Re: Line 6 -DL4 or Boss DD-20 or Akai E2

[ArsOcarina@aol.com]

Kevin,

In a message dated 02/05/05 7:12:08, harrison@dnastudio.freeserve.co.uk writes:

> anybody got anything to add re; DD-20 . . .

Well, although I am a long-time EDP user I have owned 2 DL-4s, an RC-20, 
3 DD-20s and I also even once owned a pair of the original EH16-SDs (but 
that's all ancient history). My opinion on the DD-20 is that I liked it better 
than either the DL-4 or RC-20. It suited what I do a little better than those 
other boxes and still had a fairly generous 23 second max delay time.

I found the DL-4s easy to use and to have some very cool additional 
effects and features but to be not very rugged (broke a lot) and have a 
definite negative affect on the sound quality even in bypass mode. The 
RC-20 had a fantastic amount of delay time but no way to fade out loop 
material over time. The DD-20 has great sound quality (on or off) 
several cool effects (though not as many or as easy to access as the 
DL-4) and the neat capability of being able to set up a simple multiple 
synched loops within the pedal itself. 

Example: The DD-20 has 4 memory locations that you can store preset 
delay settings to. These are accessed by the footpedal on the right 
with which you can step through all 4 memory slots (and a "live" 5th 
slot) in sequence. The one neat trick of the DD-20 is you can switch 
from one slot to the other and the previous one keeps on playing 
(depending on the feedback setting). You can therefore set up a short 
delay and a long delay adjacent to one another and preset their delay 
times so that they synch up perfectly. It's almost like using "multiply" 
on the EDP. 

Set up a short repeating pulse delay in the first slot with 100% feedback 
so it keeps going indefinitely (or slightly less so it degrades only verrrry 
slowly) tap the right pedal to go to the next slot which could be set up 
to have a delay time of say 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x the delay time of the 
first slot -- the first short delay keeps on playing while you input 
a new longer delay phrase in perfect synch. Once you're happy with 
the 2nd delay you can hit the left pedal and lock out any new input 
and solo away on top of these 2 perfectly synched loops. Get the idea? 

You can do this with any adjacent pair of delay slots. If you move to a 
3rd slot while the original 2 are playing the first one stops and only the 
2nd (and your newly created 3rd one) will play. In this way you can step 
through a whole array of synched loops whose timing can be preselected 
to be subdivisions or multiples of each other in complex ways. Only 2 delays 
will play at a time . . . but that's still pretty cool. If you own multiple DD-20s 
their time settings are astonishingly accurate from pedal to pedal and even 
delays in seperate units still synch perfectly. In this way you can set up 
one pedal to do reverse delay stuff on the fly (or other effects) as desired. 
There are also some tap-tempo capabilities to the DD-20 but I haven't
explored them as much (they take a little reprogramming and an extra 
external pedal to do).

I am now back down to owning just one DD-20 but it is still a cool pedal. 
I hope this gives you some things to think about. Musician's Fiend is selling 
DD-20s for $185 in their latest catalog. There also seem to always be plenty 
of them on eBay for even less. I sold 2 of mine there a couple of months 
ago for nearly as much as I bought them for originally. They seem to be a 
pretty good value.

Best regards,

tEd ® kiLLiAn

"Different is not always better, but better is always different"

http://www.pfmentum.com/flux.html
http://www.CDbaby.com/cd/tedkillian
http://www.guitar9.com/fluxaeterna.html
http://www.garageband.com/artist/ArsOcarina
http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=2845073
http://www.netmusic.com/web/album.aspx?a_id=CBNM_17314
http://www.indiejazz.com/ProductDetailsView.aspx?ProductID=193

Ted Killian's "Flux Aeterna" is also available at: Apple iTunes,
BuyMusic, Rhapsody, MusicMatch, MusicNet, DiscLogic, Napster,
AudioLunchbox, Lindows, QTRnote, Music4Cents, Etherstream,
RuleRadio, EMEPE3, Sony Connect, CatchMusic, Puretracks,
and Viztas. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Blah, blah, blah. So???

"Just because nobody understands you doesn't mean you're an artist."