I have no idea how to start doing the more advanced stuff in the Zoia, tbh. Am looking forward to someone making a series of detailed tutorials about the possible concepts.
What I am doing, though, is setting up each patch to handle both vocals and guitar in a consistent way.
For vocals, I have an XLR to 1/4 cable going into the Zoia’s left input, and I up the gain to the max +12db before then controlling it via a VCA module. From there I have an FX chain for each patch, eventually leading to the Zoia’s left output.
For guitar, I have a compressor and Earthquaker Palisades leading into the Zoia’s right input. I then set up an FX chain that leads to the Zoia’s right output.
The plan is to have a default patch that will apply to most songs, and then bespoke patches for songs where I require something different from the norm.
My key aim is to keep everything consistent in terms of programming, so that when I’m performing live there will be as little possible for confusion or mistakes as possible. So left is always vocals, right is always guitar. Page 1 of a patch is always the vocal signal path, page 2 is always the guitar signal path. Stomp switches are configured in the same way for every patch, so for example a stomp on/off for vocal FX will always be set to the middle switch. To simulate keeping FX tails intact, I use a slew limiter to make the stomp off reduce the FX gradually, (otherwise a reverb trail, for example, will immediately be cut off).
Even at this basic level, I’m having a lot of fun programming the Zoia for my needs. I’ll be using it in my band’s next gig on Saturday week.
At some point, I’m going to dive into the sequencer, looping and granular aspects properly!