You are designing a line 6 DL5, what do you do?

[hugbot]

A little thought experiment, what do you include? Or same question for any other varation of the xx4 series.

Remember that line 6 is delibirately aimed at the mid level of the market, so a strymon killer with a billion parameters would be unlikely.

 

[owen2j]

Better switches first and foremost

Maybe a bit smaller, but same design

Standard power requirements

Maybe some new models (include pitch shifted delays )

 

[hugbot]

My thoughts:

Get rid of the old switch design (the dl4 switches hit a button mounted directly on the PCB, which is why they fail so much).

5 buttons, one dedicated to switching to looper mode without having to bend down. You could extend this to a hypothetical DL5 with a boost button, an FM5 as a momentary expression button and so on.

Keep Lo Fi the same because its great, but upgrade all the other models.

Dedicated tone eq knob alongside tweak and tweez.

Dont immediately forget previous settings when bypassing a patch.

 

[stinkfoot]

Slightly smaller footprint
Analog dry signal path

Other than that, I'd be fine.

 

[thiscalltoarms]

Add a bpm screen or it will still be a WTF in the DD20 battle. Add subdivision for tap tempo other than rhythm mode. Fix the switch issue. I'd be in. I like the looper and sounds generally.

edit: yeah the power requirements need to come into the 21st century.

 

[cubistguitar]

I would like an updated DL4, my old one was a lot of fun.

Switches have to be durable, a little smaller, access to looper from the footswitches, update those models, add a few more models, a bpm/ms indicator would be useful

but the concept is sound, thats why they sold a gazillion of the original units

 

[TheoDog]

Maybe a kind of LED on each knob to see the actual value of the knob when switching presets since the physical knob pointer becomes irrelevant. I believe Line 6 does this on some of the modeling amps.
And of course subdivisions.
Same ergonomics could work with a feature to hold the tap switch to access the looper.
And maybe a more flatish form factor with less deco features that just collect dirt... Similar to the facelift Visual sound did.

 

[rust_in_peace]

Add subdivision for tap tempo other than rhythm mode.

This. Also, have tapped in tempo stay on when switch the pedal off like Boss does. Nothing worse then having to re-tap every time you turn the pedal on in the middle of a song.

 

[the_rising]

I'd say make the form factor basically the bottom row of the M9 (3 delays with a tap tempo). Some of the delay switches could be combos for tuner or even something to allow multiple presets of 3 delays.

On top of that, replace the switches with top-end soft touch switches. Also give it an external tap jack.

 

[codetocontra]

Global tap tempo available while bypassed.
Better switches (duh).
Improved delay sounds.
New delay models, like pitch shifting and a shimmer/ice mode.
More stomp buttons for more looper control, akin to the M9.
Keep stereo in loop mode.

That is just the minimal for improvements.

 

[crowquill]

Strymon did this. They called it the timeline

 

[Balok]

Analog dry through, tap tempo can be used as a preset instead, add a switch for 5 total presets, double switch tapping allows bank up and down, another double tap enables tuner via LEDs. Should be possible to move switches closer together, since almost nobody has a 5" wide foot.
And hire a couple of QA engineers to address the horrific reliability issues. I went on ebay a couple months back and there were 13 non working DL4s for sale. No exaggeration at all. Ridiculous.

 

[Classic09]

A little thought experiment, what do you include? Or same question for any other varation of the xx4 series. Remember that line 6 is delibirately aimed at the mid level of the market, so a strymon killer with a billion parameters would be unlikely.

I was going to say the same features as the timeline.

 

[owen2j]

I was going to say the same features as the timeline.

I was hoping the timeline would reduce the cost of the DL4 tbh

Considering it has been out so long, the £200 price mark seems to be pretty firm.

That being said, it probably still sells well at that price point, so there is no need to change, I'm just being greedy

Just gonna throw MinusTheBear into the mix here, maybe some way of storing loops would be great for those that use the DL4 in that way