During the 1980s came the low-cost commercial availability of the micro processor, which had a massive effect on the music retail industry. With it came the release of the guitar and bass multi-effects processor, which was a single box that contained a significant number of different effects controlled by the processor and specially written software.
Numerous Effects from a Single Processor
The speed of the processor normally determines the number of simultaneous effects that the unit can produce, on the better quality units the effects are digital. Most multi-effects manufacturers purchase micro-processors to use in their effects units, however Zoom are perhaps the only company in the music retail industry who have actually designed and manufactured their own processor.
This helps to keep Zoom at the forefront of the effects market and enables them to sell high quality effects at competitive prices. Other leading industry multi-effects manufacturers are Boss, Digitech, Yamaha, Korg and Alesis to name just a few.