SOMA Cosmos: Create Deep, Atmospheric Soundscapes

[@nicknickson3650]

the Bob Ross of guitar posts another great video

[@Tree_Strings]

Love the way Thom Yorke uses this unit.

[@kylecasey7089]

This was one of my favorite pedal purchases in the last 2 years. You could even record a different loops to the left and another one to the right. Endless possibilities. I was excited to see you do a video on it. You are actually one of the reasons I’ve started creating ambient music.

[@tedrkillian]

I have own one as well for several months, and am planning on buying a 2nd one so I can play in quad (with the upgraded firmware for the 2nd machine).

[@chordsoforion]

nice!

[@MarcoPolux]

@@chordsoforion 👍

[@Eylhardt]

After ordering I sufferd a hard case of Buyers Remorse. That vanished within 10 minutes of using the device. I set it up in Ableton Live in a way I can send any track to it. A synth pad as a foundation, some guitar swells added, an occasianally snippit from a drum loop and I am hooked for hours.

[@chordsoforion]

a great idea to integrate with Ableton Line!

[@bnz70]

I've had one for a few months now and have really been enjoying. It's perfect for big ambient textures (especially when you have some heavy effects going in to it). It's also nice with a short feedback setting to get some strange asymmetrical delays. The glitch and reverb algo's are definitely my favourites. I highly recommend checking out the other firmwares available.

[@MikhailMedvedev]

Used to play it for several days - it's a great Frippertronics-like looper. Suppression and Compression features are killers there. Wished it had more controllable HPF and LPF settings, but even what it has it super cool. Love this pedal!

[@ivonsmith2024]

Ive seen a couple of great demo of this cosmic unit - one was a keyboard demo by the keyboard player from English funkster Jamiroquai - that was awesome. Yours is really great too - so practical in that I can see one using it to make real atmospheric music tracks. Nice stuff! Gear like this and the Moog reissue stuff / digital software units are helping soul back into music like it was in the 60/70s.

[@jfroines]

Lovely demo of a very unusual device, seemingly designed for the ambient guitar thing. Thanks as always Bill.

[@Louis_Rain]

It sounds pretty rad, and made for ambient! I love it. There is a cool delay on the Line 6 DL4 MKII called Euclidean that you might be familiar with. It reminds me a little of this unit, one of it's parameters is rotate. This has a variety of great sounds, I won't look at the price!

[@Groovegandalf]

i want one, but the price tag will require some serious saving. Great demo!

[@AmbientMusicStudio]

This is an amazing device. The granular sounds were really nice.

[@Kmuggle]

Good presentation of a unique pedal. I've only used mine with my synth ... guess I'll have to try it with my guitar and see where it goes.

[@1wildrogue]

This has been on my radar for so long. But a looper just for ambient soundscapes? And it's huge, too? I need a bigger room soon with all that GAS 😓. Super sweet Demo as always!

[@joshsolarlovesyou]

Thanks for this video. I recently got a Cosmos and the way you demonstrated all this made it really easy to understand what's going on. I've just been twisting knobs and liking what I'm hearing...but really excited to go play with it again with all this new info.

[@davidbock201]

Oh man. The Cosmos has been on my wishlist for a while. I can't imagine what would happen if you played your Nashville strung acoustic with it! (HINT!) As always, dig your content.

[@stefanosimoncini3955]

Amo profondamente il Cosmos. Pura meditazione!

[@gaetanofontanazza]

Good ambient purpose demo. Cosmos is a great tool

[@bfd-tv6mf]

Okay now you did it. I have to go dig up my suso saiz album: hypnotics. It's the greatest piece of guitar looping ever made. Sounds like Claude Debussy on mushrooms...

[@worthmoremusic]

Love SOMA products... Wonderful Demo...thanks Bill !

[@chinmeysway]

great sounds and SOMA is a fantastic brilliant company you aughts get some of their nonguitar instruments Bill!!

[@mk1st]

Sounds great. With something that does such long delays I would imagine that a visual readout of the loop would be useful so you can time your playing to it.

[@chordsoforion]

Not sure if that would help for the standard firmware, as the loop length drift around. That being said, there is another firmware options that allows for more "BPM" style looping.

[@stefanhansen5882]

12:05 Absolutely beautiful playing!

[@samseitz9937]

Been waiting for this video!! Good to see it!

[@malvinusmusic]

Great video, thank you! (Waiting for my Cosmos...)

[@avpostbox]

Thank you for the "show"! It's like blending science and feelings, or... the other way around... Interesting, what you might compose using this "potion cauldron"?

[@chaote2069]

god i wished i had one of those, a norns ,and a plinky❤🙏🙃

[@CZPavel-c1p]

Absolutely great. Greetings Pavel CZ

[@fredholland7525]

If I could afford one, I'd buy it right now.

[@mariovoussalue408]

Magic

[@rootstudio247]

Sure, I have an idea for improvement: it would be nice to also have a regular looper thrown in. With all the finesse this box offers, it shouldn't be too much trouble.

[@peterknicked]

Cool piece of gear

[@jbjb9691]

Pretty, but what's the difference with this and, say, the Ditto X4 with different looping times for each of the two loops? Or a multi-effect with 2 delays with 2 different times (not multiples of each other) in parallel?

[@ianpopperwell3881]

That’s a good question. I have the cosmos and the ditto X4, I often use the X4 in the way you suggest. The difference with the cosmos is that it has the blur effect and a random panning (both of which are choices whether to use them and the amount). Just a clarification so far as I understand it, in the first two models (two and four repeats), the loops delays) are of slightly different but fixed times and it is this that continually changes their relationship to each other rather than them being randomised in length. I hope that is correct. This@ is my favourite video so far on the cosmos as a demo Loop op does a fantastic tutorial.

[@jbjb9691]

@@ianpopperwell3881thanks Ian for the clarification.

[@kylecasey7089]

It mixes the sounds together and u really never get the same sounds twice.

[@justscott8387]

I own both as well, completely different units especially when you use different firmware on the Cosmos. The rhythmic/pitch firmware is quite amazing. I generally use the x4 as a looper for the Cosmos. The stereo spread of sound is as wide as it gets! My favorite pedal by far

[@jbjb9691]

Thank you @@justscott8387 . Yes I have seen on Andre Lafosse's channel how rhythmic the Cosmos can become. I appreciate your time and answer.

[@johnduval482]

Noticing some line hiss. Is this from the unit or coming from some other place in the signal chain?

[@jiggyman-n9j]

Will the Cosmo by itself be enough for Ambient Soundscapes? Or is other gear recommended/needed?

[@xisotopex]

you should add some Orange amps to your setup and try to do some downtuned doom/stoner type ambient....

[@mark.guitar]

Want one! Great demo. Shame that I can't raise the funds at the moment. Christmas is already spoken for (GigRig switching) so I guess I'll be waiting for my birthday...

[@bluematrix5001]

WHAT A COOL GUITAr!! which model it is?

[@chordsoforion]

It's an Ibanez Quest QX54QM. Links are in the video description!

[@bluematrix5001]

thanks @@chordsoforion

[@rjw8631]

well done. thanks

[@MD_is_me]

The filters can help with longer performances to keep things from getting mushy.

[@chordsoforion]

indeed!

[@DaddyRockStudio]

I would be interested in a bit more elaboration of the ERASE switch function. It seems like it would be difficult to press both switches for erase all, using your feet. Are there other ways to erase a loop or loops using the foot switches?

[@jfo3000]

These type of "features" can easily be deal breakers, for sure.

[@Novalarke]

I think that if it was a VST, I'd buy it.

[@complicitytheory]

I love my cosmos even more now!

[@bfd-tv6mf]

David Torn would be happy..

[@sebdos]

Can’t understand if u can play over « layers u leave behind « and that what u okay above is NOT repeated. Possible ?

[@normanfreund]

Cool demo, can tell you are in your happy place.

[@xisotopex]

anything else that compares with this?

[@greglong888]

Have you noticed the way the reverb settings drift upward in pitch? Takes a little over a minute but it rises by a quarter tone and makes it noticeably out of tune. I've raised it with support but it seems they won't change it. I ended up returning mine as 1 of the 4 modes is not usable. Such a shame as it is a monster of a pedal.

[@cldbrbn6070]

That is completely ridiculous hyperbole

[@alanlong5054]

Have you tried to replicate the issue? I can assure you it exists.

[@cldbrbn6070]

@@alanlong5054 I was referring to “not useable”

[@dontassumemyfender9866]

I received mine last week. It is the most impressive inspirational piece of kit I have ever used. But I had issues with mine. I'm using it with my guitar and it would loose sound and when I picked the string........nothing. When I tried doing swells, it would start then became very loud. I tried every pedal individually and all fine. I purchased brand new patch cables and jack cables.....didn't fix. Then, I noticed something in the instructions. The noise gate! You can reduce the noise gate sensitivity by pressing hpf-lpf-erase at the same time and reduces the sensitivity by a value of 10. Now its completely fine and works stunningly.

[@brucerothwell7944]

Anyone have ideas on how to achieve most of this functionality in plugins? (like in Garageband or Logic or others)

[@Fedor_Tkachev_Music]

I think it's all doable with unfiltered audio sandman pro. You get up to 10 seconds of delay or more if you're fine with reducing it's samplerate. Plus there's a lot of different delay modes and the plugin has the built-in modulation system.

[@JumboDubby]

You could do the whole thing with Loopy Pro on a good iPad

[@JPTRFX]

Go home looper you are drunk

[@shitmandood]

Did you happen to see the other Soma products? They’ve got a 2-string stick like guitar coming out soon called the Dvina for $900 preorder on perfect circuit. I also stumbled upon their Soms Terra synth which is in this weird shaped wooden enclosure. $1600 whopper. They seem to have a lot of stuff for the Ambient Professional.

[@shitmandood]

Would this be similar to the Microcosm? The cosmos looks like another one of those devices where if you put it to use in a composition, you’ll never be able to get the same sound structure a second time. That was my beef with the Microcosm is that it’s great for noodling but making tunes with it, there’s no way to control it. You turn it on and it takes over. Price tag is massive! Would probably have to sell a few pedals to get it, like the Microcosm. 😅