At the rear you will find the necessary audio ins and outs, along with 5-pin MIDI In and Out / Thru, and an expression pedal connection. My one complaint here is that the stereo input is a single TRS connector as opposed to the right and left side. This is quite unusual on synths and other guitar pedals and means you need a TRS to dual TS cable to connect your equipment. On the plus side, the Hologram Electronics has a power adapter in the box, which almost no pedal manufacturer can do anymore. (This seems to be a real outcome, as my cheap pedal board power caused a lot of noise.)
There are a number of buttons, lights and buttons on the front that may seem a little intimidating at first, but it’s easy to spot things once you’ve got going. The standalone encoder on the right navigates through the various presets. Each effect burns when selected, and the four lights above the center footswitch (which turns the pedal on and off) indicate which specific preset of the effect you have selected. These lights also show value levels, the direction of the audio version and how to navigate the global menu.
The eight buttons on the left all have relatively clear primary and shift functions. (The secondary controls in light gray are obtained by holding down the slider.) I say relatively because, although it’s pretty obvious what “mix” does, the “Activity” and “Repeats” controls are a bit vague is. However, the manual breaks it out quite well:
“In general, activity gives you ‘more’ or ‘less’ of what each preset does, and repetition determines how long the effect lasts. ‘
In short, these are macro controls that are not linked to one specific parameter and instead control a number of things, depending on which effect you have chosen. They are also very interactive, which means that the changes you make to Activity can affect the way the repetition control behaves. A simple example of this would be in the pattern effect, which is a rhythmic multitap delay. Turning on the activity increases the number of “taps” or delay lines. While Repeats controls the number of times each tap sounds. As you lay more delay lines on top of each other, and the more they repeat, they create new and increasingly complex rhythms until you reach total chaos.
This level of interaction and depth also means that the Microcosm just feels at home on a desk, just like a pedal board. Although you can engage an expression pedal and perform a few filter swipes, it makes you feel like an effect as you react when you rotate multiple buttons at the same time. In fact, it’s pretty easy to pick up a simple loop through the Microcosm and set up a complete, rich and evolving arrangement by simply changing the parameters. It’s pretty easy to get lost buttons when playing a loop, and slowly push it to an atmosphere.
The looper
Terrence O’Brien / Engadget
The looper is also an essential ingredient in what makes the Microcosm special. It is functional and flexible. Because it ignores nothing else, the Microcosm is an amazing runner pedal. Once you have activated it by pressing the phrase looper button, the basic functions are simple: start the left foot switch and stop recording and add overdubs. A long press undoes or repeats an overdub. The right foot switch stops playback when you tap it and erases your loop when you press and hold it. This is more or less the way any looper works.
From there, things get a lot more interesting. For one, you can quantify your recording and sync it either via tap rate or MIDI. It may help to avoid awkward gaps or stuttering on your loop, but more importantly, it takes care of the rhythmic effects of the pedals to keep everything beautiful and cohesive. There is also a knob to turn your loop quickly, plus speed control that can operate in a step mode (1 / 4X, 1 / 2X, 2X and 4X) or work smoothly from 1/4 to 4X speed. Most loopers I know only do half and double speed if they have any speed control.
Then there is ‘Burst’ mode, which records when you press the left foot switch and starts playing immediately when you release. When you press again, erase your loop and start capturing your new sound. There is definitely getting used to this mode, and I do not yet have the best way to take advantage of it, but it is there.
One of the most unique features is the ability to place the looper before or after the effects. This gives you the option to press a loop with one effect and then draw a new line on top with another one. Or to record a clean loop and change effects, to create a sense of evolution or to audition until you find the best at a particular reef. Just one peculiar thing to note: Since user presets can actually include a pre-recorded loop, playback will stop scrolling. So if you are using the looper and changing the effects in a live environment, you should avoid the user banks.
There is also a button called ‘Looper Alone’, which disables the primary effects. This is the key to the versatility of the Microcosm, as it does not eliminate the reverb, modulation or filtering portions. This means that you can use the Microcosm as a simple refrain, vibrato or reverberation unit, or treat the filter section almost like a wah. That said, the voice and sensitivity of the filter is not really suitable to replace a wah. One thing that will be nice here is the ability to define the range of an expression pedal, because honestly, only the top of the filter wiper is useful on a guitar.
I also wish there was an easy way to turn off and activate the effects right away, rather than tapping on small buttons. Being able to turn the grain effects on and off independently of the runner with a footswitch, or to run the runner even when the pedal is off will be great.
Since you can not turn it on and off with footswitches individually, I will not only rely on the built-in modulation and reverberation of the Microcosm, but it will definitely do in a pinch. Depending on the style of music you play, you can just take this (and maybe a pedal) to a jam session and have everything you need. The control selection is limited to speed and depth on the modulation and ‘Space’ on the reverberation, but you get four different reverberation types and they all sound excellent. They are not always the most subtle, but considering the audience of experimental and ambitious musicians, it is not really a problem.
The consequences
Terrence O’Brien / Engadget
Okay, so we have a very of time talk about everything but the core effects here. Of course, we can not cover all 44 presets in detail, and honestly, it will get boring if we try. But let’s start with the simplest: the two Multidelay options. These are variations on a digital multitap delay. Pattern repeats the taps in different rhythmic combinations, while Warp manipulates the repeats with filter and pitch shift. It’s perfect for spacious cues and solos, and works just as well with synths as guitars.
My favorite here is definitely mode two of the Warp preset, which places a resonant bandpass filter on each tap. Depending on the settings, it can be anything from a subtle glassy pad that is perfect for backing up with a finger-picking guitar, to a sharp ping that begs to be accompanied by percussion.
The Glitch section is the hardest to tame, but also rewarding. More than many of the other presets, you have to play on the Glitch effects and respond to them in real time. Arp is probably the most aggressive in picking up your original signal. It picks up the incoming sound and spits out an arpeggio. Turning the activity knob here increases the number of steps in the arpeggio, and the different modes offer additional effects such as random filtering and bit crushing. The slightly crushed fourth mode can turn even the cleanest guitar into a crunchy synth bass.
You will probably also want to use a clean guitar for Arp effects (as well as many of the Micro Loop modes). While a firmware update in August improved tracking and acceleration for synths and distorted guitars, it can still struggle if an effect requires extreme precision to activate properly. However, it only affects strongly distorted signals. If you have a touch of excessive running, this is not a problem. But super fuzzy guitar or droney synth chords can cause problems.
Here, the Mosaic mode is one that creates a doubling / harmonized effect on the guitar.
My favorite of the Glitch effects is Interrupt. As the name suggests, it interrupts your dry signal with various glassy bursts. To get the full impact, you need to wet the mixture to 100 percent. And by far the most fun I had with the Microcosm was tearing up solos in mode one of Interrupt, which introduces CD skipping like stuttering. Like I said, this pedal excels in atmosphere and drones, but it can do a lot more.
The Micro Loop modes are a cross between the Glitch and Multi-delay effects. If you are familiar with pedals like Mase from Chase Bliss Audio or Count to Five from Montreal Assembly, you should have a general idea of what to expect here. Short excerpts from your game are captured, looped and manipulated in different ways. Glide creates pitch bends, while Seq spews out new rhythmic patterns that are no different from the sounds you would find in Arp mode.
Then there is Mosaic, which I think is the best version of what the Microcosm is all about. These are simple short loops that are played at different speeds, creating effects. While you can use it effectively on almost anything, including percussion, it shines with cleanly picked guitar melodies and sparse piano chords.
Mode one can add a soft sparkle under a pillow, while mode two can bring an almost bass-like counterpoint into a guitar line. As for mode four, it can erupt in almost cartoon-like downpours of glitter at more extreme settings. While I think Mosaic is at its best if you can still hear the individual loops as they bounce off each other and create new melodies and rhythms, creating it completely washed out with the built-in reverberation, like synthetic drones.
Finally, there is the Granules section, which produces the kind of sounds that people usually imagine when they think of ‘granular’. Haze is all about textures and pads, while Tunnel is perfect for building epic drones. It can be subtle almost echoing backgrounds, or can completely replace the source sound with movie sound landscapes.
The Strum effect is the one I struggled with the most. It repeats the beginning of the notes to create rhythmic textures, but the results can be unpleasant and harsh without a decent amount of reverberation. The fact that I did not immediately click with this particular effect is not a knock against the Microcosm. I still managed to find sounds I liked under the presets. But even if I did not do it – even if I do not like all four, there are 43 others here. It’s still a batting average of .909.