#52

I thought I read this in the past. I could be mistaken. But looking at the names of the modules and the effects, looks very similar to the Mod Duo lineup.

#53

Steve has only mentioned PureData irt coding. I don’t know if that helps people with what platform ot uses. From what ive heard Zoia sounds a lot better than MOD DUO.

I think hed said earlier that looping would eventually be longer.

They have always been adamant that its a stand alone box thus no usb. Usb/midi interface should work?

I like that its pretty wide open but not too open that i spend more time finding my way around than playing.

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#54

I actually love the on-board editing workflow from what I’ve seen of it so far. The fact that there’s no {computer -> device} then {device -> live} compartmentalization makes it stand out from other programmable gear i have/had like Organelle, Norns, and Nord Modular - it’s more in line with an ER-301 than those, in this respect. The device is the device in totality, patching seems easy enough, and the whole thing begs for exploration in a way other boxes don’t (I’m more likely to learn my way around programming this thing than the Organelle or Norns with their PureData and Supercollider/Lua course prerequisites). I’m not too concerned about difficulty in figuring out a patch that’s already been made - I rarely do this with my modular stuff or any synth - most sessions start with unplugging all patch cords or loading up the init preset and beginning from scratch.

My biggest concern so far is watching the CPU % as Cuckoo was going through his tutorial - I think it was already >30% when he simply loaded one of Empress’s reverb chains, then 40-45% when he added a basic synthesizer on top of that. Worried about what limitations/ceiling there might be in building really gnarly, complex patches.

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#55

Damn. I bit a bullet. Got 15% off from Prymaxe. :sweat_smile:

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#56

Curses. I got 20% off ($399.20), which makes it equivalent to buying used. Couldn’t resist! Thanks for the tip.

#57

We are porting code from our other products over into the ZOIA, but it’s not going to be the same. The ZOIA uses the same processor as the reverb and echosystem. If we ported over the most CPU expensive reverb algorithm, you wouldn’t be able to do anything else on the ZOIA.

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#58

If people wanted to take on the effort of creating a computer editor for the ZOIA, I’d love that. I’d provide the code that is required (structure of patch files, structure of module data that gets saved, etc). We could maybe even create a MIDI language using CCs for real-time editing. But I think it would be a huge undertaking. One of the reasons why we’ve stayed about from a software editor is that’s there’s already a ton of great software systems like PD, reactor, Max/msp, etc for doing that stuff. And then you have the Organelle if you want a purely hardware component.

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#59

Just out of curiosity are you using some custom DSL that is interpreted/jited on Zoia for modules or things need to be compiled beforhand? I definitely would be interested in files structure etc (maybe you could just post these on github?) because it would allow to write nice utility stuff on computer like patch randomizer etc

1 Like
#60

Congratulations on it. It looks and sounds wonderful.

#61

Thanks for your responses! This is very helpful info.

One of the problems I’ve had with previous everything-boxes is the sound quality, so its great to hear these are same processor and similar code as your other effects. I’m hearing (anecdotally and actual audio) great things though about Zoia! Regarding sharing of files, will the files to be shared on Patch Storage be text or pictorial explanations of patches or will they be in the proprietary format and we just pop them onto the SD card.

Very excited, have pre-ordered and can’t wait!

#62

Ya looping will eventually be longer. We’ll use the SD card to save loops, like on our Reverb and Echosystem. But it’s going to be a lot of work.

As for Pure Data, it was just the inspiration for ZOIA. We didn’t port any code from other systems.

The patches are binary files which you can load via the SD card. Whether the format is “proprietary” is a matter of semanics I guess. The binary is just a bunch of data which the ZOIA loads/saves. If people express an interest in the editor, I have no problem with releasing the files that read/write that data.

No it’s all just C. Oh how I wish there were Lisp compilers for embedded stuff! :slight_smile:

Ya that is definitely a limitation. I happen to like the limitation (I may be biased), having to figure out how to make the most of what you have. Like say you’re making a 4-voice synth. Having a dedicated plate reverb for each voice is going to eat up all the CPU pretty quick. Summing all the voices to one reverb is usually the way to go. I can almost always get the result I want, but it takes some creative thinking.

16 Likes
#63

Yeah Im no coder so I was only trying to offer info on what you were using. I wasn’t sure it was any kind of help mentioning that.

Godspeed. I know it was quite the trial. I wish you all the success.

#64

Thanks for popping in on this thread and answering everyones questions @empress_effects!

I have a quick easy one for you, what are the limitations of the sequencer modules available? How many steps are possible with one instance? Do they eat up a lot of CPU?

Thanks!

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#65

This would be lovely to see rather than reverse engineering the presets by hand… :slight_smile:

#66

@empress_effects
Will there be an option down the road to upgrade the processor?

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#67

I just created a 32-step 8-track sequencer (that’s the max steps and max tracks) and it took up 2% of the CPU. Compared to audio processing, the CV processing like sequencers, LFOs, and ADSRs are low CPU users. An 8-step 1-track sequencer takes up at 1%.

Unlike computer motherboards where you can sometimes drop in a more powerful processor, DSP processors generally can’t be swapped like this. Plus they’re soldered to the board. But if ZOIA turned out to be popular and it seemed like a more powerful version would do well, I’d definitely consider creating a more powerful version of the ZOIA. But these kinds of projects take years (as you may have noticed with the ZOIA), we’re a pretty small team.

Ya that would be very painful! :slight_smile:

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#68

@empress_effects

Steve, first of all congratulations on getting this out! I’ve been interested since I first saw the Knobs video.

A slightly cheeky question: is a euro module version of ZOIA something that’s possible? All these features + cv in a module would make it the most versatile toolbox out there!

1 Like
#69

After the DuoX news this morning I ended up cancelling that preorder and buying the zoia with the refund. Excited to get this in my hands and talking to the rest of my gear.

#70

We’ve definitely thought about it. I guess we’ll see what the reaction to the ZOIA is, and whether euro people (is the a polite thing to say?) are interested in the idea.

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#71

What DuoX news are you referring to?