Zoom 2100 (as looper)

[SoundFNR@aol.com]

This will have to keep me happy as  an aux looper till I find a headrush

features (not available simultaneously)
i) sampler.
   16s high quality or 32s (still good)
   tap to start record, tap a different switch to stop recording & loop 
seamlessly.
   can stop loop at any time, then start from beginning again.
   with loop playing just hitting one switch lets you go straight back 
into 
record.
   
   theres also the facility  to play back at slower speeds, including 1 & 
2 
octaves
  down, you still record at normal speed though , so it starts looping at 
lower
  pitch as soon as you stop recording..(nice) unfortunately this feature is
  only available when recording from the aux input, a stereo 3.5mm jack.
  ( frustrating)
  ....and a rewind switch! mutes loop while held down, play resumes on 
release
       from an earlier portion of the loop.

ii) 'Jam Play' a bank of three 5s loopers, (not seamless quite)
   3 switches, one for each looper. press on one and it records for as 
long 
as 
   you hold it down
   ....then it plays back for as long as you hold it down
   after hitting a fourth switch you can record again (even while a loop 
or2 
is 
  still playing) on the same looper, or a different one.
   playback any combination simultaneously.

   (so how good are you with your feet)

iii) 2 delays in series, 6s and 10s in that order (no tap time function)
    a) 6s delay has a 'sound on sound feature' , when you switch it on you 
get a 
       single delay , but once you hit a switch it goes into a nearly 
infinite sustaining
       overdub mode. then you can add material or play over the top.
       from the s on s you can go into a normal delay mode and ley the 
loop 
       fade, but you can't go back the other way without erasing the loop.
       ( above 1s delay time can only be set to the nearest tenth of a 
second)

    b) 10s delay, max regen is not really enough, resolution is only a 
tenth 
        of a second.

      in this mode you can simulate multitap delays and also solve the old 
     problem of how to get in time with loop of  4-10 s ( for instance by 
combining
     a 6s loop with a 1/2 sec delay, )  

drawbacks
 theres no way to mute the incoming signal (unless using one side of the 
aux 
in,
   which is only useful in sampler mode)
 difficult to end loop precisely in jam play
  no overdubs in i) & ii)
  and various stuff as stated above
  60 presets, all rubbish (30 of them editable though)  

conclusion
  as has been mentioned before on the list this has some excellent 
features, 
some of which not even available on the echoplex,(3 simultaneous unrelated 
loops)
and the sampler has advantage over the jamMan in that you can finish a loop
at any time and start a new one (of any length) with one press.
a very useful device( and so cheap)
...but so many  frustrations


 
   

Andy Butler
Lexicon Vortex Database 
http://members.aol.com/soundfnr/vortex.htm