Zoom AMS-22, 24 & 44

Small (129 x 74 x 46mm), smaller (94.5 x 74 x 46mm) and smallest (68 x 57.7 x 46mm).

Zoom’s AMS interfaces are small, simple, and extremely tough.

The AMS devices are utility‑styled plastic boxes that are the most likely audio interface in your bag to survive a stage dive intact. They’d almost be adorably tiny if they weren’t so funny‑looking. The AMS‑22 is the tiniest, and it’s not much bigger than a fidget toy. It’s barely bigger than the XLR combi input jack and twin TRS jack output sockets. It could go anywhere, in anything other than your jeans pocket, where it looks a bit lumpy.

The larger AMS‑24 fits in your hand like a square plastic hand grenade, and the larger AMS‑44 is a bit more like a walkie‑talkie. They all share the same design concept of low‑profile knobs and extended ears that keep the body off the floor and protect the knobs from taking a whack.

They are plastic, lightweight, and will tip over when you plug in cables. However, they have some very grippy strips on the bottom of the ears that will keep them from moving around once you’ve balanced your arrangement of cables. They are surprisingly robust. I have stood on them, kicked them around and they seem unlikely to crack open. The knobs are unbothered. Of course the flip side of the unbotherable low‑profile knobs is that they are fiddly to use. Who was it who said design is compromise?

Connections

The AMS‑22 has a single XLR/TRS combi input for mic or guitar with a fiddly gain knob, a stereo line input, a mini‑jack headphone output, and those impressively shiny full‑sized jack outputs on the back. You can use the left side of the line input at the same time as the XLR to squeeze two inputs out of it at once, but essentially the 22 is a solo device. The slightly larger knob controls the level of both headphones and line output.

The 24 ups the game to a pair of XLR/jack combi inputs that can handle microphones or line levels. A switch on the top turns the first input into a Hi‑Z input suitable for a guitar. You have separate fiddly gain knobs for each channel and a switch to combine them into a stereo input. We now have two headphone outputs, A and B, each with its own volume control. The outputs are independent. Output A covers the outputs on the back and the first headphone socket. The second headphone socket, output B, is treated as a separate output by your DAW.

The 44 is the same as the 24 but with four XLR/jack combi inputs on the front, although only the first one can be switched to Hi‑Z guitar mode. Inputs 1+2 on the 22, and 3+4 on the 44, have a stereo switch to turn them into a combined stereo input.