DL4 Question

[Keith Kotay <kotay@stilton.cs.dartmouth.edu>]

Hi,

I'm new to the list.  I'm a recreational guitar player looking
to get some looping hardware, mostly to practice solos over
looped chords (although from what I understand it's easy to
become addicted to looping ;-).  Right now I'm trying to figure
out what hardware I should get to start...

My question is about the Line 6 DL4.  From what I get out of
the manual, it appears that the only way to enter overdub mode
is from record mode.  Therefore it seems like it is impossible 
to do the following: 1) record a loop, 2) play along with it
to try different ideas, and 3) once you've developed a good
overdub part to then overdub it with the current loop.  This
seems like a serious shortcoming to me.  Am I correct?

If I'm right, this deficiency does not appear on the Line 6 
Echo Pro, since overdub mode can be entered directly via MIDI.
Of course, the other high-end units (Repeater & EDP) don't have
this limitation either.  I had pretty much decided to get a DL4
until I realized this--not that it alone is the deal-breaker, 
but combined with the short loop time and the awkwardness of 
the stompbox format (too hard to access the delay controls) I'm 
back to being undecided, especially since I can't afford the
high-end units...

TIA,

Keith