Zoom G2.1u Brief Review
Zoom G2.1u first hit the market in 2008. Despite its long production date, the Zoom G2.1u is still a popular guitar processor among guitarists. The reasons for this are its versatility, functionality and high sound quality.
Appearance
Zoom G2.1u looks neat. Unlike many other processors, the Zoom G2.1u is not intimidated by its size. It takes up about the same footprint as two and a half pedals from “Boss” – the standard size in the guitar pedal world.
Controllers
There is a display on the front side of the Zoom G2.1u guitar processor. It can hardly be called informative by modern standards. The display shows the following information:
- currently active preset;
- the currently sounding note (chord);
- activated processor parameters.
The controllers in Zoom G2.1u delight with variety. First of all, you should pay attention to the pedal located on the right side. We wrote above that the Zoom G2.1u is a fairly compact processor. However, the pedal turned out to be comfortable for active use. It has a rubber pad and a huge full-length “ZOOM” logo. If you don’t like the standard footswitch, you can connect an external footswitch. It also has the ability to connect an external effects loop.
Zoom G2.1U Black 2010s
At the top of the Zoom G2.1u there are 4 controllers. The first controller is responsible for selecting the operating mode of the effects processor. The three remaining controllers are multifunction controllers. They can control “Gain”, “Tone”, “Level” or “Pattern”, “Tempo” and “Mix” depending on the operation mode. Directly above the “G2.1u” logo is a row of buttons that control the rhythm of the machine. On the left is another row of buttons that control effects. At the bottom of the processor are two metal pedals to control “Loop”, “Bypass” and “Tuner” depending on the mode. The Zoom G2.1u processor can work with a power supply or via USB. Operation via USB requires a mandatory connection to a computer. There is battery support as well. Time of continuous work from one set of batteries – more than 7 hours. Also, you can use the Zoom G2.1u as a sound card.
Functionality
The Zoom G2.1u is a pretty tricky processor to master. It’s hard to figure it out intuitively. Therefore, in order to understand how to configure the Zoom G2.1u processor, you will have to read the instructions, in which you can find all the answers to any questions. To the credit of “Zoom” engineers, in the instructions everything is described briefly and clearly. A total of 54 effects are available to the Zoom G2.1u buyer. 9 effects can work simultaneously. It makes no sense to list the effects. They are standard. “Noise Gate” seems to be the best of all processors. Also, the Zoom G2.1u has 40 built-in presets for easy customization. Also 40 memories are available for storing your own presets. The very short switching latency is encouraging – less than 5 milliseconds. A nice bonus is the built-in drum machine. It has 40 built-in rhythm patterns with the ability to change the tempo. The Zoom G2.1u is equipped with a built-in chromatic tuner with calibration ranging from 435 to 445 Hz and a “Mute” function.
Two different sound modeling algorithms for live performance and studio work are available inside the Zoom G2.1u. This feature makes the processor versatile. The sound quality is at a high level. The processor is based on the ZFX-3 32-bit DSP chip – the original development of “Zoom”. It allows you to achieve minimal loss of sound quality at a sampling rate of 96 kHz, 24-bit signal conversion from analog to digital and vice versa, and a wide frequency range for modern processors from 20 Hz to 40 kHz. At the same time, the signal-to-noise ratio is only 120 dB. These characteristics are sufficient for high-quality studio sound.
For a beginner, this processor is a great and inexpensive alternative. With it, you can get acquainted with the effects and decide on the purchase of expensive pedals.
