Zoom G1on : very first impressions

Posted: 7/30/2019 1:15:30 AM
DanielMacKay

From: Halifax, Canada (east coast)

Joined: 7/28/2019

Whoohoo, what fun! I bought this used for $40 and I fell like I've gotten that much fun out of it already.

The G1on has four main things:
* A set of pedals just like having 74 famous guitar pedals to choose from
* A rhythm box with ... 100? rhythms, eg. Samba, EuroPop 
* And a looper that lets you record 30 seconds and then loop it
* A tuner that lets you see what note you're playing and how off pitch it is :-)

Pedals
* 11 Dynamics Pedals
* 12 Overdrive / distortion Pedals
* 22 Amp simulator pedals with a variety of reverb / spring effects
* 15 Modulation pedals including leslie speaker, Octave, Flanger, Super Chorus, Phaser etc
* 14 Delay / Reverb pedals 

So you can combine any five of the 74 pedals into a "Patch". Each effect has some number of controls (e.g. speed of the Leslie speaker) which get saved with the patch.

You switch from patch to patch with the pedals.

The G1on has 100 slots for patches; out of the box it comes with those slots filled so you can play around.

You can configure the patches using the G1on itself, or Windows or Mac software called ToneLib-Zoom.

Several reviews have said it doesn't feel like a "touring" pedal - it's made of plastic, not metal and feels like if you dropped it, the case would break or it would fly to pieces.  Well, I'm not going to be touring for a while.

Posted: 7/30/2019 4:22:23 PM
DOMINIK

From: germany, kiel

Joined: 5/10/2007

I have that pedal, too. It's good for traveling because it's lightweight. Primarily i bought it for the on-board looper and considered it a usable live performance tool providing the beloved basic stuff like ring-modulator, delay, pitch-shifter, filter, delay and of course reverb. I don't regret having upgraded to the ZOOM G3: the looper has an undo (then just 20sec instead of 40sec), far more control knobs for each effect in the chain (e.g. ON/OFF foot switches), a nice HOLD function for the delay etc. And still it can run on batteries.

Posted: 7/31/2019 12:34:57 PM
DanielMacKay

From: Halifax, Canada (east coast)

Joined: 7/28/2019

Dominik:

What are your favourite presets to use with it?  I find most of them are too.... extreme and crazy for theremin.


Posted: 7/31/2019 1:34:52 PM
DOMINIK

From: germany, kiel

Joined: 5/10/2007

None of them. I configured my own.

Posted: 7/31/2019 3:47:18 PM
DanielMacKay

From: Halifax, Canada (east coast)

Joined: 7/28/2019

Dominik: ooo could you share them, please?

Posted: 8/1/2019 7:46:58 AM
DOMINIK

From: germany, kiel

Joined: 5/10/2007

Daniel: i just put the above mentioned effects and other ones (phaser, tape-echo, .. nothing too uncommon) in chains and use two or three programs with different parameters. 

Posted: 8/23/2019 8:50:32 PM
bendra

From: Portland, Oregon

Joined: 2/22/2018

I have that pedal, too. It's good for traveling because it's lightweight. Primarily i bought it for the on-board looper and considered it a usable live performance tool providing the beloved basic stuff like ring-modulator, delay, pitch-shifter, filter, delay and of course reverb. I don't regret having upgraded to the ZOOM G3: the looper has an undo (then just 20sec instead of 40sec), far more control knobs for each effect in the chain (e.g. ON/OFF foot switches), a nice HOLD function for the delay etc. And still it can run on batteries.

It so happens I found one of these at a local music store and will probably buy it - maybe we can share notes? 

Posted: 8/23/2019 10:38:45 PM
DanielMacKay

From: Halifax, Canada (east coast)

Joined: 7/28/2019

bendra: I would love to share notes, but so far I've only been using the built in presets.

So far I use C1 - RAKE for a kind of a lush sound, and D2 - Talk Funk for a part where there are people singing.

I'd like to make one that sounds like a bell.

So what I need to do is clear out a bunch I'll never use - most of the F's and G's I think - to make room for a half dozen pleasant sounding patches that I'll use on a regular basis and another half dozen really weird special effects ones.  But I'm afraid to sit down with ToneLib-Zoom and start the work - I'm afraid i'll just disappear down some rabbit hole and never come back :-)

Posted: 8/26/2019 12:00:02 PM
bendra

From: Portland, Oregon

Joined: 2/22/2018

Thanks Daniel! I bought it and tried a some things. Noise gate is interesting and makes a "plucked string" sound if you set the threshold high enough. Here's a small sample: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12CCwgAR58cYeKckeXqFui2mzSkPSxs71/view?usp=drivesdk

Posted: 8/26/2019 10:49:51 PM
bendra

From: Portland, Oregon

Joined: 2/22/2018

Demo of C1-RAKE patch for those of you at home: first time, with effect on second time clean (bypass filter):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12MwLC2vPjusQaUzxK5YSJIjU1ggod7Ps/view?usp=sharing

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