Article Preview - Zoom ZFX Control Package

Zoom's first computer product is a guitar amp modelling system that offers an impressive list of features at a bargain price.

Sam Inglis

Photos: Mark Ewing

Zoom will be familiar to most SOS readers as a long-established manufacturer of rackmounting studio processors and, especially, guitar effects. They have built an impressive reputation as a company who always offer a lot of product for not much money, and their first foray into the world of audio software is no exception. It combines a Windows-only software amp simulator, called ZFX, with a choice of two hardware units. The desktop S2t interface costs a mere £169 including VAT, while the more fully featured S5.1t floorboard retails at £229.

That price begins to look all the more impressive when you consider exactly what the S5.1t offers. Not only do you get a pretty well-specified foot controller, with five switches and a rocker pedal, but its capabilities as a USB audio interface are pretty unique. If you choose to play your guitar through it, you can blend between two signal paths, one based around solid-state preamplification, the other involving a real vacuum tube. And that's not all: there are also two mic preamps with phantom power, plus analogue direct monitoring circuitry allowing you to hear your performance with no latency. (The S2t offers all of this apart from the footswitches and pedal.)

The software component of the package is likewise crammed with features. ZFX can run either as a stand-alone program or a VST plug-in, and offers a bewildering variety of emulations of classic guitar and bass amps, effects and processors. In terms of features, then, the ZFX Control Package appears to be a serious rival to the likes of Native Instruments' Guitar Rig Kontrol Edition, yet its RRP is the same as that of the Guitar Rig software alone — tempting indeed.

Getting Going

Although the documentation isn't as clear as it might be, installing and setting up the interface and the ZFX program is fairly straightforward. Both ZFX and the hardware interfaces are compatible with Windows XP and Vista. The hardware takes its power from the USB connection — there is no option for a separate power supply — and it acts as a copy-protection dongle for ZFX, which can't be run without the interface connected. Unlike the USB2 Rig Kontrol, the C5.1t is a USB 1.1 device, and as a consequence, it can only record and play back 16-bit audio, at either 44.1 or 48 kHz.

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Article Preview - Zoom ZFX Control Package

Guitar Amp Simulation Software, Interface & Controller