Hughes & Kettner Announces Zentera Digital Modeling Amp

March 3, 1999 -- At the International MusikMesse in Frankfurt, Germany, Hughes & Kettner, in collaboration with Spectral Design, introduced ZENTERA, the world's first digital guitar amplifier to incorporate Dynamic Sector Modeling™ technology. Unlike some digital amps, which are the result of modeling only the final stage of sound generation, Dynamic Sector Modeling™ recreates the individual sound-generating stages (or "sectors") and their reciprocal interaction with one another. The result is a much more dynamically responsive amp.

Only Now Possible

Modeling all aspects of a superb-sounding classic guitar amp requires massive DSP horsepower, and the needed hardware was not even available until now. ZENTERA uses the latest generation of advanced SHARC® floating-point DSPs, which are extremely fast, but still not fast enough, so we gave the ZENTERA two! Only this combination of new technology and hardware gives the player this extraordinary new level of dynamic expressiveness and tonal versatility.

Tonal Palette

In the ZENTERA, the sonic identities of seven classic amps drawn from the history of guitar amplification are stored as starting points, each of which can be called up at the press of a button. All of the great clean, blues, and overdrive sounds are available here; even the Volume and EQ controls respond as they do on the originals.

At the final stage, a digital output controller matches the sonic character of the original speakers and cabinet to the enclosure and speakers of this new amplifier.

Features

The ZENTERA is a stereo guitar combo with two 100-watt current-feedback power amps and two Celestion® Vintage 30 guitar loudspeakers. Controls in the Preamp section include Amp Type selector, Gain, Bass, Mid and Treble. Controls in the Master section include Presence, which exactly mimics the tone-shaping effect of the control it models on each original, and Volume.

The Effects section offers high-end versions of Delay, Reverb, and Modulation Effects. All three types of effect can be accessed and edited with their own controls: Type, Parameter 1 and Parameter 2. A convenient Tap button makes it easy to set the speed of delay times.

Availability: Summer, 1999.
Price: to be announced.

For more information, visit their web site at www.hughes-and-kettner.com.