it sounds like you don’t like it. you should sell it.
when i use mine, it is typically with just one instrument.
I think there is a lot of marketing and gossip that frames this pedal as a do-all music writing thing, and in my experience this isn’t true.
I find that it is better at making textured reverbs.
I have used it to some great effect on simple drum beats or melodic lines. It works well in these instances because the original audio has plenty of space for the microcosm to bloom around. If you are feeding it something busy, or without much dynamic variation, it won’t sound very good.
i’ve owned mine for a couple years, and I mostly use it with a monotribe to create meditative passages for when i’m doing dishes or cleaning. i have them mounted up on my wall and I don’t turn it on that often. it was a gift so i’m never selling it, and my expectations for it are very low. 
I have. I use an Eventide H9 and a Space with great effect.
I have the latest 1.13 firmware.
It’s getting a good loud signal to the pedal from the Aux send
I agree to all your points.
However i find that its great for using as added texture to your Music.
It’s not a up front and center pedal like a normal delay or reverb can be, but rather an ambience maker. Set it to a patch you like and let it play out in the background to add that extra sizzle to your music.
That’s where I found it to work the best at least. At first I planned on mangling drums with it, but that itch faded after two tries basically.
Last resort is I use it with a sound bar to aid meditative cleaning… we musicians always find a use for stuff!
I would also suggest this. Just feed your different audio tracks through the algorithms and see if they do anything interesting, then mix that signal in a bit.
Also check effects volume settings. It always starts up with half volume on my unit. It’s also really quiet on very low repeats.
It shines at one thing for me: feed a fast attack, short release/sustain „plucky“ /percussive signal to Mosaic 3 or 4 on triangle setting. Activity and repeat at around ten o clock. Boom, you have a guitarist playing along with your signal with rhythms that are very musical but also counter-rhythms at times.
I’ve tried watching RMR video for some inspiration. I might try it exclusively with my Digitakt and forget my Aux Send approach.
(mod edit: YT links work better if you paste them directly on a single line with no other text)
can anyone who owns the pedal and has it midi clocked tell me if the tempo light flashes exactly on the beat or slightly late when the tempo is really low?
That’s the thing I’ve been struggling with, I’m not sure it’s in time.
That’s a good demo, as the pedal doesn’t really tell you what settings are good for what kind of signal.
The time/clock sync also confuses me at times. Not so crucial though, as I don’t use it on drums so far. One thing that often works for me is to tap the tempo even when MIDI synced. It sometimes seems to be a bit lost tempowise and seems to catch up after tapping.
It can do some great mangling on the drums, though! I sold mine some months ago and surprisingly enough that’s one of the things I miss the most about it…
Ok - some progress this morning and some observations for others using it with Midi Clock.
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You cannot change the presets and expect things to continue to midi sync. It needs to receive a transport start command regularly or it becomes a huge mess. The problem gets even worse when changing from styles, from GLITCH to MICRO LOOP. Youre better of stop starting your sequencer.
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Midi Clock is not reliable when using sequencer Stop / Play commands. Sometimes it completely misses the Transport Start entirely and again everything becomes a complete mess.
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The Sequencer and Arp modes contain a lot of ‘out of time’ delay effects that confuse the analytical midi clocked mind looking for faults. Some of the sequences purposefully waver completely out of time and then recorrect themselves. (Note I made sure modulation was off)
You’re definitely not alone here, particularly with the MIDI clock issues. Never have I had to work so hard at getting something I wanted out of an FX pedal… yet a good friend of mine still uses it all the time and seemed to have an entirely different pedal from mine. Had it for a few months, then sold it and picked up a Particle 2 (which does the stuttery/glitchy thing beautifully).
sold mine didn’t click with it and my workflow at all,
i wish the microcosm could edit specific parameters to have more control.
I got a red panda particle 2 instead.
it has more better midi control interaction.
Interesting to see so many other users doing the same move… I also got a Particle 2 after selling the Microcosm to have more control over the effect, which was one of the things that the MC definitely lacks.
I agree
I second that. I found it had a very narrow sweet spot which took ages to dial in. Most of the time it just muddied up the mix sadly. Sold it, no regrets.
https://www.lightdims.com/ will do the trick if you want a somewhat nicer-looking solution.
I don’t have this pedal, though I’ve had off-and-on GAS for it for a while. I’ve seen some great demos with it but after I saw one where the player and the pedal just didn’t get along I realized that it was a tricky thing to use and learn. I still love the old school beige computer aesthetic of it though.
…it’s a very special boutique and pretty much one trick pony…
it does some real and rare magic to dedicated single elements…but it’s way more etheric than universal…
and let’s be honest…nothing u could not also achieve with some little effort in bitwig, for example…
but if ur an instrumentalist, it remains THE instant/realtime ambient boutique pedal…
and boutique pedals simply have their very own price tag…
I am so over fighting with pedals to get them to work how I want with line level sources like synths. I sold everything and went ITB (with a midi fighter twister) for effects and I couldn’t be happier. Everything you could ever dream of with higher quality algorithms and with better converters (unless you have a really bad interface). Rack effects and stuff like real tape delays is a slightly different story, but I don’t miss pedals AT ALL.
I guess for myself and a lot of people here the problem is knowing where to start.
What are you using software wise?
Starsky Carr does a very informative overview of the Microcosm.
Might help with getting an idea of which sounds work well with certain algos.