Re: Zoom 2100

[SoundFNR@aol.com]

>  usng a Zoom 2100 for looping?I don't have one of these but I'm trying 
>to 
> understand how the Basic Samplerfunction works.  The manual leaves me a 
> little fuzzy.Say that
Hi Dennis 
Zoom 2100
there' s 3 different modes, available separately.
1) 
Jam Play
3 independent 5 second (no-overdub, tap time) loopers, each with it's
own footswitch. Press and hold to start record, release to finish 
recording,
then hold down for loop playback. (or playback of a 5s loop will start 
automatically
after 5s of recording)
you have to hit a 4th switch to enter record mode before you can start 
recording (after the first time), otherwise you just play back from
any of the 3 loops. playback is polyphonic, though syncronisation of
loop length is only feasible with the full 5s.

2)
Sampler 
one 16s (or 32s at 'still OK' quality) tap time looper, no overdubs
press one button to start record, and the other to end record
and start playback immediatly.
Then you can stop and restart that loop until you 
want to start record again (straight from playback to record)
You can vary the play back speed downwards upto 2 octaves.
..and when you've done this you can record and have the 
slowed loop start playback straight away .
Alternatively there's a timestretch facility (not very good) 
There's a 'rewind' function which pauses the loop, then starts playback at 
an 
earlier point.

3)
6s looper with overdubs, feeding into 10s delay(or rotten reverb).
no tap-time
the 6s looper starts out as a delay, till you edit feedback to max then
its a looper.
....AND I think this is the bit your asking about
to start with you get a single repeat delay.
then holding down the switch (or expression pedal) you 
can record your input which then loops.
then you can hold down the switch again to overdub.
A loop that is running can be faded by editing the
feedback, but you can't go the other way as
going into the loop mode stops any delays that are currently
happening ( although the 10s delay will still keep going
if you need to cover this up).

I found that setting the 6s looper/delay and the 10s delay
to the same time allows me to set up a loop, and then
add overdubs which will then fade to reveal the original loop
again. Or can let one loop fade while 'underdubbing' another .

the flange/chorus/phase/pitchshift are not useable with the 
loop functions ( but can use with 10s delay)

the 10s delay is a 5s stereo ping pong if you use the stereo O/P

distortion/tone/ampsim/wah are useable with the loop functions,
but only the wah, which has an editable envelope following  facility
(or use the Zoom expression ped).
Also the (optional) pedal can be used as a Swell, but not
when using the 6s looper.

You can't get rid of the dry signal, except when using the 
16s looper with the right channel of the aux I/P

There's a lot of frustrution with this pedal, as its operation is so
quirky, and often it just won't do the thing you want,
you can't tap in a loop and then overdub (essential) 
but it actually has a few very nice features which are unavailable 
elsewhere.
(recording and then going seamlessly to half speed playback for instance)
(or polyphonic triple loops with unrelated timing )
I guess the loop functions were designed for 
bedroomsoloingoverchordchanges and for 
copyinghotlicksfromyourfavouriterecordtolearn.

Not a replacement for a 'real' looper,
but somewhat fascinating

are they still available??

Andy Butler ( back to lurk/work)