Line 6 M-13 and continuos controllers

["William Walker" <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

I’ve been using continuous controllers for a long time, expression pedals to be more specific, to controller effects parameters as well as loopers, while keeping my hands free to play the guitar.. It started first with an early Lake butler single expression pedal, controlling the  delay depth, continued through the use of built in expression pedal jacks on a Digitech IPS33B, and when I  got my first  DL-4 back 99’, I got an expression pedal for it and have used it ever since for regeneration, delay depth and delay speed control. I sometimes  visit pedal board sites like pedaltrain.com  to see photos of other people’s pedal boards and I’m always amazed at how many people own DL-4’s, and how few people seem to use an expression pedal with them.  The ability to morph parameters with an expression pedal has become essential to me since I haven’t been using guitar synthesizer to create ambient washes and long sustains. To get the most out of a DL-4 I highly recommend getting an expression pedal for it, or any of the other L6 modelers for that matter.

 Since getting the M-13 I have been experimenting with using multiple delays and expression pedals to create long ambient pads, with the expression pedals set to control multiple parameters of mix, feedback, and in the case of the analog w/modulation delay, mod depth. Usually for these ambient sounds I combine the auto-volume swell delay, with the afore mentioned analog w’ mod delay, and either  the sweep or ducking delay.. I’ll have each delay often set to a different beat value, and control them all via tap tempo, so I can create complex delay polyrhythms. As far as the other effects are concerned, I’m finding how cool an expression pedal can be to morph a distortion preset. You can very easily set up an expression pedal to work as a gas pedal for your distortion effects so that when you push down on the pedal it changes the gain structure, EQ, and volume level of the overdrive. This kind of control is certainly not new, but I’m surprised more guitarists don’t tap in to this capability.

 Another thing I was curious to try out was the effects loop, which you can assign to be any where in the chain. In the past, one disappointment I’ve had with modeling processors is their sometime strange and non- musical sounding interaction with common analog stomp boxes. I have a favorite overdrive that I wanted to integrate with the M-13. I first plugged into the overdrive and then the M-13 and the results where less than desirable, with loading and loss of dynamic range in the pedal,  Next I used the overdrive in  the effects loop and the difference was like night and day, the overdrive, which is tube-driven performed perfectly. The other thing I noticed was the M-13 does not display the internal clipping I’ve noticed in modelers I’ve used before. With the vox tonelab I had issues with effects at the beginning of the chain clipping other effects in the chain creating harshness in the high frequencies. Bear in mind the M-13 is an effects modeler, not an amp modeler, it was designed to go in front of an amp, not direct. As an effects processor there are more sophisticated models on the market that will allow you to use many more effects at one time.  But what I like about the M-13 , other than its excellent sound, is it really is set up like a modular pedal board where you can swap the  order of effects very quickly and experiment with different changes of effects without scrolling through tiny parameter screens, and having to even perform save functions, as the M-13 remembers each knob tweak without  having to perform a save. This is very handy when you have to quickly change a parameter in performance.

Also, I ran A/B comparisons between my Keeley compressor and the onboard tube compressor model in the M-13, based on the legendary LA-2 compressor. I must say, the M-13 model is fantastic, quieter than the Keeley and very transparent and dynamic unless you really crank up the sensitivity, which is true for any compressor.

 As for the Looper, It really is like I mentioned before, l a  DL-4 with twice the loop length, separate switches for  half speed, and reverse. And undo and pre/post switch to place the looper either before or after the effects and variable feedback.. The undo works well and it is interesting to note that , although it won’t peel away anything other than your last overdub, it will remember original feedback settings, so that if you have set the feed back low to fade your loop out as you ad new content, if you hit undo it will restore everything including original feedback settings. The only drawbacks for me is only one expression pedal can be assigned to the looper function, which is a drag as I’d like to be able to control both loop level and feedback (called overdub level in the M-13), and the ability to vary feedback can only occur while in overdub mode not in play. Oh well,. Overall, I’m impressed with the M-13 and I’m having a blast with how much control I can have creating complex delays that I haven’t done much exploration of the other effects. Some of the mutron style  filter effects are cool, the sub octave fuzz is very cool, modulations in general are very good sounding with the leslie simulation and tri-chorus being stand outs. Overdrives are  good though I prefer my tube overdrive to most of the models, but I have been having great results using a combination of both analog and modeled distortions . This is a cool box that has a very usable looper and is a delay freak’s paradise.

Bill