Zoom 9030

Too aggressive; it can dirty the sound of the preamp...but I like its effects!

No problems

A good old mchine.

I have just bought this unit second hand.The editing seems reletively easy but the presets are not very useful.I am having problems getting a good rythmn soun (with a touch of phase) and cannot achieve a good lead sound aka Gary Moore etc.,any suggestions?

Sound quality is harsh distortion,crunch,overdrive lacking tone.

So far dependable.Would use it at a gig if I could get some suitable editing.

Tried for a manual from Zoom.Still awaiting a reply

We play rock,modern blues and pop.So far not compatible and a bit of a pig in a poke.

This is a very easy. I like it.

Support is'nt good. I can't find electronical manual for it.

I mostly play bluesrock and some kind of hard rock.

Very easy to use if you're familiar with processors at all. Simple straight-forward interface. The panel looks nifty too.

Okay... I give it a ten here... allow me to stress. "For what it's good at!" This unit has a very digital sound. It's hard to be warm and smooth with it. For most guitarists, that's a bad thing. For the cold, industrial, digitized sounding guitar, it can't be topped imho. Distortions can be very harsh and the resonators make them extremely metallic. No other distortion sounds like the ones in this processor. I learned about the unit through Trent Reznors use of it on the Broken EP. Two guitarist friends of mine have them, and I borrow them frequently... so I'm looking for one now. Great unit for industrial guitar. The 9050 offers basically the same setup with more patch locations. But it's quieter and I'm not sure I'd like that for my purposes. Other than the industrial application, I'd go 9050 over the 9030 all the way.

These units have rather cheap little cases. The lithium batteries do run down. One of my friend's units won't accept the expression pedal input... since it was new. I'd be nervous of it in a gigging rack, due to the cheap construction. I'd probably want a backup. I've seen too much go wrong with these. Not often... but something's happened to every 9030 I've seen within a year or two.

Never dealt with them

Again... a ten here. As an industrial guitar unit. This unit is not warm and expressive. The reverbs are not lush, they're cold and digital. The cleam sounds recall early '90's glam rock. Sparkling clear, but cold. With some programming, you can make beautiful noises with your guitar. Fabulous unit. Way different from everything else I've used. (SGX-2000, Quadraverb GT, several Digitech units, even the Zoom 3030)

The manual is not very well written. Seems to have been translated directly from Japanese!!! You need to put aside a couple of hours to get to know the unit. Once you do this, editing becomes second nature and the whole process is very intuitive. The knobs give it a sort of "ampish" quality.

I use the unit with a Marshall 80 watt valvestate amp. I use it "in line" ie, not in the effect loop. This is fine for low volume stuff (and keeping my neighbours happy). I find, however, that the sound quality suffers as the volume increases. I am generally happy with the sounds I get. I only use 3/4 different sounds anyway and I wrote my own patches, 'cos the factory presets are a little thin sounding. The factory distortion/overdrives are very processed. It is possible to get a realistic overdrive from this unit. I have a patch which is quite close to late 80's/early 90's George Lynch and sounds pretty good. Chorus and delays are good but phaser is harsh and tremelo/auto wah are not very good. High gain settings can be edited to sound good, but crunchy sound (Bluesbreakers etc) is poor.

I've had mine since 1992. It's an early model. It's never broken down. I've used it for studio work but wouldn't gig with it because of the sound quality at high volume. I have the floor controller which is all metal and very strong. Batteries go (but can last ages)and wipe the memory so beware, make a written note of your favourite patch parameters.

Never had to contact the manufacturer.

I bought this unit when it first came out and I've used it ever since. You CAN find good sounds in it and I have some patches I'm really happy with. Although the unit is getting old, I would argue that if you have a sound that you are really happy with, why change? Just because there are newer units available this shouldnt be a reason to change in itself. Having said that, I'm keeping an open mind and am looking closely at POD's new units. I play mainly rock/metal and would recommend the 9030 for this type of music, particularly as used ones are so cheap thesedays.

The Zoom 9030 has lots of presets so a person can use it right out of the box. If you play guitar through it you pretty much must have the 8050 control pedal to easily change presets. Most of the presets are very metal oriented. They are very heavy in an artificial sort of way. I never used these much but I have taken some of them as starting points to create patches that are usable.
I rate the ease of use this unit very good for a digital multi-fx which by nature has many parameters to set and require lots of scrolling to get to the different parameters. This Zoom in particular has practically every effect there is and it has several adjustable parameters for each one. Editing is easier than with some due to the four rotary knobs. Many others have only up and down value buttons. The rotary knobs are tiny but so is the entire unit.
The manual is also typical. Things are not always explained in a logical manner but I have been able to understand most everything after reading about it a couple of times. If you have not had any experience with digital equipment you might think that this is a nightmare to program.

I use either a Strat or an SG for guitar and either a Mesa Boogie Mk II or a 50 watt Marshall stack for amplification. I do experience noise especially if the amp is on the lead channel. I used to get a lot more noise when I had a Boss SE-50 plugged into the same electrical strip. Since both the Zoom and the Boss had wall wart power supplies I think they interreacted and created noise. I also began plugging everything into a Furman line conditioner and this seemed to reduce the noise further.
The effects are a mixed bag. Some are very good some very weak. However with tweaking, most of the effects can be made usable. The chorus, flanger, and leslie effects are rather weak and artificial sounding. But combining these with overdrive and delay etc. can still result in good sounds. I have read other writers comments that the wah was no good. I was able to get a decent wah sound by tweaking the parameters and adding overdrive and other effects. I use the Zoom pedal which plugs into the 8050 control pedal. With that setup I can program the pedal to control all sorts of things besides the wah. That is perhaps the best feature on this product. I was disappointed in the tremelo. I was hoping for more of a Fender type sound. With a Fender, the tremelo speed stays constant no matter what you play into it. With the Zoom the tremelo is triggered somehow by the notes you play. If you play several faster notes the tremelo sort of stops until you slow down again. In the meantime the tremelo has lost the rhythm. Its not a bad sound but hard to keep that tremelo rhythm going as it should. The pitch transposer is typical of less expensive effects units and I find it ok for guitar. I don't think the Zoom sounds as good as a Digitech 2101 or a T C Electronics G force but those are much bigger units and cost much more.

I have used this without backup for several years now. It did break down once at home and I sent it off for repair. It took a few weeks to get it back. I have never had any further problems with it.

The company representatives were always helpful and friendly during the few conversations I have had with them. Repairs were made in a reasonable amount of time.

I use the Zoom for various types of music from blues to alternative grunge to psychedelic. It is very versatile. If anything happened to it I would consider getting another but I would also consider the later 9050 which has a build in tuner and a noise gate. When I got the Zoom I tried the ART and Digitech models that were available at the time. Those also sounded good but did not have the variety of effects that the Zoom had.

The unit is quite easy to use; the large and logical display and the four parameter knobs really help make this a very user-friendly gadget. The manual is average, and the "helpful hints" are just that. Some cryptical sections concerning the memory areas and editing buffers though. My unit is probably of an early version. Hence the limiter doesn't work (it never has).

I've been using the 9030 with different setups - within the effects loop of a preamp in a rack system, and as a preamp/processor into the input of a combo, using the 9030's own distortions. I's essential that you turn off the horrible speaker simulator when not recording directly to tape - or even then - and make the necessary utility settings - otherwise the unit sounds laughably thin and muddy - like most of the presets, of which most utilize the speaker simulator. Compared to current units the 9030's effects generally sound a bit too "digitized" and thinnish to my ears - especially the flangers and phasers, of which the latter does not sound like a proper phaser at all. The SFX are funny, but not very useful, and the intelligent pitch shifter isn't very intelligent... The delays are really good though, epecially the complex stereo "echo", although the tap tempo options are ancient. The tremolo is another highlight, with a very useful parameter selection. The distortions does in fact sound OK through a good amp, although the "crunch" is horrible (use lower gain settings with "OD" instead). The choruses are also OK, but you have to make some silly compromises as far as effects combinations are concerned; if you want, for instance, chorus and delay, you can't use the stereo chorus, which resides in the same effects module as the delay, but you have to use the far less disirable sounding mono chorus, which has only two chorus parameters (effect level and depht - the rate is fixed!). When connected in the effects loop of a preamp you'll notice that the unit steals quite a bit of the preamp sound, making it harsher and muddier. It's not critical though, but annoying, as most current units will not do this. The noise level is quite low; if you listen very carefully, it sounds as if there is some internal noise gate in the unit, as a signal's last second of decaying sustain will be cut off. When changing patches the 9030 mutes the sound far too long for my liking (about half a second), and the option of turning effects on and off is not very useful, as the the unit also in this case will mute the sound, as if you were changing patches.

My 9030 has never let me down on a rehearsal or a gig (the 8050 foot controller has though), and after five years of use the lithium battery still works. The EQ module lamp goes out occasionally, but it's not a very big problem. When using it live with my current setup, my only fear is that the memory goes down due to the lithium battery (as I don't mind changing it). Thus I run it in the effects loop of my main processor, so that I can bypass the unit if it goes down. I only use the 9030 for particular effects these days, for instance only as an additiolal tremolo unit.

I have never been in touch with the company nor the importer.

The 9030 was a good and useful unit five years ago, but is now superseded by today's far better units, which have less limitations concerning the effects combinations, steal a lesser amount of your preamp sound, and have faster patch changes. Today's units are in general far more well-spec'd, and you get more for your money now than then. As mentioned above I'm kepping the unit just in case I need to throw in an extra effect to make some REALLY complex sounds that rquires more effects than my Roland GP-100 has on offer. I've not come to that point yet though... Anyway I can't part with my 9030, and it certainly still looks VERY nice in the rack...

Sorry!!!! A correction to my review (12 Nov). The 9030 DOES support Continous Controller inputs. This is not clear from the manual (which refers to synth joystick data). However... I have persevered with this and accidentally fell on the right setup a couple of days ago. It IS possible to have a CC-pedal (0-5 volt)pluged into an Analogue to MidiDigital converter (I use a Rolls Midi-Wiz with a DOD FX-17 CC pedal) and be able to alter multiple effect parameters, on the fly, with a volume type pedal. This allows you to really use effects like the built in "Pedal Wah" via MIDI. Because the 9030's pedal WAH sound isn't great, you can also play around with having other effect parameters change along with the wah. Eg. Equalisation, Pan, echo, reverberation etc. If you work at it, you can get an OK sound out of it. Almost all of the 9030's effects support parameter change via CC pedal but you can only select ONE parameter per effect to be controlled via one CC pedal. (eg While controlling Equalisation, you can control Low-EQ, Mid-EQ *or* Hi-EQ). To alter multiple parameters in a single effect, you'll need multiple CC pedals. Imagine the possibilities! Sorry for the wrong info in the last review. (Grovel Grovel) I really thought that after owning this unit for 4 years, I really knew it inside out. I was wrong. Now I know it supports Continous Controller pedals, I would certainly buy this unit again. It's doubled the unit's fun value.

Easy but those *small* buttons and knobs!! It's a small unit (1/2 rack) so that's just what you have to put up with. Takes a short while to understand which combinations the unit will support in simultaneously. It will not run everything at once. Pretty easy to get sounds from it. Pretty hard to get the sounds you *want* from it. A pain in the arse to set the patch descriptions up. Each letter can take you 30 seconds of dinking the button.

Simply *forget* using this as your sole distortion source. It can reasonably enhance another (pre amp?) distortion to drive the sounds into the "crazy" zone. Autowah - Laughable (forget it). Has a "digital" edge to it. Can lose the "warmth" of a guitar. The 9030 messes with the levels and quality too much to be put in line between guitar and amp. (so don't use the "Hi-Z" input on the front). Better wired in an effects loop of a pre amp to enable total bypass. Chorus-8/10 1sDelay10/10 EQ-useful. Special effects(explosions etc.)-Hilarious fun. Some interesting stereo stuff.

Rock solid for 4 years BUT beware of the internal battery. When it dies, you lose all of your programming. The unit then fires up in default setting. Not something you want to let happen. Manual says "do not open - no serviceable parts" and specifically instructs you to return the unit for battery swap after 3 years. I've opened the box and swapped the battery with no problem when time and location has left no other option. Batteries are clip in. Easy to change and are about a buck. I always keep spare batteries. When you change the battery, you lose all of the programming so plan for it. I'm thinking about modifying the unit to take 2 batteries in parallel to avoid this ugly issue. The manual says batteries last 3 years. They don't!!!

Never talked to 'em.

This is a good unit for messing about with and learning about how differrent effects sound but has some limitations compared with separate units. Don't expect it do do everything that a complete set of separate effects pedals/units will do. It can't. Pretty good unit for the MIDI pedal brigade but does not support continuous controllers so don't think you'll be able to control any of the settings via a MIDI pedal board attached to a volume pedal or Continuous controller pedal. (You can't). I've had a lot of fun with it. I won't sell it but if it was stolen, I'd look around at other stuff before buying this again. I have augmented it (and will continue to augment it) with other effects. 1/2 rack size. Good utilisation of space in your rack. I use it out of the effects loop of a Marshall JMP1.

I really like the little knobs, also they might be a bit too small.

I wanted a device to plug directly into my computer. (for D2D recording). It does the job pretty correctly. It doesn't replace a proper amp though, as its sound is a bit too "produced" in my opinion. It's difficult to have a "Raw" guitar sound, or a crunchy distortion.

After I move to South Africa the thing wouldn't work ! I opened it and apperently and additional board inside was disconnected, as it wasn't fixed with screws. It re-connected it, screwed it and ever since everything is ok.

Is there a customer support. ?

Yep I'd buy it again. Good sound, good effects, wonderful amp simulator. But don't expect to much : there are no tubes inside !
I'd like to swap sounds with other users : so get in touch with me !