The ZVex Loop Gate is a loop switch with a built-in audio gate from ZVex. It lets you set up a loop of pedals you can switch in and out of your signal path at will, while the gate silences your signal when you stop playing. ZVex describes the gate as "perfect," with high headroom, no distortion and no hiss1.
Guitar World reviewed it as "a noise gate with a built-in facility for introducing a loop of pedals, allowing you to switch the loop" on and off2. That combination puts it alongside dedicated noise gate pedals like the Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor and the Electro-Harmonix The Silencer, which also gate a loop of effects, but the Loop Gate adds the switching and chop functions in one box.
What It Does
The Loop Gate does two jobs at once. As a loop switch, it puts a group of your pedals inside a switchable loop, so you can bring them into or take them out of your signal path at will1. As a gate, it mutes the signal when you stop playing, and ZVex says the gate circuit has high headroom with no distortion and no hiss1.
One detail matters to how the gate behaves. Guitar World's reviewer noted that the gate "responds to the signal coming from your guitar rather than the output of your pedal loop"2. In practice that means the noisy pedals inside the loop do not control when the gate opens and closes; your playing does.
A wide-ranging sensitivity control sets the turn-on threshold, so you can adjust how hard you need to play before the gate opens3.
The buffer
The pedal uses the same buffer ZVex puts in the Lo-fi Loop Junky, which the company describes as its clean sound, and that buffer can be switched in and out of the circuit at the input3. That gives you a choice between a buffered and an unbuffered input, useful if you want to keep the character of pedals that dislike buffers in front of them.
Chop mode
Chop mode gates the signal rhythmically, creating tremolo-like sounds1. In this mode you can stop playing at any moment and start again, and the pedal will reset the start point, which ZVex points out is useful for locking up the timing with the band3.
"you can stop playing at any moment and start again, and it will reset the start point."
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Questions
What does the ZVex Loop Gate do?
It is a loop switch with a built-in audio gate. You set up a loop of pedals that you can switch in and out of your signal path, and the gate, which ZVex describes as high headroom with no distortion and no hiss, mutes the signal when you stop playing. A chop mode also creates tremolo-like sounds.
How does the Loop Gate's gate differ from a plain noise gate?
According to Guitar World, it responds to the signal coming from your guitar rather than the output of your pedal loop, so the loop's own noise does not affect when the gate opens. It also uses the same buffer as the ZVex Lo-fi Loop Junky, which can be switched in and out of the circuit at the input.
Sources (3)
- Loop Gate, ZVEX Effects (www.zvex.com)
- Stomping Ground: 30 of the Coolest New Stomp Boxes and Tried-and-True Favorites, Guitar World, 2013-07-23
- Z.Vex Launches Sonar, Double Rock & Loop Gate Pedals, Premier Guitar, 2012-01-17
