Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler

I find the unit to be straight forward and simple to use.

Editing is east... turn knobs. The manual is the simplest manual I've ever seen... that is not to say it isn't informative, because it is. I suggest reading it once (for all the historical info on the origin of the internal set-ups) and then putting it in a drawer somewhere. It's easier to tweek and listen with this box.

I'm not using this pedal with guitars. I'm using it with keyboards.

I haven't detected any noise with this unit (and I've been using them for 8 years). I did have a Line 6 Delay unit that had noise on some of the patches though.

Are the effects weak? Not at all, but I've never understood why Line 6 spent so much time selling this box to guitarists and no effort to sell it to Keyboardist. Sure, bask in the 70's it was chic to plug your guitar into a synthesizer to get that "outrageous" sound... but come on Line 6, this whole box is modeled after synthesizers, and it is more usefull in that environment. I've run everything from Vintage ARP's to Soft-Synths through this thing. The Oberheim modeling in this box is "dead on".

I used to play in a 60'S/70's cover band and used this unit mostly to "fix" digital reproductions of Analog sounds. It did exactly what I needed it to do. HOWEVER, my guitarist hated it. He borrowed it for 3 days and then asked me why I wasted my money... I hooked it up to a Roland JP-8080 and showed him. He said "I guess they made this one for you guys" (he used the Delay and Distortion units). Some of the Moog models sounded just that; modeled (but still usable).

Very dependable... and indestructible. It's been used (and dropped) a lot.

It's been used several times by itself.

I've dealt with line 6 a few times over the years. Mostly to get product info (most recently in May of 2009 regarding the M-13)and once to get a Delay unit repaired. I'd rate them in the Good-to-Very Good category.

I play 70's Progressive (Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd etc). This unit was made for "my type".

I've been playing for 35 years. I have 2 analog, 12 digital and 7 "soft" synths. I sold all my Line-6 pedals (FM4, MM4, DM4 and DD4)and bought the M-13 to make my life easier... I bought the FM4 back though because I wanted a seperate filter unit.

Would I buy it again... No. I'm not doing live work anymore so I'm replacing it with the Line 6 Filter Pro (rackmount FM4 with more versatiliy). But if I was still playing live I'd replace it immediately.

I got this cheap because the manual was missing. To be honest I only needed to know how to store patches and I found that out quickly from the net. The rest is a matter of tweaking. I dont really have much experience with the original filter's and effects that this unit is modelling so I use it to play around with crazy sounds.

Im playing this with mostly Ibanez guitars and an Elmwood modena90. It sounds ok with other amps and is also good with home recording utlising the stereo capabilities...shame I can't get the stereo thing happening live.

One thing I like about this pedal is that its not very noisey both on and off (apart from spits and garbles fromn the effects). With the true bypass I have not noticed any loss of tone or punch with my amp.

Some effects are very good and useable, most of them are basically EQ filters and some effects I dont really use.

Its hard to really judge sound quality because this pedal is not producing modern pristine sounds but crazy synth and warble noises. I dont expect much from the unit aother than some fun and it does that well.

It should have included a few pitch shifting and modulation effects in for measure.

Haven't owned it long enough to know. Its casing is metal but the input dc socket in the back could easily come loose as well as the cheap plastic battery cover. The dials on the front look cheap but they are recessed back so shouldn't get bumped often.

Never dealth with line 6

I play a range of styles both at home and live (in a cover band). Ive been playing 20 years and bought this mainly for jamming and the odd sound to throw into live performances. I like that it gives some versatility to my rig without sucking tone. During our funk jams I have 4 presets of whacked out, f&*ked up sounds to play with and I also often use it at the beginning or end of a song as an effect. I play in a three piece (Im on guitar and vocal duty) so this effect allows me to stretch out beyond traditional guitar on certain songs. It works especially well with some lush reverb and delays.

I like the purple colour but other than that its a kinda boring unit. All my other effects are high end straight to the point pedals: wah, mild chorus, 2 delays. Distortion is all from the amp. I dont really care this is a modeller or even how accurate it is - I use it for tricks and gimmicks and suprisingly it can be quite musical with some tweaking.

I have the first two patches set up with 'in the desert on mescaline' synth sounds for special effects or use during funk jam songs. The third patch I have set up to almost sound like a uni-vibe and use that on some jimi hendrix songs. The last preset I have managed to get this weird flute sound that works in one way like a modern techno sound when I pluck the lower strings lightly and percussively and sounds like Jethro Tull flutes when soloing higher up. Its really cool, makes me play differently and experiment more. The tracking is not great but still useable even in a live setting. The mix knob is essential. I dont even look at what Im doing - just flip dials until some crazy *** sound booms from the speakers. Id imagine this unit would be a lot of fun if you played in an experimental garage band and I could see how this could be used for other instruments. Ive played around recording some vocals with this in stereo and it produces some interesting results...so its handy for recording as well as just guitar.

My major gripe about this unit is the bloody line6 adaptor plug is not the same size as other boss/MXR/standard sizes so I have to lug around yet another adaptor instead of being able to use my dunlop power brick. Possibly I can get a customized cable. I dont even know if this pedal comes with an adaptor out of the box - mine came with it and a manual so I got it cheap but it would be lame if naturally came without! Im not sure if I would have bought it at full price. At least its not a signature pedal.

For the price I paid it has been worth the money just to watch the reaction of the crowd as I switch from my traditional rock sounds into some more trippy soundscapes. I think even if I had the original pedals they would still be kinda gimmicky.

+1 to having more patches.

Unusable. Piece of trash. They are worthless

Better off with no sound Biggest piece of trash out their. STAY AWAY FROM LINE 6.

Broke after six months. Didnt' even use it that much.

Worse than none. Jerks.

All line 6 products are horrible. The company is horrible. Do not get any of their products. They are junk.

If this is one of your first pedals or filter effect it will probably be difficult to figure this pedal out. You first select an effect model and then use the Freq (frequency), Q ( position of the filter), Speed, Mode and Mix buttons to adjust the sound. Speed, Mode and Mix all speak for themselves, but Freq and Q are a little more harder to figure out if your a novice to filter pedals. Plus the fact that the Freq, Q and Mode have a different function when you select a different effect, so it can get really confusing. You also have four footswitches for saving and recalling your sounds wich really comes in handy when playing gigs. You just got to sit back and play with it for a few hours to get the hang of it.

The quality of the effects themselves are really good, you can get subtle, spacey Star Wars sounds to very extreme and weird noises. It's great for a lot of styles. I know a guy who uses it for punk and that John Frusciante uses it on 'Trow Away Your Television' and it's very nice to play along with the solo with this pedal. So it's pretty versatile.

I never had a problem.

Never dealt with em.

I think it's a great pedal with really awesome sounds, from vintage filters to the extreme. But that's also the problem, it has 16 effect models and don't even use 8. Wich is a pretty damn waste of cash. If I had money like water it wouldn't matter but the fact is, I don't. So I'd rather spend it on a pedal or something of wich I know I use it to it's full potential.

Compared to other stomp boxes, its quite easy to use. The knobs are pretty self explanatory, and the controls are defined on stickers that Line 6 give you to put on it. Out of the many settings each knob does different things for each setting which is a little tough to get used to. It also took a while to figure out how to use the memories. The manual is very easy to use and gives recommended knob settings for each sound setting.

This pedal can get many sounds. Some sounds like the filters are very funky and get the sounds of guys like John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Some of the synth settings can get you some very '80s type tones.

The Tron up and Tron Down are incredible. The Tron Up is just a filter. The Tron Down gets almost laser type noises.The Seeker setting is pretty cool, kind of a tremolo-y wah.The Comet Trails isn't that good. The Voice Box and V-Tron are terrible. They sound very ugly. The Attack Synth is pretty good. Its just a tremolo type synth. The Synth-O-Matic has like 10 different synths. Some are very good and sound like Moogs and others sound like farts honestly. The Synth String is very cool It sounds like what you expect. the Growler is my favorite and it just makes insane noises.

I'm using a Gibson SG Special into this-> MXR Blue Box-> DigiTech Whammy-> Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz-> Dunlop Crybaby-> DigiTech Flange-> DigiTech Delay-> EHX Small Stone-> Boss Noise Suppressor-> Fender Twin Reverb. It's not in that exact order though, the delay is after my phaser, not before, . I have not seen problems with this set-up.

It's noisy on the OctiSynth, but it's supposed to. On the ObiWah it's the same deal.Otherwise it's good.

The effects are mostly strong. Some like Comet Trails, sound very weak. The Synth-O-Matic is very powerful on the first and last settings of it.

When I got the pedal, I was given a floor model. It worked for an hour after I brought it home. Then in the middle of a jam withs some friends it started making crazy noises. It didn't work after that. I went back to where I got it and they replaced it and that was the end of that. Now I would depend my life on it. I would not need a back-up. This thing is very strong on the outside.

I never dealt with them.

I play electronica, funk, psychedelic, new wave, and experimental. It works well with all of them. It works espcially well with funk. I've been playing seven years.

If it was lost I would buy the EHX Micro Synth. It works better for my style.

I love that the synths sound great compared to the originals. I hate that many of them are monophonic. My favorite feature is that you can shift the pitch and the dry to wet output.

Compared to the DigiTech SynthWah, this owns. It has more features for the same purposes and sounded much more high quality.

I wish it was polyphonic and I wish it had some more dance-y synth type tones.

It does what I need for my type of music.

strange thing, easy enough to use, once you get your head around the variety of different functions for the knobs, dependent on the effect ur using. Hard-ish to get really usable sounds, can totally take over sometimes, but has some excellent quirks, if you want something off the wall, this is it.

sounds are crazy, hard to rate quality as it's not really comparable relative to anything you'd expect to hear anywhere...
some of the synths are almost just a novelty...

this is an original one, I rely on it....

no dealings.

I play Drone-rock, sometimes going way out into space, so it suits to a certain extent...
Guitar: DeArmond M75-t, with Bigsby tremolo or 1983 Peavey T-60.
Amp: Line6 Spider II with foot control and programmed efx.
Efx: Boss me-6, Danelectro Fab Tone, This pedal, line6 dm4.

Controls are simple, all knobs, no screens or menus. It's a powerful box and can do many things so you do have to work on it some but I was able to get usable sounds within an hour, and it was a fun hour!

I dig this thing. It's awesome, first pedal I've ever loved without reservation.

I'm able to get usable sounds out of it, I just need to use the Level knob to keep things in control. It's great for getting out beyond normal guitar sounds which is what I wanted.

I use it for funk/jazz/jam work. Scofield uses one which is how I got interested in it.

Pure silence in bypass mode.

It's brick like in build. Haven't had it for long.

I'd bring it without a backup because I'm not worried about it breaking (it feels solid), and I could live without it if I had to.

Like I said before, I dig this box. I even dig the box it came in (it's got some jokes hidden in the fine print).

It turns my guitar into a dramatically different instrument.

I'd probably replace it if something happened to it.

This is the pedal for people who hate pedals. I got this thing to make weird noises, and I think that if you want it for anything else, you should probably look elsewhere.

It's tough to find usable sounds on this thing. I have been able to pull some "normal" pedal tones out of it - to thicken up the sound or add fuzz, but it takes a lot of work and careful tweaking. And if you want your guitar to sound like a synth - nope. The thing will only sound like a broken synth. Just spend the money for a real keyboard and a switcher box.

Once you nail down some presets, the thing is a snap to use. Just hit the buttons. But although it's tough to program, it's also fun, fun, fun! This thing is full of crazy sounds, some of which just go without playing a note!

Sound quality is good. Carefully tweaking the "Mix" knob is essential to tame the wild beast.

It works - never had a problem. i don't know how it saves the presets, but I have written them down just in case they ever fail.

Nope.

This is my first foray into pedals. I really hate pedals, and this is the one for people who hate pedals. It does much different things than your average flanger, chorus or distortion pedal. If you want to add noise, blips and beeps to your sound, this is the one.

The FM4 is a strange box, with a lot of sounds, so the ease of use varies a lot, depending on which model you choose. The knobs control different functions in most of the models, so editing can be a beast. Anyone who hated the Tweak & Tweez knobs on the DL4 or MM4 will hate editing the FM4.

You WILL need the manual to figure out this box; you'll probably want to use the little cheat sheet stickers, too. While you might come up with a cool sound by accident, you won't know how you got there without the manual. The patches/models are divided into two categories; filters & synths. The filter models are easier to navigate than the synth models. I give the FM4 a 7, because it's the most confusing Line6 Modeler pedal to use.

I've never heard anyone using the FM4; I don't know if any of my favorite artists use one, but I could see Adrian Belew or The Residents with an FM4.

The filter effects are a lot of fun, especially Comet Trails, Obi-Wah, and Seeker. You can get AdrenaLinn-style filter sequencing with Seeker, Obi-Wah & Throbber. The Mutron models aren't as impressive.

The synth models are a mixed bag, and harder to use; you have to play monophonically, and you can get some nasty glitching, especially with the expression pedal. Octisynth is particularly hard to tame, but I love ring modulators, so I dug in and held on. I don't agree that the FM4 is the fastest-tracking synth pedal for guitar; the Boss WP-20g Wave Processor is faster, but you need a GK-style pickup to use it.

I use my usual LP Special or SG with the FM4, but I tend to use it with other weird effects rather than my GT-3. (I want to thank the reviewer who suggested using the FM4 together with the Digitech Synth-Wah; what a deliciously sick combo. Add a ring mod pedal to the mix, and your guitar becomes an alien WMD.) Running a guitar synth through the filter effects adds a new dimension to the synth sounds, like nothing you'll get from a phaser or a flanger.

The expression pedal adds control, but it makes some nasty glitching sounds, depending on which model you're using. I also found that the expression pedal tends to switch from one setting to another about halfway down; there isn't a smooth transition like a good wah pedal offers. Even so, get the expression pedal; you'll have two sounds for every memory slot.

I love the sounds I use, and I still explore the others when I feel the need for some new weirdness. I give the FM4 an 8 for sound quality because the expression pedal noise is annoying.

So, my first experience with a funky Line6 pedal. About a month after I bought my FM4, the knobs started to stick. Everything worked, everything sounded fine, but I didn't like forcing the knobs every time I went to tweak a sound. Everything I've read about the Modeler pedals suggested that the main boards are fragile; I could see myself cranking one more knob one more time and cracking the board. I took my FM4 back where I bought it, and they handed me another one, which is still fine, nearly one year later. I give the FM4 a 5 becuase I returned one, and got one that still works.

The website isn't very helpful, and trying to participate in the forums is a pain.

I play weird experimental music, heavy on synths, delays & effects. I've been playing since the dawn of Surf Guitar, before the birth of Metal. The FM4 is one of my favorite "outside" boxes. I don't use it all the time, but when I need it nothing else will do. If it were lost, I'd be reluctant to buy another, because they're not cheap. I love Comet Trails, Obi-Wah & Slow Filter; I hate the noise from the expression pedal. (There must be one factory that makes all the cheap exp./volume pedals out there, and the Line6 expression pedal is one of the cheapest-looking I've seen.) The FM4 is much easier to use than the Boss SYB-3, and you can store your sounds. The Digitech Synth-Wah is much cheaper and easier to use, if you hate endless tweaking. I wish the FM4 had more memory: I have thought of getting a second one, so I can run a sound like Synth-O-Matic through a sound like Comet Trails. I don't know if it helps me make music, but it helps me create new sounds, and those sounds go into my music.

the manual is absolutely essential. you can find one here:
http://line6.com/data/l/c0a8090bee7e404faf1d708a2/application/pdf/FM4%20User%20Manual-English.pdf
with it it's not too hard at all, experimenting with all the different sounds will definently take some time though. getting a good sound on some of the effects is near impossible though.

some of the effects are great and some aren't. the seeker is absolutely amazing. you probably wouldn't need to buy an envelope filter if you had one of these. i can get some amazing sounds when i use this with a digitech synth wah.

it hasn't let me down so far.

if you like making experimental sounds and have some interest in filtering this thing is really cool, especially if you get it for around 150$. i love it and use it all the time. how hard you're picking makes a big difference on a lot of these effects, which is hard at first, but once you're used to it you can blow people away jammin'. i wish the envelope filters were better. when used in combination with a good envelope filter the results are amazing.

There's a lot packed into this pedal, and dialling in sounds from the 1000s of possibilities using just five knobs (plus a wet/dry blend control) takes a lot of experimentation. It would have been nice to have more than 4 programmable presets; if you really enjoy playing with this thing you'll soon find you need to keep a notebook of your patches.

That said, hunting for good sounds is part of the fun with this box. Nobody needs more than four presets when playing live because most of these sounds are too extreme to use all the time.

You can get an expression pedal for this thing which, within a single effect type, will morph more or less smoothly between two settings (taking all 5 parameter controls into account). This is an essential accessory & increases the play value massively.

I haven't played this thing through a big rig, but at home it's one of my quietest stomp boxes. It also has true bypass, meaning that when it's turned off your signal doesn't go through its circuits.

The sounds fall into two categories: basic filtering effects that are variations on the wah-wah theme, and some analogue synth models. I don't use the filters much -- I've got a crybaby, thanks, and I don't need a "parked wah" or "auto wah"... I might revise that judgement next time I play some funk, though, as there are some nice Parliament-style sounds here.

IMHO the synths are where the real action is. I won't repeat the detailed descriptions others give below, except to say (a) yes, the tracking sometimes sucks, although playing cleanly with a compressor in front of the pedal with single coil neck pickup only minimises the number of times your notes turn int splatter, and (b) I like it when your notes turn into splatter anyway. There's a naturalness about the wya it glitches that means you can use these noises deliberately (playing double stops/chords will usually fire them).

One thing I noticed is that the synths seem designed specifically to take guitare input. I tried my electric violin and guitar with ebow and the tracking got dramatically worse.

It's true that what's a "usable sound" to me is probably not to you, and vice versa. But there are a lot of different sounds here and the quality seems to be uniformly high.

Have only had it for about 6 months, never gigged yet. It seems very phyically robust, but you never know, and given some comments below I would keep it well out of the way of moisture (I'd treat the equivalent battery of analogue gear that way too).

Never dealt with them. I'm in the UK, they're in the US, so my bet is that I'd have to get it repaired by a hacker with a soldering iron if it ever developed a fault.

If you like making whacky noises with your guitar, this thing is the best toy you can get for the money. Absolutely brilliant value -- imagine trying to buy even one quarter of the effects this thing emulates.

Yes, the original units do probably sound and behave a bit better, and you can chain them in bizarre ways, but it would cost you a huge amount more than the FM4 and be a lot of stuff to carry around. There's really no point in comparing this with the originals. Really it's a huge box of tricks at a very affordable price. I'd defy anyone except the most conservative folks not to find roo many really fun and useful settings to save on the four stomp switches.

Out of the box it's kinda ok, but beyond that it takes a lot of experimentation to get good sounds - it's actually much easier to make really hideous sounds than it is to make really musical sounds. This of course may be your bag. Most of the filters modelled have quite complex controls, so you need to really work with the manual and adjust things with care.

Hmmm ... I'm submitting this review because I'm about to sell mine. Ive had it for a couple of years and have persevered, but I'm just not a happy bunny. I think the problem is the same as with a lot of the other digital modelling products around - they suck tone and lack the warmth and shimmering quality of analogue. eg. I AB'd the Mutron model with an Electro Harmonix Q-Tron and the results were just plain scary - the Line 6 was harsh & cold sounding. If you want to get some funny noises for the hell of it, then there's loads here. But if you're looking for really musical sounds that truly enhance the tone of your guitar, I really think you'll struggle. Another eg. whilst I didn't AB it, I tried a Z-Vex Seek Wah a month or so ago and it was utterly sublime. The Seek Wah on the Line 6 simply isn't - it's like listening to an impressionist doing an impression of a famous person ... you recognise who it's meant to be, but you know it's not really them.

No problems at all.

Never had to deal with them.

I think I've just grown out of digital modelling. I've been playing for over 30 years and have done all sorts of stuff in that time. But at the end of the day, it's stunning guitar tone that makes the difference between hair standing up on your neck and something that just doesn't quite cut it. And I just don't think this pedal will ever quite get that hair standing up ...

it's just a matter of twiddling knobs until you get something that you can use...i sort of am familliar with how filters/synths work but you don't really need to know much about it to use this.

cool...i like how the speed can be touch sensitive on some of the filter patches and the mix knob is great for making a crazy sound more subtle if you want-the synths can be unpredictable(like the originals they are based on)but are definitely good for more than just strange noises . the spikes in volume can be a pain but you can kind of dial it out somewhat with the freq knob(depending on where other knobs are set!)-a compressor can also help with this like others have said. just the fact that all this stuff is in one box is pretty amazing.

i hope it's going to hold up-it has a year warranty so we'll see...i have not heard good things about line 6 pedals but mostly it's the DL4 that seems to break more than this one or the MM4-the reviewers below haven't seemed to have had a problem with theirs yet so even though i am slightly concerned i'm got going to stress about it.

with a little imagination you could use this for something with most types of music-i guess if i was in a country band(whatever that is these days)i might not bust it out but...you have all these good to great sounding models and can very easily store 4 completely different sounds-how could anyone not think that was a good thing?

...if you think that this product will be intuitive like the Modulation- and Delay modelers that line 6 makes, you are sorely mistaken. while all the mods share a common speed/depth basis and all the delays share a basic time/repeats basis, and these models come with cute stickers to tell you what the Tweek and Tweez knobs do to set additional model-specific traits), there is a WIDE variety of completely unrelated and dissimilar stuff crammed into this box. The knobs are labeled Freq, q, Speed, and Mode, but these things change a lot, depending on model. More to the point; this thing comes with stickers to tell you what the knobs do for each model, but these stickers have 1- or 2-letter abbreviations, and there is a THIRD sticker that serves as a legend to tell you what these things do... having to consult a fucking KEY for a stompbox with no screen is hardly ease of use...
(alas...i am still thankful it doesn't have a screen...).
However, this purple monster is a freakbox, through and through. people who buy the mm-4 and the dl-3 with their consistent time/depth fucntions and modestly variant Tweek/Tweeze variations want something they can understand, and feel good about themselves by having so many variations on a theme.
people who want/buy the fm-4 want it becuse they desire to relate to something they don't understand....something they can't master...something that reminds them of themselves; confused on the inside, and unpredictably violent, yet undeniably sexy....

this thing is very hard to use... but given what this thing can do, using it makes me hard...

I'm not rating the sound quality high becuase it sounds pristine, but because it's sounds are so flexible. The modulations on the mm-4 can only go so fast and slow, and only sweep so far (...I really wish the ring mod could be set for Deeper AM/FM...), and the delays on the dl-3 can only change so much (...but, then again, nobody needs more than two seconds...what the fuck is 23-seconds of GIGA-delay company BOSS thinking?...). of course these behaviors are limited in the name of emulating the classics they model.
thankfully, the fm-4 isn't really trying to caputure any classics, and is basically making it's own rules; hence, the filters and synths that it models offer HUGE speed- and sweep- ranges. Again, unlike it's brothers, the FM-4 is all about creating your own sound.

this huge range of parameter gauging is important for me, because I'm using it for a lot of stuff OTHER THAN guitar (microphones, drum machines, loops, keyboards), which have different dynamic and transient ranges...
thankfully, the frequency response range on all line six products goes a litte farther than guitar range - (but lacking low frequency heft makes it crap out on bass or kick drums... oh well, it still does a great job munging the sound).

For specific effects;
there are filters of all shapes and sizes, (and most can be adjusted in low/band/hi pass range...amazing...).
youv'e got everything from wonderful mutron 3 envelope followers to stepping filters (obi- and seeker), to crazy LFO stuff...

rather than review specific effects, I'll explain this;
if you don't know how filters work and how these things can be designed, then you are just likely to plug you guitar in, dial up a patch, and make some simple "mmm...that makes my tone kinda sweep/warble/sparkle" in a way that you'll either think is cool or stupid.
some of the effects are kinda weak, but still very well designed.
if you do know how filters really work, and (likely) have your own ambitions of how you wanna use them to shape sounds, then reading the manuals is like reading a porno-fantasy letter written about you... if you understand how these models work and how they can sound, then there is a lot of exciting promise in this very powerful and highly versatile package of filters.
to put it another way, only people who really know what filters are about use the Sherman filter bank, and I've actually heard that someone sold their sherman to buy two of these.

given all the promise of what the synths can do, thankfully, most of them deliver. the voice/formant stuff is a little dilute/weak and the comet trails is not what it's cracked up to be (...but still turns legato riffs into dripp-down-your-leg creaminess...).
overall, the filters whup ass
THEN we come to the synths.
the octisynth will inspire some people to start skronk bands, and just piss the rest of you tone-purists of...as far as I can tell, it's two effects that create two sounds out of your one guitar sound...on one end, your guitar seems to go through a ring mod and a LFO filter that's sweeping at audio FM-sideband ranges, making splatter noises, and the other end is a VCO (where your guitar controls the center pitch of a tone that you can set to stay constant or LFO warble at sickening sweep width and speed...). hence, as they claim, some VCO and vibrato and ring mod are involved...exactly how I don't know... the octisynth can be set to make snarling splatter noises or warbling tone wags, and some stuff in betweeen... either way, it turns anything into noise-fodder. my guitar player says "it's too fucking easy to play [in our noise band with it]," and he now hates me for getting him addicted to it.

the other synth models are more like guitar synths, in that they actually try to track the pitch of the note your guitar plays and recreate that pitch with a selectable waveform. different synth models have different waveforms (the synth-o-matic having the best stuff; the clickly pulse-mods and hummin

I bough it used, and the previous owner seems to have not treated this thing well. all the knobs and buttons and brain work fine, but the knobs are really dirty and get stuck.

I made the unfortunate mistake of getting a piece of snow in the knob-trough... it didn't work for 2 days, and I almost went comatose from guilt and remorse. after taking it apart (no warrantee to void) and gently blow drying it, still nothing... then, two hours later I tried again, and it sputtered to life.
these things are rugged as all hell in construction, as I have damn near used the heavy chassis to abuse my housemates...but the things have an achilles heel to moisture (read the beers story below)....the recessed trough begs to collect sweat and water and grease, vulnerable circuitry is obviously close to these access holes, and the knobs cannot be easily removed for service/cleaning. this is the one weakness.
I will definitely learn from my mistake, and I was lucky enough not to lose it. I cried a lot when I feared it was broken, but I made sure not to cry into it's vulnerable drip-holes.

it is definitely the dark-horse among line-6's stomp boxes, and among musicians.
most people will hate this, because it is of no use for it...
for a select few, this thing is WAY cooler than most stompboxes (including the dl-3)...



this thing is sickeningly powerful, and may be too versatile for some guitarists usage.
let me put it to you this way...
at practice, my guitarist was spazzing out on a synth noise patch. at some point, he dropped his pick and started using a COUCH CUSHION to rub the stings... I didn't hear the difference, and so I only fell over laughing once I notice the bass player fell over laughing and decided to look and see for myself.

...does this help me create music... NO... it is so powerful it makes me feel insecure about the frai and limited nature of my human feelings.
this thing has brought new colors (other than purple) and meaning into my life...it has even helped me maintain and reconcile my relationship with my girlfriend while she has estranged herself to california.
...no I'm serious...this pedal saved my love-life. thank you LINE 6.

It's pretty straight forward and the manual explains the functions well, but it takes a bit of tweaking, and there are lots of sounds to wade through before you find what works. Once you get a patch you like you can save it (up to four patches) and recall it.

Sound quality is a mixed bag: the non-synth filters are good for digital emulations, but the synths are not so hot. The Mutrons, Seeker, and Obi-Wah patches work well and are pretty flexible, these are fun. The Voice Box and V-Tron are weak and not of much use (they come off as weak auto filters...maybe with an expression pedal they are better). The Throbber, Spin Cycle, and Comet Trails are good for tremolo, vibrato, and chorus modulation effects, these are good and unique sounding effects and they are very teakable and versatile, and I think these and the Mutrons are the things that this box does well.
The synths are a bit of a disappointment, and they don't fair as well as the non-synth patches. The synths all seem to have a hard, cold, and dirty quality to them. They are not as warm and musical as an Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth, or as a Microkorg synth which also uses digital technology to model an analog synth. The synths will do a nasty distorted hard funk in-your face growl easily, and it is possible to coax a few nice sounds out of them. For example, there are some nice ring modulated metalic gong sounds, some cheesey organ sounds, and some queezy woodwinds and reeds, but overall the range of sounds is not as great as one would expect given all of the synths that this box boasts. I think the limitations come from there being a lack of control over the sound wave, as what this offers are preset patches that you can control tonally, but there is not really anything like sound synthesis going on, and the patches are all hard and "retro" sounding in a bad way. I also find the tracking to be weak, and this is with articlate single notes with the neck pickup, both single coils and humbuckers. Along with the weak tracking comes random dirt, farts, amd burps, but these have a digital glitchy quality which weakens the analog emulation experinece. To be fair, I've only had the pedal for a short time, but I've had time to suss it out to where I feel like I understand how to use it. Also, I've not tried it with a band. I have heard John Scofield recordings where I think he was using one of these and it sounded interesting, but not great (I think his tone is best with light effects).

Line 6 pedals seem pretty sturdy. I have a DL4 that I've been using for a while with out any problems. I've not had this pedal long enough to speak of it over the long haul, nor have a subjected it to any hard duty.

I sent them a few e-mails before and they got back with prompt and useful answers. Their help webpage is well designed.

I play a variety of funk, soul, jazz. I've been playing 20+ years, I used to work as an audio engineer, too. IMHO, I've got good ears for sound and tone. This pedal is good for auto-wahs and modulation effects, but the synths are not great....they are wacky and fun like a toy, but not as sound shaping tools. I think that this pedal would be lot better if they kept the non-synth effetcs (sans the Voice Box and V-Tron) and replaced the synth patch emulations with a decent virtual analog synth engine that would allow you to actually synthesize sound...they can do it on the $350 Microkorg synthesizer, so Line 6 should be able to pull it off. If the pedal had a synth engine that you could plug straight into with out MIDI, something akin to the Korg X-911, this would be an awesome pedal. But, as it is, the limited and cheesey synth patches that they put in the pedal take away from it overall. The stompbox design with four recallable patches is good. I bought this after having a DL4, which I really like, and was hoping for more. Given the size of the unit on a pedal board, and the price (in light of what's going on with synthesizer technology), I would not replace it or buy it again, unless I was looking specifically for a programmable pedal to do auto-wah and seek-wah, and some modulations (it's still cheaper than buying a Q-Tron and a Seek-Wah, but those will sound better).

I'm only giving a 6 because it's a trial getting used to this sucker. But that's because there are so many options available. If you don't use an expression pedal with this, you're missing out!

excellent sound quality. from the righteous to the insane. attack synth, obi-wah, seeker and comet trails are fantastic sounds! some are intentionally noisy, just like the original analog gear.... A VERY FUN PROCESSOR TO PLAY!!!!!

solid as a rock so far

never used them

a great toy, sounds good. the true bypass relays are a fantastic addition. some sounds are just too crazy too use, others are incredible!!!! not for everyone, but it works for me. from wah sounds, to phaser swells, to abrasive synth noise!!!!

let's see.. this is one of those pedals that takes a fair amount of ' tweaking ' on your part to find the sound you want for your particular type of music. 4 preset / save type function on it. i didn't find the manual all that helpful, although if you've used some similar type pedals before you know how to dial in what you want somewhat easily.

the sounds are, well, how can i say this? off the wall for some of them, damn good for some of em(again, this is all a matter of what style of music you play and what you are looking for in a pedal. it has a nice bypass on it, no problems there. keep in mind if you haven't used something like this that single notes are essential for the most part.

it's housed very well, seems like it could be thrown into the street and would survive!

i play metal, i'm still working w/ some settings on this pedal.. my idea was to use some of the functions for some sort of dark/ odd intros for songs, and it fits the bill for that. if you're into radiohead, there's some sounds for you with this. i was able to easily reproduce some of the sounds from the latest mars volta cd with ease with this pedal. i'm sure it's likewise useful for those into synth/ gothic/ industrial music as well. again, keep in mind that you'll need to work the pedal to get what sounds good for you. ( although i can see some impatient people tossing it five minutes after they get it because of impatientence and lack of familiarity w/ amps, effects, and even their own guitars.) overall, i think this pedal offers some unique sounds that can be suitable for many styles of music. i think that it's an effect that if used sparingly ( like many other pedals) you can really create something that sets your songs/ playing apart.

Ease of use is not a caveat of this model. It takes hours to really get the sounds you might want to use and incorporate into songs. The fact that you can save 4 presets is really an added plus though. Without this feature, the pedal would be a mess to use. The Manual is very comprehensive and useful, but finding one's own sounds takes time beyond this.

I see no problem with the sound quality of this unit, as others have noted. The original effects were not completely clean, and this is a modeler, not an "improver." I used this with a Hiwatt Dr103 (a very clean amp) and it performed very well. I don't understand why people comment on the usefulness of the sounds in this section. The usefulness is irrelevant, it is the sound quality we are rating in this area of the review.

I had no problems.

I bought this on ebay. To tell you the truth, I also sold it on ebay. It is a very interesting unit, but my band just didnt have time for me sitting around f$&*#ng with all the presets all the time. I like simpler effects that I can combine with my basic sound and then create a weirdness on my own. With the FM-4, the weirdness is there. Not much room for the creativity of the player, unless you are using this for background noise or more ambient uses. If I were to own this unit again, it would be used very sparingly, as I typically find a bit too obtrusive for typical use (except maybe for freak-outs). I probably just need more time with it (such as months). By itself, for it's purpose, it is an excellent unit. Whether it is useful is up to you.

Very simple to use, straight forward design. Easy to control numerous parameters with the twist of a knob or two. Save tones to the four stomp-box style channels by pressing the channel you want it to be saved as (A/B/C/D) and holding down for 2-3 seconds- simple. Manual is nice if you like manufacturer's reading material but you won't really need it to use this pedal properly.

The sounds this pedal can produce are some of the most vivid soundscapes that I have personally ever heard. However, I found the FM-4 to be just a little "too much" to effectively blend in with the majority of my guitar tones. If you just like to sit around, tweaking buttons and enjoying mind-bending sound effects than you'll dig it. If you want a mild filter-type effect to blend in with your live guitar tone than you might want to look elswhere. This thing sounds extreme in many ways but it's pretty hard to tame it for everyday use. Sound Quality-10 Sound Versatility/Usability 6

Feels like an M1. Sturdy as hell, well made. I would count on it for sure without a backup. I trust Line 6 products.

Never needed to bust their chops. Every single thing I've purchased from them has worked flawlessly, no exceptions!

Tremendous at what it does, which is royally f'ing your original tone and replacing it with some twisted frequencies from beyond. I dig this pedal, but only so much. I just cant use it as much as I originally hoped because it is just so drastic an effect. A little filtering seems to go a long way. I'm just glad I didn't pay for it new. Used it's a steal.

My only complaint with ease of use is the fact that once you've saved a patch, you have to know what they were, because you will never get them back again. It can be hard to get your settings back, especially on this one. Some of the effects can get so tweaked out (I love that by the way) that I've had trouble finding them again when I want.
Line 6 should think about making new versions that instantly recall the settings, sorta like those Fender modeling amps where the dials move to where the presets are supposed to be.

I really love this pedal. It's easily the most used pedal that I own (I own a lot, even though I rarily use most (I'm what you might call an effects junkie)). This pedal sounds great if what you are looking for are real unusual sonic textures.
Not to say that you can't have tone with this pedal though. There are plenty of settings that allow you to hear the guitar beyond the effect very clearly and precisely, it's just that I enjoy making noise with this pedal rather than making chords and what not (by the way, chords don't come out real good with most of these effects, as it says in the manual).
This pedal isn't noisy, nor is there a volume drop.
I play a mexican tele into this, a Korg AX1000, and a line 6 delay modeler into a vox AC30. With these things, I can make all the noise I want. It's relatively simple for my band, Didley Squat. I rely on making noise as well as actual guitar lines, so there you go.

I've owned this unit for a year and a half, and I've been gigging with it for a year. For some reason, I've only been through one set of batteries, which is real odd because I remember my delay modeler eating up batteries much faster. But, with a power supply, this thing is stupid-reliable. It's never died on me. I've come to rely on this thing heavily, especially because I use this pedal for so many of my band's better songs.
I've never had a problem with it in any way!

Never dealt with them, don't plan to.

This pedal is truly good for any style of music. Although it fits perfectly in my band, whose style can only be compared to a mix between Mindless Self Indulgence/They Might Be Giants/other weird funky stuff, I've actually been able to use cool settings for my own music, which is far more mellow (influenced by the likes of Radiohead and what not).
I love this pedal so much, and if it were to go missing, i'd be really depressed, because I'd have to find those goddamn settings all over again. I have no idea how I even came upon them, so, I'm sorta screwed huh?
In any event, this pedal is awesome. Buy it if you're feeling adventurous.

basic, simple as anything...tweak your knobs andd get it on!!! memory is a lil low itd be nice to have a tad more but whateeeeever

not a very noisy pedal for me...all the presets are pretty decent.. the synth sounds dont track well though but still try it out if your into this kinda stuff

built like a brick shit house.. id gig with it in kosove with no backup

never delt with them

i like this pedal but after a month it lost its novelty and i ended up only using 3 of the pre sets and 2 of them were the mutron settings.. pretty spendy for just those 3 considering a min q tron is 110$ not that the pedal is bad.. its good dont get me wrong, it just lost it for me..go try it anyways!

It's fairly easy to use. But it does take some time to get to know the knobs and what they do. The manual is great but you need to refer to it frequently.

OK my setup is as follows . . . American Strat (with humbuckers and other heavy mods) running to Ernie Ball Volume > Boss TU-12 > Fulltone Fulldrive 2 > FM4 (w/EX1) > MXR Dynacomp > MM4 (w/EX1> DL4 > Alesis Midiverb 4 (effects loop of . . ) Marshall JCM 900 50 watt head and 2x12 cab.

Sound Quality? . . . hmm? Well I think that you can get some things that are really cool and really interesting. Some can be down right useful depending on what kindof guitarist you are and what kindof band you play with. The guys I play with welcome that experimentation. The thing that I discovered was that the non-filter effects (in other words the ones that don't require only one note to be played) worked best when mixed subtle and/or mixed with some delays to just really create something specific that's a staple sound for a whole song or for something oogy for a dark intro or something. And then the other thing I discovered was that if you stick a compressor post FM4 you get control of the Synth/Filter effects that can tend to be wild. It totally tames them and makes them usable. Simple.

Now don't expect this thing to just make you sound better. It's a tool. A song writing or experimentation tool. It's for weirdness or that little something different from what other are doing.

So far more reliable than my other Line 6 pedals which all seem to have switch problems that are just annoying but not debilitating.

Try one out and if you think you can come up with a few ways to enhance your bands already weird sounds and you've got some extra cash go for it.

You twist knobs and step on buttons...enough said.

First off, my rig consists of Fender strat->Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner->Vintage MXR 10 Band Equalizer->Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter->Vintage DOD FX-17 Wah-Volume->Danelectro DJ12 Chili Dog Octave->Vox V847 Wah->Vintage MXR Phase 90->Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler->Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler->Danelectro Daddy O Overdrive-> Boss HF-2 Hi Band Flanger. I'm big into wacked out effects so i am in love with this pedal. I have the Growler, Obi-Wah, Tron Up and Throbber (set very fast to get almost a "helicopter" type sound) preset on the pedal...4 of my faves. i also like the Synth-O-Matic. It has like 10 different synth sounds that are nuts. the tron up is very excellent for funk songs which i play a lot of. if you sit down with this pedal for like a day you could find all sorts of crazy sounds. after sitting and playing with it for about 30 minutes i found this great sound: make sure your guitar is turned all the way down. select the Octisynth and crank the Speed and Mode dial all the way down. then slowly turn the Mode dial up until you hear a slightly high note. now move the Mode dial up and down. you get a kind of step effect of all kinds of notes. i'm currently working out a solo with it, it's a very Tom Morello-ish sound. now turn the Mode dial up to 11 or 12 o'clock. then play with the speed dial, cranking it up very slowly. that'll give you a real whacked out sound that reminds you of something from a cartoon.

Line 6, need i say more?

Dealt with 'em once for my DL4 and they were great.

Works great for my style. the possibilities are endless, just play with it and see what you come up with.

The presets it has are pretty good, but with a bit of time tweaking a fiddling, it's possible to get some really good sounds out of it that make you sound like nothing else...it's got the potential to make either everything you do sound cool, or to get you thrown out of your band...

I've never used the manual, but that probably just means I'm not getting all there is to get out of the thing.

Some sounds on it aren't really useful at all...such as the parked wah one...to be honest, it's difficult to make out any clear difference in your normal guitar sound, but perhaps that's cos it's relatively tame compared to the others...

Of course, some effects are really tone altering, and that's what I bought it for. The Growler setting for some reason makes playing funk and metal (a la RHCP) more fun, and if it's used properly, it can be good...

I'm using this with a Fender Strat, a Carlsboro (a classic British make for all you yanks) 200 watt amp, a morley wah pedal, a Boss DS-1 and a Digitech delay pedal, and it's not causing any problems...the true bypass system is really good cos it doesn't affect any of the signal from my other pedals.

It's hard to get sounds of other artists, but anyone who likes Radiohead can find a decent Mutron sound (like Johnny Greenwood's solo on Paranoid Android) with a couple of minutes tweaking.

This is built like something built very well. It's impossible to break it, and in my band, it's almost becoming compulsory to have massive enthusiasm for jumping on pedals, and this one is a pleasure to jump all over.

I would use it for gigs without backup as it doesn't need one...plus, they are fairly expensive for a 17 year old to afford a backup anyway.

never dealt with the company

I play mainly alternative stuff with my band, but this suits everything in some way...mind you, I can see that it wouldn't fit into every band situation, and it's miles easier to use in a band if there are two guitarists. This is because while one guitar can sound conventional, with just a bit of overdrive or something, then you can create sweeping textures, harsh jabs and all sorts of atmospheres with this thing.

They could've explained some things better in the manual. Things like what they mean by "the width of the filter?" It just seems like another Mix nob or gain for each filter. And for some effects the FREQ nob is the position of parked wah (to my ears), though in the manual they call it "the frequency of the filter." Anyways, you will spend lots of time with this pedal and will check back with the manual once in a while. After spending hours with it the first day I got it, I could hear its Oberheim emulation effect in my head while I was peeing.

It's got 16 effects to choose from. I'm going to tell you what I think of each one.

Tron Up and Tron Down

They both remind me of the 70's. Tron down sounds like space lasers. I think Tron up's more popular. It can sound like a cat cry or a bubble about to pop. They do a good job of being auto-wahs and sounding vintage.

Seeker and the Obi-Wah

I put these together because they both sound alike. It's a cool sound. I think Styx used the Oberheim VCF at the very end of "Mr. Roboto." So check that out if you want to hear an example of how these sound. You can change the frequency patterns around on the Seeker, though very subtle differences. I don't think anyone will get away with using these on a bunch of different songs.

Voice Box and V-Tron

I think these two are the worst out of the effects. If you're looking to get this pedal for the voice boxes, just get the real thing. These are more like 2 parked wahs you can sequence. I've been trying to like these effects to no avail. The voice box can make a wah'd out tremolo or phaser if anyone cares for that.

Throbber

I like Throbber. It's a spacey tremolo with 4 different wave forms. You can make a science fiction sound of electricity climbing between 2 prongs or the sound you hear when Ms. Pac-man eats a super pellet.

Spin Cycle

It's an auto-wah that speeds up the harder your pick and slows down when your sound fades off. In stereo, one wah goes up while the other goes down. I haven't found it too inspiring.

Comet Trails

This effect's trippy. Makes me think of a space ship's alarm system going off.

Slow Filter

This reminds me of Van Halen's 1984. The synth stuff at the beginning, where the notes rise up like bubbles from the depths. It's kind of like the Tron Up/Down, except you can slow it down.

Octisynth

People have fun with this one. It can kind of sound like someone adjusting a bad radio or someone warbling sheet metal. It also has this vibrato you can turn on to sound like sirens or funky wind shield wipers. It is a good fun noise maker.

Synth-O-Matic

It's 8 synths in one setting. This setting's one of my favorites. You can do an old organ sound or sound like you're playing songs through the 8-bit Nintendo. You can only do one note at a time, but if you do more, you can make some pretty sick sounds. The synth at 10 O'clock (on the nob) can make good wet fart noises and frying egg sounds if you hit more than one note.

Attack Synth

This synth sounds pretty evil. Hear a bunch of demons burning to death if you strum all the strings at once.

Synth String

A powerful synth sound. Sounds like the one used on Rush's "Subdivisions." Pity this effect doesn't understand more than 1 note. This might have been the one some people were warning about breaking speakers. It shakes my windows and pictures on the walls.

Growler

I like scaring the cats with this one. It reminds me of some sound effects I heard off of that old show "In Search Of..." Cool sound.

Q Filter

Ooo fun "your very own parked wah!" I guess you'll like this if you want to hear what a guitar sounds like while there's water stuck in your ears. Quite boring.

Most of the effects it comes with are very inspiring. Could be better/could be worse. Wish they took off the Voice Box, V-Tron,Q Filter, and trade them for something else like a some settings from the Electro Harmonix Frequency Analyzer or Microsynth. Still a lot of fun to experiment and play with.