While Repeats controls the number of times each tap sounds. Turning up the Activity increases the number of “taps” or delay lines. A simple example of this would be in the Pattern effect which is a rhythmic multitap delay. They’re also highly interactive - meaning changes you make to Activity can impact the way the Repeats control behaves. In short, they’re macro controls that aren’t mapped to one specific parameter and instead control a host of things depending on which effect you’ve chosen. “In general, Activity gives you ‘more’ or ‘less’ of what each preset does, and Repeats controls how long the effect goes on for.” The manual breaks it down pretty well, though: (The secondary controls in light gray are accessed by holding down the shift button.) I say relatively because, while it’s fairly obvious what “mix” does, the “Activity” and “Repeats” controls are a little vague. The eight knobs to the left all have relatively clear primary and shift functions. Those lights also show value levels, the direction of audio playback and are how you navigate the global menu. Each effect lights up as it’s selected and the four lights above the middle footswitch (which turns the pedal on and off) indicate which particular preset of that effect you have selected. The lone encoder on the right navigates through the various presets. There are a number of buttons, lights and knobs on the front that might seem a bit intimidating at first, but it’s easy to figure things out once you get going. (This turned out to be a real godsend since my cheapo pedalboard power supply introduced a lot of noise.) On the plus side, Hologram Electronics includes a power adapter in the box, which almost no pedal manufacturers do anymore. This is fairly uncommon on synths and other guitar pedals and means you might need a TRS to dual TS cable to hook up your gear. My one complaint here is that the stereo input is a single TRS jack as opposed to separate right and left ones. That was a big part of my thought process.Around the back, you’ll find the requisite audio ins and outs, along with 5-pin MIDI In and Out/Thru, and an expression pedal jack. I'll add that as you already have an expensive micro looper/delay pedal, maybe consider pairing it with something like the NightSky rather than overlapping the Mood with the Microcosm. It looks like an impressive piece of kit but in the end I went for the IJ because I already have stereo reverb, delay, modulation and looping covered with other expensive pedals, so there was too much overlap with what I already have. I think you could plug straight into it (maybe with a fuzz/od in front) to create amazing soundscapes and ambient stuff. Then on top of that you have the effects (Glitch, Micro Loops, Granules and Multidelay) to get really wild and wacky. It has stereo reverb and echo (that can be used standalone) plus a looper, pretty much the basics that you need to create soundscapes. My conclusion was that the Microcosm is pretty much a standalone ambient soundscape machine. I decided to get the Infinite Jets instead. Well I don't own a Microcosm but I came very close to buying one, I spent weeks looking at every video and review I could find.
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