Empress Effects Zoia Pedal! A Hiphop Producer Review

A video review of the Empress Effects Zoia guitar pedal from a hiphop producer prospective. Guitar pedals are a great way to process sound from hardware synths. The Zoia happens to be a multi-effect digital pedal that can be a synth too! At the price of $500 I think it's a good deal. It's a jack of all trades but the master of none. Why do I say that? Well, honestly, it doesn't shine in the overall package it offers. Some of the features (including effects routing) are simply difficult to understand. If you're a die hardcore synth nerd like me. Then you will enjoy building patches from scratch (except the massive amount of menu diving). If your a guitarist that wants to pick out a patch and start creating. That's where this pedal gets a bit "shaky". If your into experimenting then you won't be annoyed by the workflow. I did enjoy routing LFO's to existing parameters and building a sequences. Despite Empress Effects diligent effort to have the community support the pedal with custom presets. I didn't connect with most of the patches. I found myself researching for other pedals that do cool things with minimal menu diving (example: Holograms Electronic Infinite Jets, Microcosm, and Dream Sequence). Don't forget if you have an iPad and audio interface (about $500 depending on which iPad). You can buy AUM and Effectrix and get faster results (and better imo). What do you think about this review? Please leave a comment below!

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