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DD-20...worth it?


Y0UNGBL00D

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I must be the only one who actually likes PBR:confused: And I like lots of "craft beers" normally. Oh well. My point is the DD20 will get the job done, you might even like it, but you could probably get something better for the same amount of money. The DD20 is a solid workhorse, but I don't think theres anything particularly amazing about it. Its...uhh...delay.

 

 

I thought I agreed on the PBR analogy. I probably wouldn't go as far as saying that I actually like PBR, but it's a decent cheap beer.

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Lol its all good. More PBR for me. And tom92 im not saying you have to go timeline...but given the choice between dd20, dl4, nova delay, delaylab, smm/h.......and so on with similarly priced delays...the dd20 is kinda the homely sister. You dont have to go timefactor or timeline or anything like that to find something more versatile/ exciting/ better sounding

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Lol its all good. More PBR for me. And tom92 im not saying you have to go timeline...but given the choice between dd20, dl4, nova delay, delaylab, smm/h.......and so on with similarly priced delays...the dd20 is kinda the homely sister. You dont have to go timefactor or timeline or anything like that to find something more versatile/ exciting/ better sounding

 

 

I'm just going to come out and say it.... I think he DL4 is {censored}. I've owned a couple of them and I don't feel like they sound good, there's always a volume drop on your dry signal if you want the repeats to cut through a mix, you can't tap the tempo in without first engaging the pedal (major fail for those who use tap tempo), it's unfeasibly huge, it has reliability problems, etc etc etc. It's good for dirtier grungey sounding echos, but only if tap tempo isn't important to you.

 

I also don't think the DD-20 is the homely sister of that bunch (I think the DL4 is). I think the other delays you mentioned are all excellent in their own right, but each of them excels at different things. Except the Delay Lab, which I haven't tried and wouldn't buy because it has the same sucky tap tempo system as the DL4. I've owned DL4s, DD-20s, Nova Delays and SMMHs multiple times each, and if I had the space for all three of the latter on a board I'd probably do that. They're all good enough and different enough to warrant it.

 

FWIW, I had a Timefactor once too. Quickly sold that and went back to the DD-20 because it just sounds better.

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I always think he people who say the DD-20 is boring or vanilla or 'um...just a delay' or whatever really haven't had the imagination to do anything fun with it. It might not be brimming with space noises, but it's feature set it extremely unique in a lot of ways.

 

Which other delay in its class can off you 23 seconds of perfectly beat-sync'd ping pong modulated delay? Whilst 23 seconds of delay might not sound useful, it is if you open your mind a little and stop thinking about slapback and dotted 8ths. If you sync it to a beat (using the screen to be accurate, or tap if not) then you can set it up as like a constantly evolving one repeat pseudo-looper thing, so that each bar you play a lead phrase which then becomes the backing phrase for the next bar before disappearing. That's one example of the fun {censored} it can do, and there are lots of others too.

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Why would you say that? I was really looking forward to my dd-20 arriving and I really hated PBR when I tried it and now I'm all sad.

 

 

Definitely don't be sad. The DD-20 is a great pedal with lots of potential to do fun things, it just doesn't have the same potential as the Line 6 stuff for you to just hit a button and get a spaceship noise.

 

The DD-20 excels at rhythmic delay stuff IMO- the tap tempo functionality is excellent- you've got the ability to dial in precise delay times or BPMs, lots of subdivisions, LOTS of delay time available and a good solid sound to work from. You've also got a halfway decent (but very basic) looper on board and the option of separate wet and dry outputs, which could be your ticket to all manner of interesting delay tones- put whatever other effects you want in the "wet" chain, then find yourself two amps, or a pedal with stereo ins and you've got the potential for all sorts of modulated / filtered / pitch shifted / messed about with delays.

 

Sure, some of the modes are kinda dumb and you'll need a tap tempo pedal to get the most out of it, but don't let the absence of instant gratification silly noises put you off a very fine workhorse pedal.

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I'm still loving the Nova Repeater, mind... I like the stereo vibrato modulation on that for the two amp thing, really adds some depth. The chorus modulation isn't quite as good as the DD-20's though. The reason I switched is mainly that I found myself becoming anal about the BPM setting - like, i'd bend down between every song and adjust it to match the drummer's metronome setting. I wanted to stop doing that, so I got a delay without a readout. :D

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You don't need a tap tempo pedal, you can change the way the footswitches work and one mode offers on/off with one pedal, tap tempo on the other pedal, and preset cycling when you hit both pedals together.



It does that?

I read the manual from cover to cover when I got my DD-20 and I don't remember that one. Mind you, I only had one DD-20 compared to your three, and there's dozens of those little "face west and hold the DD-20 upside down in your left hand and insert a right angled jack in to the left output to activate the clock radio mode" tweaks so you're probably right :D

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It does that?


I read the manual from cover to cover when I got my DD-20 and I don't remember that one. Mind you, I only had one DD-20 compared to your three, and there's dozens of those little "face west and hold the DD-20 upside down in your left hand and insert a right angled jack in to the left output to activate the clock radio mode" tweaks so you're probably right
:D

 

haha yep, that's probably in there too. Yeah you can change what the footswitch setup is. There's also a mode where if you hold down (i think) the left pedal when powering up you can set it for -10 or +4db, killdry, and a couple of other things. Lots of hidden settings in this thing. And actually if you've got a significant volume boost from overdrive pedals etc I tend to find the +4 setting to be pretty useful.

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haha yep, that's probably in there too. Yeah you can change what the footswitch setup is. There's also a mode where if you hold down (i think) the left pedal when powering up you can set it for -10 or +4db, killdry, and a couple of other things. Lots of hidden settings in this thing. And actually if you've got a significant volume boost from overdrive pedals etc I tend to find the +4 setting to be pretty useful.

 

 

I remember the other stuff, including the fact that you could change the footswitch functions, I just couldn't remember there being one that made it possible to use presets and tap tempo easily without all that "press and hold" nonsense.

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