Re: Zoom 508 delay

["T.W. Hartnett" <hartnett.t@apple.com>]

>>For anyone looking to get into looping cheaply, I'd recommend the Zoom
>>508.  It's a programmable delay pedal with 4 seconds of delay time.
>>Stereo out, six banks of four patches, tap-tempo, built-in tuner,
>>programmable high-frequency damping, delay spillover when switching
>>patches, it's got a ton of features for about $135 street price.  I
>>bought one for a small looping setup, so that I don't need to break out
>>my rack whenever I want to loop, and I've been very pleased with the
>>sound.
>
>Yeah, this thing sounds pretty good (fairly clean, digital), but like just
>about every Zoom product we've ever seen, it's an ergonomic nightmare, 
>plus
>they clip you more money for an additional foot pedal.  The tuner is 
>pretty
>ridiculous too.

The casing is plastic, and unless you're very delicate when you gig, it 
probably won't hold up to Stomping Rock Frenzy.  However, I think most 
loopers do the bulk of their work at home, in a studio setting, or under 
more sedate live circumstances.  In any case, I think it's primary 
looping applications are of the "set it and forget it" variety--either 
setting it to the four-second delay with lots of feedback, or one of the 
long tapped delay settings.  If you're looking to jump around, during 
performance, from patch to patch to patch, you'll need to be delicate.  
Programming it is easy as long as you don't lose the sheet with the 
description of what the various delay types are (on the two character, 
scrolling readout they show up as "nt", "ND", etc.

My recommendation of the device is based on its sonic usefulness once 
you've set it up to your liking.  It's main shortcomings are the plastic 
casing and the limited number of controls, which mean that you won't 
start programming it effectively unless you have the instructions.  For 
$135, I feel it's well worth it.

Travis Hartnett