Out of the loop

I was doing some loops with my Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler in preparation for praise and worship at church last Sunday when I noticed that the recorded sound was distorted. I tried it a few more times, and when the problem persisted I decided to reset the unit (pressing on the two outermost buttons while powering up). That seemed to solve the problem, and I jammed with myself for a few minutes. Suddenly I heard a small pop, and my sound died. At first I thought I had unplugged something with my feet, so I checked all electrical connections. When that still didn’t produce a sound, I jiggled the cords – still to no avail. I checked my DL4’s connections and found them all solid, so I began to panic: what if the problem was with my gadget? I frantically tried other power adapters, and my worst fear was confirmed: my DL4 had somehow been damaged, and it wouldn’t power up.

The unit is now at the repair center, and I’m hoping it will get fixed. Meanwhile, my band 220 is preparing for a gig on February 11, and I’m not sure if we can make it. As I have been saying, the loop is essential to our sound, and without it our music may be a little thin. Oh, I’m confident in the voices of Ellen and Kukie, but I’m apprehensive that we may not be able to give a good show without our trademark instrumentals, especially since the gig is Lovapalooza, a Valentine party that will try to break its own world record on having the most number of couples kissing at the same time. I’m thinking the people will be in a party mood, and from an instrumentalist’s point of view, something livelier would be in order. A looper seems to be essential.

But who knows? Maybe our music would be accepted even with just two voices and one guitar. And I may end up enjoying myself more because I would be free from having to worry about think of nailing a loop perfectly. Just playing the guitar with two great singers singing – that might be a slice of heaven right there!