Summary
• Pros: The Ditto X4 has excellent sound quality, on-board effects, dual-track looping, four footswitches for hands-free use and MIDI sync.
• Cons: No metronome or drum tracks. Only stores two loops in memory (switching handled by USB connection). FX can only be applied to both loops at the same time.
• Overall: A great looper. TC Electronic has taken their success with the original Ditto Looper and made it even better.
Compare Prices:
• Amazon: TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper
• zZounds: TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper
Full Review
TC Electronic announced the Ditto X4 looper in January of 2016. It’s the full-featured big brother to their extremely popular Ditto and Ditto X2 loopers. It’s essentially two Ditto loopers stuck together with a lot of fun options for getting creative. For example, you can record and play two loops simultaneously, switching them on and off to build complexity. Or you can play the loops sequentially so that you can switch between loops for different parts of a song. You can even have two guitarists plugged into the looper and sending signals to two different amps. With the onboard FX and decay options, there’s a lot of potential for fun on the X4.
Putting the Ditto X4 in Context
TC Electronic has a pretty solid track record when it comes to making no-nonsense, awesome-sounding looper pedals. The original Ditto looper was a masterpiece of minimalistic looping joy. When other manufacturers were trying to cram as many switches and knobs onto their units as possible, TC Electronic stripped everything down. Their original Ditto pedal focused on exceptional sound quality and ease-of-use.
The X4 is the biggest pedal in the Ditto lineage. At first sight you’ll notice that the trend towards more functionality that began with the Ditto X2 has continued, with the addition of dual track looping and more. The question is: does the pedal still capture what made the original great, or has the pedal strayed too far from its roots and sacrificed usability for some pointless bells and whistles?
Ditto X4 Features
- Dual loop tracks
- 7 Loop effects (Tape Stop, Fade, Double, Hold, Reverse, Half, Once)
- MIDI Sync
- Loop Decay
- True Bypass and analog dry-through
- Stereo In/Out
- Star Jam – Import loops from famous musicians
- 9V DC/300mA
TC Electronic Ditto X4 Photos
The Ditto X4 Is Great for Hands-Free Looping
The stompbox size of the original Ditto was widened a little with the X2, but the X4 continues this trend well past the point you could describe the pedal as compact. Measuring in at 9.3 inches by 5.7 inches and standing 2.2 inches tall, it’s hardly a beast, but it’s definitively a mid-size pedal rather than a stompbox.
Like the size, the X4 (appropriately enough) takes the single footswitch on the original Ditto and multiplies it by four. This greatly improving the amount you can do with the pedal hands-free. The layout is basically split into four columns, with four dials on the upper portion of the pedal.
Dual Track Looping
The Ditto X4 also offers dual-track looping. This has been around for a while in other loopers, but for an otherwise bare-bones option like the Ditto, this is a huge step forwards. The two left-most footswitches control the two tracks. The can either be played individually or unleashed at the same time (using the “Serial/Sync” button). The dials above them let you adjust the volume level. This opens up a huge array of possibilities for songwriting. You can, for example, create verse and chorus loops on separate tracks, or created more layered and complex compositions.
The “Loop 1” and “Loop 2” footswitches control the core functionality of the looper. Each one basically takes the role of the single footswitch on the original Ditto. These handle the standard “record-play-overdub” operation when you press them once, undo or redo the last overdub when you press and hold, and stop the track when you press them twice. When they’re stopped, you can also clear the whole loop by pressing and holding. The pedal next to them, “Stop,” is used to stop or clear both loops simultaneously.
Cool Effects
Above the “Stop” switch, there is a “Decay” dial, which allows you to either set your loops to continue indefinitely (by turning it all the way clockwise) or to decay the loop over time, with a faster decay the further you turn the dial counter-clockwise. This gives you the option of creating a continually-evolving composition. It also allows the pedal to work more like a delay when it’s set to maximum rate of decay.
Finally, the fourth footswitch allows activation and deactivation of the onboard effects. You can select effects using the dial above the switch. You can even add two (or more) effects by activating one, re-adjusting the dial and then activating the other. This is hard to do on-the-fly but technically possible.
TC Electronic has increased the effects on the Ditto X4. Half-speed and reverse options are still there, which are great for using a guitar to lay down a bassline and venturing into the realms of sonic weirdness. The pedal also adds double-speed, a “hold” function, once-through playback and some stop modes.
The “Double” option is the opposite of the half-speed, raising the octave and doubling the speed of playback. The “Hold” option effectively creates a “mini loop” from your playing, repeating your current measure until you release the pedal. Finally, the “Tape Stop” and “Fade” options are stop modes, with the latter being self-explanatory and the former slowly grinding your loop to a close as if you’re manually stopping a tape, complete with detuning before it stops.
Overall, they’re a great set of effects. Realistically, it’s more than you need on a looper, so there are no complaints at all.
The Back Panel: Connections, MIDI and Extra Features
For connectivity, the Ditto X4 has a fairly bare-bones back panel, especially in comparison to big units like the Boss RC-300, but it does enough to keep most guitarists happy. The unit offers stereo ¼ inch ins and outs, which allow for mono and stereo playing. It can also support two instruments in mono. Many will be happy to see a pair of MIDI jacks, which enable you to connect the looper to an external device to keep everything synched up. This works excellently, too, and there were no problems in testing.
The X4 also has USB connectivity, which you can use to save loops on your computer and update the firmware. Transferring files is pretty easy. Your computer basically treats the looper like an external hard drive, so the process is very much intuitive.
The Modes
The final little addition to the back panel is a collection of four “Mode” switches. The first switch allows you to switch the order of operations on the “Loop” pedals, so you can go right from recording to overdubbing if you prefer. The second switch allows you to either set overdubbing to start immediately or at the end of your current loop cycle. This helps minimize issues with keeping your dubs in time with one another.
The third switch works differently depending on which mode you’re playing in. In Serial mode (where the two tracks play individually), you can either start the track two loop at the end of the track one loop’s playback or start it immediately. In Sync mode (simultaneous playback), this either sets both loops to have the same length or allows you to go free-form and have different loop lengths. This gets unwieldy very quickly, but can be a lot of fun.
Finally, the last switch lets you change between true bypass and buffered bypass. The latter option is sometimes preferable if you use long cables or you have a particularly packed signal chain. Ideally you’ll be able to keep true bypass mode on, because the sound quality from the Ditto X4 is pristine. But even in buffered bypass you can get some excellent results depending on your setup.
Sounds Great, But What’s the Catch?
Honestly, there isn’t one. The Ditto X4 may have lost some simplicity as it added features, but it’s still intuitive to use and the sound quality is still crisp and clear. The core benefits of the original are still there, and you get an extra track to play with, alongside some cool effects. The extra pedals increase the size but make hands-free looping a lot easier.
The biggest downside, as with the Ditto X2, is the poor memory. Each loop has one storage spot, and it does remember the loop you’re currently working on, but this only allows 10 minutes of memory in total (five for each). If you aren’t looking for a bazillion memory banks, this won’t be much of an issue. Adding even 10 slots and boosting the storage space really wouldn’t have been difficult, though. In fact, TC Electronic has started adding memory to their loopers with the newer Ditto+ looper, though that’s a much smaller, single-loop looper.
Another limitation is the fact that you can only apply effects to both loops on the X4, rather than being able to specify. The same goes for the decay function. This isn’t too annoying in practice, but it’s another lost opportunity. Being able to specify a track for effects and decay settings would have opened up many more looping possibilities.
Conclusion
The Ditto X4 is the natural continuation of the series, and it does an excellent job of scaling up the core benefits of the original. It could have improved in a few ways, but nothing that the pedal actually offers is executed poorly, so there’s not much to complain about. If you’re looking for a complete package in a looper – multi-tracks, tons of memory and more features than you know what to do with – it still doesn’t quite cut it. But if you’re the sort of casual, on-the-fly type of player that the Ditto was designed for, it’s really fantastic.
Where to Buy the Ditto X4?
• Amazon: TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper
• zZounds: TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper
Ditto X4 Looper Product Video
great review, tx ! finally a good looper. i was not sure which one is better to take – boss rc30 or this one. DITTO is better.
Good choice, especially if you don’t want or need the metronome/drum tracks on the RC-30. Thanks!
Hi, Peter! Nice review! I have a Beatbuddy and a TC- Helicon Voice live 3, the BeatBuddy sends midi to the Midi In on the VL3 and they sync together well, I´m planning to acquire a Ditto x4 to use as my main looper. Do you know if in order to have the 3 pedals in sync using the BB as the master clock I can send the Midi signal out of the BB to the Midi In of the X4 and then send the signal from the x4 Midi Thru to the VL3´s Midi In to keep them all in sync? Or would it be better to get a Midi splitter to split the BB Midi Out to the respective Midi In of the VL3 and X4? This second option means having to buy more gear… Cheers.
Hi, Peter! Nice review! I have a Beatbuddy and a TC- Helicon Voice live 3, the BeatBuddy sends midi to the Midi In on the VL3 and they sync together well, I´m planning to acquire a Ditto x4 to use as my main looper. Do you know if in order to have the 3 pedals in sync using the BB as the master clock I can send the Midi signal out of the BB to the Midi In of the X4 and then send the signal from the x4 Midi Thru to the VL3´s Midi In to keep them all in sync? Or would it be better to get a Midi splitter to split the BB Midi Out to the respective Midi In of the VL3 and X4? This second option means having to buy more gear… Cheers.
Thanks a lot for the helping review. Considering your experience in looper pedals, do you think it makes sense to use it for guitar+vocals with an XLR-Jack cable in one of the inputs? Or better go for a pedal with dedicated XLR input?
You might be a little better off with an XLR connection, but plenty of people are using the X4 with a mic in the 1/4 jack. An XLR connection will have a little less noise and offer phantom power. You can do a few things to reduce noise using the 1/4 jack though, like using a mic cable that doesn’t require an adapter.
A mic preamp with 1/4 line out will sort you out for the vocals.
I had this pedal but noticed a delay in the recorded loops. All my loops were getting cut at front so clean smooth seamless loops were impossible. They did some good things here but also some really silly things. Its an expensive pedal for what it does and without seamless loop recording (like ditto 2 or Boss RC-20) this is essentially useless for live use. That and TC is becoming notorious for making unreliable pedals these days. Ive had some concert where the Ditto 2 just stopped working, cheap switches, etc. So close but so far.
I have discovered that it is utterly unforgiving of bad timing but when the timing is spot on so is the Ditto x4
I think it’s good that Ditto have brought out a dual loop pedal where each loop can be a different length. AFAIK the Boss RC-30 dual loop has the limitation that each loop has to be the same length? I’ve been using the Vox Lil Looper for quite a while now and its dual loop feature where loops can be different sizes is very useful, e.g. short drum/bass loop and a longer chord progression loop.
in the article the say there are other dual track loopers overthere, do you know them?? I would be interested in something like half the x4: I mean, only the two left buttons… all the rest I don’t need
Gracias!!
Your best bet might be the Boss RC-30. Other options are the Pigtronix Infinity, Electro-Harmonix 22500 or Vox Dynamic Looper. Then you have bigger options like the Boss RC-300 or the Boomerang III. I think the Boss RC-30 might be what you’re looking for. Let me know what you get and how you like it.
Thanks Peter! The EHX22500 looks close to what I would have in mind, however I see it’s even costier than the X4 !!… I’m currently considering the Xvive D3 Dual looper, however this might be too tricky to use having a single stomp where you have to acess its funtions by a combination of single/dual/or lenghthy pushes with your foot.
My best option would be a thing just like two ditto loopers put aside with just two independent loopers puth together. I don’t need effects or whatsoever embellishments. Just for home practise. No profesional like functions.
Will manufacturers release such a product in the forthcoming months…??? I’m curious since it looks like there is some push for such dual channel loopers….
(sorry for my poor English…)
I think that you could use a pair of DigiTech JamMan Express XT Compact Stereo Loopers plugged together with the jam sync. The first one becomes the master and the next one/s the slave/s…
Sounds like you might be interested in something like the Digitech Jamman Express XT. It’s basically what you said – a very simple looper that can be connected to another one if you bought two of them. Hope this helps.
Can you confirm that, as you say in your review, “you can record and play two loops simultaneously.” If loop 1 is recording and you press the loop 2 to initiate a new recording, will loop 1 keep recording (in a given mode)?
I have noticed 2 different images of the ditto x4 online, are there two models out there? One looks like it may have an expression pedal input slot while the other does not.
Has anyone else spotted this?
https://media.sweetwater.com/images/items/750/DittoX4-large.jpg?f35bbf21aa
http://www.cutawayguitarmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ditto-looper-x4-front.jpg
they are the same
Some thirty-oddish years after the Digital Stone Age’s Digitech PDS 20/20 it’s finally finally finally *** FINALLY *** here: a handy looper with *** adjustable feedback / decay ***. Apparently looper pedal development deps function on a geological time scale. Needless to mention I bought one RIGHT AWAY. THANK YOU TC!
Boomerang III.
This looks very good except for one thing I would like to see (which was on the Echoplex Digital Pro years ago) – a function where the loop recording start is triggered by the input (obviously with the an adjustable threshhold). That way you don’t have to hit the record button exactly when you start to play – it can be set to Standby until you play. That way you never cut off the beginning of your phrase.
Are there any other loopers that do this?
Firmware 1.3.0.0 available @ http://www.tcelectronic.com/ditto-x4-looper/support/
I sold it and I bought Trex acoustic soulmate… the sound now is much worse not so vivid and clear. nevermind… could you write a review to this macine ? tx
I wanted a second looper but didn’t want to pony up another $500 for a second ‘Rang III so I ordered a Ditto X4.
First thing out of the box was to check MIDI sync As long as I did my part the MIDI sync worked Using two mics running through preamps I recorded a drum machine’s speaker, pressing “record” on both units at the same time (again, doing my part). I let the loops run for about 30 minutes and both units stayed in sync. Stopping and starting the loop on the ‘Rang worked as long as I started the loop at the same spot as I recorded it.
Something I didn’t consider is the difference in “feel”. The ‘Rang has a different feel when looping, completely different style of switches. Moving back and forth from the Ditto to the ‘Rang could be the deal breaker in a live environment. It’s not as subtle as switching guitars with different fretboard radii or even from guitar to bass.
The MIDI routing was out from the MIDI clock into the ‘Rang and out into the Ditto. I haven’t checked to see if the Ditto’s “thru” doubles as an out or not (does it pass data though and ignore it or does it read data than pass it on).
My only criticism thus far is that it’s now 2018 and, although the price has come down a little bit since it’s initial release, having only five minutes of looping seems a bit archaic.
Time will tell regarding the well documented reliability issues SOME users have reported.