I have a few trusty dusty old faderfox units ready for a new lease of life with the Zoia
5 Likes
Nice one! I was having a helluva time trying to format it to print.
1 Like
Oh, snap! Ebay here I comeā¦
1 Like
Mini review (based on first impressions)
Build quality seems very nice, I never owned an Empress product before, there are quite a nice variety of presets which show off some of the capabilities, although for me personally not much use beyond that, with a few exceptions perhaps, but that is the whole point of this box - to make it what you want it, so all good. A bit bummed that no power supply is included, I donāt mind paying a bit more VS the hassle of sourcing one myself.
Navigation seems easy enough, I have yet to RTFM or delve in too deep yet, but I was easily able to make a nice envelope following filter, reverb, delay effect with no trouble, there are a few things about patching that might be improved but as I am not fully familiar with it Iāll wait and see if they are due to my oversight or actual feature requests to make. On the subject of the manual very nice to see a decent printed one included these days, other manufacturers should take note.
Selecting patches is easy enough, although some kind of group sorting would be handy, for example the patches have fairly abstract names which donāt necessarily indicate their function, there seems to be ample room on the display to have a group name below the preset name - synth, delay, reverb etc. Then if you want to find say a reverb apply group filter and scroll just through your reverb patches.
Patch memory at 64 patches in internal memory seems a bit on the low side, thinking more from a workflow perspective than say for a live setting where it would probably be ample, but when programming and due to the tons of options I could easily envisage running out of slots if making multiple edits of the same patch and wanting to switch between them on an already fairly full memory, shuttling to card and reorganising the internal memory seems a bit of a hassle. I have not tried loading any patches from card yet, so it might not be such a hassle but still 64 patches in internal memory seems a strange limitation.
Plenty of modules of many different types, and boy do they sound good, the filters are really great, and overall as others have said the Zoia is rather like a much improved Nord Micro Modular for the 21st century, and the NMM was awesome, so if you liked that youāll love this.
I think it has the potential to be so many things, my earlier comment about possibly getting multiple units feels even more likely now, I love the flexibility and depending on how I get on with it once using it properly, and the honeymoon phase is over I could see it replacing a few other things in my setup.
Very few bits of gear make such a good first impression on me, but I like to think Iām quite good at spotting excellence when I see it, and even with less than an hour of playing with it I see it in the Zoia, I love the fact that no computer or tablet is needed and without sacrificing sophistication, I do wish it had a battery option though as well as a headphone out, I think they missed a trick there as it would be great to sit down anywhere and program and play.
Iām really looking forward to exploring it more.
Edit - 4 year warranty when registered, really commendable to see a company standing by their product with such commitment.
18 Likes
I wonder how full the interior of the case is for mod possibilities ā¦
If people do buy older faderfox controllers some are fixed cc / note assignments , should be fine if your hardware/software can learn , but you canāt sometimes configure the controller to send what you want.
The newer ones are fine I just recommend you checking the website first.
*** Better solution found. Patch uploaded to PatchStorage. Please see later post. ***
Solved thanks to juicynoisebits on reddit Zoia group.
CC in (A) => trigger (A) => pc out (A)
CC in (A) => cv invert => trigger (B) => pc out (A)
CC in (A) => pc out (A)
This means that I can use a midi track on the OT with Trigless Trigs to send program changes via Zoia to any of my other devices 
3 Likes
My Zoia is still on its way to me, but this fact was the thing which really caught my interest. The ui seems to be so intuitively realized. I have two H9ās - and while those sound great, using the iphone/ipad app to tweak the settings is a letdown (for me at least). And the midi capabilities are really appealing to me.
3 Likes
some Questions. I mainly looking for delay, especially tape style delay. How good does Zoia the tape style? incl. Fow & Flutter & Saturatoin & Filtering? Can I insert another fx in the feedback path, letĀ“s say a phaser or a filter or a reverb?
How easy I can tweak Parameters in a live Situation? LetĀ“s say I want to Change delay time and / or Feedback. ItĀ“s only possible via external midicontroler? Could the Octatrack be this? Basicly Kind of macro controling zoia with the Octatrack?
and last but not least ā¦ can I choose between ping pong style and normal stereo operation?
Yes OT controlling it. The Zoia will respond to any MIDI that the OT sends it (think about that applied to this boxā¦) You can also use the single knob and/or stopswitches to control parameters.
In terms of its FX abilities: Iām expect it can (the idea behind it is that you have all the ingedients to do whatever you want). I would look around the PatchStorage site. Im sure someones done it.
2 Likes
Someone else will have to answer about how good the tape delay is (although given that itās Empress, the algorithms are likely to be excellent) and your questions about what it features.
You could change parameters to set values (or a rise/fall at any speed you want) via the 3 stompswitches, or set min/max and ramp speed to an expression pedal, or external MIDI, or place a button on the grid linked to what you want to change, or use a sequencer controlled by any number of different methodsā¦ there are loads of possibilities and Iām sure I havenāt listed many of them! But yes, the Octatrack could do it.
Or use the big controller knob if youāre happy changing things one parameter at a time.
Ping pong delay has its own separate module. You could even switch between ping pong and stereo on the fly using the aforementioned options if you set up 2 delay modules (one stereo, one ping pong) and established some kind of control link between them.
2 Likes
Really cool. What kind of threshold do you have on the envelope follower? Does it trigger the parameter changes constantly? Thatād make for some pretty mad modulationā¦!
FWIW, Iām sure using an external controller is very useful, but I havenāt bothered to even try yet. The funnest and most intuitive thing for me is to simply create my own UI and controller directly on the grid. The sequencers, loopers, keyboards, pushbuttons, stompswitches, pixels, etc. can all be set up fairly easily to do precisely what I want, with plenty of āpush button and turn knob on the fly to make 12 parameters do something completely differentā, like the crazier things you can do with Elektron menu surfing in real-time. You built it yourself so it fits your mental flow already, and itās a natural step from building and patching your instrument/effect. Very satisfying. This is what people love about programming their Monome Grids, but thereās nothing immediate or simple about doing that in Max/MSP, whereas here Iām having too much fun to even notice if what Iām doing is hard or easy.
One of the things itās hard to quantify with any creative device is whether it gets you in a āflow stateā - this one succeeds very well at doing so. Many people will be having all-nighters in front of it without even realizing what time it is. I have ADHD so Iām acutely aware of and highly prize that state of mind. Itās one of the primary things that gets me so excited and evangelical about this box.
(Two quick examples of UI - someoneās made a keyboard layout template that works like how the Linnstrument is set up. Someone else explained how to set up a chromatic sampler a la Digitakt. Just the beginning!)
4 Likes
Anyone know how to hide cells? For example if I set up the keyboard and once I connect the pitch and gate outputs to the destinations I donāt want them on the grid after that, I just want the keys, one of the factory patches has it like this so it is definitely possible but canāt find the info in the manual.
1 Like
Chromatic sampler a la digitakt? What do you mean by that? Sounds interesting though 
Ok, i guess it is playing chromatically a sampleā¦
I am trying to do a sampler like the Octatrackā direct sampler to sequencerā thing. Having a lot of fun with it, donāt know if itās going to be possible though.
1 Like
In regards to the tape delay, I think it sounds great, but the preset delay types are fairly limited in their options. You can choose between tape and old tape, and you get mod depth and speed, so no real wow and flutter, age, or crinkle controls.
That being said, you can certainly make a delay with all of those things using eq, lfos, envelopes, filters, and drives effecting the delayed signal. Iāve got some work in progress patches mimicking the dTape in the Timeline and theyāre sounding great so far. The skyās the limit
2 Likes