I feel like I’m stumbling in the dark half of the time. I guess that’s my main gripe with the pedal: with so many unknown variables inside the algos, the abstracted-away controls, and scarce documentation, it’s frustrating trying to learn how it actually works and what each knob does. And even after several days I only have a vague idea of how it affects the sound. It also seems quantized, with only a few discrete wave shapes, instead of morphing like you’d expect. What is missing is the random element of the Microcosm. And why the hate for high frequencies? Where are the HP, BP filters? It limits the usability of the filter a lot for me, since I like my high freqs. The filter itself is very quantized and steppy when resonance is turned up, with only like 6 discrete values over the whole range, which doesn’t sound good to me. I wish there was a separate “thing 1/2” knobs for controlling sub-effects within the presets, like bitcrushing or filtering, since that may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s easy to get something that sounds good, but I don’t feel like it’s my doing, it’s more the pedal playing by itself. The only two real controls are the Activity and Repeat knobs, and even then they are macros, not individual controls. Some presets seem to just cut out the high frequencies for no reason, while others have an LP built in by design.
It sounds good, but the overall character seems a bit subdued, with lots of forced LP filtering. Like, why are there non-removable LP filters in some of the algorithms, and why does the Space knob control the reverb dry/wet mix instead of reverb time? Why does setting Activity to anything other than square kill high frequencies? The thing that bothers me the most is lack of control and pretty arbitrary design choices. Takes metal guitar well in the interrupt and blocks mode. Might not work for country and bluegrass. Its like terry pratchet plugged into douglas adams. If you get its groove Then the dance starts with the glitchy gnomes and elves. My feelings are pretty mixed, even though I had pretty much zero expectations going in. But youre right, this pedal is more about getting controlled by it. I got it second-hand from a local classifieds site for about $500. Here are my thoughts on the Microcosm after playing with it after a few days.
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