Line 6 M13 - effects and a 28 second looper

[6stringbassist]

I've had this for a week now, and it's great, verys easy to use, really nice effects, and a nice looper.

I don't like distortion on bass so I can't comment on the usability of the distortion effects, but the reverb, delay and modulation effects are fantastic, as good as I've heard.

The unit is really really quiet, there's no background noise, and you get true bypass when it's not wanted

The looper is great, it gives 28 seconds of looping, and you get an undo facility which is very handy, not only for deleting if you make a mistake, but it's useful for a single run through over a loop. There's a single play button that's good for ending a piece too, press it and at the end of the loop it'll just play through once more.

One thing with the looper though, you need to be very clean and accurate with your playing, any ringing or sustaining notes when you end the recording results in a clicking noise as the sustain is cut off, you can see the sock that I've got tied around the top of the neck to cut down on ringing strings.
For ambient playing I've found using a volume pedal to fade in and out really useful. I've got an Ebow that's really great for producing nice ambient pads of sound, and use the volume pedal to fade them in and out while recording.

There's a very good and useful M13 forum on the Line 6 website.

This is highly recommended.

[Matty]

Looks like a good umit.
How many fx can it run at once?one from each bank? or all 12 stomps worth?

[6stringbassist]

It'll run upto four effects at the same time, that's plenty for me, I like room reverb with a touch of dimension C chorus.

[LowBlow]

Can it control outboard effects? i.e. switch in or out an external pedal?

[dub_junkie]

looks great - I like the footswitches on these and the X3 Live - my older XT LIve was terrible in that respect - real hit and miss selecting patches/adding boost etc - I actually quite fancy selling my Line 6 single pedals to fund one of these M13s. does it have amp models too/speaker emulation or is it just models of pedal FX?

[charic]

Quite interested in one of these, anyway else have any views? Looks like a great bit of kit im quite often aiming for quite an ambient sound when noodling by myself. Also thinking looping could be an interesting experiment.

[TheButler]

Where did you buy it, and if you don't mind me asking, how much? I've been thinking of the eventide timefactor, but this might be a bit more my cuppa

Edited August 9, 2009 by TheButler

[charic]

Ive seen them on gak. Look brilliant for the money dont they?

[TheButler]

[quote name='charic' post='563994' date='Aug 9 2009, 08:46 AM']Ive seen them on gak. Look brilliant for the money dont they?[/quote]

Yeah, they look really good. I've got an Eventide Timefactor though, so really i'm, only needing the loopers/dealys... so i'd be wasting too many functions i reckon.

[Finbar]

If you only want the loopers/delays, then I'm pretty sure they're the exact same looper/delay functions as the DL4?

[charic]

I dont think the dl4 has the looper. Also the m13's delays have apparently been improved on.

[Finbar]

The DL4 does looping.

The only feature it is missing, looking at it, is the Undo feature.

[6stringbassist]

The looper is crap on this.

I took it back to the shop and traded it for something else.

The DL4 is better.

[tayste_2000]

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='564577' date='Aug 9 2009, 11:06 PM']The looper is crap on this.

I took it back to the shop and traded it for something else.

The DL4 is better.[/quote]


How so?

The M13 does 28 seconds but you can the old DL4 trick of half speed where u get 56 seconds, plus undo and feedback controls, you can also control feedback with an expression pedal, you also have reverse which I don't think the DL4 had and you can use any effects in the unit at the same time which again DL-4 didn't have.

I'm a huge advocate of the M13, it's allowed me to sell off over 40 boutique pedals and I haven't missed them one bit, the beauty of it is it's works like a pedal board individual stompboxes and you on more to get your combination, 12 fx per scene allowing 4 fx at a time 1 of each bank but each bank isn't the same fx you can have bank 1 moving top to bottom delay, synth, octave.

I've taken this on about 15-20 gigs now over the past 2-3 months and done a further 30 practices only ever had one problem with it on one gig which since hasn't happened again. But it allows me to have one pedal board for the 2-3 bands I'm in plus knock together recording boards really quickly and have ambience boards setup.

The footswitches are not the same as the X3 ones I've not had a problem with any of mine and I'm not sitting in a bedroom playing in my socks this thing is getting jumped on night after night.

In terms of interface this is much better and easier to use than the Timefactor also has way more options some of the things I enjoy doing with it and expression pedals are relational gain increase to volume decrease, so as I increase the gain the volume decreases which is something I've been trying to do with analog for years, I can also get whammy sounds and to me they are better than the Whammy, I can do multi layer octaves such as octave down with a synth string line 2 octaves above my bass note.

Where I think people go wrong is they just get sucked into the options, I bought this and within 10 minutes had replicated my band board that I had been using for 2-3 years and then I moved on to replicating the board I use in another band. I've not yet nailed my huge 22 pedal board I had for studio work but at the same time I've been touring for the past 6 weeks so not really had time.

Hope this helps

[Finbar]

[quote name='tayste_2000' post='566673' date='Aug 12 2009, 12:21 PM']you also have reverse which I don't think the DL4 had[/quote]
It does.

Interesting to hear your take on it though, being (from what I can tell) a pretty much obsessive pedalhead

[tayste_2000]

It also has the one shot feature of the DL-4

Personally I've only found 2 issues with the looper both I knew about before I bought it, inability to store loops and undo is only one layer but other than that I've found it more useful than my Maneco Nanolooper, PDS2000, Boss RC-20XL, EHX SMM/H, Boss DD-20, also the delays are better than these as well.

I honestly can't say enough good things about this pedal, I've heard they are releasing a smaller one soon this year M9

Another great thing is you can upgrade firmware so it's more future proof than most other things we buy.

[sshorepunk]

If Tayste says this thing is working well on bass, I would trust him, he is without doubt the biggest pedal slag I know and I wouldn't trust him with my daughter

Speak soon mate!

Tony

[sshorepunk]

Odd question, but does it do true bypass?

Tony

[tayste_2000]

Yes and relay based bypass so you can have delay trails as the true bypass cuts them off but it does do both.

[charic]

Ah man I had nearly got over M13 gas

Now I want it again. So many things I COULD sell, but one day I could need them (recording gear).

Hmmm...

[sshorepunk]

Ste, what you using for moving your M13 around, our guitarist has his on a PT2 with an exp pedal and some other boutique box he can't do without?

Flightcase, bag etc?

T

[tayste_2000]

Using a Gator bag at the moment, think I'll sell it soon as I've missed having it setup in a flightcase with everything setup permanently.

It will fit on a PT Jr just with nothing else

[sshorepunk]

PT 2 may be better as it gives room for an exp pedal and tuner for those who dont get on with the Line 6 tuner!

I'll try and take a photo of our guitarists board tonight at rehearsal

T

[tayste_2000]

I like the Line 6 tuner other than it doesn't do my low a string

On ebay for 50 quid is a Line 6 X3 hardcase which is that much bigger than the M13 it allows for 1 and a tuner and such I think it would fit an M13 and 2 exprs.

That's what I intend to get.

Edited August 20, 2009 by tayste_2000

[tayste_2000]

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Spider-Effects-Pedalboard-case-medium-only-51-99_W0QQitemZ170372408547QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Guitar_Accessories?hash=item27aafca4e3&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Spider-Effects-Pedal...34.c0.m14.l1262[/url]

This is a cheap option will defo take the M13 and an expression maybe 2, depending on what you do with the power supplies.