why don't I hear more about Zoom?

jp_nyc

jp_nyc

Kick Henry Jackassowski
Why do Zoom modeling products seem to fly under the radar? They make a ton of stuff, and most of it is well reviewed. It's not like they don't advertise. But it seems like Line 6 dominates consumer level modeling attention despite being disliked by a great portion of musicians.
 
My only experience with them was an old 505 type pedal a friend had and it sounded pretty bad. The presets were way over the top/wet, much like those on most pedal/pod things. It seemed versatile enough and it could be programmed, so I'm sure with some time investment it could sound good.
 
FLO_1_td11zoom2_211511_0411.jpg
 
I dont have any experience with thier guitar effects but ive owned alot of thier recording and video devices. All pretty good stuff for consumer grade. Ive tried their R24 and have found serious clock and latency issues,...
 
My general impression of what went wrong for them, and why line6 was more successful, is that zoom seemed late to the game of web interactivity in their stuff. The POD allowed you to plug into a computer and download patches from users all over the world. They had a webpage that cataloged the patches, and forums to discuss them. Zoom didn't seem to embrace this as well, or as early, and, well, they kind of became the guy selling typewriters in a laptop era. I'm sure they have the tech now, but when you lose the lead in a market, it is hard to catch up. Just my impressions from the catalog literature and magazines of old. As I said, I never owned one.
 
I also had something back in the mid-90s that was terrible. I seem to remember something they made in the past few years that was probably about as popular as the Fender Mustang modeling amps/boards. But I've never even tried one since I was happy enough with my Line6 rig.
 
The Zoom 2020 that I bought way back when was my first and last experience with multi effects units. On top of being built cheap and sounding bad It wasn't user friendly at all. It didn't take long to realized that I was spending more time programing the damn thing than playing. After awhile I gave up, tossed it in the parts box and went back to my pedal board.
 
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Zoom stuff is like Behringer stuff except it's actually made with quality components.

Their recorders and their drum machines are awesome, but their effects are always a little... meh.
 
They make decent field recorders. I had one of their video cameras and it wasn't that good. The guitar equipment has been consistently sub-par with the occasional stroke of mediocrity.
 
I have a rhythm machine that's decent, and a recorder that records to CF cards that is also decent (though I haven't used it for years). I also have a multi-effects pedal (G2.1u) that I'm thinking might be fun to break out again -- it's probably been five years since I plugged into that, but it was OK.
 
I had a Zoom 506 bass pedal...maybe still do.

It sucked, but it worked well enough to get my bass recorded for a few years.

Now I have one of their older audio field recorders. H2, maybe? It does a decent job for not much money.

I think their stuff from the 90s made a lasting impression with my generation, though.
 
I started out with this disappointment:
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...and while I haven't played any of their more recent products, everything that I've tried since that 9002 was just as meh.
 
My buddy had a 9002. It was a lot of fun.

I wouldn't build a personal signature sound around it. It wasn't real good at subtle. But if you wanted to play with an insane flanged wall of blast distortion, it was great.
 
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