Line 6 Echo Pro

yeah it's easy to use. it's mass marketed for the mass market. and it has lots of limitations as a result. they make a big deal out of "true separate signal path" but the looper IS MONO!! not only that, only ONE INPUT IS LOOPABLE. THEY DON'T EVEN SUM THE INPUTS!!!you wouldn't know this til you bought it!! they dilberately covered known flaws to sell their product!! am filing with FTC!! (for real)

doesn't sound like a tape delay. i'm old enough to have actually used old tape delays. anybody who thinks this sounds like one was in diapers recently and thinks limpbizkit can play.

how can you rely on a company that lies about their product and tries to cover it up?

check their website and learn something about how F%*&ers operate.

i play jazz and have a low tolerance for crappy tone. this has it. it has maybe one preset i like. do you want to spend 300 hundred for one preset (boutique handmade tone pedal- maybe, but not a whole rack).
don't buy it!! they try to make you think it's a stereo looper- it's not.but lets get to the heart of line 6. they claim they've modeled these sounds to sound like the real thing. does anybody really believe these line 6 products sounds like the real thing?the emporer has no clothes!! wake up!!

Easy to follow manual. Front panel is logical and practical. Very easy to setup and get going

Ok here we go...this thing is noisy. I run either a 79 les paul custom or a 2000 standard > 535Q wah > digitech whammy > EH small stone > MXR phase 90 > Boss cs1 > line6 FM4 > Boss ns2 > 5150 block logo head.
In the loop of the 5150 are (in order) BBE sonic maximiser > rocktron hush 11CX > echo pro. Fairly pro gear.
Without the echo pro the rig was dead silent. DEAD silent. As soon as it was added i heard a very audible earth/ground loop noise. At anything less than full stage volume it is distracting and messy. Not only did it ruin my silent rig i also lost a considerable amount of bottom end "roundness". I paid AU$1400 for this unit and if i wasnt sick of line6 gear breaking down or not performig to their advertised standards, id return it personally to MUSIC LINK AUSTRALIA.
However i had previously ordered in a Digital music corp GCX and ground control so when it arrives i'll see if that fixes the loop problem. Seeing as most people do not have the money or desire to use a switching system this is still a serious issue which line6 should rectify if they are to ask such a huge sum of money for substandard gear.
Too mass produced maybe? Sacrificing quality for quantity perhaps?

Seems sturdy, would gig without a backup. I say concentrate less on trying to make the gear visually appealing and work more on making the gear sonically transparent. If you want pro gear save hard and get a g-force or something similar. Skimping on gear only costs you more money in the long run.

Ok i spoke to Andrew at music link in Australia once about line6 gear. Hers what happened, bought pod pro, got home set it up and output kept cutting in and out, next day took it back to be repaired. Two weeks later get unit back, go home set it up, rehearse once with it and unit starts making random popping noises followed by the sound of a reverbspring being bumped. Take it back to be repaired wait NEARLY TWO MONTHS get it back same problem again. They repalce it with the xtpro means i have to buy new floor board. Floor board lights play up, ligts stay on when i change chanels so i have two chanel lights on at same time, not good on a dark stage. Display goes funky and starts displaying weird characters. The pedals needed to be recalibrated. I returned it and they replaced the unit, but the problems continued.
Im no hack with gear either. Everything is cased in road cases and all power is suplied via a furman pl plus "E" power conditioner.
I teach 50+ students 5 days a week, rehearse with two bands weekly and gig once a week on average. Im a working musician.
After all the problems i spoke to Andrew from music link again, explaing how ridiculous these problems were getiing and if maybe i could purchase some gear through him at cost price as i liked line6 gear and wanted to purchase the mod and dly pedals. He said he couldnt because they didnt have a shop front. Absolute BS! They did give me a free gtr lead tho.... like i dont have enough.

Do not buy anything line6. The company has reached the point where customer service and qualitiy control has been lost. Just because everyone who is anyone is using them and they cost alot doesnt mean they are good. I know other top level pros and they all continue to have problems with this gear.

I posted the review earlier, wishing for ping-pong on eveything :-)

I've worked out that I can patch (using the jack sockets) the left o/p into the right i/p and the right o/p into the left i/p... and then feed the unit from an xlr i/p in order to get a ping-pong delay from any of the delay models; repeats being controlled with the output level control.

But, does anyone more technically minded than me, know if it is at all possible to flip the feedback wires around INSIDE the unit, or is the repeat feedback done in DSP? If so, what is the chance of a software solution or a hack?

If anyone can help me with this do please email me at:
baron_de[at]lycos.co.uk

This submission is just an addendum to my last review/grilling of L6. The faulty Echo Pro is being replaced. It is still a real dissapointment to buy the Echo Pro and have to return it and wait for god knows how long for the replacement to show up. Its a good thng I am not gigiing or recording right now. I bought it from a smaller speciality music shop so they did not have 50 in stock like a GC. I hope the unit that replaces the bad one works properly. I'll post again when I get a fully function unit...

Very EZ to use. Must have basic signal path skills to properly use unit.

Seems some reviewers have no clue about time based fx, fx loops and -10 or +4 signals. Oh well...

Was great for limited time. After using in looper mode for 1/2 hour all the input signals got very distorted. Very bad, major let down.

I added this in a rack containing Lexicon PCM 81, Lexicon PCM 91 and the awesome Eventide DSP 7000. I bought it to use as a Looper ONLY! No wet/dry problems. No noise problems as in 60Hz hum or other electrical issues.

The quality of Line 6 products is greatly in question. The unit was great for 1/2 hour then it began to distort ALL input signals regardless of how hot they were. I tried both in and out patches... that is the hi z AND the XLR ins and outs in a variety of combinations. Very disapointing. In a word... this piece sucks. I will change this opinion when Line 6 replaces this low quality heap with one that works. I cannot stress my dissapointment in this piece. Its a great idea... but if you build it on shitty parts then then the result is shitty tone. Bad quality control period. Mr Huge... you should be ashamed to be associated with such horribly LOW quality. Again, if you people (L6) stop putting out total crap as a GOOD product I may make an addendum to this post... as for now... I feel Line 6 should be ETERNALLY banned from making ANYTHING that produces sound. F-!!!!!!!!!!!!

IF... and its a freakin' HUGE IF, it was properly manufactured using parts that were tested before being used in the manufacturing process... then it should be reliable. So L6 needs to have a FreakIN!, HUGE meeting about quality standards... cuz presently in my world they have none... AND I didn't even use the midi clock!!!

ALL CAPS HERE...

WHAT IS THE FREAKIN POINT IF THE DAMN THING IS SHIT OUT OF THE BOX. IF THEY CAN FIX THIS I'LL POST ANY GOOD DEEDS THEY DO TO FIX THE HORSE SHIT COMMING OUT OF THIS GREEN POS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT COOL PEOPLE NOT COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To others try to read ALL the reviews cuz not everyone had a bad trip... just the chosen few.Great concept... piss poor delivery. Line 6 is great at price point marketing but shitty in the quality department. Again, if they rectify this situation I MAY post again saying more positive things... as it stands now they are the WOOOORST SHIT gear pimps with cool color boxes I have had the misfortune to encouneter.Again, their IDEAS are AWESOME and IF they worked they would GODS... but as it stands they just SUCK!!!!!!!!!!! I URGE any Line 6 employee, spokesperson or employee to contact me.... my info is below.GREAT IDEA! Bad Experience!!!!

very easy - switch it on; tis done!

you have to read the manual, though, for all the tricky stuff like midi...

using it in FX loop with synths (real and virtual)

yes - some others have commented on how noisy this is. there is definately TOO MUCH 50Hz mains hum for a pro unit.

i had to rejig my whole rack to get at the ground loops brought in with this unit... haven't TOTALLY got it quiet.

maybe the buzzing is part of the old FX modelling...


WISHLIST:
1 kill the buzzing

2 i would have liked ALL the settings to have gone ping-pong... that might not be "authentic" but i might have had two Binsons twenty years ago...

ity is a measure of this units sound that, even though i hitherto relied onn left / right bounce on all my echoes, i will forfeit this for the Echo Pros mono but wonderful-sounding delay

so far so good - had it just a few weeks; gigged with it ok.

n/a

But i bought it from Turnkey in London, mail order.
Turnkey, Charing Cross Road, London are very difficult to deal with - a real pain in the ass.
they did not return calls, Turnkey over-charged, Turnkey sent it 5 days late, their telephone put me on hold (at my cost) for ten minutes at a time, etc etc. ADVISE: get your stuff eleswhere if you can

This really is a brilliant machine. A lovely sound - revolutionised my music.
It's a LONG time since i last used a real tape echo - but it sounds JUST like the echo on the old records i listen to, which is as much as you want!

i'm glad i held out for the rack version over the pedal, as only the rack has a Binson Echorec model and this is definately my favourite. a real psychedelic sound and my Echo Pro is jammed on that setting :-)

i bought this for krautrock, psychedelic, spacey music and IT WORKS.

Not to complicated. Manuel seemed to cover most stuff.

Very cheesey. This by far the worst delay unit I have ever heard. It totally wrecks the tone. Everything sounds muddy and noisey (I guess thats suppose to be a vintage quality?). My Boss DM-3 blows this thing out of the water!

I use it with a Boogie Mark IIb and a Strat (1981).

Havn't had it long enough. I probaly won't have it much longer.

Don't know.

I play a lot of hard rock and blues, so I wouldn't recommend it for that (I wouldn't recommend it for anything).

I should have saved my money and bought a T.C. unit or an old Echoplex.

It is difficult to NOT get a good sound out of it. The presets are actually usable! The manual is pretty extensive and they even inject a little humor. The stereo delays get a little involved and the manual is not great explaining how to control certain parameters.

I am using this in a rack system as my primary delay unit. I am playing thru a CAE 3+se preamp. I bought this unit on spec and I have not been disapointed. I like the sound of it better everyday. It is pristine without sounding sterile. The models are amazing!

I have had a mod Pro for a while and had no problems. they are built very well.

They have online support that is helpful, but contacting them directly is not made easy.

Delays sound much likeits baby brother, the DL4 - that is to say cool but nothing like the analog units they are supposedly emulating.
Editing patches is a breeze using front panel controls.
Manual is riddled with errors and cutesy turns of phrase.

Its not noisy enough! That minus 10 dB thing doesnt work for me & my old strats and tube amps

Its brand new, so I cant attest to its reliability, but my DL4 just died and I have never before had a pedal break on me...

No idea

When they say PRO, I guess they really mean it. I would have to purchase a costly MIDI ground controller just to record , stop and play loops using foot switches. At least they could have included an auto trigger function like the BOSS RC-20 or the Electrix Repeater. This thing needs to be used with modern effects loop equiped amps as well as outboard sequencers, etc... entirely too complicated for me.

It is funny because most of the time when I buy a rackmount effect, generally the presets are kind of made to sound good in guitar center, but not really in somebody's rig who makes music with a band--all the presets are set up to show off the abilities of the unit.

I find editing patches to be a problem because I dont think the unit is capable of putting out a delay sound the same volume as the signal going into the processor, and since the maximum volume for each delay is different, it could wind up being a catastrophe for people who play music that requires heavy delay. It is actually a real bear to program presets and edit patches, so I tend to just find a patch that sounds good for the particular solo, fiddle with it until it sounds good and leave it. If I want to get into it more in depth I think I am going to have my friend from the berklee college of music help me program the thing, because for the life of me, I can't figure it out.

THE MANUAL IS HORRIBLE TO READ...Except for the section that explains how eah kind of delay is voiced. At first you think it's going to be easy to understand because of the way the thank you section is phrased, but then the writing becomes as dry and barren as a texas gulch. I really was expecting more from the people at line 6. It is really difficult to figure out the manual.

As I said before, if you are just trying to use the factory presets, the unit is a breeze, but once you get to editing, programming or anything else, it turns into a voracious monster devouring all the poor-impoverished souls that use it. And there haven't been any upgrades, because the people at line 6 think it is the greatest thing ever. What it really should come with is a human being who shows you how to use it...that would be fantastic. By the way! If you have figured out how to use this thing, please contact me! I've got tons of questions.

I'm using this with both my USA Jacksons (KV-1 & KE-1F), in the effects loop of my Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier head. The all the delays sound fantastic right out of the box, and it is virtually noise free. This magic machine can pull off every kind of vintage sound and vintage delay that you would want to hear--from the early echoplex, to an echoplex that reminds me a bit of EVHs sound on Van Halen I, to classic country slapback, to hellacious reverse delay, to the Binson Echorec that Pink Floyd used in the song "Time," to the polyrhythmic digital echo of U2's Edge. Personally, I dig the echoplexes, backwards echos, and the binson echorec because my rhythm tone has to be clear and uncluttered so I wind up using these sounds to make my solos sound fatter and more spacious. VERY GOOD use of modelling. I have been waiting for this kind of rack space item to be coming out for at least two or three years.

not really. I gigged it once in my rig, and when we got to the gig, it was reading the input, said it was putting out signal...but no sound was coming out of my speakers. I had to take it out of my chain for that show, and I was extremely upset, because I really wanted to try it, especially because I could turn off the effects loop in my Mesa/Boogie and was was going to be the first time I had the perfect solo tone with echo. I was upset. I would use it without a backup, because really all this piece provides is varnish--its the final touch that can make the difference between a fantastic sound and a ho-hum tone.

Never dealt with them, so I dont know.

I play death metal and fusion, and when it works, yes its a good match, and it would be even better if I could figure out how to program the thing! Ive been playing for about sixteen years (give or take) and I own a Digitech RP-6 that I use for alot of stuff. I dont know if I would want to buy it back. I like/love the sounds, hate trying to operate it. I chose it because it had the most vintage delays AND was rackmount. I wish it had a better written manual. Im not a technophobe, but I like to have owners manuals which describe things explicitly and not abstractly. It both helps me make music and gets in the way.

I am completely apathetic towards this piece of gear, and I do not want to be. If I could unlock the mystery of playing it, I will raise the 5 to an 8 or 9.