Microcosm-Hologram Electronics new pedal

[SummerLeftMe]

Just saw that a new Hologram Electronics pedal is coming out! Preorders now and they ship in April it says.

I don't have any experience with their Dream Sequence or Infinite Jets, but I have really been tempted to get one.

It seems like it sort of does what their last 2 pedals did, but with some added tricks. . . can save more presets and it has reverb.

Does anyone own the Infinite Jets or Dream Sequence? I'm interested to see how people are actually using them in their music and if they think they are worth the price. It's hard to really understand how those pedals differ as well, without actually playing one. They both sound like awesome glitchyness.

I haven't really heard any other pedals that do what these do so I may put in a preorder. . .



https://www.hologramelectronics.com

[Shadoweclipse13]

As a fan of 1970's Sci-Fi, I love their aesthetics, but I agree that I don't know what each pedal does, or does differently from each other. When the first one came out, I was really intrigued, but pretty quickly lost interest.

I understand that they need to sell a concept and make things sound cool, but I prefer hearing what things actually are. I don't remember what pedal it was, but there was a pedal a few years ago that I wanted (I believe from Earthquaker), but I had no idea what it actually was, until I saw a video from Knobs or someone like that, and the circuit was explained in very simple terms.

[burpgun]

Owner of a Hologram Dream Sequence here. This is not a knock on the company, but if you're interested in their latest or any of the offerings, tread carefully. The pedals are super expensive and hard to sell if you want to move on. I took the Dream Sequence off my board a long time ago because it's gigantic and takes up too much space for a class of effect that you probably aren't going to need all that often. While it might be user error, I found myself not able to get anything really useful out of the pedal and it felt underwhelming compared to the demos. If I had it to do all over again I wouldn't buy it. That said, I'm sure Hologram's offerings are perfect for someone. I've been trying to see if I can get it to do some cool stuff to my Minibrute in between abortive attempts to sell the device on Craigslist.

[somanytoys]

I have had 2 Infinite Jets for years. They are both set to basically be synths, but can do so much more. They are mainstays on my 2 main stereo boards, the other side on each is a Keeley Realizer in soft focus mode (they’re kind of mirrored boards).

I am a gigantor fan of Meris, I have a few of their pedals, but more recently, I bought an Enzo. It wasn’t for me, and I’m letting it go.

It depends on what you want out of it, but the IJ will do synth, stutter and all kinds of crazy stuff ( watch a few vids, I recommend Knobs).

If you don’t want to be the first to buy the new pedal at full price, I would suggest getting a used Jets to see if the new one is really what it is you want, and if it’s worth the price.

[SummerLeftMe]

Thanks for the insight guys. I have bought some cool pedals in the past that I couldn't find a use for, is I'm trying to avoid that again.

After some more videos I can see the dream sequence probably wouldn't be for me. Sounds really nice but hard to integrate into my music.

I have had 2 Infinite Jets for years. They are both set to basically be synths, but can do so much more. They are mainstays on my 2 main stereo boards, the other side on each is a Keeley Realizer in soft focus mode (they’re kind of mirrored boards).

I am a gigantor fan of Meris, I have a few of their pedals, but more recently, I bought an Enzo. It wasn’t for me, and I’m letting it go.

It depends on what you want out of it, but the IJ will do synth, stutter and all kinds of crazy stuff ( watch a few vids, I recommend Knobs).

If you don’t want to be the first to buy the new pedal at full price, I would suggest getting a used Jets to see if the new one is really what it is you want, and if it’s worth the price.

What kind of music are you mainly playing with these pedals?

I'm playing reverb drenched shoegaze mainly. Seems like the new pedal and the infinite jets is better for that.

[somanytoys]

It probably tends to be pretty shoegazey type on that setting, especially paired with the Realizer (the reverb half of the Keeley Loomer) on the other amp. It really has a lot of possible applications, with all of the settings and all it can do. I just stick with the synthy sound mostly, but I also have a glitchy program saved. (Edit: it only has 2 memory slots. It would have been nice to have more, with all of the great different settings and the tweakability for them that this thing has.)

Honestly, you can get lost with this pedal all by itself for hours, checking out all of the different settings and variations in it. It covers a lot of ground.

But if you liked what was in the videos, I think you’d really like it. Once I bought one, I knew I needed another one for the other board.

Gateway drug....

And now I’m going to have to check our their new pedal.

[preservation]

I had to preorder the Microcosm.
16 presets, all with the sort of effects I’ve been after for a while. The reverb sounds massive and the delays are interesting. I’ve grown to love certain filter sounds too after using a Hungry Robot Wardenclyffe for the past year.


Like one of the posts above, I didn’t get on with the Meris Enzo (despite some of the sounds being impressive). I preferred the Boss SY-1 WAY more but was sad that I couldn’t save presets and there weren’t more knobs-per-function (but I get it: compact pedals).

I’ve heard mixed things about the Infinite Jets and Dream Sequence. Some adore them and some wanted to hang onto them but had gripes. This one seems like I could get way more use of it, especially after telling myself to pass on the Mood, Dark World, Ottobit, Generation Loss, and H9.

I’ve pre-ordered a pedal or two in my day, but never dropped $450 on anything in quite some time. If this is half as cool as I hope it is I’ll be stoked.

[somanytoys]

Yeah, the IJ was expensive, but I’m one that loves it. And I haven’t really gone through all it can do very well.

I was one that didn’t care for the Enzo, but had another guitarist with more synth experience come over and dialed up lots of good sounds out of it very quickly, for about 20 or 30 minutes. I think it has more to do with my shortcomings than the pedal’s.

I have an Ottobit Jr., and for a sequencer with stutter, it’s great. Complicated, like all Meris pedals, but great.

[jorri]

Looks like granular synth. If you don't know what that is, it's synthesis by sampling and chopping bits of a source.
So you can go from microscopic chops that produce synth tones, glitch stuff, or by the looks of it a basic looper which granular kind of does usually... Also multidelay could be anything, digital delays can get weird like the afterneath or hazarai are capable of 'reverb' emulating synth paDs by stacking up delays.

[SummerLeftMe]

Ok, I watched some more demos and videos of their other pedals and put in a preorder for the microcosm!
I just haven't seen many pedals that can do what this one does.

Last $500ish I spent on a pedal was the Eventide Space when it came out. I am partial to rack gear, but don't know of any rack gear that does what this pedal does. Maybe the Eventide H9000 but that's $7,000!

Really excited for this!

[preservation]

With all the terrible COVID shit going on I’ve wanted to message Hologram to make sure everything is on track - which is a luxury to say the least.

Still, if it’s half of what I’m hoping for I’ll be so stoked.
It’s either that or the Tasty Chips GR-1

[somanytoys]

Although I’ve been scared to do it, I just looked at that video. That thing is nice, and the new features are probably worth the extra price over the Infinite Jets.

The Jets seems to do a lot of what this does, but there also seems to be more to it, with the loops, reverb, stereo capability and the additional memory presets. Maybe some different voicing and other effects as well.

The Jets does loops, but only of a certain size (threshold triggered or user triggered, poly or mono), no real reverb, and the fact that it’s mono and it only has 2 presets is kind of irritating, considering all the great, crazy shit that it’s capable of and the relative difficulty of dialing in settings. The best you can do is to save 2 settings, and have the controls set to a third one to switch over to, and hope the knobs don’t move too much.

I may need to check one out one day, and may replace a Jets with it, mostly because of the larger loop function, reverb and stereo capabilities, and more saved settings.

I think that anyone that buys this thing based on the video will not be disappointed in the least. The hardest and/or most fun part is trying to find the sounds, at least with the Jets.

[preservation]

I’ve messaged the guy twice on IG since the Microcosm was announced and received no reply - makes me guess all is well and he just sticks to email for biz Q&A.

Still so curious...

[SummerLeftMe]

Yea I was wondering about any delays as well.
I checked the website and this seems to have been added recently . .


"Pre-orders will ship in the order they were received. Shipping begins late April 2020.

Orders placed after April 1 are estimated to ship in early May, 2020."

I don't know when they started the pre orders but I ordered mine late February.
So I'm hoping for a late April arrival.

[preservation]

i'm with you, i think i ordered within a day or so of them announcing it.