Arturia Pigments 5 out now

[wvshpr]

The additive is pretty deep actually and has a unique approach (closest I can think of is Parsec). And you can cross modulate the sample engine with the harmonic. Doing it right now. You are entitled to believe it sounds 'flat' but I don't, I am always delighted by the sounds I get from it.

Yes, it sounds flat compared to Massive X, Repro-5 and even Serum, all of which have a lot more oomph and detail. Pigments wavetable and analog engine sounds a lot less impressive right next to those. It might be a good case of "the whole is better than its individual parts". But I certainly wouldn't use the wavetable or analog engines on their own.

Edited out false information.

[aMUSEd]

The additive is pretty deep actually and has a unique approach (closest I can think of is Parsec). And you can cross modulate the sample engine with the harmonic. Doing it right now. You are entitled to believe it sounds 'flat' but I don't, I am always delighted by the sounds I get from it.

I stand corrected. That certainly is unique in VST land.

Yes, it sounds flat compared to Massive X, Repro-5 and even Serum, all of which have a lot more oomph and detail. Pigments wavetable and analog engine sounds a lot less impressive right next to those. It might be a good case of "the whole is better than its individual parts". But I certainly wouldn't use the wavetable or analog engines on their own.

I think Massive X and Repro arguably do have more oomph in 'analog' sense, and UA Opal too actually, but not Serum, I personally find that 'flatter' but I guess this all goes to show how subjective such appraisals are. Regardless, Pigments is a fine synth and can create beautiful sounds, and clearly a lot of sound designers find it so too - it is one of those plugins that inspires sound design (and as others have said) this means it has a lot of really good third party banks for it - getting close to Zebra, Alchemy and Massive (not X) as a synth that inspires great sound design

[chagzuki]

Historically Pigments has been criticised for having weak filters, and I would have tended to agree until they added the MS-20, which is great imo. Haven't Arturia recently improved their Moog emulation, and if so I wonder if the mini filter in Pigments has been altered/upgraded? I didn't like the original Pigments mini filter.

[wvshpr]

[aMUSEd]

Yes - go to this tutorial and it states clearly you can modulate between all engines and shows how

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J_JYFqzrNU&t=255s

[Ou_Tis]

Yes - go to this tutorial and it states clearly you can modulate between all engines and shows how

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J_JYFqzrNU&t=255s

Can you use engine cross-modulation for FM?

[aMUSEd]

From the 3.5 manual

Engine 1 can be an FM modulation source for Engine 2, and vice-versa. It’s easy to miss the relevant controls at first, because they are alternate mode of the Modulator section at the lower right of the Analog, Wavetable, Sample, and Harmonic engines. We already covered these Modulators separately in each Engine’s section because the controls are different depending on the Engine type. However, we’ll cover cross-modulation here because it works similarly for every Engine.

https://downloads.arturia.net/products/ ... 5_0_EN.pdf

I think it gets missed sometimes because you have to change the modulator to the engine that is the crossmod source

Screenshot 2024-02-11 at 15.53.16.png

[Choikdoi]

I'm a bit late to the party for testing out the updated sequencer. I'd assumed that since it had been updated after the release of Acid V, they would have added drag & drop for MIDI as well as MIDI out, but they haven't? Why have both in Acid but not in the more recent Pigments?

[Ou_Tis]

I'm a bit late to the party for testing out the updated sequencer. I'd assumed that since it had been updated after the release of Acid V, they would have added drag & drop for MIDI as well as MIDI out, but they haven't? Why have both in Acid but not in the more recent Pigments?

You can output midi from Pigments to other tracks. In Ableton you can choose Pigments as the midi source for a midi track; you then also have to change the midi track's input channel to Pigments (as opposed to Pre-FX or post-FX).

[Choikdoi]

You can output midi from Pigments to other tracks

Yes, I know.

I'd assumed that since it had been updated after the release of Acid V, they would have added drag & drop for MIDI as well as MIDI out, but they haven't?

[Ou_Tis]

You can output midi from Pigments to other tracks

Yes, I know.

I'd assumed that since it had been updated after the release of Acid V, they would have added drag & drop for MIDI as well as MIDI out, but they haven't?

IDK if you're a native speaker or not but (in English) that statement is ambiguous.

[Choikdoi]

IDK if you're a native speaker or not but (in English) that statement is ambiguous.

Well, it's not anymore.

[wvshpr]

[3ptguitarist]

What can pigments 5 do that Dune 3, Massive X, and Ableton Wavetable can't do? I'm trying to see if I should buy it for $69 or not.

Really, you are hesitating to buy pigment 5 at 69$??
Just close the eyes and press the button!

As it was said before, 4 major reasons:
1. It goes way beyond wavetable with additive, granular, FM, etc... And excellent filters and effects.
2. Arturia has demonstrated a top level support of it with continuous free upgrades.
3. A praised modern and practical UI. (Love it or not, it is a good UI).
4. It is one of the "king" synths like Serum or Diva so the number of external materials like YouTube tutorials or presets is huge.

How do you feel about the sound quality? When I tried pigments before, the sound didn't wow me. Diva on the other hand is possibly the best sounding vst I've ever heard, at least when it comes to an analog sound.

I do like how the interface is though.

[Jac459]

What can pigments 5 do that Dune 3, Massive X, and Ableton Wavetable can't do? I'm trying to see if I should buy it for $69 or not.

Really, you are hesitating to buy pigment 5 at 69$??
Just close the eyes and press the button!

As it was said before, 4 major reasons:
1. It goes way beyond wavetable with additive, granular, FM, etc... And excellent filters and effects.
2. Arturia has demonstrated a top level support of it with continuous free upgrades.
3. A praised modern and practical UI. (Love it or not, it is a good UI).
4. It is one of the "king" synths like Serum or Diva so the number of external materials like YouTube tutorials or presets is huge.

How do you feel about the sound quality? When I tried pigments before the sound didn't wow me. Dive on the other hand is possibly the best sounding vst I've ever heard, at least when it comes to an analog sound.

I do like how the interface is though.

If you want a virtual analog, clearly Diva is excellent (though my personal favourite is obsession from Synapse, I love OBX sound).
Pigments can do that to some extent but it is a much more "digital synth" in essence. If you want an oscillator drift, you will have to emulate it for example.
But globally to me pigment is very very good sounding and has very good filters. In particular it has an excellent korg MS20 emulation if you like analog.
I am not a big big fan of the presets though, they are nice and some are excellent, but not my favourite (spire, avenger 2 and dune 3 are my favourite).