Again, Microcosm sounds great, and if it was just a spacey effects box, if this was all you got, it would still be great, but there’s also an onboard looper that can be used with or without the effects and before or after the effects take place. In that way you could almost see Microcosm as a one-trick-pony. Most of the tones and sounds I uncovered were lush, deep, and evocative of the deep mysteries of space it really excels at those types of sounds, something I was aware of beforehand, and it’s really easy to get those beautiful types of textures. Even so, that aspect of experimenting was fruitful and in line with the overall layout and feel of Microcosm. I can’t say that I would be able to explain the differences as sometimes there would be so much going on, swirls of modulation and delay, and mostly it was more of a feeling than an understanding of change. For instance, there are four available reverbs to choose from and I would switch back and forth to see if I could hear the differences until I hit upon one that spoke to me in the moment.

Quite the opposite, actually.Ī lot of the time I was experimenting with Microcosm I was pushing it, just seeing if I could hear the difference between one setting and another.

I feel like this sort of menu display works well with a pedal that’s obviously designed more for experimentation and feel than precision and in no way did the absence of a menu deter or hinder my enjoyment and creativity with Microcosm. I just used my ears to determine what I wanted, felt like, etc., and for everything else the color bars were quite intuitive and helpful enough, and any other information is just a manual-reach away. Truthfully, a screen would be more helpful in terms of information, and I could never remember exactly which subset of each effect I was in based on which color bar was illuminated, but it’s way nicer to look at the colored bars than a screen, and I don’t really think knowing which preset is which is all that important anyway. Microcosm is hypnotic to look at, with a four-color LED indicator light bar at the bottom of the pedal that signifies whether the effects are on or off, what loop mode you’re in, which effect preset you’re in, etc. Each of these controls also has a secondary function reached by holding the Select/Shift button, also found on the left side of the pedal in the mini Tempo section of the pedal. All of the controls to tweak your sound are on the left side of the pedal Activity, Shape, Filter, Mix, Time, Repeats, Space, and Loop Level. Each of the eleven effects also have four preset variations, so in total you have forty-four, not counting the sixteen saveable USER presets.

All of this resides on the right side of the pedal, and the styles and are as follows: MICROLOOP, GRANULES, GLITCH, and MULTIDELAY.

Its effects are divided into four styles with subsets for each that total eleven effects, switchable and selected by the pushbutton Preset Selector. Microcosm can run in mono or stereo, has MIDI in and OUT, an assignable expression pedal input-which can also be used to CV control any of the main parameters-and a host of controls and features with which to tweak into the infinite. It’s a really nice looking thing with an off-white enclosure with flashes of pastel-ish rainbow colors and lights, and if you’ve heard it-and I’m sure you have, whether you realize it or not-and especially experimented with it, then you know how easy it is to churn out beautiful, interesting soundscapes and textures with it. Microcosm, Knoxville-based Hologram’s granular delay and looper pedal, is one of those pedals that can induce a little of a love at first sight reaction.

Hologram microcosm pedal