It only really allows for sounding like every demo you’ve heard from all the influencers and ambient players who revel in that sort of digital soup without a wish for more unique texture or feeling. I think its popularity really just comes from hype combined with people’s general inexperience with granular synthesis, so Microcosm is just well known and the most immediate choice when it is bounced around so much but it really doesn’t have anything special going on, and for such a HUGE box and high price you could definitely hope for more. The character just feels like the most basic sounds of granular ambient were put in a box together with quite little imagination. It felt internally generic to me in that most of feel samey, with simple shuffles, octave +/-, filtering etc setting them apart but nothing really allowing you to push things into anything really interesting or wild.
#MICROCOSM GUITAR PEDAL PLUS#
I’m a big fan of granular processors and weird sounds, but Microcosm seems to be made to just give you a palatable selection of granular sounds without much true flexibility, and the only real plus over most other grain boxes is that it is stereo, has a looper, and maybe the reverb but that reverb really didn’t sound or feel good for me. I don’t like to be too hard on it as it has some strengths and may be perfect for some people, but personally I found it pretty dull an uninspiring. NOT a “I’m going to continuously affect your signal” type of relationship. I think bottom line, if you’re very controlling over the configuration of your pedals and want them to be dialed in super specific, you won’t have a good experience with it.Įdit: to summarize: the WAY the pedal operates is more of a call and response type relationship. It works exceptionally well as an occasional mangler when you set it and forget it with other boxes/gear. I play guitar and I have a few groove boxes, and was mostly extremely bored and uninspired when running my guitar through the pedal.
The way it dynamically responds to loops especially. If you have some groove boxes/synths that output stereo, run those through the microcosm. It was driving me nuts when playing my guitar through it.
Think of it like an extra band mate that’s occasionally gonna add their own flavor to whatever you have running through it. You set the macro knobs and microcosm will occasionally spit some stuff out in response to what you’re playing. There are no controls for dialing something in super specific, something a lot of guitar players want. The thing about the Microcosm is, with most if not all of its algorithms, it is MACRO oriented.
Maybe some have found some applications there, but I don’t think that’s where it shines. I actually don’t think the Microcosm should be paired with a guitar at all.