Microcosm | Hologram Electronics

mokomo · September 15, 2020, 6:25am

Mine arrived.

So far it has been sitting on my desk for hours with a random Norns arcologies plinky ploop polyrhythmic loop running through it.

Generative Biosphere.

Sound quality is excellent.

Still getting my head around the concept of it as an ambience algorithm machine.

Omar · September 15, 2020, 9:21am

Mine arrived yesterday
(but I was too late to pick it up, and today I’m office, I feel like I’m 8 on the 23rd of December, waiting for Santa to come - this is pathetic)

pidgeo · September 15, 2020, 11:41am

can’t wait for mine to arrive. in three weeks time

hallucigenia · September 15, 2020, 1:12pm

Later today for me!

Omar · September 16, 2020, 10:28am

I am having a doubt here: the knobs on the pedal don’t send out MIDI CC?

MSBunick · September 17, 2020, 7:02am

No idea, but Firmware 1.1 just came out this Wednesday, and the email I got said the update features improved MIDI functionality.

SIDE NOTE: mine just arrived but I am now out of town for a week and I didn’t even open it yet lmao.

Omar · September 17, 2020, 8:44am

OK, the knobs don’t send out CC’s. I was expecting them to do, being used to EvenTide pedals. But that’s no big issue, I control and automate the parameters and program changes through my MnM. Actually, the included modulations make it quite unnecessary to automate a lot, as the engines are quite dynamic as is, but I like to have control.

First impressions:

Excellent sound, but I experienced a couple of pops and glitches at times. Not sure exactly where they come from, but it might be due to Fade Time set to zero, so not a malfunction. It might also be caused by the high quantity of MIDI CC data the pedal receives from the MnM, as I’m quite aggressive with automation. I’ll investigate that more closely in the next days.
It’s quite hard to understand fully what goes on under the hood. I like to know what each knob does exactly, and I gather some of them control more than one parameter (like macros). The instructions about the different engines are a bit cryptic in my humble opinion, I would have appreciated more information in the user guide. Maybe this will come in the future?

hallucigenia · September 17, 2020, 8:49pm

I’m having fun with mine but I share your sense that things are a little more ‘black boxed’ than I’d like–some additional documentation would, indeed, be welcome.

Omar · September 17, 2020, 9:16pm

No pops & glitches ?

hallucigenia · September 17, 2020, 9:52pm

Haven’t noticed, but I was playing guitar so maybe I missed it…

PlumWrinkles · September 18, 2020, 3:28am

Mine pops and glitches. At first I hated it but seemed to learn how to avoid said pops and glitches.

Just keep playing with it and find the sweet spots. I haven’t ruined any speakers or ear drums yet

Omar · September 18, 2020, 6:54am

Strange, I have been experiencing this problem in the beginning, but now it seems to be OK. But I haven’t played a lot with the pedal yet.

MSBunick · September 22, 2020, 8:32pm

I finally got to open my Microcosm and I noticed that there aren’t rubber feet on the pedal’s underside. Do they all come this way? Or did they just forget to put rubber feet on mine? (lame either way!! )

mokomo · September 22, 2020, 9:50pm

Mine as far as I recall had rubber feet stickers in the box for optional attachment (some people want to put their own velcro on)

MSBunick · September 22, 2020, 10:10pm

for real?? i’m sending them an email!

mokomo · September 22, 2020, 10:41pm

I got two pedals delivered near the same time, but definitely at least one of them had a little 4x set of rubber feet fall out of the box.

Would be very skimpy if Hologram didn’t include alright …

MSBunick · September 23, 2020, 3:10pm

Just to follow-up: no rubber feet were ever included. Customer service got back to me super fast. Must of been the other pedal you got.

Honestly not that big of a deal to me… but it would’ve been nice!

mokomo · September 23, 2020, 8:50pm

Kudos then to Montreal Assembly for their generosity for including with the other pedal!

Omar · October 13, 2020, 12:13pm

I have been having mine for a while now and, though I haven’t spent so much time using it (well, still a good 6 to 10 hours), I have been having mixed feelings: it does crazy things, for sure, but the problem for me is knowing exactly how, what and when it does it. I might be a control freak, but I like to design my processing very carefully, and the manual has somehow left me in the dark.
My intention was to use this pedal mainly on beats, although it’s probably not its primary purpose. This proved quite frustrating as I did get good results, but they were very difficult to reproduce or keep in control.
These last couple of days, however, I have been seeing the light, as I could at last use an algorithm (Tunnel) in a useful way.
I don’t know, I should probably dedicate more time to discovering and getting used to it.

Does anybody have the same feelings about this effect?

shankiphonic · October 19, 2020, 5:24pm

I’m late to the party…
Did you make that spreadsheet?

Do we think the microcosm is actually more comparable to the blooper or the mood?

At first, I thought it might be the blooper slayer. However, the demos bring moodiness to my mind rather than bloopiness… (though the CBA sound stands alone).

The ‘cosm videos I’ve looked at so far are very long, a little fanatical, and I haven’t seen one that emphasizes the behavior and capabilities of the looper. (Suggestions?).

I have a blooper, but I’m not in love.
I think it’s unapologetically a “guitarists first” effect, (which is fine). As a result, though, the midi setup is a hassle for those of us that initially rely on our tabletop midi (e.g. Elektron) gear, as opposed to those who have a Morningstar, or similar, on the floor already.
I was considering trying to flip the blooper for a ‘cosm, but I haven’t gathered enough info on the looping capabilities. (Literally fell asleep last night looking at the docs).