Yeah, that’s a common sentiment many in this thread habe shared, and I totally get it. That’s not such a big issue for me, as it seems the whole point of the pedal to but work its magic without you having total control. And let yourself be inspired by that.
However, it becomes an issue when it doesn’t reliably react to incoming sound. I can swear there are phases where it just doesn’t respond or only runs through one cycle and then stops producing effects. I‘ve had a chat with Hologram about this about one and a half years ago and their advice to update/reset didn’t solve the issue. It was suddenly gone and I didn’t dig into it, but not it is back from time to time. Anyone else have this problem? I know that sometimes it’s because of the input not being suitable to the chosen effect/shape etc. But sometimes it also happens with input and exact settings I know for a fact what the pedal makes out of them, since I have recorded it in the past.
I’ve just sold mine. Some of the demos sound great, with a single synth or a minimal composition.
But my experience was that it was a mush generator. That’s on me. But it was instrumental in my decision to liquidate my pedalboard entirely and spend the money on something else.
Sounds like something is wrong with your unit. The Glitch algorithms can be a little more random in the way it responses but overall it is a very active/responsive unit. I don’t get cycles where it doesn’t produce effects.
I’ve also experienced this, but I guess it depends on the algorithm that’s currently used. I think some of the FX require a pause or a certain period of silence on the input in order to react, so they behave like a call and response. Hard to explain.
Pattern delay should definately always work and give you a result, so if that algorithm is not reacting, your unit might indeed be malfunctioning.
I’m often switching input sources (guitar, synth, mixes etc) and find the configuration setting for line level/instrument level can help to an extent. But agree with general sentiments above that there’s a lot to like about the microcosm, just a feels like a little wasted potential in some ways:introduce more algorithms, even some kind of editor for users to get ‘under the hood’, filter stepping and filter types, more control over the reverb or even fx order…
New Microcosm user here, just thought I’d give my impressions. I took an hour or so last night to re-record a recent track, incorporating the Micro. It’s a very playable effect (especially once you do the Midi sync), but it feels like you really have to spend time dialing in the algorithm and some of the parameters based on your track. Sure, it sounds god-tier amazing on super minimal ambient demos from YouTube influencers, but in a composition with more parts, it seems to require a lighter touch.
That said, I’ve got all the melodic elements of the track (multiple simultaneous loops from Digitakt) going through the MC. It might produce better results to pick a single element, pipe that through MC, and go hard on it.
I’m going to take a few more passes, trying to push the effect harder without getting mush. I’d love to hear other users’ philosophies in how to incorporate it in productions.
I think this is a good approach with the MC. It’s easy to overdo it with the MC and just like you mentioned, it can get mushy pretty fast. I just sold my MC two days ago because of this. It can greatly enhance minimal compositions, but I also found it hard to integrate it into songs that are already quite busy. One way I found to make it more usable was to just turn the built-in reverb down to zero. It’s not a very pleasant sounding reverb anyway (imho) and helps a lot in keeping things tidy.
I’d say they are pretty hard to compare. Firstly, the MC has a pretty straightforward looper built-in, which is completely independent from the other FX it has. No such thing on the mood2. There’s some overlap between the two pedals, e.g. when dialing the MC to one of the microloop presets, it can sound like the microloop setting on the mood2. I feel like the mood2 can go to more unique places with its routing and ramping functions, whereas the MC just sounds like the MC and it’s pretty hard to discover new territories that haven’t been shown in pretty much every YouTube demo out there.
Edit: Maybe it might be good to know that I sold them both
But I found that some algos give interesting results on Drums (all together). Tunnel is one of them. The Mix knob is also a big factor. MC is all about experimenting and you have to embrace Randomness. Control freaks will be very disappointed by the MC.
In my workflow, the mc is a device that is used to create layers that will feature during the arrangement, and usually a single or couple of elements will be run through it. I always record it’s full wet signal (only use it as a send effect)
I don’t do ambient music, and the mc is the secret sauce that always delivers (when I use it). Have released a lot of house music tunes using it
@Python@Tchu thanks for the perspectives! I’m looking forward to the experimentation stage and getting comfortable with the randomness. Lots to learn. @Phillip I’ll try to figure out how to bring that technique into my workflow. And I’m digging your tunes! I’m bookmarking your channel to check out more tracks later.
@cogsy: Just run some plucky/rhythmic synth part with space in between notes into Mozaic 3/4 on triangle wave. You should get something like a musician playing along with you, it’s the thing that Microcosm does best imo. Build a track on that foundation, not that much else needed.
Haze 3/4 are good for pads/more atmospheric structures, to give it a bit more of a vibe.
For a more classic delay, pattern delay is really useful and has georgeous stereo panning. Set it to square.
In general, keeping activity and repeats at around 9 o clock always delivers the best results for me. Avoid the reverb. Tame Microcosm with mix and filter.
Great for transitions: Record a loop by just holding down the most right foot switch, increase mix to max, then crank the reverb and then slowly let the sound fade out by closing the filter.
Always record when exploring. You might not be able to reproduce stuff. If you have something nice going, take pictures of the pedal. And record variations that you could use for snippets, also a fullly wet version. It can be good at giving you textures that are in the background of a track and filtered out via a DAW, that really fit the track without giving away its origin from one of the actual track elements. You could also use the sample and play it on a keyboard, I‘ve made a few pads this way from more ethereal sounds.
I’ve posted some examples in this thread, so you can judge yourself if my results are something that you like. Here’s also something from another thread that shows the Mozaic as playing along with you:
I absolutely love their new Chroma Console for adding some (not so) subtle flavors like compression, filtering, and movement. It also has a filter implementation that I think would be perfect for the Microcosm with resonant hi/lo-pass combined and neutral at 12 o-clock.
I hope they are considering porting it to the Microcosm in a firmware update
