Headrush vs dl4 question

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pdadda

pdadda

Captain Sea Boots
I have had a BOSS DD20 for a while now, and I love it. My band recently broke up, so I am doing more solo work now. I find the looping abilities of the DD20 a bit limited. The thing that bothers me most is that I can't stop the loop without it getting deleted. I watched a video of a dude named Joe Driscoll that I thought was pretty cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-jSyPxNgTI
He uses a line6 dl4 for its looping function. He stops the loops and then restarts them with the push of a button. At around 2:55 in the video, he restarts the loop several times without letting it finish. I definitely want to add this so my live solo work.
I also looked at the akai E2 headrush (KT Tunstall's pedal of choice). I noticed that you can build a loop and then remove all overdubs (back to the original loop) with the push of a button. Cool. But does anyone know if you can stop the loop with a button push and then restart it like on the dl4?
The amount of looping time isn't really a concern for me. I would need maybe 10 seconds. Since I already have the dd20, I don't really need more delay options, but both of these pedals have some.
 
OK, I found out that you can stop and then restart your loop with the headrush. But it doesn't look like you can get that stutter effect like the dl4. Are there any other pedals out there in the <$300 price range that can achieve this stutter effect with your loops?
 
OK, I want to get one of these pedals used. I have heard the dl4's are prone to crapping out. Any suggestions on ways to check the condition of them since used will not have any warranty?
 
That's the thing with looper pedals (and compact pedals in general) -- it seems that you can never get all the features at once, in one unit.

In my old band, I used a dl4 and the bass player used the Headrush. The headrush has that "master loop" feature where you can layer and layer and then drop out to just the first loop, which can be a breath-taking effect, but it cannot one-shot trigger the samples like the dl4.

As noted above, the dl4 also can reverse a sample and make a sample half-time (or both). A great trick is to hit the half-time button before you record your loop . . . this gives you 28 seconds of sample time at half the frequency. Very cool! Then, if you stomp the half-time switch again, your loop becomes double-time.

It would be great if there was a pedal that combined the features of both of these units. I'm not sure that there are until you spend a lot more money.

I had a dl4 for 6 years and I abused it. It was exposed to smoke, had beer spilled on it, was stomped on, stored without a case, taken on tour, people borrowed it, etc. It never once so much as lost a preset. I swear to God I never hit it. I would never hit an effects pedal. However, when I sold it a few months ago, it left with a few scars. Later, I read the reviews for it on harmony central and wow! Did you read those? It seems like 60% of the people that buy one have them die after a few months. I was shocked, since mine was so reliable.

I would buy one new if I had to do it again. You don't get that much of a discount buying used with that pedal; the resale value is way too high. And borrow one before you decide to buy it. It's a weird box.
 
OK, last question on this topic. Are the quality of the switches better on the E2 than the dl4? I tried out the dl4 the other day, and I thought it sounded great and was easy to use. But the swicthes seemed like crap. I plan on using this a ton on stage, and I don't want to drop $250 for it to crap out on me a year later.
 
I just called up my local GC and asked if they had the E2. They said they didn't but that they could have it shipped from another store, but I would hae to put down the money up front to do that. I told him I just wanted to test the build quality, but he wouldn't budge. Can anyone vouch for the E2 build quality? I know alot of the dl4 reviews say they crap out after a year or so, and the E2 hasn't even been out that long.
 
One more bump asking about the build quality and switches on the E2. Are they PCB mounted like on the DL4? I'm planning on buying this by the end of the day unless I hear something to dissuade me about the build quality.
 
What about the Boss RC-20. I know a guy that has one and does a solo gig with it. He plays the first verse recording it, then when he goes to the second verse he plays back the first verse so he can add a part. It's not super obvious, which makes it especially cool. He uses an older 5-minute RC-20. Is there something shitty about them that would make one opt for the others. I read reviews that said the headrush wasn't as good as the rc-20, but people always say that about the gear that they chose.
 
The build on the RC20 seems similar to the build on my DD20. The DD20 is built like a tank, and it is one of the best pedals I have ever purchased. BUT, the switches are a bit heavy for looping in my opinion. I have missed several loops live by not hitting the pedal hard enough.
 
The dd20 only records for so many seconds. The new RC 20 is like 16 minutes or something crazy.

DO these things have onboard memory? Like you can put together a few verses/choruses and stomp your way to a one man band?

This guy I was talking about played Use me last night and he would cut the loop when he sang the "i wanna spread the news" part, and then he'd start the main figure after that and add a part. He was able to do that cool harmony part to the main lick and have chords comping and kinda like bongos by beating on the top and side of the guitar. I, for one, thought it was cool. I don't think anyone else in the place even noticed.
 
my brother used the boss when doing a show - i think he used it mainly for vocals. he'd written the music for a piece of theatre, and they were performing it in smaller venues, so he was completely unamplified, though they had a mic setup set at a really quite volume so that he could loop his vocals.

when he used it, the atmosphere on stage was quite intense as a relationship broke up - the lead character was meant to be schizophrenic and by chance the mic picked him up shouting "piss off!" at his wife and looped it, and he happened to shout "i love you!" about a minute later straight after - you can't rehearse stuff like that, was quite powerful.

i saw a metal band use one two - it sounded like they had prerecorded loops in it (like synthy effects, and sound effects (hard to describe, but nothing you could do on a guitar, live) was quite cool :)

Andrew.
 
Thanks for the heads up on the B&H. I went ahead and ordered the E2. I'll post my review after I mess around with it.
 
Here are my inital impressions after several hours with the E2:

1. The sounds quality is great, even on the extended playback time setting.
2. The switches are very easy to press. My loops are much smoother on this than on my DD20.
3. The switches are a little close to each other. Pressing both simultaneously changes modes. This is actually quite helpful once you get used to it, as you can switch between looping and delay with one foot press.
4. If you change from looping mode to delay and back to looping mode, your loop is gone.
5. The delay seems cool, yet the delay features on my dd20 seem a bit better. The HF damp feature is great, particularly on drums.
6. This can also be used as a channel splitter. Put it on normal delay, and set the delay to minimum (0.5 ms). Then send the first 2 outputs (identical minus the 0.5 ms delay) to whereever you want).
7. You can't use the delay and looping at the same time. This is not a problem for me as I put my dd20 after it.

I'll post more thoughts after I mess around with it more.
 
How do one of these work if you have to change time signatures in a song?:D

I've seen K.T. Tunstall use it, and it's cool. I think it would be cool to use it in my Elvis Tribute.
 
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