ZOIA is basically a modular synth. It’s actually super intuitive to use as a guitar signal chain, i use it like a hologram microcosm to do generative backgrounds to noodle over. I won’t lie though it took me a solid six hours to get it programmed in, i’m generally familiar with modular synthesis but I had to do a lot of learning as I went.
Those interested in the ZOIA should give this recent video a look: ruclips.net/video/adI3fts56zQ/видео.html It details the history of the ZOIA and Empress in general.
Shortly after the Zoia was introduced at NAMM, a few years ago, Steve Bragg came over to my house to give me a little demo of what it could do (we live about a 10 minute drive from each other). He brought a little Arturia keyboard, and initially set the Zoia up to be a mono synth, and then a poly synth. I asked him if he had ever experimented with reprocessing; that little trick where you take the output from one channel of a stereo pedal and feed it to the input of the other channel, so that the same processing is applied a second time. He hadn't, so I took out a TC Alter Ego that a buddy had loaned me, plugged my guitar in, and demoed it for him. He liked the sound, and quickly took out his little notebook, sketched for a minute, until he figured out the "module sequence", tapped on the relevant buttons in a blinding flash of legerdemain, and bing bang boom, he replicated what I did with the Alter Ego, using the Zoia. *THAT's* how powerful it is.
Definitely need the Empress folks to come and demo the ZOIA or someone that's super into it like they did with the Kemper. I have one on my pedalboard and one on my mixing desk, it's one of my favorite pedals....it's my everything box!
I have ZOIA in the loop of my amp sim. “Reason in a pedal” is about right; it’s an entire modular effects environment in one pedal. You could spend forever on it. Get Steve Bragg on the show!
Josh . Just getting around to watching this vid. Happy belated birthday. Just wanted to let you know I will be turning 63 this summer and your company , crew of cohorts make me young again. I have the Madison Cunningham pedal and a Colourbox. Will definitely have more JHS in the future. Keep being an amazing group of people.
I have the Zoia, made a whole shoegaze-y type album using just that. It is incredibly powerful. I now have it sitting in the FX loop of an amp modeller, doing solid work mostly with complex reverb and modulation patches. It can be a multi-fx unit, a synthesiser, a combination, whatever. Completely open ended.
@@emmanuelhug7432 tried to send a reply but think it broke; album is 'Infopoint' under the name 'Dreamscene Hellscape' on Spotify and Apple Music. It's my first work (Zoia and guitar were my first pieces of equipment, bought a year before album release), so go easy lmao no amp on that one either, just direct from Zoia into audio interface
@@Papergami45 uhhh everything from a glimpse of fading sunlight onward is seriously amazing! Like incredible. Definitely keep up with it. Reminds of Animal Collective and Deakin from ACs newest solo album. Really great.
@@lhmmhl1 thank you so much! I'm always working on new stuff but as I'm still quite a novice guitarist my style is changing constantly, so nothing has collated into a second release yet. I'm really glad you enjoyed!
Josh: ...I had a birthday trip, I'm 40 now. Addison: How was it? Josh: ...You know... I feel myself slowly dying... Addison: ...I meant the trip. Josh: The trip was good... Comedy gold.😂 Or possibly great song lyrics.
Just a shirtless Dad mowin' the lawn... Tan sweatin' man, ain't got a shirt on. Gonna need a beer, when my job is done... an American Hero, Dad's number one!
Thanks for showing off that Simple Switch FX "Nano Tap Tempo"! Such a good idea to have for things like tap tempo and presets on a momentary external switch. I'll need to pick up a real one, but for the moment - while I was watching the rest of the episode - I built one. (Just stuck a simple pushbutton into the cable end of one of those giant ¼" plugs that Radio Shack used to sell, the kind with screw terminals in.) Not as slick as the commercial version, but it'll serve for a while.
The Zoia is the goddess of all (digital) pedals… If you have the patience to learn it. I think it took about two sessions of tinkering/reading before I really started getting it. Based on what I can observe from the hours of watching these videos, I think Josh would love this thing if he learned how to use it. Which may be difficult given what I imagine is an immensely populated schedule. You guys hardly scratch the surface here. You’ve basically looked at the ground and decided you might dig. You’ve just connected a few pre-made guitar effect modules (which clearly sound awesome), but the real fun happens when you build your own sounds from the ground up with LFO’s and the like. There a billion online resources for this thing, and if you don’t want to build stuff, you can download beautiful sounds that other users have created. The Zoia can even be an instrument by itself without input from other sources. It’s also incredibly usable on a board, once you’ve dialed everything in. I use an expression pedal to control cv, and one of the buttons as a tap on almost everything I build. You can assign different parameters to each switch or to an external controller. It can get as complicated or remain as simple as you’d like it to. It’s a rabbit hole. One that I haven’t found the end of. It’s f$&@ing glorious.
The airpatch could have several pedals in it like an FX loop to combine a bunch into 1 button. If you want 1 off use your foot if you want the airpatch fxloop on or off use the hand button. I had to turn on/off an outboard a reverb delay at the end of the chain, gain (hx stomp) and an ehx pitch fork all at once. I managed by using my pickup selector and LP style volume controls preset to clean and dist on different pups and then I only had 3 switches to do. (I max out the hx stomp with stuff so I can't do the snapshot thing and require the outboard pedals). I could use the airpatch to combine the reverbs and delay into 1 button and leave gain and the pitchfork to foot control.
Air patch. Momentary mode. When I sustain a note at the climax of a solo, I would tap a rhythm out on it. I would take the send of the loop into an atreides into a modulated analog delay and into a second amp instead of returning from the loop. It would be nuts :)
I have the Zoia on my board, and I use it for anything from a simple tape delay or plate reverb to some crazy modulated ambient synth stuff. The possibilities are really endless. It weird that I don't see anyone talking about how it could be a practical multi-fx pedal though. It has all the amazing empress algorithms in it, so the fxs sound mint. You don't have to ONLY use it for the weird and wacky stuff.
Honestly the Zoia is amazing: a Swiss Army knife for signal processing with decent multi-FX, modular synth and full MIDI implementation. It's very powerful post-amp but also great pre-amp for thing like signal boosting and shaping ... and if you don't mind running it mono it can sit both pre- and post-. It *can* replace the amp completely for a single box solution but its drive/crunch characteristics are not great. A lot of Zoia users own two!
This is how you know I’m hooked… I just go back and watch episodes from years ago that I know I’ve seen. I totally want that Dad shirt but I really want to see that Friday. Zoya episode. Make it happen! Please thank you goodbye
Just ordered the DAD shirt, cause it's Pedalicious. My first pedal was the Fx 56 American Metal by DOD. Which I still have BTW. Thanks for the wonderful content.
@@nickjensen8532 I'm pretty sure my first amp was a Rage. Didn't sound so awesome to me, but I didnt have Eric Valentine and Joe Baressi recording me either.
It's more the youtube effect. It gets a video on youtube because homme used it, and every youtuber wants one to do a video. They were about 50 bux for the last twenty years until a youtuber did a video on it. JHS is infamous for the youtube effect. All 4 track tape recorders are priced over the moon now because an Instagramer made a video with one and it became an insta challenge. Make a song on a 4 track.
DUUUUDE, I used to have a few of those Tiger handheld games, including that Michael Jordan one. That jam with the ZOIA sounded like something Marilyn Manson put on antichrist superstar.
One time I was playing a church and the bassist had a ZOIA. Sounded great. Back in the green room he pulled an OP-1 out of his backpack OP-1 People exist
I once saw the band 'Whiteout' (famous, or not, for doing a co-headline tour with Oasis 'before they were famous') come on stage at Manchester Students Union, first beat of the first song, foot through the bass drum... end of show... riot ensues. Glad no such thing happened there, after such a tremendous improvisation. ;)
Fun episode dudes and dudet. I think the little Jack Switch thingy with the red button is my favorite stomp boxer of this episode. I would like to see an episode devoted to it. Thank you.
The Acorn is pure dope ! I must have that pedal or how am I going to survive ? 300 for dope 2 channel amp ? Yeah all day long ! The Free jam you guys did with it was dope too . Belle was a great addition, please bring her back for more appearances as Joshua probably could use some well deserved holiday time and I sort of have a little crush on her. Her lyrics and timing are great and the bubble gun is sick ......
Hey guys could you include timestamps? There are times when I really want to see a specific pedal but not the others and skimming through is a nightmare. Would definitely increase the quality.
7:20 - Zoia
14:50 - The Darkness
25:04 - Atlas Compressor
33:00 - Air Patch
43:20 - Sundance Electric
49:00 - Solid State
Hey Josh, the Airpatch is a game changer for someone in a wheelchair. Thanks for all you do.
ZOIA is basically a modular synth. It’s actually super intuitive to use as a guitar signal chain, i use it like a hologram microcosm to do generative backgrounds to noodle over. I won’t lie though it took me a solid six hours to get it programmed in, i’m generally familiar with modular synthesis but I had to do a lot of learning as I went.
The looper in particular has some great features like loop windowing which I'd love for JHS to take a closer look at.
Those interested in the ZOIA should give this recent video a look: ruclips.net/video/adI3fts56zQ/видео.html It details the history of the ZOIA and Empress in general.
Shortly after the Zoia was introduced at NAMM, a few years ago, Steve Bragg came over to my house to give me a little demo of what it could do (we live about a 10 minute drive from each other). He brought a little Arturia keyboard, and initially set the Zoia up to be a mono synth, and then a poly synth. I asked him if he had ever experimented with reprocessing; that little trick where you take the output from one channel of a stereo pedal and feed it to the input of the other channel, so that the same processing is applied a second time. He hadn't, so I took out a TC Alter Ego that a buddy had loaned me, plugged my guitar in, and demoed it for him. He liked the sound, and quickly took out his little notebook, sketched for a minute, until he figured out the "module sequence", tapped on the relevant buttons in a blinding flash of legerdemain, and bing bang boom, he replicated what I did with the Alter Ego, using the Zoia. *THAT's* how powerful it is.
Yes, please give ZOIA another shot in the spotlight. It's capable of so much more!
Definitely need the Empress folks to come and demo the ZOIA or someone that's super into it like they did with the Kemper. I have one on my pedalboard and one on my mixing desk, it's one of my favorite pedals....it's my everything box!
Every one of these videos I’m more impressed with the drumming. It just makes everything else sound better.
You folks are awesome. Thank you for what you do.
I have ZOIA in the loop of my amp sim. “Reason in a pedal” is about right; it’s an entire modular effects environment in one pedal. You could spend forever on it. Get Steve Bragg on the show!
Josh . Just getting around to watching this vid. Happy belated birthday. Just wanted to let you know I will be turning 63 this summer and your company , crew of cohorts make me young again. I have the Madison Cunningham pedal and a Colourbox. Will definitely have more JHS in the future. Keep being an amazing group of people.
Wow thanks for the Airpatch shoutout and gnarly blues demo. So many cool ideas!
I have the Zoia, made a whole shoegaze-y type album using just that. It is incredibly powerful. I now have it sitting in the FX loop of an amp modeller, doing solid work mostly with complex reverb and modulation patches. It can be a multi-fx unit, a synthesiser, a combination, whatever. Completely open ended.
You got my attention! ;-D Is the shoegaze-y album somewhere online availabe? iTunes, Spotify, ...?? I would love to have a listen \m/
@@emmanuelhug7432 tried to send a reply but think it broke; album is 'Infopoint' under the name 'Dreamscene Hellscape' on Spotify and Apple Music. It's my first work (Zoia and guitar were my first pieces of equipment, bought a year before album release), so go easy lmao
no amp on that one either, just direct from Zoia into audio interface
@@Papergami45 uhhh everything from a glimpse of fading sunlight onward is seriously amazing! Like incredible. Definitely keep up with it. Reminds of Animal Collective and Deakin from ACs newest solo album. Really great.
@@lhmmhl1 thank you so much! I'm always working on new stuff but as I'm still quite a novice guitarist my style is changing constantly, so nothing has collated into a second release yet. I'm really glad you enjoyed!
Belle should have a poetry spot every sigle time. That was AMAZING! Yes, we miss Joshua but Belle should have a poetry spot every single time.
I'm emotionally wiped out by "Shirtless dad mowing the lawn".
I am outraged. How long unitl Addison is replaced with another Loux sibling?
Ahhh yes, such a _spirited_ rendition of
_"Stumbling Up Them Stairs" by Kate Dubya Biden_
Josh: ...I had a birthday trip, I'm 40 now.
Addison: How was it?
Josh: ...You know... I feel myself slowly dying...
Addison: ...I meant the trip.
Josh: The trip was good...
Comedy gold.😂 Or possibly great song lyrics.
😂😂😂😂😂👌
YAYYYYY Belle is BACK ❤ Belle Rocks
I'm generally not a greedy person. I don't ask for many things. But, I beg of you, please finish the song "Shirtless Dad Mowin' the Lawn".
55:00
Zoia episode would be awesome, it's a whole modular pedalboard basically
Just a shirtless Dad mowin' the lawn...
Tan sweatin' man, ain't got a shirt on.
Gonna need a beer, when my job is done...
an American Hero, Dad's number one!
What is the Ektachrome 100 Color Reversal pedal?
I wanna know too
“Trav’s Stuff”….my fav influencer. No one wears old ladies glasses like he does. 👍 🤓
Thanks for showing off that Simple Switch FX "Nano Tap Tempo"! Such a good idea to have for things like tap tempo and presets on a momentary external switch. I'll need to pick up a real one, but for the moment - while I was watching the rest of the episode - I built one. (Just stuck a simple pushbutton into the cable end of one of those giant ¼" plugs that Radio Shack used to sell, the kind with screw terminals in.) Not as slick as the commercial version, but it'll serve for a while.
Best. Episode. Yet. LOVE both Joshua and Belle's poetry... more Belle guest spots please! You idiots make my week lol
AirPatch = musical equivalent of remote controlled adult massager
It pains me that stellar comments such as this one go unnoticed.
The Zoia is the goddess of all (digital) pedals… If you have the patience to learn it. I think it took about two sessions of tinkering/reading before I really started getting it.
Based on what I can observe from the hours of watching these videos, I think Josh would love this thing if he learned how to use it. Which may be difficult given what I imagine is an immensely populated schedule.
You guys hardly scratch the surface here. You’ve basically looked at the ground and decided you might dig. You’ve just connected a few pre-made guitar effect modules (which clearly sound awesome), but the real fun happens when you build your own sounds from the ground up with LFO’s and the like.
There a billion online resources for this thing, and if you don’t want to build stuff, you can download beautiful sounds that other users have created. The Zoia can even be an instrument by itself without input from other sources.
It’s also incredibly usable on a board, once you’ve dialed everything in. I use an expression pedal to control cv, and one of the buttons as a tap on almost everything I build. You can assign different parameters to each switch or to an external controller. It can get as complicated or remain as simple as you’d like it to.
It’s a rabbit hole. One that I haven’t found the end of. It’s f$&@ing glorious.
The airpatch could have several pedals in it like an FX loop to combine a bunch into 1 button. If you want 1 off use your foot if you want the airpatch fxloop on or off use the hand button. I had to turn on/off an outboard a reverb delay at the end of the chain, gain (hx stomp) and an ehx pitch fork all at once. I managed by using my pickup selector and LP style volume controls preset to clean and dist on different pups and then I only had 3 switches to do. (I max out the hx stomp with stuff so I can't do the snapshot thing and require the outboard pedals).
I could use the airpatch to combine the reverbs and delay into 1 button and leave gain and the pitchfork to foot control.
Shirt idea: This is my clean tone
Air patch. Momentary mode. When I sustain a note at the climax of a solo, I would tap a rhythm out on it. I would take the send of the loop into an atreides into a modulated analog delay and into a second amp instead of returning from the loop. It would be nuts :)
I have the Zoia on my board, and I use it for anything from a simple tape delay or plate reverb to some crazy modulated ambient synth stuff. The possibilities are really endless. It weird that I don't see anyone talking about how it could be a practical multi-fx pedal though. It has all the amazing empress algorithms in it, so the fxs sound mint. You don't have to ONLY use it for the weird and wacky stuff.
There should definitely be a “Stabby Horse” pedal.
It would be a Klon clone with a bit crusher mode.
+1 for an episode on the Zoia
That compressor jam sounded like the Minutemen. Nice work!
The compressor jam was like if Weezer was Sheryl crow's backing band.
🤣🤣 Oh Trav... I think I love this character.
Honestly the Zoia is amazing: a Swiss Army knife for signal processing with decent multi-FX, modular synth and full MIDI implementation. It's very powerful post-amp but also great pre-amp for thing like signal boosting and shaping ... and if you don't mind running it mono it can sit both pre- and post-. It *can* replace the amp completely for a single box solution but its drive/crunch characteristics are not great. A lot of Zoia users own two!
Zoia jam one of my fav musics made on this series so far
Dang I guess Joshua finally left JHS to go work for Old Blood Noise 😢
Wish we got more episodes of Nix Tapes and T Bone Drexel!
This is how you know I’m hooked… I just go back and watch episodes from years ago that I know I’ve seen. I totally want that Dad shirt but I really want to see that Friday. Zoya episode. Make it happen! Please thank you goodbye
Just ordered the DAD shirt, cause it's Pedalicious. My first pedal was the Fx 56 American Metal by DOD. Which I still have BTW. Thanks for the wonderful content.
I totally agree with Nick about NAMM. Having a convention for gear where people can gather and geek out is exactly what it should be.
It's amazing that Josh Homme can inflate the price of a $50 80s Peavey practice amp so high that a $300 pedal version is a "good deal".
The Peavey rage sounds almost identical to the Deuce
@@Stereostupid the music shop I worked at had a Rage for testing equipment, and it was indeed awesome
😂😂😂😂
@@nickjensen8532 I'm pretty sure my first amp was a Rage. Didn't sound so awesome to me, but I didnt have Eric Valentine and Joe Baressi recording me either.
It's more the youtube effect. It gets a video on youtube because homme used it, and every youtuber wants one to do a video. They were about 50 bux for the last twenty years until a youtuber did a video on it. JHS is infamous for the youtube effect. All 4 track tape recorders are priced over the moon now because an Instagramer made a video with one and it became an insta challenge. Make a song on a 4 track.
DUUUUDE, I used to have a few of those Tiger handheld games, including that Michael Jordan one.
That jam with the ZOIA sounded like something Marilyn Manson put on antichrist superstar.
Addison is cool he reminds me of a WW2 Pilot
Holy crap, the Trav bit is hysterical!
omg, that jam with the girl. solid stuff.
Nick’s drum are particularly tasty today. That snare is TOIGHT
+1 for a ZOIA episode
Please. Dedicated Zoia episode. Such an amazing paddle. It’s much more than just a multieffects chain, it’s like a little synthesizer in pedal format.
I'd be curious to see Josh experiment with the new Beetronics Zzombee.
The only reason I watch this show is because I like it.
Here’s something new and noteworthy: me throwing away 1 box per “he has the box” stinger you play. Hope you’re ready for the new development.
I know that’s All Right Now but my brain kept putting in the Footloose chorus.
I love every single one of you's!!!❤️❤️❤️
Belle is a great addition to the show.
Best RUclips channel ever.
Air patch for the sound person
Josh is such an incredibly tasteful player
That Darkness has 2 secondary functions per knob! 2!!
Yep.. except the Spread knob..
I am a dad... and I am indeed shirtless. Statistically, it has to be somebody. Today I'm taking the hit.
Dreadbox Darkness is amazing 🤘
I would use the air patch with a pedal with the volume off, to have a non popping kill switch
I love it! So many people are Trying really hard not to get flagged. How punk are you. Awesome as always guys. Much much love to you all x
and again a epic Live 😀 you all Rock so BIG, i thank you all
Let’s move before they raise the parking rate!!!!
I had a Zoia and it is indeed very deep and fun to use, just not something I kept, I may revisit it in the future.
For the love of humanity as a film photographer and pedal geek....WHAT IS THE KODAK EKTACHROME PEDAL!
I cant believe a roomful of rock musicians couldn't identify "All Right Now" by Free
Your ZOIA tone is far superior to Rhett Shull’s ZOIA tone.
👌😂😂😂
So is his personality and modesty.
Saw a Peavey Decade on marketplace for $40 but was too slow to snag it... *Cries self to sleep*
I love this show more every time!!! thanks yall!
happy forty josh!
TravStuff rips. Love that dude so knowledgeable
The Midwest sounds like a terror hellscape.
I hate how much I love this.
Sold all my pedals and bought a zoia. best decision I ever made. life is easy bb
Hopefully Trav just has that big knife for his unboxing videos. 😅
That’s funny I’ve been making those “simple switches” for myself and friends for a good few years now!
Alright Now by Free! It's a great song. Amazing riff.
One time I was playing a church and the bassist had a ZOIA. Sounded great. Back in the green room he pulled an OP-1 out of his backpack
OP-1 People exist
I’ve always wanted to go to namm! I can see how it is taxing on the vendors though and I sympathize
Super impressed with the Sundance Clean Fuzz. Exactly the pedal I've been looking for. Cool episode all around.
Thank you.
You can hear some more demos of it here if your interested.
linktr.ee/Sundance09?ltsid=89214081-1b54-4629-9a2d-92fb07580787
It's me Trav. I have your red Andy pregnant snake Timmons stomp box. It entertains me deeply.
I'd use the air patch for a wah. That way you leave the wah on instead of having to push it down all hard and whatnot
Nick and his sister are the same person, down to the cadence of their speech.
Daniel Danger's shirt was so worth it! I'm so glad I got couple of those shirts.
I once saw the band 'Whiteout' (famous, or not, for doing a co-headline tour with Oasis 'before they were famous') come on stage at Manchester Students Union, first beat of the first song, foot through the bass drum... end of show... riot ensues. Glad no such thing happened there, after such a tremendous improvisation. ;)
Everyone fears the Zoia.
I thought Josh's Wailer shirt said Walker at first and I was super excited for new Butch Walker merch
53:45 Sounds more like 'Addicted to Love' to me haha
I use it to trigger the pyrotechnics during my solo.
Belle bringing out her inner Kim Gordon
Yes give me that
Great show. Very funny and entertaining.
Fun episode dudes and dudet. I think the little Jack Switch thingy with the red button is my favorite stomp boxer of this episode. I would like to see an episode devoted to it. Thank you.
Belle is a nice addition!!!
I feel like the shirt should be DAD bod America’s figure.
Yes to a more n depth exploration of the Zoia!
what is the ektachrome pedal?
The Acorn is pure dope ! I must have that pedal or how am I going to survive ? 300 for dope 2 channel amp ? Yeah all day long ! The Free jam you guys did with it was dope too . Belle was a great addition, please bring her back for more appearances as Joshua probably could use some well deserved holiday time and I sort of have a little crush on her. Her lyrics and timing are great and the bubble gun is sick ......
More Zoia!
Zoia ep!!!!
Hey guys could you include timestamps? There are times when I really want to see a specific pedal but not the others and skimming through is a nightmare. Would definitely increase the quality.
yoo that first jam was fire
I'd use the air patch to be a discount Matt Bellamy