Some effects pedals like overdrives, compressors, EQ’s and so on are mainly just there to do a job, but others like the TC Electronic Flashback X4 Delay and Looper effects pedal have the ability to transform your sound and even the way you play.
Released in September 2012, the TC Electronic Flashback X4 has twelve types of built-in delays, four Toneprint slots for adding custom delay patches, three presets for your own patches and so you can change delays instantly, a 40 second looper, tap tempo plus expression pedal input, MIDI In and Out, Stereo input and output and USB/wireless connectivity.
A first-rate, pro-quality pedal that would easily handle serious stage work but would also feel right at home in the bedroom or home studio, the TC Electronic Flashback X4 Delay and Looper is great for letting loose your creativity or recreating classic sounds and at under $250 is priced to compete with its peers.
Click here to see what others are saying...- Pro-quality, great delay effects and looping
- Free TonePrint custom delay patches
- Hard to switch between looper and delay mode while playing
Using the fat, finger-friendly knob at the top left of the TC Electronic Flashback X4 you can quickly and easily select from one of the twelve built-in delay types ranging from the essentials like Tape, Slap, Analog to more obscure ones like Space, Reverse and Ping Pong and of course the industry standard TC Electronic 2290 Dynamic Digital delay (think The Edge or Robben Ford). State-of-the-art, yet paying homage to old-school tones. TC Electronic have also worked hard to maintain tonal integrity and achieve zero loss of tone. Removing the backplate gives you access to two, small dip-switches allowing you to choose between True Bypass and Buffered Bypass and Kill/Dry on/off and with optimized headroom it handles anything you throw at it with ease, from guitar to amp-FX-loop signals. Also, whether the pedal is on or not, Analog-dry-through means the analog signal from your guitar is passed through undigitized with no tone coloration or latency. Again using the top-left knob you can choose from one of the spots set aside for four different TonePrints, a cool, unique TC Electronic feature that lets you load and save free custom tones from such renowned guitarists such as Steve Morse or Bumblefoot. Download them to a PC and load them to your TC Electronic Flashback X4 via the "old-school" USB connection, but an even cooler option is to use the free TonePrint app to gather all them in one place and to beam them through your smartphone or tablet speaker direct to your guitar's pickups then to your pedal. It'll even work flawlessly in a noisy pub since it is transmitted as a magnetic impulse.
A mini switch toggles between delay and looper mode. In delay mode the first three footswitches allow you to save and switch between different presets. A brief press of the switch lets you select a preset. To save your current delay settings into one of the three presets, press and hold a footswitch down for a few seconds. The fourth is the Tap Tempo switch simply tap out the tempo you want with your foot. Use the mini toggle to switch to looper mode and you'll find a cool feature is the delay stays on. The TC Electronic Flashback X4 is capable of an impressive 40 seconds of recording and looper mode is intuitive enough to come to grips with in minutes thanks to the four footswitches. To begin recording press the leftmost switch, press it again and it will start looping what's just recorded. You can layer recordings by repeating this. If you don't like it press the fourth footswitch to undo it, if on second thoughts you did like it, then press it again for a redo. The second switch lets you pause and resume the loop, while the third one lets you play it just once, handy for endings. With the delay engine completely separate from the one handling the looping there is a focus on letting you get the delay sound you want while also letting you add delay to your loops. The other four knobs control delay time (between repeats), feedback (number of repeats), delay volume level (without affecting the signal from your guitar) and loop volume level. Last but not least a three-way switch lets you set your repeats to quarter or dotted eighths or quarter and dotted eighths. As a hint try using the 2290 modulated delay in quarter and dotted eighths to get a sound similar to The Edge something that used to take two delay units to achieve.
In a departure from most pedals the TC Electronic Flashback X4 Delay and Looper Pedal even comes with a power supply included so you can get up and going without delay (pardon the pun). A sturdy housing and robust controls round out the picture of a more than capable delay pedal for gigging or home use.
With sound quality that respects your guitar and amp tone, a hard to beat range of built-in delays and an easy way to add even more via TonePrints the TC Electronic Flashback X4 is a must have if you play guitar and for a pedal in the vein of Vox's DelayLab and Line 6's DL4 the price is spot on.
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