Hologram Microcosm

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Unicorn Warrior
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Hologram Microcosm

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Mon Nov 08, 2021 3:07 pm

This has been out for a while now, and I don’t remember seeing a thread for them yet.

Does anyone have one? What are your experiences?

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jorri
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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by jorri » Mon Nov 08, 2021 7:17 pm

There was a thread but yes love this thing.

It has some flaws but on the whole very inspiring. Always new sounds to find and i dont think it is that 'preset' sounding except a couple of modes, unlike some claim. Its like integrating modular and you need hands for it, so i get the most of it running it as outboard as separate instrument fed from existing guitar tracks usually.

However its well integrated live in a pretty loud band providing extra layers with microloop mode, and filter swooshes - always on! (We are a weird band though). perfect as band being down to one guitar i havent really needed to fill space with much else if i include my existing looped bits. I figure one day a MIDI footswitch will open it up more or i simply centre a song or two around it- already pedaldancing with loops.

The looper is great, i said when i bought that that plus its reverb and modulation would have made it worth it.

But flaws...yes maybe i would fill a long list. It can clip reasonably easily so i attenuate before it. Presets and saved loops not easy to deal with. Need a midi footswitch i reckon, opening up other modes like 'looper only' and two-hand stuff. Not really kill-dry functional as id have loved to send out only the effect and loop to different amp. ETC. ETC. but tracking is good now on the second firmware updated- was terrible without any update.

A mind of its own. Often seems to know what to do musically. Sometimes it decides to not do a lot always and sometimes a lot, its unpredictable and cant really feed it a signal twice with same settings and expect same results.

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Mon Nov 08, 2021 8:22 pm

jorri wrote:
Mon Nov 08, 2021 7:17 pm
There was a thread but yes love this thing.

It has some flaws but on the whole very inspiring. Always new sounds to find and i dont think it is that 'preset' sounding except a couple of modes, unlike some claim. Its like integrating modular and you need hands for it, so i get the most of it running it as outboard as separate instrument fed from existing guitar tracks usually.

However its well integrated live in a pretty loud band providing extra layers with microloop mode, and filter swooshes - always on! (We are a weird band though). perfect as band being down to one guitar i havent really needed to fill space with much else if i include my existing looped bits. I figure one day a MIDI footswitch will open it up more or i simply centre a song or two around it- already pedaldancing with loops.

The looper is great, i said when i bought that that plus its reverb and modulation would have made it worth it.

But flaws...yes maybe i would fill a long list. It can clip reasonably easily so i attenuate before it. Presets and saved loops not easy to deal with. Need a midi footswitch i reckon, opening up other modes like 'looper only' and two-hand stuff. Not really kill-dry functional as id have loved to send out only the effect and loop to different amp. ETC. ETC. but tracking is good now on the second firmware updated- was terrible without any update.

A mind of its own. Often seems to know what to do musically. Sometimes it decides to not do a lot always and sometimes a lot, its unpredictable and cant really feed it a signal twice with same settings and expect same results.
I just have missed that thread. Or maybe I discovered it here :fp: My bad.

Well, I’m on the waiting list. The last thing I need is another atmosphere pedal. Then, I saw this.

Up to this point, my most complex pedal was an Eventide Space. I never explored all of its capabilities. I’m a bit nervous about it’s complexity. I hope I can have some fun with it.

Thank you for the detailed review, Jorri!

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by jorri » Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:59 am

It works well alongside the Space. Arpeggiate a fully wet pad 15s reverb. Zero common ground, its not just another modulated reverb or weird delay.
Although you can set it to just be that as a handy bonus i think they sound great ;) I mean you can evn dial up a pseudo-shimmer if really needed.

But you can also dial up a fat bassline synth or aphex twin bitcrush glitching on a drum track- its not universally ambient although thats the general direction.

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:10 am

jorri wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:59 am
It works well alongside the Space. Arpeggiate a fully wet pad 15s reverb. Zero common ground, its not just another modulated reverb or weird delay.
Although you can set it to just be that as a handy bonus i think they sound great ;) I mean you can evn dial up a pseudo-shimmer if really needed.

But you can also dial up a fat bassline synth or aphex twin bitcrush glitching on a drum track- its not universally ambient although thats the general direction.
Don’t have the space anymore. But do have a slö, flint, and Loomer. How does it work with other effects? Can you explain what you mean by attenuating it?

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by jorri » Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:05 pm

Unicorn Warrior wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:10 am
jorri wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:59 am
It works well alongside the Space. Arpeggiate a fully wet pad 15s reverb. Zero common ground, its not just another modulated reverb or weird delay.
Although you can set it to just be that as a handy bonus i think they sound great ;) I mean you can evn dial up a pseudo-shimmer if really needed.

But you can also dial up a fat bassline synth or aphex twin bitcrush glitching on a drum track- its not universally ambient although thats the general direction.
Don’t have the space anymore. But do have a slö, flint, and Loomer. How does it work with other effects? Can you explain what you mean by attenuating it?
Just that it sounds cool. Although obviously with 15s reverb it may track less well as there isn't a clear note transition- certainly get the firmware update that mostly fixes that. Adapting playing style will fix SOME modes tracking a bit but imo isn't needed on all of them if you let it do a background random thing.
Sló is probably good for that right? Well the arp mode will sample playing and slice it back together somewhat at random so you get an arpeggiated sequence of...verb, which is a cool ambient synth style tool to me.

On attenuating: I have a volume down on another pedal before it- i use an amp sim and VP before so its ok and i'd rather have less gain to my amp input anyway. Note I do use boosts and very dynamic fuzz, so may not be a problem for others, its just my other digital pedals didn't have that problem.
It has a line mode, which is a lower input gain, but it had a glitch on that mode where it still clipped somehow the same amount and made clipping louder (why, i don't know?!), and didn't make up the output gain to unity either- maybe you are familiar with the switches on the back of the Space, its like that function but not so usable, i hope its fixed in an update.

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Sun Nov 14, 2021 10:04 am

jorri wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:05 pm
Unicorn Warrior wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:10 am
jorri wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:59 am
It works well alongside the Space. Arpeggiate a fully wet pad 15s reverb. Zero common ground, its not just another modulated reverb or weird delay.
Although you can set it to just be that as a handy bonus i think they sound great ;) I mean you can evn dial up a pseudo-shimmer if really needed.

But you can also dial up a fat bassline synth or aphex twin bitcrush glitching on a drum track- its not universally ambient although thats the general direction.
Don’t have the space anymore. But do have a slö, flint, and Loomer. How does it work with other effects? Can you explain what you mean by attenuating it?
Just that it sounds cool. Although obviously with 15s reverb it may track less well as there isn't a clear note transition- certainly get the firmware update that mostly fixes that. Adapting playing style will fix SOME modes tracking a bit but imo isn't needed on all of them if you let it do a background random thing.
Sló is probably good for that right? Well the arp mode will sample playing and slice it back together somewhat at random so you get an arpeggiated sequence of...verb, which is a cool ambient synth style tool to me.

On attenuating: I have a volume down on another pedal before it- i use an amp sim and VP before so its ok and i'd rather have less gain to my amp input anyway. Note I do use boosts and very dynamic fuzz, so may not be a problem for others, its just my other digital pedals didn't have that problem.
It has a line mode, which is a lower input gain, but it had a glitch on that mode where it still clipped somehow the same amount and made clipping louder (why, i don't know?!), and didn't make up the output gain to unity either- maybe you are familiar with the switches on the back of the Space, its like that function but not so usable, i hope its fixed in an update.
I would hope that the new batch that comes out has the updated firmware already. Thanks for all of your input. I’m very excited for this pedal. Haven’t seen a pedal come out that I “had to have” like this one. Hopefully I can make it sound as good as half of the demos of seen online.

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by jorri » Wed Nov 17, 2021 5:29 am

Unicorn Warrior wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 10:04 am
jorri wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:05 pm
Unicorn Warrior wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:10 am


Don’t have the space anymore. But do have a slö, flint, and Loomer. How does it work with other effects? Can you explain what you mean by attenuating it?
Just that it sounds cool. Although obviously with 15s reverb it may track less well as there isn't a clear note transition- certainly get the firmware update that mostly fixes that. Adapting playing style will fix SOME modes tracking a bit but imo isn't needed on all of them if you let it do a background random thing.
Sló is probably good for that right? Well the arp mode will sample playing and slice it back together somewhat at random so you get an arpeggiated sequence of...verb, which is a cool ambient synth style tool to me.

On attenuating: I have a volume down on another pedal before it- i use an amp sim and VP before so its ok and i'd rather have less gain to my amp input anyway. Note I do use boosts and very dynamic fuzz, so may not be a problem for others, its just my other digital pedals didn't have that problem.
It has a line mode, which is a lower input gain, but it had a glitch on that mode where it still clipped somehow the same amount and made clipping louder (why, i don't know?!), and didn't make up the output gain to unity either- maybe you are familiar with the switches on the back of the Space, its like that function but not so usable, i hope its fixed in an update.
I would hope that the new batch that comes out has the updated firmware already. Thanks for all of your input. I’m very excited for this pedal. Haven’t seen a pedal come out that I “had to have” like this one. Hopefully I can make it sound as good as half of the demos of seen online.
I hear most place the pedal first in the chain too, though i am a last-in-chain guy probably why so many things to resolve.

Same with "have to have" somehow it just combined things as a natural extension of what i did with half my pedalboard, but with many more avenues- especially the decent looper which is powerful with its varispeed (not common). Oh, and the synchronicity of having a song released called Microcosm

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:32 am

I took possession of this about a week ago. This thing is interesting to say the least, albeit a bit of complex. No problem as I expected that.


Anyone have any settings that they love?

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by jamietay » Wed Dec 22, 2021 11:10 pm

I hate that I just lose hours to this thing. It’s so fun to just spin the wheel and play with whatever comes up. My second favorite pedal of all time
can i scream?

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Thu Dec 23, 2021 11:31 am

jamietay wrote:
Wed Dec 22, 2021 11:10 pm
I hate that I just lose hours to this thing. It’s so fun to just spin the wheel and play with whatever comes up. My second favorite pedal of all time
That’s been my case too. It’s like, I’m too lazy to save presets yet and I’m on from one cool sound to the next

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Re: Hologram Microcosm

Post by jorri » Thu Dec 23, 2021 2:54 pm

As you say, everything gets tweaked a lot.

Otherwise, leaving the mosaic 1,3 or 4 on everything around 11 O clock and i mean everything except filter which is always full.. including mod and reverb third mode, triangle wave. That's my 'leave on all the time' preset for it not overwhelming and yet adding twists of loop in the right places, like a backing layer for density.

...but, if using it more prominently....just go higher. Still don't quite understand activity/repeats and how either can control the amount of triggering response happening but both do.

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