We have such a wealth of choices for looping devices.
If you want a looper that can do the granular thing with more direct control, plus footswitches, maybe look at the Microcosm? I don’t have one but there seem to be happy customers. Or perhaps the Blooper.
To help me decide if I want something I always start with asking myself “How will it help me make my art?”. It just takes too much time and energy to look for all the faults rather than the positives of each candidate.
I have a GR-1 taking up both auxes on my mixer as we speak! I got it for one purpose: live granular after comparing, in great detail, with the package the Iridium offers. Since I decided the live granular was really all I wanted (we’ll see how Iridium’s firmware develops in the future), the pricey GR-1 also saved me money over Iridium while providing much better live granular control.
GR-1 has this drawback in relation to Cosmos: it’s not convenient to use for live play because you devote a lot more attention and energy to it, even in my setup as an FX box. It does a lot, and I only do one thing, but I kind of have to re-set that up every time I turn on the power. Iridium is even more of a dedicated workstation that you basically stay hunched over while you work on it, and workspace, not just expense, makes me not want to do that right now. I’m looking forward to its firmware upgrades, though. Oh yeah, live granular isn’t much with expressive percussion, and I’m thinking Cosmos will provide a lot more there. And as you point out, I also have to add on a USB interface just for GR-1.
At the price, Cosmos looks like a safer bet, the major attraction being the out-of-the-box foot control and overall engineering for easier live interaction with external instruments than the GR-1. I imagine I’ll try it on my auxes for a while to compare with GR-1, but I don’t expect much satisfaction there. As observed above, it’s a niche thing rather than an all-rounder in any sense. If I didn’t think it had significant potential beyond what’s been demoed, I’d be a lot less likely to bother with it. I’m reminded, though, of how good the Lyra-8 can also be when you dial it down, so I’m thinking the same about the Cosmos, which takes hands-on to find out. If it doesn’t work out, I won’t be as miffed as I would be at the Iridium’s price level.
I went from “hmm, stompbox Clouds” to “I need this thing” in like 4 minutes.
I preordered at the first second seeing it…
Soma is doing things which the world needs…
That’s what I likened it to, a guitar for the 21st century. With some pedals built in 
This new box seems similar, in that it might basically do one thing, but you could stretch that in so many different directions. And how many other devices would you need to replicate what COSMOS does in one box?
I don’t know, it does seem much more limited to me, based on the limited preview’s we’ve seen. I mean it’s just atmospherics, really nice ones but still it’s organized chaos and not much else.
Some artists have made a career out of just that
Hey, I don’t disagree! Just pondering if it’s more of a one trick pony than Lyra8, which totally isn’t.
I signed up. It sort of reminds me of a hifi Cocoquantus, with different controls.
For some reason I find it really intriguing to think what people will make with the Lyra-8 in, say, 20 years’ time. I mean, we’re only four or five years into the Lyra era…
Someone be shredding with the Lyra in 2040? 
Is it the keytar or the guitar of the 21st century? Time will tell
Haha, love that keytar image in my head!
They all seemed amazed and admiring, though they talked a lot about ‘how do you control it”. I also like at the end Ty saying he “Done” with shimmer reverb.
Interesting to go from a product like the Osmose, which is about control, to COSMOS, though following that with SineVibes Luminance2 made sense.
While waiting for a Cosmos preorder to work its way through the list, I got a bit inspired and created a similar sound with the Octatrack, a mixer, and effects loop feeding delays back through two H9s, a Deco and an Analog Heat… It’s got me surfing local classifieds for three-head Marantz tape machines… Very much enjoying this exploration but will be pleased to have all this functionality in one machine, certainly way more practical for live shows which is where I plan to use it most.
Sounds nice! Mind sharing some sound and details on your patch?
The SD card is for firmware updates and additional algorithms, to be released at a later date, apparently. I got the info’ from this post: https://www.synthanatomy.com/2021/03/soma-laboratory-cosmos-vlad-kreimers-unique-take-on-the-frippertronics-tape-loop-method.html (same link posted by Jukka earlier).
Now every time i see word ‘cosmos’ i must read it with the russian accent!
COaSMOaZ
Yeah, I saw that. I had posed that question before that link was shared.
Still intrigued by this one. I am always trying to get to space.
Honestly it sounds just like KOSMOS in russian, with out this additional A and Z in the end)
COaSMOaZ is a Vlad’s pronouncing of english word cosmos