Soma Labs COSMOS Review // 8 performance tips and ideas // Full tutorial

Get more generative ideas, tips and insights from this video and all my others in my ever-expanding book of electronic music ideas, tips and tricks here:
► Patreon: / loopop
Check prices here (affiliate links help the channel):
► Thomann: www.thomann.de/gb/soma_cosmos...
► Perfect Circuit: bit.ly/PCCOSMOS
Here's my video about using a sampler to create phased loops:
► • Sampler trick: Steve R...
Other gear in the video:
► Piano sounds from Arturia Piano V2
► MEGAfm by Twisted Electrons
► Bluebox by 1010music
► H9 by Eventide
► KeyStep 37 by Arturia
FOR THOSE ASKING ABOUT NOISE: I did amplify the intro a bit and other parts in this video because recording levels were low, but like I mention in the video, distortion and compression bring noise levels up in relation to other signals. If you keep those knobs down the signal is very clean, but if there's even just a bit of noise, a few compressor and distortion loops will bring it up.
Other places I hang out:
► Instagram: / loopopmusic
► Facebook: / loopopmusic
► Twitter: / loopopmusic
► Web: loopopmusic.com
My music:
► Bandcamp: loopop.bandcamp.com
► Spotify: bit.ly/LoopopOnSpotify
► Apple Music:bit.ly/LoopopOnAppleMusic
TIMELINE:
0:00 Intro
1:30 Overview
4:30 This setup
5:15 Two delays
7:05 Four delays
7:45 Blur & Drift
9:35 Giant reverb
10:20 Granular delay
11:30 Feedback
12:00 Compressor
13:10 Suppressor
13:45 A FEW TIPS
14:00 Simple looping
14:40 Direct 2 phase
15:20 Blur freeze
16:00 Spectral control
16:35 Pass it on
17:10 Reverse toggle
17:40 No undo
18:00 Always record!
18:20 Pros & cons
20:55 Cosmic drift
Submit review and video ideas here (sorry I don’t offer 1x1 sessions/setup/purchasing advice):
► Ziv (at) loopopmusic.com
NOTE: Occasionally I’ll try out affiliate marketing and include affiliate links. This means that I may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via affiliate links. The content of this clip is entirely my opinion, and was not paid for or dictated in any way by the company creating the gear. Without addressing the particulars of products shown here as they might be under NDA, gear shown on this channel may be either sent by the manufacturer, on loan for review or bought at a discount.

[@loopop]

For those asking - price check links are in the description. Want some more audio? Check out my Cosmic Drift #2 here: instagram.com/tv/CRyxLS-jYvV

[@turfoid7899]

Can u recommend a good low latency sound card for recording?

[@loopop]

@@turfoid7899 Your computer speed will impact latency more than the audio interface. Regardless, I recommend direct monitoring if that’s what you need low latency for. In that case it doesn’t matter much how fast your computer or audio interface is

[@RedCloudServices]

I was today years old when I learned I have needed this piece of gear my entire life.

[@KunchangLeeMusic]

Honest question : why is it so expensive do you think it’s overpriced or not ???

[@Ratskank]

@@loopop did you make a vid on the new firmware? If so, I can’t find it

[@helpmeiaminhell]

This arrived yesterday. Only played with it for a little bit but I'm already in love. After tinkering for less than ten minutes i made an entire ambient track. It's a keeper for sure.

[@StudioMagnetique]

Whether you want it or not, a release from Soma is always a game-changer and worth paying attention to. I love these guys. Another seriously interesting product.

[@Brumata]

I’m glad you got to do a video on this one. Very helpful! Didn’t know what to think of it when it was announced, but this solidified its place on my wishlist.

[@lawr.h]

Like so many other products, this thing gives me so many ideas for things to try with my Octatrack... That sampler has saved me a lot of money at this point ❤️

[@danpreston564]

This is the first piece of gear I have instantly wanted in a long time. I’m imagining pairing it with the Arturia Microfreak for some spice and dice loveliness. Beautiful stuff.

[@bricelory9534]

Your final performance is truly emotive and grand - a beautiful work that I'd absolutely love to hear more of. Wonderful

[@robert__]

Thom Yorke: give me 6 of these

[@kevinbatchelor9566]

I thought of him immediately as well.

[@shelbymccool]

Ooooppeennnnn yoouurrr mmmoouuuttthhhhhh WWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEE

[@poisonousbirds]

@@shelbymccool best comment

[@cesarsjogren]

Lol you win the internet for this one😅

[@jnny7182]

HA, yes perfect!

[@musicalstatues73]

Haven’t watched the channel in a bit and you’ve raised your game! Dope jam at the end and as always very informative.

[@JayaLove]

Mine is being delivered today! Here I am watching this amazing demo in anticipation!

[@rdomain]

Your first sentence finally explained what Cosmos does! After watching all the Soma videos etc, they never actually said what it was doing so thank you! Haha. Very nicely jam at the end too.

[@tomjepson2295]

I came to check out COSMOS and was sold within the first 28 seconds of the video. Good work, sir. Good work.

[@brthrm1511]

Oh, here's another episode of "gear on my wishlist that I'm about to love and be obsessed about even more"

[@tohellandbacknoface4091]

got anything ur bored with? 💪

[@JayaLove]

Yep. I immediately became obsessed with this. Can’t wait till I can afford one!

[@mgscheue]

Watching again because I pre-ordered in February and I just got the email saying it’s ready. Very excited!

[@winstonelectric]

ugh i can't stop listening to this demo. so excited for cosmos.

[@lone_buddha]

This is such a great video. Mine actually arrived today cannot wait to delve into the mysteries of the cosmos ;).

[@Chasing_Thoughts]

A new loopop is way better than TV ever was !

[@XanderEwald]

Great video, thanks! Lovely like everything SOMA does, preordered right away.

[@friedhelm5845]

man...one minute into it and I was already lost. thanks a lot, very inspiring.

[@CO5MA]

I want mine 👌🏻 Thanks Loopop for that review 👍🏻

[@jackduxbury1632]

Wow - that final Jam was genuinely beautiful and inspiring - 👏

[@loopop]

🙌🏻🙏🏻 ❤

[@SpikesStudio3]

Ziv, pretty stoked with the way you look at music tech. You say "Hold on a second, have you tried this?" Its a wonderful insight into evolving technology. Been a patron for a couple of years now....

[@loopop]

Thanks for the comment and ongoing support!

[@martinnonstatic7435]

one of the best introductions !! perfect video

[@tubasco504]

thanks for your overview! On point as always. 💯🙏🏻 I cannot wait for this thing. I instantly joined the pre-order list the moment it was announced. I make my rc505 do many of the functions that these algorithms do. So stoked

[@blackknightsatellite3847]

Same here. Instantly preordered it after the first Presentation. Can't wait to play with it

[@tubasco504]

@@blackknightsatellite3847 were you notified yet by Soma EU? I paid a few days ago and am waiting for shipping confirmation!

[@blackknightsatellite3847]

@@tubasco504 Got a mail from Soma some Days ago that my unit will be shipped within 3 Weeks after payment

[@blackknightsatellite3847]

@@tubasco504 I was notified that they received the money 1 Day after I made the payment. Have you received the Notification now?

[@tubasco504]

@@blackknightsatellite3847 mine is going to arrive this Wednesday (in 3 days) according to the tracking!

[@cometodolly]

that is stunning! Man, i love this channel. :)

[@AboveTheTrees00]

been wanting one since it came out and finally pulled a trigger few days ago, can't wait for the package to arrive

[@drahtmachine4601]

Exactly I hear Thom Yorke Bloom aswell, I think he did it with the Morphagene

[@GNeuman]

Love it! Great review!

[@amerlin15]

Please do a MegaFM review next! Very good review :)

[@ryanmartinez2876]

Just beautiful. Brilliant & more brilliant

Drift reminds me of Granulator II in Ableton Live, amazing to have something like this at your fingertips while you play, and not in post-processing.

[@ThreeBeingOne]

Novation launchkey SL mk 3

[@MrEMann]

This feels like a beautiful black box full of magic for making ambient music. Sign me up!

[@martingoldmannmusic]

I like that thing! Thanks for the review.

[@andrelafosse]

Awesome looper, awesome video!

[@MichaalHell]

loved that performance in the end. mezmerising

[@robjacksonmusic]

Very cool / I want one! Great demo as per.

[@dudekdenis7418]

J' adore ce principe, merci de la démonstration, c' est juste génial

[@nebuladus7850]

Hello loopop🎹🎸🔊🎶🎶🎶thank you for your channel✌🏽💁🏿‍♂️

[@drahtmachine4601]

Nice review, great machine

[@EdgarWiersocki]

Man! You are amazing player!!!!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@PrimitiveInTheExtreme]

Wonderful. A unique loop station.

[@rushess]

Amazing! Very Steve Reich piano phase.

[@WildernessMusic_GentleSerene]

$619.00. Such an incredible imaginative product from Soma! My greatest concern is that the effect will be identifiable like FM DX7 sounds were in the 80s, or Eventide Space and BigSky pedals are today... and therefor not an original creative addition to our compositions. Next concern is the price, with my present rig I have been making wonderful polyrhythms for 5 years now, combining my poly designs with a creative effects pedal like the ZoomMS70CDR I can already create the Cosmos effects in a very similar way, although more work and time on my rig, but with more controllable and repeatable results. Heavy complex effects have a signature sound to them, identifiable sometimes. For half the price I may have considered it. Thank you again loopop for a near perfect review on a product I would never had seen otherwise. The product has opened my mind to new possibilities with my present rig.

[@aawagga6841]

wtf are you talking about, the only reason those sounds became so recognizable is because they were new and original

[@WildernessMusic_GentleSerene]

@@aawagga6841 No reason to be angry about a synth device. Calm down and listen to my comment, you seem to have missed the point.

[@adamnesbitt11]

The percentage of listeners who can pick out a Strymon or Eventide reverb from anything else in the context of a song is probably 0.00000001.

[@niloben659]

@@adamnesbitt11 Not really, I can recognise an Elektron box in a track pretty quick

[@do_happywork]

@@niloben659 LOL

[@caesarsheadache]

Great demo thanks 👏🤘

[@caesarsheadache]

Hi! Noticed someone in the commentary field mentioned Cosmos is very noisy? Does not make sense to me this should be noisy in itself? I would expect it to be as clean or noisy as th users setup. Can you please tell me if it is noisy or not, thanks. Best, Mik

[@frantsel5711]

Soma Labs are such a blessing..

[@NicleT]

Very interesting device. A quite new _Reich-o-matic_ on board.

[@dotted9689]

Nice concept. I like it

[@PaulBoos]

This may be the most beautiful sounding effects unit I don't need... I love everything about it.

[@hipsterscout1]

This is like someone saw Thom Yorke's Bloom For Solo Piano and Voice and thought "Yeah lets make a box for that"

[@Yamil97]

THAT’S EXACTLY THE SOUND

[@worblyhead996]

Got in on the preorder when they first announced it and am jazzed for September to get here. I can't wait to run my guitar/ebow through it. I would also like to see what possibilities there are by feeding one of the outputs back into one of the inputs.

[@jamesherndon8066]

The different types of loopers and delays these days are intense. I have been looking into getting an unconventional looper to add unique textures to tracks. I was sort of sold on saving up for one of the chase bliss loopers but now my mind is being changed. If you ever get the chance loopop, I’d like to see you do a video comparing loopers or just more looper performance ideas (maybe even looper on looper action). Another thought is how awesome would this thing be with the subharmonicon! My final thought is keep up the excellent work loopop!

[@loopop]

Thanks! There are SO many loopers a comparison isn't likely - this however, is very much unlike anything else I'm familiar with. This with a subharmonicon as a sound source would indeed be great, but not when its sequencer is running IMHO, that could be quite a mess...

[@DynamicaMusic]

This is locked in as a future purchase, but your comment had me research Chase Bliss. I ordered two pedals. Thanks for the lead.

[@coversauce4786]

SLO mode and reverse functions are on the keeley eccos too. You can record at slow speed and speed it up for sped up tape effects

[@rogier5591]

Yep, EHX Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai does this aswell. Can highly recommend it to anyone looking for a more affordable alternative. 30 seconds Stereo Looper with delay, reverse delay and the ability to filter, reverse, slow dowm or speed up the loop. It's a workhorse!

[@AtomkeySinclair]

Great content as always. I've noticed you have a Blooper Pedal from other videos. I can't find a review from you on that in your content listing. I see one for the MOOD. Please consider making one when time permits. Thanks.

[@phpn99]

Instant Philip Glass. Just add water

[@EdSchroedinger]

...with a grain of Bugge Wesseltoft

[@atomboyd]

DISCLAIMER: SOMA SYNTHS DOES NOT RECOMMEND ADDING WATER TO THEIR DEVICES

[@Shmoe54]

Or, more accurately, Instant Steve Reich...

[@matt-marque]

This thing sounds like if Ólafur Arnalds was a guitar pedal. It's awesome and I am counting down the days until mine ships.

[@Bfredproduction]

Inspiring ! 👍🏽

[@walrtbstudios5430]

Nice nod to Douglas Adams in the intro- thank you.

[@iamnebu]

Cosmos arrived yesterday and I love it! It should be called Stevereichisator :)

[@casuallyabandoned]

This looks like a great tool. It doesn't need to be a traditional looper, because, frankly there are already too many options. It's great that it does something different. That said, regarding "rhythmic" looping capabilities, when a some manufacturer has the sense to create a looper that allows you (me) to set a loop time with a bpm knob paired with a 1 bar/2 bar/4 bar toggle, they will have created something beautiful. If anyone reads this and builds such a looper, please throw me a discount. Thanks.

Amazing outro cosmic drift, kudos!!

[@soerenraudonis]

I saw your reminder review, than the gr-1, I saw reviews of the t-resonator, thanI decided to get the latter one, now this... I guess I'm Good with my decision 🙂

[@CrazyAboutVinylRecords]

Dude, you are the Carl Sagan of electronic music. 👍

[@james9789]

😅such a complimentary and yes accurate in my opinion comment of loopop.

[@savvidi]

Bro, you amazing musician. Please write more music. Cheers

[@falazarte]

The looped melody at the bugging was beautiful.

[@wyromusic1937]

the track is amazing!

[@n0tett]

Just off the initial intro... it seems like an rc-505 can do this (all with a little bit of a workaround). That said, this is the most interesting piece of gear I've seen in a loopop recommendation for a while.

[@MikeUIibarri]

I really, really want one! Would love to experience a shoot-out type video with similar products! Seriously.

[@loopop]

I'm not familiar with a similar product - I made a patch the takes inspiration from a small portion of this on Hector, but nothing matches the whole thing that I know of.

[@Rgdonaire_07]

I always love the Radiohead nods In your videos

[@zdravkodimitrov]

Lovely! Can you please make a review of the new MOTU Ultralite Mk5? It has a ton of DC coupled outputs, many analogue inputs, MIDI, full digital mixer with effects, etc. I wonder how it will hold up in a hybrid studio.

[@daneguitarist1]

gorgeous!

[@SPACEMUSICSOUNDSYSTEM]

super explenation thank you very much

[@ubahnrider1337]

is there any vst out there that does similar things? and im not speaking about these typical multi-fx units (which are cool), but effects that have their own character and alter sources into something extremely etherealy and spacy

[@manuelrichter6699]

I'll get mine in a few weeks 😀 Yehaaaa

[@xperimentador]

Thanks for the great informative review. One thing I am not sure about: The Cosmos will not change anything of you musical input without using the record button in ON position, correct? So when in OFF position nothing happens, or will modify your sound using any of the buttons. So the Record button is like an ON/OFF button, you must start with the Record button in On position to create.

[@JP-pt3ud]

Did anyone else hear “Still D.R.E. “ starting to form at the beginning? It almost got there!

[@Wildwiidmike]

Did you ever leave any comments about the rhythmic firmware? A year after ordering I've finally got my hands on cosmos and this video is as helpful as ever

[@loopop]

Glad it's helpful, no, I've not produced any content about the new firmware yet

[@oliverpilatiz5533]

The outro blew me away...Mr. Zimmer...😉❤

[@gesslr]

Me want one. Period. Already dropped them an email about ordering one. Also told them to thank you.... LOL

[@KarateWerewolf]

@loopop Great vid, interesting device. Any plans on revising the MPC line with the new firmware? I'd like to know your take on it.

[@loopop]

Thanks! Perhaps, though no immediate plans. I felt like the Akai videos on the update did the job well. My take is that it’s an amazing update - no cons really…

[@TheSoulMessiah]

fantastic

[@JayHosking]

Really fantastic jam in this one.

[@paulsarodh5460]

Wonderful

[@TheOriginSoundtrack]

Just got mine and this has been super helpful watching again. Have you managed to check out the new firmware(s) yet?

[@loopop]

Thanks! Not yet but hopefully in a few weeks

[@pamdemonia]

I really just wanna play my flute through this! And my Lyra-8. But mostly my flute.

[@JayaLove]

The rhythmics firmware is out! Any chance you could do a short follow up video on it?

[@SqueeDee]

Nice Douglas Adams Reference there.

[@macronencer]

OK, I need to buy one of these so I can hook it up to my Lyra 8 :D

[@ShaighJosephson]

I was wondering how this would handle drones from the Lyra-8... I was thinking that this would need distinct notes for the delays to latch onto...

[@m.g.kroger]

I wonder how the Cosmos may sing together with the Microcosm... an infinite dream machine...

[@vurnt22]

Dope. Even at firmware V. 1. Worth it for Grain alone.

[@MikeyBreaky]

Hi Loopop, any plans to review the Sonicware xfm Liven?

[@alanc6752]

I have a high tolerance for hiss and noise but i the hiss seems very loud with this machine? The Soma demo is the same but the Soma video using it with a guitar doesn't have it?

[@loopop]

I think it's a matter of the compression feature

[@gyarmp]

Thank you for this, I bought Cosmos after watching your video and really enjoying it. The rhythmic firmware is out - any chance we get an update on that?

[@loopop]

Thanks! Not saying no, but there's a lot going on so not likely soon

[@MrPlayfromthesoul]

Nice Arthur Dent reference

[@eddrupz1805]

Would love to see you do a video on the new Rhythmic firmware update.

[@gnarlysoundscapes7210]

Soma definitely makes my kind of gear... all the cons sound like pros to me, lol. I love unrepeatable, unorthodox flows of organic sound. With no undo ability, it becomes proper art, where you have to go with whatever you put down and make it into something beautiful, rather than just hit undo and try again.

[@JCBudro16]

"If you hold the record button it activates the slow mode." So kind of Soma Labs to add a Hainbach mode!

[@pjnewman5947]

I got mine today. I had watched this video (thank you loopop) a while back. Played with COSMOS after some patching issues with rig and had some fun. This certainly will make the next dive into COSMOS more enjoyable (RTFM indeed)! I have Strymon Zuma and Ojai for my power needs. Tried COSMOS into Zuma first (yes, I changed the setting to 12v) and it would not power. Used my Lyra 8 wall wart and it powered right up. Any insights? BTW, I own The Pipe and Lyra 8 as well. Do love Vlad's creations. Because of this 'thing,' I pulled Chase Bliss MOOD, Red Panda Particle, EHX Attack Decay and Hologram Infinite Jets from rig. Still have 3 more loopers and 3 micro-loopers....

[@mbarski]

Hi - could You compare Soma Cosmos with Infinite Jets? I'm super interesting about similarities and differences.

[@shahzebqader1268]

Could you do a review of the Mega FM?

[@INTOTHETERROR]

Can you use this as a standard delay albeit different?

[@framlucasse]

Interesting! So, what about the new firmware ?