Zoom 9050

It's fairly easy to devise new sounds with the zoom 9050. I like a digital device with analogue pots to shape the sounds. I never had a manual for mine, but most of the interface information was fairly easy to figure out.

I use my 9050 as a guitar pre-amp (with effects), running it out to a computer. After 12 or so years of ownership, I can say that I rarely use any of the special effects. But it has a great pitch shifter, I like the flanges and delays, it has a mean distortion, adequate limiter / compression etc. It has a bass amp / guitar amp simulator (combo, stack and another type of amp), which I have found useful over the years. It does tend to be a bit hissy, especially the distortion and reverb settings. But its noisiness doesn't bother me as I like to work with dirty sounds. My computer compensates for its shortcomings. I sometimes wish it was a bit brighter in sound (although I do use a vintage triple humbucker coiled Les Paul).

As my only effects unit and "pre-amp", I absolutely rely on my Zoom 9050. In 12 years of use, it has never forgotten its user patches. I would use it at gigs. I would have given it a full 10, but the foot-switch died about a year after I bought the unit second-hand. The foot-switch was not very robust, a pretty poor structural design lets down what was for me a cheap and reliable effects unit.

Never sought out customer support. Seeking a manual now though . . .

I play a kinda garage punk style of rock, with a lot of computer sequencing on non-guitars tracks (visit www.mp3.com.au/BadSongsBetter - most tracks here were processed on the Zoom 9050, recorded to tape, and converted to mp3). I have used the Zoom 9050 with my guitar, bass, vocals and keyboards with various levels of success. It has some pretty wild effects though, some I have used to hilarious effect on vocals. Mostly though I use the unit for guitar and bass. The only signs of wear (aside from the poorly designed foot-switch) are a couple of dirty analogue pots. It has been a very robust unit overall, and it is easy to get some satisfyingly huge, grungy industrial sounds. If I lost the Zoom 9050, I think I would invest in a Roland ME30. That thing is psycho! But I'm happy with the Zoom.

well, a bit tough to start with.but once u get the hang of it,man u gotta trust me you'l b fkin blown.just had to go through the manual just once.

the amp simulators r good.the distortions do get a bit noisy at times.
and if used with (nr),u will notice a drop in sustain.
i love satch,vai,johnson n many more.sonuds very close too
all the effects r good except for the wah,

i wont require any backup as its very reliable.

never needed to

i love ma rack mount n ill murder anyone who even thinks of stealin it.
i ve been playin from the age of 5.used many guitars n processors.now i m 19.but i m very happy mith the zoom and will never part wuth it.
i only wish it came with a effects pedal and a better wah wah.

I've had my 9050(Mk2?) for almost 11 years now! It was the latest thing when purchased. I have the full rack mount adapter/floor footswitch. I have done loads of gigs with it and it has NEVER even
coughed/glitched and the Battery IS nuclear powered i'm sure!
Its never needed replacing.
The 9050 is killer and dead easy to edit. I used to think that it could sound a bit "Digital" and Sterile, but with the advancement of
Valve pre-amps/amps that sorted any Sterile shit out!
In my Studio (The Sonic Kitchen) she's been used for just about everything from Vocals to Synthesizers.
I never had any probs with the manual. I think I spent one long session sitting on the toilet reading the Manual, and that was it!
I just had a session in last weekend (Feb 2004)and the client was scoping out my Effects rack, and said "Whats the Zoom like for synths?" He went away totally happy, and is now looking for a 2nd hand
unit for sale!

I'm using a shitload of different guitars for session work and am just getting ready to go out there 'live' again...
1967 Gibson Flying V, 1976 Gibson Flying V, '69 and '77 Fender Strats,
1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom, Schecter custom built Strat/Tele thing!
1993 Gibson Firebird VII,
OTHER UNITS ARE:
Roland VG8ex (My Baby!) with a 1983 Jackson/Charvel running the GK2 Pickup unit.
Boss GT-5, a totally incredible unit.
AMPS USED:
Marshall JCM800+1960 4x12's
Marshall Stereo 400w Power Amp with 2xVintage HiWatt 4x12's for a huge fat stereo sound.
I use a little Mackie 1202 mixer racked up, and I put the stereo outs from the VG8ex, Boss GT-5, and Zoom 9050 into the Mackie, this is then
taken out to the Marshall Stereo Power Amp.
I also use a traditional Wha Wha into a MXR Phase-90 and an original
Arbiter Fuzz-Face for the JCM-800 amp.

I have to admit, during the first rehearsals, the Stereo Rig actually sounded BETTER than the JCM-800!

The Zoom's E-min Ring Modulator setting is probably the most copied
and used Effect. It's fucking amazing, I tune it to whatever key the song i want to use it for is in, and BINGO, people always ask about
the massive lead guitar sound.
I dont really use it (The Zoom) for "Clean" playing much, and the Harder edged distortions do tend to be a bit noisy. But it's the areas in-between
and times when i like to get a "Bit Weird!" Combed filtering, lush reverbs, and Modulated delays are just the mutts nutts!
The Comp/Limiters are nice and responsive, but do need a bit of work to get it right. They seem to love my Strats, but have a bit of a hard time with the Flying V's/Les Paul. But after a bit of tweeking, BINGO...

I can, and have depended on this unit for almost 11 years now.
My best mate was in the studio the day it was delivered.
He laughed his arse off, and said that it looked like "A fucking flashy Car Stereo...!" I knew then, that it was going to be a life-long friend in the studio!
I have gigged with the Zoom 9050 using it for live Synths during some
Electronica/Techno/Electro gigs, and have also used her for live guitar gigs. A TRUE ALL-ROUNDER! 100% faithful.

Never needed to contact Zoom about it at all, i'm happy to say...

Guitar-wise, I play hard edged Texas Blues/70's style Rock TexMex and Trad Blues. I've been playing guitar since i was 6 years old.
Thats 37 years now!
If it were ever stolen, the thief would die an unimaginable death! It has my soul embedded inside it in a Voodoo curse on the Motherfucker assailant...
Cant really say what my fave features are, apart from the Ring Mods..
Theyre all excellent, and totally versatile.
I do wish it had a proper "Valve type emulator" but it was made over 10 years ago... be fair!
It's lived in my recording studio all this time, and has helped hundreds of people make music, either with guitars or synths/vocals too!

A little tricky in the biggining but that knobs do miracles ....
You must be very pacient to find your sound ...

I don't like heavy distortions , they sound like plastic but the other effects are excellent ... well ... wah wah sucks .... the rest are excellent ....
For a good and heavy distortion i use my sound processor with a Sansamp PSA1 .... yup ..... excellent .... oh , i use a Washburn MG74 guitar and a Art X-11 Midi controler .

I own this piece of art for 8 or 9 years and never had a problem. This works perfectly well , i travell a lot with this ...
Factory is saying that battery is lasting for 3-5 years but i never changed , is it a nuclear power battery ?

Never had a problem with this.
I emailed them and they took 3 days to answer .

I play HardRock , Heavy Metal , NuMetal ...
I used this without a pre-amp for many years and worked fine , now i use with a Sansamp PSA1 and the sound quality is 5* . Choose a good pre-amp , and this effect processor won't disapoint you for shure ...
Excellent sound , effects ....
Excellent for using in a studio ....
Like i said , i own this for 8 or 9 years ,it was very expensive then ... but i'm not disapointed ....

I bought this maybe 10 years ago? I have had it that long i can't quite remember exactly when i got it - Never needed the manual except on the very 1st day i cracked open the box. Easiest equipment i have ever used - little more trickt to perfect a sound - but still easy.

Using Ibanez Bass SDR600, BC Rich Ironbird, Samick Active Bass, Boss Drum Machine, Various Microphones, Various other Guitars.

Exceptional Sound Quality - currently using as part of home studio setup, with every other effects processor i have used i get quite a lot of noise into the signal - but with this baby it is almost clean as a whistle without even tweaking, and rarely do i mess with the ZNR stuff - except to turn it off - it has a tendency to kill off a few nice tones from time to time.

Preset sounds are a great jumping off point - a little too many guitar only related presets though - but VERy easy to emulate any guitarist sound without spending too much time - usualy 2 - 5 minutes tops, just change the amp and dial in the flavour until it comes up close to what is needed.

The Crunch Distortion is not used too often - maybe 10 times all up so far, but the Overdrive Dst & HD Distortions are fantastic - for guitar or bass.

Usually i am going for thick Metal type guitar - smooth thick bass sounds & bluesy guitars - never not been able to make a sound i needed yet - and i am picky.

around 10 years and a few knocks so far - never even had a hint of failing, no problems with anything at all - maybe only thing is the screen could easily be broken if it takes a big enough fall, but i usually man-handle it often and it is in perfect condition. I rarely take it out of the house though - maybe if i used it on stage regularly it wouldn't be so perfect by now. But so far none of the writing on the front has even faded - and has been in near daily operation for a long time. Power supply has held up perfectly as well - most of my other power supplies needed replacing after maybe a year each - this one has kicked by without a hitch so far. Zoom made everything in this model almost perfect - not so much a crappy stomp box i got from them.

I haven't used the Foot Controller in years - due mainly that i found it clunky and irritating in the 1st week i owned it - so i dumped in a cupboard somewhere and never bothered with it again it didn't feel like it would last too long though...

Never had a reason to contact them... i still have all the original stuff in a box somewhere.

I play Heavy Metal, Rock, Funk, Acoustic - and pretty much anything else i feel liek at the time - and this thing has fit every situation, great tones for recording with especially - not always the best sounding Amp simulation though.

If i lost it i would be desperately trying to get a replacement for sure, but they are pretty hard to get these days - only people i know who have them are not ever planning on selling.

Definitely it helps get a Nice sound - adds dimension to most of what i play, also doesn't sound over processed unless you really crank into every effect.

If you are looking to buy one - and find a good near new condition unit - my advice is buy at any cost - a MUST have if looking for an all in one effects processor.

I haven't tried any of the newer stuff that has come onto the market in the last few years - haven't needed to. But what i have heard coming out of friends recordings doesn't near match the tonal quality of the guitars i lay down - bass is a little harder to capture a great tone though.

At first you grabble yourself but as with everything new, reading the manual and practicing, makes you skilfull. Remember the first time to date with a girl !

It is the best unit I ever had. Is it noisy when it has to be, and not
when you want a clean neat sound. Superb!

Yes,
Not sure

I made a friend buy it from the foreign, contacting to http://multiefectos.50megs.com
It took more than one month to have it but I'm glad cause it was really a new unit. No problem!

Many styles near to fusion jazz rock - 15 years playing - Boss pedals
although I love them I want to sell 'em. I would buy it again if have the cash. I love its size. I compare with a computer but much easier to use. I don't which to compare to. My girlfriend brother told me about it. Sometimes you feel as playing in the paradise !

I needed only a few days to find out everything that this baby can do.

I really enjoyed every sound that I've created. There are lots of possibilities with setting the right tone. Effects are very good. I tried it on my Marshall Valvestate 65R. It sounded pretty good. I could program the sounds of many different artists and different styles. I used it mostly for heavy metal.

I have it for 7 years and I will keep it.
Factory is saying that battery is lasting for 3 years but I still don't have any problem eventhough I'm using it every day for a long time. This thing will never let you down.

I never had a problem with this. Never needed any repairment. This works perfectly well eventhough a few times it felt on the ground.

I am playing heavy metal and sometimes balads. I tried this with Yamaha, Ibanez and Kramer guitars. Worked best with Ibanez JS 100.
Only thing that I don't like on it is wah wah. That thing suck !!!
But you can't have everything for that price. I wish it had a better harmonizer.

Like everything else you need to look into it. A day or three works fine with me!

A very versatile piece of equipment. It works with all my instrument, especially the guitars and my bass. Noise reduction works very well. I get the clean Stratsound and the fat LP...after a little programming its all there on the floorboard.

I have had it for six years, and it has stayed faithful all along.

Great! Had a selfinflicted problem in the guarantee-period, and it was fixed at no cost.

Allround effectprocessor that I have used in an acoustic setting as well as in studio, and for live popmusic. It has never faile to produce the sound I wanted, and complements my other equipment nicely!
I will never sell it...

Very easy to use, but it takes time and patience to get a really good sound.

Good sound quality, but only if you hook it into a tube amp, otherwise the sound coming from the line-out are not "real" enough.
I've hooked mine through a Marshall JMP-1 preamp, and I use their speaker emmulator to get a really crushing sound!! (feed back and everything!!!)

So far so good, and it's been 7 years.

?

great effect unit, the wah-wah isn't very good and the effects are only appliable in series: compressor/limiter, distortion, equalizer, effect1, effect2, reverb. So it's a little limited, but you can get really good basic sounds.

Once you tap in to the effects base , you can do almost anything. Almost 200 presets helps you to determine the effects you want and editing existing presets is as easy as creating them after some trial and error.

Sound quality is excellent, if you go over the top you just simply back it off a little and reset the output level on the preset and you will never have to worry about it again. I use an Ernie Ball Silhouette with a floating Floyd Rose Thru this unit into a Fender 2-12 Hot Rod DeVille Tube amp and I couldnt be happier. Some of the effects are a bit weak but this unit gives you so many it's hard to complain.

I dont move it around much so I cannot comment on its durability but so far, so good..

Sucks!!! I emailed them before I bought it looking for any info on it they could offer. Still no response after several weeks (9)

I play mostly classic rock and some metal. This thing is so versatile that any person with a voice or instrument can find good use for it. I especially like the ZR noise reduction. If it were ever stolen or burned out I would be looking for a replacement for sure!!

is not hard to use this unit, you can make anything with a bit of patience, i think is a bit little, but is nice for take it with anywhere

i think it has a great sounds, very clean , effects are ok, maybe the delay can get more than a second of time, but this unit sounds great on my fender princeton , i really like it.

is good for me, no probs with this

never need it

Great sound, good effects, killer distorsions ,i recommend it , if this were stolen , i will buy it again.

This is the best sounding prossesor I've ever had, definitly the most versitile.
It took me a couple of days to get used to programming but after I understood what to do it was easy.

Some patches are noisy but thats only when its over the top. This thing has way more great sounding distortions than any unit I've ever tried. The clean sounds are very nice.

I have 2 of them, one for primary one for backup, I've never had to use the backup.

Hard core, Metal, Pop, Industrial, top 40.
I,ve been playing 20 years, I use my zooms through marshall stacks.I've had my first zoom for like 8 years and I've had many other effex units (including other zooms, boss, art, digitech, pods,) but I always go back to the 9050.
If my 9050s got stolen I would have to find

I don't now what they find in G-Force. I have tried it but could not see ant thing that is additionally perfect for this zoom9050. I see no meaning in paying that much ammount on a processor when there is products like zoom9050. I trust this machine. Mail me I can give you any details I have been using this machine for 6 years

NOT BAD FOR GETTING A GOOD SOUND BUT THERES ALOT PARAMETERS TO PLAY
WITH AND THATS GOOD FOR VERSATILITY BUT YOU CAN SPEND HOURS TWEAKING
IT IN IF YOUR A PERFECTIONIST, THATS WHERE THE MANUAL COMES IN HANDY
BUT ALOT OF THE FACTORY SETTINGS ARE PERFECT FOR WHAT I USE IT FOR.

I RATED THIS HIGH BECAUSE OF THE WAY I USE IT OTHERWISE MAYBE A 7
I PLAY AN IBANEZ RB1O [KOREAN] INTO A CRATE BV60 HEAD INTO A THD HOT PLATE INTO THE ZOOM AND OUT TO AN ALTEC LANSING 9444A 300W/CH AMP
WHICH MAKES THE ZOOM [EXCEPTIONALY QUIET] THEN ON TO A HOMEMADE CABINET THAT HOLDS FOUR 12" 200 WATT SCORION PLUS'S, I DON'T USE THE DISTORTION OR THE ZNR, ITS VERY CLEAN [IF I SINGLE OUT THE HUMBUCKER]
OR I CAN REALLY MAKE IT ROCK! I GET A GARY MOORE SOUND,ACDC,JUDAS PRIEST OR I DO SOME COUNTRY TUNES WHEN MY NEPHEW COMES OVER TO SING.
REVERB ISNT QUITE WHAT I'D LIKE BUT EXCEPTABLE,DISTORTION ISNT THAT GREAT LOUD WHICH IS WHY I DON'T USE IT UNLESS I RUN THE ZOOM DIRECTLY TO MY FOUR TRACK.

SO FAR IT'S DEPENDABILITY AINT BAD BUT I'M HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE
FRONT INPUT JACK CUTTING OUT SO I'VE BEEN USING THE BACK ONE UNTILL I HAVE IT REPAIRED

NEVER DEALT WITH THEM YET,BUT I NOTICED IT'S HARD TO GET INFO ON OLDER
MODEL ZOOM'S ON THE INTERNET.

IT WORK'S GREAT FOR HEAVY METAL AND I CAN MESS AROUND WITH CLEAN
SOUNDS TOO OR SOMETIMES I JUST PUT IT ON BYPASS, I LIKE THE TUNER
FEATURE IT WORKS WELL, I'VE BEEN PLAYING FOR 15 YEARS AND IT TOOK A
LOT OF EXPERIMENTING TO COME UP WITH THIS SETUP BUT IF I LOST MY ZOOM
I THINK I WOULD UPGRADE UNLESS I COULD FIND ANOTHER ONE CHEAPER.
I BOUGHT IT WITH OUT A FOOT CONTROLLER AND I WISH I HAD ONE FOR IT.

Very "user friendly" piece. You need to sit with it and tweek for a while but all in all pretty easy to use.

The 9050 is a noisy piece. The only drawback to the unit. Noise supressor a must. Distortions rip, delays are beat, special effects are wild, e.g. "sick goose" effect.

Seems to be reliable, had no problems yet. Would not use it live however, more of a studio piece.

Overall an excellent studio piece. I would definately buy it again. I love it's bass guitar effects, good for hard industrial stuff. Vocals are cool too, and I can't forget the phat distortions. I wish the delays were more versatile and it wasn't so noisey.

It is relatively easy to use, but can require a fair amount of tweaking to get the desired sounds.

The overall sound quality is excellent. The only tones that I have not been successful in replicating are the Eric Johnson "warm" tone and the King's X tone (neither of which is suprising). The "pedal wah" setting sucks- don't bother buying an expression pedal for this. The other effects sound good, although some have a very limited usefulness.

I bought it used and it has not caused me any mechanical problems.

Overall it has been very helpful to me. It has allowed me to reproduce a wide variety of good tones. It can sometimes be difficult to tweak to my satisfaction, there are so many different things that can be adjusted. A fair amount of trial and error may be required. The presets are good, just not what I was looking for. It would be nice to have some better ones- e.g. a good SRV tone, a Boston sound, a Pantera sound, etc. It can do these because I managed to create them on my own. I would recommend it for most situations, and in retrospect would buy it again.

When I was considering multi-effects, I almost bought a GSP-5, I'm glad I held out for the 9050, because it's a great unit. The distortions are very good, the 55 effects will keep me busy for quite a few years. This is a very versitile unit with some actually very cool presets. The special effects are awesome! I do wish it had more that 1 sec. delay, though. The noise suppresser is ok, but not perfect. Overall, aside from the minor criticisms, I'd highly recommend this unit.

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