and the lettering is very easy to read.

This pedal covers all of the bases for most delay type effects. The loop function, modeled after the boomerang, was very easy to use. Also, it has a great reverse delay effect, making this pedal a useful piece of gear for any Hendrix fan. There are several great delay effects in this pedal. I'll never have to hunt for Echoplex tapes again.

Since I don't own one yet, I can't comment on this with certainty. I own a Flextone (an amp made by Line 6) and it has held up great. This pedal is metal and has metal swithes to stomp on. It seems similar in construction to the floorboard and FB-4 that Line 6 makes and they are very durable.

Line 6 has a great staff. I met several of them at the NAMM show and they were very helpful, especially Loren and Jason. Line 6 was one of the few companies at the NAMM show whose employees seemed really enthusiastic about their gear. I feel confident the customer service department would handle any problems quickly and efficiently.

I have already reserved one of these pedals with my local dealer. The retail price is, I believe, just under $300.00. Since most stores offer some sort of discount, the DL-4 is an incredible bargain. Just look at the price of a BOSS delay and its features, and you'll see what I mean. I really hate giving anything perfect reviews, but I am excited about this pedal. I have owned everything from an Echoplex to the latest processors from Roland and, for what this unit costs, it rocks.