The filter itself is very quantized and steppy when resonance is turned up, with only like 6 discrete values over the whole range, which doesnвЂ™t sound good to me. I wish there was a separate вЂњthing 1/2вЂќ knobs for controlling sub-effects within the presets, like bitcrushing or filtering, since that may not be everyoneвЂ™s cup of tea. ItвЂ™s easy to get something that sounds good, but I donвЂ™t feel like itвЂ™s my doing, itвЂ™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. My feelings are pretty mixed, even though I had pretty much zero expectations going in. 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.

Hologram microcosm for sale