Zoom 9010

Very good reverb. At least for its time. But still does very well.
Low noise and very good resolution. Very good at nearly everything except for distortion. Some person gave this unit a low sound quality rating earlier here because the distortion is bad (sighs...), as I could see.
Well, this is NOT a distortion pedal.. not at all. That effect was probably put in as an extra .. just something.

I have had 2 of these. They did well.

reading the previous reviews, I dont have too much of a problem editing this unit, but I would say that the manual is a must. I have found it easier to understand and use than the dep 5, most reviewers have failed to mention that you can chain and use the effects in any order, in fact you can use upto 7 effects at the same time. It is very versitile and has been designed differently in operation.

this unit has a lot in it,-- noise gates o.k.,--compressors basic,---delays very usable ---- chorous is out of this world,--- Reverbs great for drums ----flangers great --- wah, usable effect,---enhancer usable -- distortion, dont call us, but if needed you can chain these up in almost any order. It really is a disinctive effects unit for adding that something into mix, so good I bought a second one.

no probs

n/a

A must for most home studios, a little noisy on some patches, but its the sought of unit to use for exiting tracks. Ive used most effects units, and Ive still got two, they must be more than 10 years old,and can still hold their own

Maybe the hardest-to-find-out-ever-effect processor i bought in my live. Although i had a User`s Guide right from the beginning, i haven`t become familiar with the unit. If you miss the manual, just
get rid of it as fast and as far as possible, otherwise maybe become familiar with hospitals for mentally ill people or something like that...
To my opinion to much switches and less knobs. Very hard to edit a
stereo reverb using the built in Coombs-Degrader in a short time.
You have been tricky if you stored the necessary change into another patch and call for it at the right time. But be prepared to wait up to 3 seconds until the sound changes, no matter of using a midiboard or
another trigger for change. While you are waiting the unit will give
no sound from the outputs, so you have not been tricky...
The manual is a typical state ot the art manual translated from Japanese to English by an Eskimo and furthermore from English to German by a Nubian landlord. You have no idea......
On the other hand, i use two of the units for different pa and recording jobs. Great sounding reverbs and tricky delays combined with definetely professional mixing skills, 4 ins and outs in one rackspace - that helps to save truckspace.

Never used it with my guitar amps due to its poor switching facilities. I use Intellifex XL for this job- it is great.
But for any other opportunities - a mix from up to 4 ins and outs
and effects is capable to solve a huge range of needs coming up.
Because i have two units in use, it is possible to provide 4 comps
or eqs or limiters or phasers in combination with rich and natural sounding reverbs at one time. Distortion is never used due to its
very poor quality, otherwise i would have used it for Lampachter,
thats my dear friend with his hammond. So he uses Rotosphere now,
and we went happy with it...

The units never failed all the time. They are built like little tanks
and never made any problem, although in use for a prolongued time.

I never had contact to customer support, but in Frankfurt Messe 1994 i met
a supervisor of the staff in a cafe and asked him for upcoming updates, food for the card-slots and other things like that. He couldn`t speak English or German, not a word. Later that day i met him again in a crowd of european trade buyers. He answered all questions,
spoke French, English and German perfectly.....but he changed colour to red.....when I asked him again!

I like the 70ies bombast rock from Floyd, Genesis, Yes and so on.
I perform in a german pink floyd coverband, i own lots of other stuff
but will not tell you here.....boring, isn`t it?
I'd rather buy a 9200 instead in case of getting lost these units,
they sound better in a way...

I had this once but didn't have the manual. It was a bit tricky to find out how to do. So.. to buy this unit demands a manual otherwise pay less.

I was amazed to hear the quality of the reverbs. I listened especially in headphones which is the best way to detect flutter in a reverb. No flutter heard. All the other effects (except for distortions) are just as fine as you want but you might use this model even for reverb only. True stereo in to. Well even 4 separate in/out too.

A gold mine for effect freaks !

If you read the manual you'll find it OK. It's a complicated thing but it's just because of the many functions you have in it. If you learn how it works it's great to use.

I use PRS, Strat, and others now & than. I used to have Leas Paul & JAM - Ibanez ever since I have this Zoom. I have it for almost 10 years now.
When it came out on the market there was nothing better ! Reverbs, Delays, Modulations...are perfect even nowadays. I did found wah with Expression pedal not as good as Cry Baby.
My problem was and is 'that it has only Distortion and there was a Overdrive effect only on a memory card that I never saw anywhere. I fond the Distortion a bit too heavy and not enough vintage. Ev. you have to try with two dist.effects in a line with one just used with dist. on 1 and pre amp on 10, but than you get some noise. I don't like useing a noise gate because it cuts your sound sometimes too early if you want too use two Dist. effects. It also has this problem which I know from the eighties - the very high tones (bendings on 15 and higher frets)with Distortion get some Digital piiiuuuung at the end.
Others, it has a very very good possibility to loop. You can at first go to the Zoom, use the Comp., Wah, Dist., Chorus or mono Delay,
than go to a Pre-Amp, than go back in input 2 and use it as a stereo Rev.,Delay, Chorus, Gate or wathever....and the stereo sounds are great and give you a lot of inspiration to make new effects sounding graet nowadays - Great for a Rack Set up. But you have to play with the parameters a lot.
So...I missed this Overdrive and the Amp. Simulation with this Dist. is not my thing and I use a Yamaha DG 1000 as well (in a loop) and when I'm not lazy I can still surprise with new sounds on this Zoom if I want to. The DG 1000 hasn't got this piiiuuung problem(1990's, in 1980's Yamahas were haveing the same problem)
....It's not as new anymore but I still don't have to buy a GT6 or POD PRO, even though they sound great...I DOn't know if I would miss the Digital out for recording... after years of only live playing I might decide to record some things with it again...
At the end I would say: a great sounding machine, missing the overdrive and a little complicated for some new effect users.

10 years and only once the trim for the display went off, a little new poty and was well again...and only once I had to change the memory Batt. ....I had never had and used a backup (though now and than I was playing with CS 3, Tubescreamer and a DD 5)...still almoust 10 years it has been and is my very best friend.

I never did realy try to upgrade or ask for a support. Maybe I would have got that overdrive if I tried.

I'm a blues, rock, funk, soul, guitar player that plays covers and almoust everything...some country, soft jazz, heavy as well and I was happy with it for this 10 years.
At that time (1992) it was the best sounding effect processor for me.
Now, if stolen, I would try some from the new floor boards where you have everything without useing an extra midi control...but only the newest and the best because in comb. with my DG 1000 there are not many or any at all that can sound better! I can still find some options like GT6, or POD PRO, or even Yamaha Stomp that I would try.
I'm not that good informed about the newer Zooms but beeing so happy with this 9010 I might try and compare some from the Zooms as well. But I love it and still not going to change it...

I found It fustrating Trying to switch between 'groups' especially between the distortion effects which only seem to wanna come out of channels 3&4. maybe if I read the manual I might be able to solve it, but when I use it I am recording and want some results. I would prefer more knobs and fewer buttons & menus.
Switching between Fxs is easy, but takes an age to kick in. - 2 or 3 seconds . (OK im impatient) Definately more Presets needed.
Theres a slot for cards ... but never come across any, and not sure if its just for storing more user memories.

Its supposed to be a quiet unit. In every system Ive tried it in theres backgroung electrical crackling (low down but not nice).
Ive tried everything to get rid of it, It seems reduduced when I disconnect the Earth Lead. NO IT IS NOT AN EARTH PROBLEM, I have taken everything out of the equation, used it on its own, used it in 3 different studios all with the same out come. Its a fault with the unit. After 2 hours on It occasionally makes a loud horrible electrical discharge sound with a nice reverb at the end of it. hmmmm.
The Church reverb & other dense reverbs are excellent sounding. Distortions ok, im not a guitarist though, flangers - mediocre - poor.
Dense reverbs score highly , but overall A low mark due to the fault with my machine.

Poor reliability. Front LED panel doesnt always come on. A sharp hit to the top of the casing usually sorts it. And the crackling .... hmmm not good, and the 'discharge ' ... not good at all
The build quality seems good and internally its well laid out, but it didnt do any good for me.

I have sent it back 3 times, they couldnt find the fault, I put a meter on the analogue outputs and got readings of over 100v and they said this was normal. I'm not an electrical engineer, but I dont think the crackling or discharge sounds were part of the specs. This unit hasnt been right from the start. Its just an earth loop they said. "what an earth loop on its own ???" To be fair they took it back 3 times, but they didnt replace the unit, and I'm still stuck with it.
A bit of a nightmare all round.

Gonna buy a lexicon or TC electronics.
Think I was just unlucky with a unit with a dodgy component. Still good with the dense reverb, and i still use it grudingly. I think it had an original price tag of UK #1200 thats aound US$1700. Glad I didn't pay that much for it!!!

Good unit for reverbs & delays primarily. The density and control over the reverb depends on the complexity of the reverb algorithm chosen. The more complex stereo reverb algorithms provide very extensive control over damping, density and stereo parameters. Likewise the delays also provide extensive individual left/right parameters for some very interesting stereo effects.
The editing of patches is of the tree / submenu type of interface which is not the fastest method, but makes locating & editing parameters quite straight forward. The manual is fine, but I rarely need to use it. As the 9010 is very flexible, due to 4 inputs & 4 outputs (it's real strength) it can operate in a number of very different modes, depending on the input & output routings. The manual is essential for this information as it can be confusing for the first time user and is not obvious from the front panel. But the flexibilty it offers is quite unique, and allows many useful studio setups to suit any application.

Sound quality of the dense reverb is very good. Likewise the delays are also very clean. However the flanging & chorus algorithms while being useable don't have a particularly lush sound, and the flange / phase effects exhibit a noticable digital 'stair casing' effect which while not being unpleasant, would not be my first choice for this type of processing.
The unit is a little noisy, if you solo the effects, but is generally acceptable. The exception to this is its distortion & compression effects ( aimed at the guitarist ) which produce an unacceptable level of hiss & hum and generally make it undesirable for this type of application. I have a Zoom floor pedal which does this much better than it's big brother. The distortions anyway would not be ones I would choose anyway. Basically this unit is aimed more at dense studio reverbs & complex delays and in this area the sound quality is good.

I have been using it for over 2 years without a problem. Though I haven't used it live it would be quite suitable. It has a strong steel construction and would take a few jolts quite easily (in a rack).

Company support were friendly and helpful, but unfortunately Zoom don't seem to have any plans for further add ons or new algorithms for this particular unit.

Great studio reverb, that can process up to 4 inputs, with 4 outs. Very good value for money, though the original price ($1000+) probably wouldn't interest me so much, and I would probably look into the Ensoniq DP-4 as a 4 input processor. I would not probably buy it if guitar was the main application. But, then it was not really intended (despite the inclusion of distortion etc) for that use.