Revisiting FX: Hologram Microcosm Edition

stylesforfree · August 2023

As soon as I plugged it in I remembered why I sold it over a year ago. The noise, the hiss, the incessant bag of snakes itching to escape back into the jungle.

Tried it with my supro amulet and fender supersonic...hisssssss

I then unplugged it and tried a different power supply thinking something was wrong with the psu, no bueno.

So now, I have it plugged into the fx loop on the supro blues king which has suppressed the noise as it's no longer being boosted by the preamp but I was hoping to use it with some of my other amps.

Anyway, here I am revisiting one of the most expensive pedals on the market that has a serious glaring issue that renders it almost useless unless you have an amp with an fx loop. At least I remember why I originally sold it.

You would have thought that something like this would have been sorted out by now.

Paul_C · August 2023

I feel your pain

I have a V1 Chase Bliss Spectre which 1) cost me a LOT of money and 2) is annoyingly hissy.

I've tried all sorts of things but have now resigned myself to putting it up for sale.

Cirrus · August 2023

The SDD-3000, which now commands more second hand than it cost new, is also pretty hissy.

To be honest, a bit of white noise doesn't bother me. Plenty of great recordings have audible hiss, I rarely notice or care if I do.

Wazmeister · August 2023

To be fair, my Microcosm wasnt noisy at all…

Unfathomable, yes, but not noisy.

dangriffiths · August 2023

yeah mine wasn't noisy i just found it samey and a bit too fiddly to keep

markrigler · August 2023

Credit card says thanks for the info

Sunburst · August 2023

That's interesting to hear. I've had a Microcosm for about 6 months and have had no issues with hiss. However, I find it frustratingly inconsistent in how much it actually responds / generates when in use. I've read somewhere that it likes a really strong input signal, but it's 8th in a 10 pedal chain with 2 buffered pedals ahead of it. For some reason, it loves my Jaguar and Strat and creates all sorts of weird beauty when I'm playing those, but it's pretty lifeless and generates much less when I'm playing my humbucker or P90 equipped guitars. I would have imagined it would've been the other way round!

stylesforfree · August 2023

Sunburst said:

That's interesting to hear. I've had a Microcosm for about 6 months and have had no issues with hiss. However, I find it frustratingly inconsistent in how much it actually responds / generates when in use. I've read somewhere that it likes a really strong input signal, but it's 8th in a 10 pedal chain with 2 buffered pedals ahead of it. For some reason, it loves my Jaguar and Strat and creates all sorts of weird beauty when I'm playing those, but it's pretty lifeless and generates much less when I'm playing my humbucker or P90 equipped guitars. I would have imagined it would've been the other way round!

What amp are you using it with? Are you using it in an fx loop or into an audio interface?

Sunburst · August 2023

stylesforfree said:

Sunburst said:

That's interesting to hear. I've had a Microcosm for about 6 months and have had no issues with hiss. However, I find it frustratingly inconsistent in how much it actually responds / generates when in use. I've read somewhere that it likes a really strong input signal, but it's 8th in a 10 pedal chain with 2 buffered pedals ahead of it. For some reason, it loves my Jaguar and Strat and creates all sorts of weird beauty when I'm playing those, but it's pretty lifeless and generates much less when I'm playing my humbucker or P90 equipped guitars. I would have imagined it would've been the other way round!

What amp are you using it with? Are you using it in an fx loop or into an audio interface?

It sits in the loop of my Brunetti Singleman 15. I have a buffered pedal first in the chain of the pedals in front of the amp and another first in the chain of those in the effects loop.

stylesforfree · August 2023

Sunburst said:

stylesforfree said:

Sunburst said:

That's interesting to hear. I've had a Microcosm for about 6 months and have had no issues with hiss. However, I find it frustratingly inconsistent in how much it actually responds / generates when in use. I've read somewhere that it likes a really strong input signal, but it's 8th in a 10 pedal chain with 2 buffered pedals ahead of it. For some reason, it loves my Jaguar and Strat and creates all sorts of weird beauty when I'm playing those, but it's pretty lifeless and generates much less when I'm playing my humbucker or P90 equipped guitars. I would have imagined it would've been the other way round!

What amp are you using it with? Are you using it in an fx loop or into an audio interface?

It sits in the loop of my Brunetti Singleman 15. I have a buffered pedal first in the chain of the pedals in front of the amp and another first in the chain of those in the effects loop.

I've put it in the supro blues king fx loop, seems to work fine there and the noise is pretty much negated.

Also that Brunetti Singleman looks and sound incredible!

Sunburst · August 2023

stylesforfree said:

Sunburst said:

stylesforfree said:

Sunburst said:

That's interesting to hear. I've had a Microcosm for about 6 months and have had no issues with hiss. However, I find it frustratingly inconsistent in how much it actually responds / generates when in use. I've read somewhere that it likes a really strong input signal, but it's 8th in a 10 pedal chain with 2 buffered pedals ahead of it. For some reason, it loves my Jaguar and Strat and creates all sorts of weird beauty when I'm playing those, but it's pretty lifeless and generates much less when I'm playing my humbucker or P90 equipped guitars. I would have imagined it would've been the other way round!

What amp are you using it with? Are you using it in an fx loop or into an audio interface?

It sits in the loop of my Brunetti Singleman 15. I have a buffered pedal first in the chain of the pedals in front of the amp and another first in the chain of those in the effects loop.

I've put it in the supro blues king fx loop, seems to work fine there and the noise is pretty much negated.

Also that Brunetti Singleman looks and sound incredible!

The amp certainly sounds and looks great to me!

I've had a fiddle with the Microcosm; turning up the activity and repeats knobs has helped a lot. I'm very happy with it now, with all my guitars.

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Revisiting FX: Hologram Microcosm Edition

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