initial thoughts on line6 mm-4 modulation modeller

exhausted

bad, very very bad.

i've got itA/B'ed with a voodoo lab microvibe, a boss ch-1 chorus and a mxr phase 100. these are the three effects i am primarily interested in. i own the microvibe, the others are on trial.

phase: noisy. breaks through my noise gate when the strings are muted. not a good thing. the MXR is silent in comparison. dialed in the sound i love on the mxr in about a minute. can't find that same sound in any of the phase models in the line6. the line6 has a wider range of adjustment but i can't find what i'm looking for. WINNER: mxr phase 100.

chorus: better than the phase. it's quiet. but again, when i can dial in what i'm looking for on the boss in a short time, i'll spent way longer trying to find it on the line6. WINNER: boss ch-1

univibe: my microvibe is a clone of an old univibe. when i bought it i compared it against a fulltone deja vibe and preferred the microvibe. it's dark but after fiddling with the trim, it's improved. the line6 univibe model is awful. i've never heard a vintage univibe but i hope they don't sound like this. it's terrible all the way through the range of adjustments. i hate it. WINNER: microvibe.

the rest of the line6 effects:
-tremolos: seem good but it's hard to fuck up tremolo. now, i have tremolo in my POD and my deluxe so i don't care about it here.
-flanges: seem ok but i hate flanging with a passion anyway so who am i to judge
-rotaries: i need more time to evaluate but a quick try of an extreme setting on the mxr yielding a sound i was happy with for a rotary sim.
-panning: who cares
-ring modulator: pretty cool but totally useless for my style. nifty none the less.

so, initially, i think i'm going to pass on the line6. i love my POD and i love my DL4 but this things not doing it for me. just the fact that i found perfect sounds on the others in seconds and can't recreate them on the line6 is bothersome. and it's noisy. too noisy for a digital pedal.

but the trial lasts a week so we'll see.

low_light

man, the more obsessed you become with the equipment i think the further you get away from just pure creativity. i only say that from the standpoint of the guy that writes his songs on an acoustic and then takes it to others in the band that can expand on it.. and then we play. i think id get too caught up in sounds and tones vs. writing if i knew too much. btw im not knocking ya, just thought about it while i read all of that.

gear i have strapped on now is my gibson wide body with a Lee Oskar harmonica... key of C. fun times.

-low

El_Kabong

Well you are more familiar with your other pedals...but I have heard the that the DL-4 is the best out of their *-4 line.

I heard Zachary Vex was pissed at them using one of his effects names for one of those -4 pedals and how it didn't sound anywhere close to his. I think he calls them Lying 6

oh and thanks for the review

exhausted

low, every time i find a new sound, i'm inspired to write something using it.

i write 90% of my stuff alone with an acoustic. but i get great enjoyment creating layers of sound over top of that acoustic during my recording.

low_light

fair enough, ex.

exhausted

same deal for me. except it's a phase pedal instead of a harmonica today. tomorrow it might be a harmonica. the next day it might be the click of a dirty pot in my overdrive pedal.

we're all just doing what we love.

low_light

cheers, greg

Pacomc79

ah the wonders of science, I rember tweaking the Line 6 stuff for the first time thinking wow, this is really cool I am in control of a room full of vintage amps and effects, then when I used them I was disapointed. Even with my limited skill I could tell it was not the sound that was in my head 8 to 12 glorious little glowing glass bulbs ooozing overdrive.

They don't sound like the originals neither do the amp models, what they do is get close enough to satisfy lots of people, us tone junkies will probably never be satisfied with digital effects untill they learn how to copy analog sound. Basically the line 6 is a cool idea but it's not perfect and the models don't sound close to what they say they do, we are questing for the tone of old, bad soldier joints and opsilators and all we like warm analog sound on our guitars at least. Class A is still state of the art in my world of tone especially living in an Apartment complex, I'd never get past 1 with a Marshall Stack or a Triple Rec.

What line 6 has done is taken the clothes of the effects and the skin and left out the soul. What we want is the soul damn the clothes.

Personally I think they got the new Dunlop Univibe about right those sound like ass too. Its the originals we want and the cheapest copy for the money is the Voodoo lab.

exhausted

i was actually really shocked as too how bad it really was given my experience with my other line 6 stuff. live and learn i guess.

so that eliminates the MM-4 for me.

i wanted to try a voodoo analog chorus too last night but they're $285 (compared to $125 for the CH-1) and that's just too much coin right now.

rob

I guess I'm from the old school, too.
All the amps I have smell like old radios when I turn them on, all the effects I have are old, work and sound erratic, when they're crackling, I think,, pieces of shit!,,,,

But when it all comes together, and all the sparks are aiming in the right direction, and the tubes are glowing, I think,,,,,,,,,,,"They don't build'm like this anymore!!!!"

Pacomc79

285 shit!!! that's way to much.

You could probably find an original CE-1 for not too much more than that.

The Voodoo Lab is going to be the one to get but I'd go for Ebay.


then again Keeley has a speed control mod he does you might check him out too. Slower and faster to a CH-1 I think

exhausted

canadian. but still a lot of money. still hoping i can find a used CH-1. i'll check out the keeley mod.

Pacomc79

I lied It's a Ce-2 mod