Empress Zoia

meltedbuzzbox

I thought you build your route and select an effect using the turny wheel knob thing. Aren't you free to add those as you wish?

BigRedOne

There are some prebuilt effects, but not an exhaustive list

BintyTwanger77

I had an hour to spare today and found a shop that had a Zoia in stock... and to say you need a bit more than an hour with one is a titanic understatement. Some of the factory patches are all out mental, some more conventional, and I was amazed that this tiny box could do all of it. The synth sounds were immense fun, and I reckon with time you could put together some fantastic patches that could replace a whole pedalboard. But, though it is a tweaker’s pedal, first impressions are that tweaking on the fly at a gig with the Zoia would seem to be a huge task. It looks like a HUGE learning curve to get used to it, so I’m really not ready for one right now, but Empress have put together an astounding (and very handsome-looking) feat of engineering in a small box. One for my pedal future, maybe. When I have the funds (which I really don’t).

BigRedOne

So, some observations now that I've had the Zoia for a couple of weeks - not long after you've spent some time with it the interface is incredibly easy and intuitive, which is great for making changes to patches and encourages you to be creative.  There's lots of scope to build new sounds just with the standard guitar effects, and it will keep offering more possibilities the more you understand the elements used to build effect sounds.  For example, I made a patch where I built a tremolo from scratch and synced it exactly to the rate of a ring modulator, with some added drive and reverb for a nice dramatic effect.

At this point I'm not sure that its a go to pedal for recreating lots of classic analog guitar effects (but its still early days and people are already posting some interesting patches on Patchstorage), rather its kind of got its own sound.  But the ability to link modulation, distortion, delay and reverb all in one pedal is incredibly useful and alone justifies the investment. 

I've started to dabble in making some sequences (which can be introduced separately to an existing effect sound when playing live) and I've also picked up a little midi keyboard to explore the synth functionality of the Zoia.  All in all its a very inspiring and encouraging piece of kit.

BintyTwanger77

BigRedOne said:

So, some observations now that I've had the Zoia for a couple of weeks - not long after you've spent some time with it the interface is incredibly easy and intuitive, which is great for making changes to patches and encourages you to be creative.  There's lots of scope to build new sounds just with the standard guitar effects, and it will keep offering more possibilities the more you understand the elements used to build effect sounds.  For example, I made a patch were I built a tremolo from scratch and synced it exactly to the rate of a ring modulator, with some added drive and reverb for a nice dramatic effect.

At this point I'm not sure that its a go to pedal for recreating lots of classic analog guitar effects (but its still early days and people are already posting some interesting patches on Patchstorage), rather its kind of got its own sound.  But the ability to link modulation, distortion, delay and reverb all in one pedal is incredibly useful and alone justifies the investment. 

I've started to dabble in making some sequences (which can be introduced separately to an existing effect sound when playing live) and I've also picked up a little midi keyboard to explore the synth functionality of the Zoia.  All in all its a very inspiring and encouraging piece of kit.

This would suggest that either I’m a total Luddite or I need to spend longer with one to get the best out of it. Glad it’s working for you. It’s just an amazing wee box.