Making Ambient Soundscapes | How I’m Finding The Microcosm

[@OlaEnglund]

This sounds amazing man...

[@cortical1]

I agree! Haven't seen you in a while, Rabs! Hope to run into you at NAMM next January! And hope the knee is healing well, dude. 🤘🏻🧠🤘🏻

[@bjornebekk2]

Skjenare ola :)

[@icecreamforcrowhurst]

‘...’ ? Don’t leave us hanging. What?

[@icecreamforcrowhurst]

Says Englund to England

[@shoseinen]

Ola Microcosm pedal frenzy!

[@Medddler]

New ambient guitar video from Rabea? Instant click!

[@jessicaharris8782]

Same!!

[@felixguitar1108]

Microcosm? More like microgasm! That thing sounds insane

[@starsonmars9429]

The composite mapping of a sophisticated rack system configured to a pedal.

[@michaelhaydenbell]

​@@starsonmars9429jizz.

[@JustSomeGuy]

This is like Hans Zimmer in a pedal. I want one, but I need to stop spending money.

[@chrisdaviesguitar]

Don't we all.

[@dfkuipers]

agreed upon!

[@LloydWoodall]

Indeed. I put up for the Strymon Nightsky when it released, then this comes along... Yeesh.

[@caprise-music6722]

KLAUS SCHULTZE in a pedal has to be the next thing!

[@SplitRensonator]

We all have G.A.S. - Gear Acquisition Syndrome

[@JohnGSilver]

I feel most videos I saw on the Microcosm were about using it as an instrument by itself, like you show around the 20min mark - letting Microcosm do its own, almost living, thing. But I think it is the first time I see someone demoing who wants to take more control on the sound - keeping the guitar at the center of it, and using Microcosm as a more of a traditional pedal. And it strikes me how Microcosm can also handle that pretty well! It matches both playstyles perfectly :D

[@squirelova1815]

I am too TOTALLY mesmerized by looking deeply into Rabea's hair.

[@dreamscuba]

My gosh…I could listen to your ambient music till the cows come home. Wonderful. Love and peace.

[@basilandrigsby]

Agreed, these effects sound amazing floating away into ambience, but application within a song is where I struggle. They make me want go back to basics.

[@richnewman]

Microcosm is a minimalist's dream pedal. I find it's best when I have a great drum and bass track and I just do small things with a synth/guitar and the Microcosm. I've ran into some issues with duplicating sounds, despite taking photos of the pedal settings, but it's otherwise fantastic.

[@robwhermanson]

They should have made it more digital so you could save presets

[@peternorth6782]

@@robwhermanson More digital? LOLZ

[@MoledoesMineCraft]

We need a Vinyl release of all this Ambient music. It's incredible. Big Love

[@allanwhittick2930]

Love the tone without FX, sounds very sound garden. Absolutely brilliant.

[@orionfuluna8070]

Rabea knows just the right licks to play. Love those riffs so much

[@ShaighJosephson]

This format of casually explaining the sound design is a winner... One of your best vids... ☺️

[@luminairew.102]

It's not sweat bro, it's a build up of excess of awesomeness in its pure liquid form. It's just part of the process when you're creating amazing sounds

[@richard_6906]

Rabea, Please show how the unit can be completely controlled thru CC Midi changes. According to the manual you should be able to control every parameter via Midi. No one ever demonstrates this! Thanx man.

[@froshambo]

Love hearing that more Totemist is coming!

[@nickreesyt]

Hey, try pulling out the reverb on the pedal, and reduce the activity/mix. It gives you a load more control. Don’t forget you can save presets so once you’ve tapped into a sound you can pull it up anytime. Also, don’t forget the bottom right hand button is a good function grabbing your part and freezing it whilst you play over the top. I reckon you would like the Glitch section for riffage once you’ve tamed it. Love my microcosm with the Bigsky.

[@BOBBYPEACOCK]

Sounds really great Reba. I am so glad I started watching, Leo, Dines and spawned off many more guitar hero's Like Steve T and I own two of your albums. I am 59 years old and have played guitar for many years. More off than on because of health issues but I am not done yet. I think that you are an amazing guitarist. Thank you

[@michaelhaydenbell]

Stevie T is world-melting cringe.

[@MrLlollollo]

I'm interested to see what David Gilmour would do with a rig like this. It's like the tone he has at the start of Sorrow but on steroids! Obviously your playing sounds epic in it's own right as always Rabea!

[@sayl3ss_663]

Sorrow intro is probably one of the most amazing unknown song intros of all time

[@isaacsammis7407]

one of the coolest things about this is that every review sounds totally different because the pedal is so versatile

[@FrederickFoxtrott]

Thanks for the nice summary. You gotta get into the quantizer and MIDI clock to have far more control over the rhythm of the repeats and activity.

[@bizrock2221]

Less than 5 min and already really appreciating your explanation of this beast! Can't wait to get to the vezzpa microcosm marriage...

[@Ghostman1846]

The absolute Master of Ambient guitar.

[@colossaljack9509]

imagine having all this gear. that's a dream room

[@R0BERTMAY]

Imagine having his talent as well!! Must feel amazing!!!!

[@richardharrold9736]

@@R0BERTMAY only problem is, he can't get loud in there. Imagine if he could afford his own studio space with a live room where he could run 100w 4x12 stacks flat out...

[@rishabhbose29]

Imagine the number of hours he has spent with the Guitar getting where he is at today.

[@billyruben6540]

I saw Rhett's video demoing this a few days back. Thought it was a cool sounding pedal, but couldn't really see an application. When you went full on wet (winky face) around 21 minutes, I fell in love. Could totally see using it instead of one of those expensive orchestral software suites.

[@johnrigdon5308]

Bea is the mutha flippin lord of tone. Always sounds so damn good

[@JoshCastleTCM]

I get a sense of option paralysis with this, but my god when it works, it fucking works. If ever there was a pedal made for Bea, this is it.

[@SteveBigJazz]

I recently bought Japonica's album... this is purely the vibe for that kind of music!! love it

[@bobmaulucciproject]

Thank you for the suggestion. Downloaded the Into the Kaleidoscope album, and it is mind blowing.

[@keithb5612]

Record your track into a looper pedal then play the looped track back into the Microcosm.... And twiddle the knobs.... A brand new track would occur everytime...It would be interesting to see/hear that in a video.

[@NSRider24]

Awesome video Rabea :)! I ended up pre-ordering a Microcosm to go along with my Quad Cortex and Line 6 Power Cab 212. Looking forward to learning the ins and outs of this rig once it all arrives.

[@beguile302]

My biggest tips: sync it to a MIDI clock; and then take it much further with MIDI CC to control and modulate anything; and finally, read & re-read the manual (it’s great!) 🤘Cheers!

[@ChrisB-lt6hp]

It’s a superb set up and sound scape. The issue would be you could be lost playing and forget to eat and drink for 5 days, and be found slumped over your guitar. I could imagine ozric tentacles reinvented, as always Rabea always entertaining and fun to watch, and a truly great inspiration.

[@NSRider24]

I've got a great idea... Elden Ring "'Let's Play" with Rabea and Hannah when it releases. That would be some quality KZbin content !

[@KRayxKodessA]

Dude, you're so good it's unfair.

[@imgonnagetbanned]

This looks like a headache, but once you get to know it, it seems like an irreplaceable part of a rig

[@AaronRusch]

Excellent pedal demo! I've been eyeballing the Microcosm for a long time, but hearing you play it is really pushing me towards making a purchase... thanks for another great video!

[@rommelladiao7741]

Perfect timing! I just got on the August list. Can’t wait to experiment on this bad boy. Thanks Rabea for showing its capabilities

[@liamplunkett5100]

This rig would sound extra freaky with a fretless. Very Middle Eastern sounding already with some of the scales you typically play in!

[@AudiototheEyeballs]

Great stuff Rabea! Really loving the ambient direction lately....very inspiring

[@wingee]

Get aircon fitted, best thing I ever did in my studio 👍 worth every penny!

[@markalexander7045]

I love devices that inspire you to think differently about music.

[@SkyWolfZero]

I’d love to get my hands on a Microcosm!

[@StankuJanku]

Received mine just a few days ago. Haven't had this much fun with a pedal in a long time!

[@MineralVW]

please make full album with only such king of sound! One guitar and ambient! Great!

[@StandUnitedStandImmortal]

Another totemist ep. Hell yeah!

[@calcariachimera]

New sub er mate, i wish i had 1% of your skills, love your style, all the way from the mighty Yorkshire!!!!!

[@RobbieTayVaughan]

Glad to see and hear the fun you've had as you've spread your talent in multiple ways. I let myself spread out too with the new project I'm in Galactic Black, and kept my side project GasMule

[@bennyharderguitar]

I can’t wait to get mine in a couple weeks! Stack it with the Volante, Black Hole Symmetry, and CBA MOOD. It’ll be magical.

[@Adrikstides]

At 21:15 you go crazy! thatos why I love your stuff, so much variety

[@fbhistoriador]

If you use a Microcosm and a Zoia in the same pedalboard, then you quit work, school, abandon family for one year and you will reach great results.

[@Adrikstides]

YESSSSS i fking love ambient stuff and this is great,I´d love to see more of these,the end of the kraken v4 promo got me crazy

[@jameshoy380]

These ambient performances are badass. How are you feeling about the Microcosm 3 months later? I’ve got one on preorder and have been reading up on integrating it via midi, effects loop blocks and expression with Helix Rack. I think syncing this to a clock to line up with clicks, other time based effects and bandmates (my guitarist is getting one too) would unlock this thing in a band or song setting. It’s gonna take a pretty deep dive to get everything dialed in but I’m pretty excited.

[@SubhoshisDas]

This is mad🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽

[@MrPrincepop]

Fine already! I just plucked my money down for the next batch in August!

[@charlietierce7206]

Sounds great

[@ChetaMeister]

Man you scared me. That lens flare had me thinking i had a broken pixel. Thank you for the overview

[@midwestpedals4686]

Great demo! Btw what pickups are in that tele? Sounds so juicy on the bridge pickup

[@waltersmetak]

Some of this sounds really tasty! Very inspiring! But, yes, his criticism is spot on - the Microcosm has this, say, thing of playing itself; similar criticism can be read on various forums (there's a rather sharp on at Muff Wiggler) - fascinating pedal, no doubt - but does carry this quirkiness which may make it hard to manage.

[@MrIantodd]

Sounds beautiful. Could be a soundtrack.

[@GreenhamGuitar]

Ah, so they finally released the Liquid Drum & Bass Machine :-D It's really awe-inspiring!

[@roryt1983]

Best video I have seen from a guitarist showing off snippets of this pedal. The others are a bit too gimmicky for my taste. This is right up my street.

[@LloydWoodall]

Oh damn...and I picked up the Nightsky. Gotta start saving my pennies for this one.

[@stuartdennis8506]

What a brilliant demo and what gorgeous sounds 🙌🏻

[@LoVeAmBiEnT]

Low end here is amazing

[@mliaison]

Jeff buckley atmosphere in some sounds That deep intens space in this microcosm Nice*

[@Alchemy86510]

Could finally be able to play some Sigur Ros with this.

[@benass14]

Been waiting for this one!

[@rossbalch]

I've never wanted a pedal as badly as this.

[@thedutchdjentleman]

15:01 is the most beautiful thing

[@shoseinen]

Hi Rabea! I want to share a thought with you. The Microcosm for a lot of people, is idealistically the dreamed pedal for glitch and granular synthesis, but there are some essential problems to be solved, hopefuly on next firmwares. But maybe that will not happen, even if that absolutely benefit Hologram to convince people of buying a Microcosm. Who would be the person that can help Hologram to solve those essential problems on a new firmware? You worked with Neural DSP to do an amazing plugin, you have really good communication to achive a great product, you can be a good candidate (even if youre not interested), but may be there is someone else that knows even better how to approach to this kind of tasks. Suggestions of common users on the technical support asking for help, hadn't solved it.

[@brwhyon]

I just ordered one, kind of works/sounds like a Chase Bliss Mood from what I've heard, sort of. Thanks for the review B.

[@markconger8049]

Wow! This reminds me of the Vangelis soundtracks from movies.

[@Elazarko]

Do you think the Microcosm could work well to use specifically with a digital piano? (For Piano, Rhodes, strings and synth sounds) can you think of another alternative for unique expression?

[@ardiris2715]

I like pedals like that for sampling and loops.

[@sleepingatsea3420]

Great video man! Recently picked up the QC and Starlight so have heaps to play with but the Microcosm is on the list for sure. Could get lost for days!

[@colinclark1981]

This is absolutely beautiful. I need this pedal

[@gilbertsevdays]

15:48 hahaha ur reaction 😅

[@janchlupacek]

I get what you mean by "getting in the way" or over-effecting, so you cannot really solo with the same FX. As I can see it, wold have to get a loop going, then drive the acction down or the mix and then solo over. Or bypass it altogether and just keep the reverb and delay and other fx on. Great thing for experimentation though.

[@relevantusername88]

As a guy who has lived in the Deep South of the US all my life, hearing you say 77°F is hot is very funny to me.

[@dirttales]

Nothing like stepping out of the shower and feeling like you're back in one as soon as you step out the front door!

[@RabeaMassaad]

Hahahha yeah of course. England really doesn’t get to warm. But In my attic studio it tends to ramp up super fast on hot days

[@relevantusername88]

@@RabeaMassaad I bet it does! Today it was 93°F with a heat index(how hot it feels) of 110°F here. So it was pretty warm.

[@ileutur6863]

@@relevantusername88 The deep south is hot but at least its consistently hot. Its much harder to live in climates that have the extremes of all 4 seasons because your body never gets used to it

[@relevantusername88]

@@ileutur6863 oh for sure, y’all can keep all that snowing for months on end shit. It snowed one good time here this year and I was out of work for the WEEK, seriously. 😂

[@PedalsFusion]

Mate your sound is a killer ! Thanks for amazing videos ;-)

[@negativeone2.0]

very Pink Floyd bro. Huge sound

[@Larry30102]

I’m a little late to the party. I realize you were in the learning phase with microcosm, but it seemed like your biggest criticism was that it only played one sound at a time making it difficult to jam over. The answer for that is the phrase looper. I found it the most difficult to get my head around. But it would resolve your issue if you haven’t discovered it yet.

[@andrewgarrettdrums]

Can’t decide between this and the Volante!!

[@calcariachimera]

So good

[@kepplerM]

So beautiful 😍

[@psmaulehlien]

Holy shit, man. Your playing is amazing.

[@normanroses8115]

That revival drive is a killer

[@sebastianproano6585]

Couple this with a ehx super ego plus and a delay and you can make interdimensional portals.

[@VOBchris]

Man, now I want to go listen to Asymmetry again.

[@deant.6793]

Great, another pedal I want.

[@gregorydickie9667]

Those effects pedals are epic!

[@lincolndaugherty]

Let that....hair...come through. Nice :) Thanks for the content, Rabea!

[@Guitarkwondo]

What pickup up is in the bridge of that tele? 👀 Sounds huge

[@harshtruth9148]

That glitch tone sounds alot like a U2 Achtung tone

[@ChitMaker]

I’d say to have it do the same thing everytime, connect it to your pc via midi!

[@windowsoflife]

Ambivalent excitement… I own one and am also, excited and ambivalent! The pedal itself seems ambivalent as it wants a strum and off it goes while attempting to interact with the sounds doesn’t work very well. The pedal needs more volume too.

[@JoshuaTeicher]

That tele sounds great, what pickups are in it?

[@raulbargas6060]

Es tremendo el sonido ambiental q se puede lograr . gracias por compartirlo.

[@michaelmitchell5909]

Dude I'm sorry this doesn't pertain to this video, but I'd just like to say the audioslave collab you did with Rob singing was absolutely mind blowing for me brother. I get duck pimples every time I listen to it for how bad fuckin ass it sounds....your guitar sounded brutal man!....totally loved that....cheers from Canonsburg Pennsylvania USA!

[@grantgochnauer]

Awesome as always! If you have and Axe FX III, you can dial in these tones (or at least really really close).

[@sona3486]

Yep, exactly