Line 6 DL4 Mk II

See this post on TGP. This user appears to be connected to Line 6 and specifically rules out midi sync on the looper. Other evidence is the fact that the manual mentions absolutely nothing about looper midi sync (or any sort of tempo sync), and indeed the footswitch assignments in looper mode change the tempo switch to a half/double switch, which rules out tapping updated tempos to keep the looper in sync.

I see. I appreciate you being a good sport about my ā€œheard from my broā€ joke.

Iā€™m guessing youā€™re getting caught up on this thread but be sure to check out this post. I mean, skip my dumb joke and read the part about Ideascale and stuff.

Thanks for the link - I didnā€™t realise that Line 6 doesā€™t have loop sync on any of their products - even their flagship megabuck whizzbang MFX (Helix) or their dedicated looper (JM4). Clearly Line 6 donā€™t have the resources and/or motivation to develop the code for it, so I wouldnā€™t be expecting it on any Line 6 product for a while. Unless they sink those development costs into a ā€˜JM4 mk2ā€™, after which they could paste the code via a firmware update into their other products (Helix, DL4 mk2 etc).

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Their comments about the Headrush Looperboard were quite telling to me.

Headrush Looperboard folks tried to make a looper to please all possible customers, and seemed to not please anyone in the end.

Hence the decision to keep the looper in the Helix units utilitarian. But they did leave the door open with that invitation to submit your idea to Ideascale and pray it gets loads of votes. Seems to me that the DL4 MkII has better odds than any Helix device of winning the right amount of votes because it is more dedicated to delay and looping than the general-purpose Helixes.

how is it possible that they made it uglier?

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When v1 was on sale, the delay world was quite different. I wonder how this will fare against all the amazing delays around today?

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i think most of them are used for looping, donā€™t think theyre redundant at all

when i was still playing in bands i had 2 DL4s, one for triggering one shot loops and another for looping the one shot phrases again

yup, one for delay and one for looping was a common use case

well I was mostly joking in that commentā€¦ anyway I never got into their music, but I did watch some of the above linked video on him discussing the mk2, including where he plays some of their parts. looks like he does what youā€™re talking about, as well as recording/triggering loops on both of them at once. seems like thatā€™d be tricky to do live while standing, and it still doesnā€™t explain why thereā€™s four of themā€¦ I mean, he only has two feet. :thinking:

itā€™s cool to see people have used it in that manner. Iā€™m a bit surprised, as I thought it was established in the mid 00ā€™s that anyone serious about looping uses the Echoplex.

Iā€™ve considered replacing my dl4 a few times (it didnā€™t break, I just traded it for another pedal) but Iā€™ll wait and see what people say about this mk2 once itā€™s in the wild. The mk1 is lacking by todayā€™s standards but when it came out there was nothing like it. And it was just fun to use.
Replacing the switches was a required mod on that whole series. The stock ones were possibly the worst stomp switches Iā€™ve ever seen. Basically a push rod hitting a micro switch all housed in a flimsy fake stomp switch. I put some milspec switches in my fm4 15 years ago and itā€™s still going strong.
Re: Dave Knudson, I was a big fan of his earlier band Botch back in the day and saw them lots of times. He always had two dl4s on his board back then. I thought his tone was perfect for that band but it wasnā€™t what a classic tone chaser type guitarist would be after. Artfully artificial. Listen to the album ā€œwe are the romansā€ for the most concise example, it was their final album (something like 1999 or 2000).

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My guess is most sales will be driven by nostalgia for the DL4.

My interest in this thing comes from my own nostalgia for my DL4. It was the first looping device I bought - I did use the delays too btw. I couldnā€™t afford the Echoplex Digital Pro or the Electrix Repeater.

I later got the EDP on clearance sale from Musicians Friend. Way more capable, as expected, but also more complicated. I then understood why some fellow musos were reluctant to switch from DL4 to something else for looping - itā€™s very easy to use - one of the easiest to use loopers ever designed.

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Mine just arrived from sweetwater. I ordered the day it was announced and it got here early, free shipping option and Iā€™m in Los Angeles. Iā€™m impressed! Gonna try it out now and compare it with the DL4 mike mod version I have. Very excited, I absolutely love the dl4!

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Any DL4mk 2 users that can confirm if the looper sync to midi or not?

Yes I successfully loop my DL4 in sync with my Yamaha Multi 12 pad.

The trick is to create a MIDI pattern which sends a command to ā€˜play loop onceā€™ at the start of every bar (or however long your loop is) This is the best way to do it so it syncs with the clock every bar. If you try to do it from just the regular play button it will eventually go out of time.

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I used to love my DL4 v1, but a few quirks got me to resell it:

  • pots were becoming noisy
  • it was adding a bit of hum in my FX chain
  • it was removing some treble so my guitar would sound slightly less alive, even when the FX was bypassed. I disliked this most.

Do you know if v2 is doing better in these areas? Cause the sounds you could get were very impressiveā€¦

I am determined to grab a cheap DL4 MK1 again soon. Itā€™s such a timeless pedal for making and mangling loops. Iā€™m still in the early 2000s era of weirdo guitar bands and donā€™t care for modern bells and whistles that complicate things.

Yeah the MK2 is really solid. Iā€™ve had it for about a year and had no problems. Itā€™s real easy to swap between new and old delay types as theyā€™re banked, so if the old algorithms is what youā€™re after, itā€™s super easy to access. Itā€™s also got several reverbs, bit theyā€™re a little bit more difficult to access/change. If anything, they may have added too many bells and whistles. It sounds real good, but a few of those new delay types arenā€™t going to be getting used and it would have been cool if they replaced them on the selector knob with the verbs.

All in all, $200 is a great deal for it.

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Iā€™ve been satisfied with the 6-Switch Looper included in the HX Stomp for guitar practice but the MkII has a much longer recording time for looping longer chord progressions. So the $200 price is tempting me as well.

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