Zoom Corporation is a Japan-based audio company whose main business is the design and development of electronic devices for music. The company’s products are sold worldwide. Established in 1983, the company is listed on the JASDAQ market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Corporate history

Zoom Corporation was founded in Tokyo in 1983 and in 2004, established ZOOM HK LTD as a logistics base in Hong Kong. In 2009, it set up ZOOM Dongguan Corporation (China) as a quality control operation; 2013, formed ZOOM North America, LLC (US) as a distribution base; 2017, listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange JASDAQ (Standard); In 2018, acquired shares of Mogar Music S.p.A. (Italy) (current consolidated subsidiary Mogar Music S.r.l.), making it a subsidiary as a distribution center; and in 2020, acquired all shares of ZOOM North America, LLC (US), making it a wholly owned subsidiary; 2020, ZOOM UK Distribution LTD excluded as equity method affiliate; 2021, acquired all shares of Hook Up, Inc. in Japan, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.

Major Product Categories

In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, Zoom Corporation's main product categories accounted for the following percentages of sales: Handy Audio Recorders (HAR), 43%; Digital Mixers / Multitrack Recorders (DMX/MTR), 13%; Multi Effects (MFX), 12%; Handy Video Recorders (HVR), 10%; Professional Field Recorders (PFR) 7%; other 15%.

Products

Effect processors

Guitar effect processors

G1 G1X G1Next G1XNext G1 Four G1X Four G1u G1on G1Xon G2 G2.1u G2Nu G2.1Nu G3/G3X G5 G7.1ut G9.2tt G11 GFX-1 GFX-3 GFX-4 GFX-5 GFX-8 GM-200 MS-100BT MS-50G MS-70CDR ZFX 503 505 505II 508 606 606II 707 707II 1010 2020 3000S 3030 4040 8080 9000s 9002 9002 Artist's Edition 9030 9050S 9120 9150

GFX-8

At the time it was released, the GFX-8 was the flagship of the Zoom GFX series.

It has a solid steel dark green body with an opto-based pedal on the right and red LED display on the top left. It uses the Variable Architecture Modeling System (V.A.M.S) technology. In general, there are three main internal modules: for drive, for modulation and for delay. The unit allows a high level of distortion customization by using specialized software. It also allows the use of external distortion. The technology used in the unit does not allow full reordering of the effects but allows some of modulation effects like wah and phaser to be connected before or after the drive module. The drive module implements dynamic related effects like compressor, overdrive, distortion and fuzz. After the drive module, the noise gate module called ZNR (ZOOM Noise Reduction) is connected, followed by a parametric equalizer (presence, treble, middle, bass). The amp simulation module is connected next and allows various types of guitar amplifier simulations. The modulation module implements effects like wah, phaser, chorus, ring modulator, tremolo, vibrato, flanger and pitch shifter. The delay module is used to implement delay and reverb effects. Effects that require high processing power use modulation and delay module together. One such effect is the jam play effect, which allows, for example, a guitar player to play a rhythm guitar part and then play a solo part over it. The unit design is oriented toward ease of use by providing more knobs than usually found on such units, thus making the unit look more like a chain of effect boxes instead of the typical effect processor with a "few knobs many functions" type design. The unit has mature MIDI capabilities, allowing both control from an external sequencer or using the unit as a MIDI controller. The MIDI OUT can be configured to act as MIDI THRU.

Bass guitar effect processors 506 506II 607 708II B1 B1x B1on B1Xon B2 B2.1u B2 Four B3 B3n B6 B9.1ut MS-60B MS-60B+

Acoustic guitar effect processors 504 504II A2 A2.1u A3

Studio rack mountable effect processors

RFX-2200 RFX-2000 RFX-1100 RFX-1000 Zoom Studio 1201 Zoom Studio 1202 Zoom Studio 1204 9010 9200

Digital recorders

H1 Handy Recorder H1n Handy Recorder H2 Handy Recorder H2n Handy Recorder H3-VR H4 Handy Recorder H4n Handy Recorder H5 Handy Recorder H6 Handy Recorder F1-SP / F1-LP Field Recorder F2 / F2-BT Field Recorder

F3 Field Recorder F4 Field Recorder F6 Field Recorder F8 Field Recorder F8n Field Recorder MRS-1608 MRS-1266 MRS-1044 MRS-802 MRS-8 MRS-4 PS-04 PS-02 HD8 / HD8CD HD16 / HD16CD R8 R16 R24 Q2HD Q3 Q3HD Q4 Q4n Q8HD

Rhythm machines RT-123 RT-223 RT-323 RT-234 MRT-3 MRT-3b SB-246 ST-224

ARQ AR-48 ARQ AR-96

Guitar amplifiers FIRE-36M FIRE-18M FIRE-36 FIRE-18 FIRE-7010

Audio interfaces TAC-2 TAC-2R TAC-8 UAC-2 UAC-8 AMS-22 AMS-24 AMS-44

References

Further reading

External links

NAMM.org: Oral History Library − "Masahiro Iijima Interview" (2014)