Hologram Electronics Microcosm combines advanced granular and looper effect algorithms built-into a big pedal pumped with a lot of creative features.
Advanced granular and looper engines are currently a big topic in the pedal world. Mainly because they are not only used exclusively by guitarists, but also by Synthesizer players and other musicians. Good examples are here Chases Bliss Audio’s latest pedals Mood or Blooper or also the best-known Red Panda Particle 2 granular delay.
Now the developer Hologram Electronics gets on the same train and today presets Microcosm, a powerful stereo granular/looper pedal with advanced features. Microcosm offers 11 different effects with a total of 44 presets variations that allow you to slice, stretch, rearrange, and manipulate any audio input. You can design further your sounds with a built-in pitch modulation, lush 4-mode stereo reverb, and a resonant lowpass filter.
Stereo Phrase Looper
Microcosm is not just an overpowered granular processor but also a stereo phrase looper that can capture up to 60 seconds of your performance. It allows you to layer different phrases from different effects. All loops, overdubs, and settings can be saved and recalled later using the pedal’s 16 user presets.
Hologram Electronics describes Microcosm as a sound tool that “rearranges and reinterprets your sound in new and exciting ways using a variety of granular sampling, delay, and looping techniques. Cascading micro-loops can be locked into tight tap-tempo synced rhythms, diffused into glacial ambient textures, woven into hypnotic drones, and much more.”
11 Distinct Effects
The pedal features in total 11 effect types including und 44 presets, each with a unique character. Included are:
- Micro Loop: repetition of short pieces of your playing create new phrases and movement.
- MOSAIC, overlapping loops playback at different speeds.
- SEQ, looping samples are rearranged into new rhythmic sequences
- GLIDE, short overlapping loops shift in pitch over time
- Granules: fragments of sound create giant atmospheres and subtle textural effects
- HAZE: clusters of micro-loops create an immediate wash of sound
- TUNNEL: cyclical micro-loops generate hypnotic drones with unique modifiers.
- STRUM: rhythmic chains of recent note onsets create pointillistic textures.
- Glitch: real-time rearrangements of incoming audio play at random or controlled intervals.
- BLOCK: incoming audio triggers predictable glitches, and bursts of notes.
- INTERRUPT: glitches interrupt dry signal with pitch-shifted bursts, micro-montages, and other unique modifiers
- ARP: – sequenced runs of samples create arpeggios.
- MultiDelay: a delay line with a selectable number of taps creates a wide variety of rhythmic and textural effects.
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PATTERN: delay taps are arranged into four different rhythmic patterns.
- WARP: delay taps are manipulated using filters and pitch shifting to create spacious textural effects.
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Features
- 11 unique granular and looping effects with 44 preset variations
- Stereo Input/Output
- Expression Input, mappable to many controls
- MIDI In/Out/Thru, clock synchronization
- 60 sec. Phrase Looper with many configuration options
- 16 User Preset slots for saving loops and settings
- Stereo Reverb (with 4 reverb styles)
- “Hold” sampler function to freeze effects and patterns
- Adjustable Pitch Modulation
- Resonant Lowpass Filter
- Choose between True Bypass Switching / Buffered Bypass with trails
- Tap Tempo
At first glance, a very exciting new granular / looper pedal for many, especially for synth players.
Hologram Electronics Microcosm is available now for pre-order for $449 USD and shipping starts in April 2020.
More information here: HE
granular synthesis is so ’90 s !!!!! :-/
why dont the builders start to make something more 2020’s ????
In Synth communities and ambient music, which is larger than it’s maybe ever been, granular and looping tape effects are highly in demand.