Using the Empress Zoia live with an Elektron setup

Sbho · 2023-04-13T00:09:12.476Z

Hey guys.

Been eyeing up the Zoia in a hopes it might add some extra juice to my live setup.
Initially I was thinking about using it in the cue outs to send stuff to for creating breakdowns etc, but was curious how other folks use it in their setups.

I’m hoping I can set it up in a way to make it a fun interactable tool to mess with live, but the limited front panel controls have me a little worried (although I’m aware I could control some stuff with CCs from the Octa).

And experienced Zoia users care to share their thoughts with me?

Many thanks.

sezare56 · 2023-04-13T04:03:06.096Z

I like to experiment different things with Zoia, usually standalone or with plants !

I didn’t use Zoia with OT yet, apart to test a crossfader to midi CC with it. It can map OT crossfader CC 48 to any CC, with min/max. Some call it midi scenes.

For live with OT I’d probably use the crossfader and midi CC to control the Zoia, but there are some UI solutions, buttons allow to change values, there is main knob and expression input can be used with a potentiometer.
(I modded one)

4x8 values example. Could be 8x5 values.

sezare56 · 2023-04-13T04:09:28.593Z

Audio manipulation can be further with Zoia. Loopers can go up to 5 octaves (+/- 5 octaves). Audio in can be used as FM, there is pitch detector, audio multiplier (kind of ring mod), enveloppe follower…and these can be assigned to any parameter.

Zoia OS3 brought a sampler module, than can also be used as a looper. But it is beta, and buggy especially with high pitch up.

lowph · 2023-04-13T04:12:49.199Z

I love the Zoia with the plant! That’s awesome

sezare56 · 2023-04-13T04:39:12.645Z

It was a good surprise, much simpler than I thought. I saw a video of a guy selling dedicated gear for music with plants, and tried with Zoia.

The raw CV signal from plants change pretty fast, I had to reduced notes number, range, and applied scale quantize. But there is a kind of natural slow lfo I can’t explain.

Closer to raw CV :

MichaalHell · 2023-04-13T06:28:16.978Z

the most fun i have with ZOIA is converting audio to cv to midi.

my most use case is routing a drums to ZOIA, filter out the audio in low, mid, high send each filtering to an envelope follower and have each EF affect different things on the device sending audio.
Sending Low to modulate the midi clock so that the tempo slows down each time a kick trigs.
its possible to route this via midi into ZOIA as well so that you don´t sacrifice the input of ZOIA.

first section of this video uses the aforementioned midi clock modulation technique.

magmax303 · 2023-04-13T07:15:21.895Z

@sezare56 I am wondering if there is a box in the world that you don’t own ? your gear collection looks endless

muzka · 2023-04-13T08:41:37.829Z

Is it easy to set up the Zoia for live with, for example, 3 effects in a chain such as filter, distortion and delay then trigger each on and off with a button press? Like having 3 pedals with an on off for each.

Thanks

sezare56 · 2023-04-13T08:58:51.165Z

muzka:

Is it easy to set up the Zoia for live with, for example, 3 effects in a chain such as filter, distortion and delay then trigger each on and off with a button press?

Yes. If not, Zoia isn’t for you.

muzka · 2023-04-13T09:02:26.220Z

Fair enough

Sbho · 2023-04-13T10:34:31.033Z

Thanks for the great responses all!

Sezare, Im not sure if I’m following you - I thought the OT crossfader couldn’t control midi track CCs through scenes, are you saying there’s another way of doing it?

If so that would be amazing and exactly what I’m looking for.

sezare56 · 2023-04-13T11:27:32.295Z

Sbho:

I thought the OT crossfader couldn’t control midi track CCs through scenes, are you saying there’s another way of doing it?

Yes, with Zoia or other midi processors.

With Zoia you can assign OT crossfader CC48 to other midi CCs, (or CV), with min/max values, different midi channel…

So Zoia can also be a midi/cv processor.

MichaalHell · 2023-04-13T11:33:34.196Z

right…
so ZOIA translates the CC48 to whatever function you want on whatever device is connected

That´s a great tip

Sjozef · 2023-04-14T21:23:54.501Z

This looks like an amazing effect, but I’m afraid, the one knob limitation. Does it really hurt or
not?

sezare56 · 2023-04-14T21:56:19.658Z

More knobs would have been welcome ! With a Elektron, set 8/10 default CCs for controls on a midi track.
Create a template on Zoia. Pages can be copy/pasted between patches. You can have 8/10 CCs ready to be assigned…

Or a dedicated controller…

Sbho · 2023-04-15T01:16:19.452Z

That was my initial concern. I just got one today though, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to take it for a ride over the next few days and see. It’s my understanding you can use the 3 foot buttons for stuff too so we’ll see if there are some interesting performance opportunities without controlling it via other gear

rev_c · 2023-04-15T01:53:56.793Z

Don’t forget that there’s also 40 buttons that you can map to pretty much whatever you like. The zoia’s just a toolbox though; kind of like the OT, it’s 90% setup and 10% execution.