Zoia Empress - The Big Picture of ZOIA

THE BIG PICTURE
The ZOIA is, in essence, a fully featured modular synthesizer in
pedal form. Modules are laid out on the button grid, with each
module consisting of a number of parameters. Each parameter
is represented by a button on the grid which accesses a
specic function of that module.
The button grid represents one page within a patch. When you
save a patch, it saves to ZOIA’s internal memory each page
you’ve created, along with all of the modules you’ve added,
parameters you’ve changed, and connections you’ve made.
You can then go on to create a whole new patch and use
the stompswitches to navigate between them.
If you are familiar with guitar eects but don’t have much
experience with synthesizers, the ZOIA probably seems a little
scary. But the good news is that guitar eects are built using
the same basic blocks that make up modular synths. For
instance, the tremolo eect is just a VCA (voltage-controlled
amplier) being controlled by an LFO (low-frequency oscillator).
A delay eect is just a delay line with its output fed back into
its input. To jazz it up, you can put a lter in the feedback loop,
maybe modulate the delay line length with an LFO and voila -
you’ve created your own tape delay emulation! We’ve stacked
the ZOIA with a plethora of pre-built eects, but all of the basic
building blocks are there as well for your sonic experimentation.
Instead of thinking of the ZOIA as simply a pedal, it is probably
more accurate to think of it as a platform. It provides the basic tools
so that you can build your own eects, synths, and instruments.
5