Arturia 11 December - Pigments Synth

[pdxindy]

I don't find wavetable synths oversaturated. I think it has just become good now.

Have you even tried them all.

You are welcome to have a different opinion on the matter. That is all it is, an entirely subjective opinion, so what's to argue?

As for your list... you are including a number of synths I do not consider wavetable synths. By your way of counting, Serum would also be a Sampler cause a wav file can be played by the noise osc.

[fmr]

Air Hive!

Yeah, I noticed

But I didn't mention that, because I admited it was a mistake, and he was obviously referring to our known U-He Hive (it couldn't be otherwise). And that wasn't the worst mistake in his post either.

[jens]

No, it crossfades between two waves. That's not wavetable synthesis in the sense we use it here (dynamic wavetable scanning). It's what's called a "wavetable lookup" synthesizer.

Got ya.
Above my pay grade to argue about that
rsp

This is a typical confusion between two vastly different types of synthesis - "wavetable" in the case of Spire refers to several waves sitting on a "table" one can choose between. But what we on the other hand usual mean when we talk about "wavetable synthesis" is one of any number of "tables" which are full of waves (usually something between 64 and 256) that you can in realtime scan back and forth between by various means of modulation. The transition between the individual waves within the table usually happens by some form of interpolation.

One simple example would be a wavetable that starts with a saw wave in slot one and slowly transforms to a sine-wave in (say) slot 64. If you'd for instance modulate it via envelope so that it starts with slot one at note on and speedily keeps moving towards slot 64, the result would be quite similar to a FM synth where the same kind of envelope fades out a 1:1 modulator...in both cases the waveform isn't static but instead changes over time (in this example from saw to sine) -
and Spire's "wavetable" oscillators on the other hand are merely static waveforms.

[fmr]

No, it crossfades between two waves. That's not wavetable synthesis in the sense we use it here (dynamic wavetable scanning). It's what's called a "wavetable lookup" synthesizer.

Got ya.
Above my pay grade to argue about that
rsp

One simple example would be a wavetable that starts with a saw wave in slot one and slowly transforms to a sine-wave in (say) slot 64. If you'd for instance modulate it via envelope so that it starts with slot one at note on and speedily keeps moving towards slot 64, the result would be quite similar to a FM synth where the same kind of envelope fades out a 1:1 modulator...in both cases the waveform isn't static but instead changes over time (in this example from saw to sine) -
and Spire's "wavetable" oscillators on the other hand are merely static waveforms.

Yes, but Spire can dynamically crossfade between two waves, which may produce results similar to your example, since you only use two waves too (a sine on one point, and a saw in another.

What Spire CAN'T do is reproduce the result of scanning a complex wavetable (like for example the famous Wavetable 13 of the PPG). That's precisely because it only crossfades (interpolates) between TWO waves.

But yes, many people confuse "wavetable lookup synthesis" (those synths that can use complex waves picked from a table, instead of just the usual four basic synth waves) with "Dynamic Wavetable Scanning synthesis" (which is what we usually mean when we say wavetable). Actually, the term wavetable was first used for "wavetable lookup" synths, and the confusion was born because Wolfgang Palm used the same term for something that is entirely different. The first table-lookup oscillator was created by Max Matthews in Music II, in the 50s.

A good list of all the different synthesis techniques that use wavetables:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavetable

[jens]

Yes, I am not familiar at all with Spire but there might also be other ways to modify the waveform in realtime (Both sync and PWM are typical techniques to modify the waveform with substractive synthesis). I tried to simplify it and with that perhaps over-simplified it (by only assuming two different basic waveforms).

[machinesworking]

There are exponentially more Analog modeled synths, and VA style synths on the market than Wavetable etc. style synths.

Yes I would have liked to see some sort of more modern granular, sampling, spectral synthesis, additive monster emerge from somebody, but I'm not going to knock a good match up of VA style synthesis and Wavetable etc.

I like the GUI, it's pretty much there for touch screens, even with OSX hacks like the Slate Raven.

[SparkySpark]

they call it after the first 3 letters of a farm animal that eats turnips on a piece of farm land...

Then why did you propose Assimilator?

[goldenanalog]

fmr: thank-you for all of your illumination of Pigments - you basically convinced me to buy it -

[Touch The Universe]

no init? wtf? might be the first synth i uninstall and not try because it doesn't have an init

[wagtunes]

no init? wtf? might be the first synth i uninstall and not try because it doesn't have an init

Oddly, it's not the only synth that doesn't have an INIT patch or function.

[Ed A.]

It has this generic Arturia quality to it that sounds like all their other software.

It sounds nothing at all like Buchla Easel V. I don't think it sounds like their Synclavier or Solina stuff either.

I don't agree, IMO, there's still an "Arturia sheen" to those and the other two dozen synth/keyboard plugins they make.

[vertibration]

init patch is located in the templates patch list. I still think its a bit of a clunky synth. Serum is faster, and has more control. I will say the reverb section, and chord mode make for an excellent pad synth.

[yellowmix]

no init? wtf? might be the first synth i uninstall and not try because it doesn't have an init

Oddly, it's not the only synth that doesn't have an INIT patch or function.

That bugged me a lot. But I realized they want you to use one of the "Template" patches. I agree with you though, a one- or two-click INIT would be nice.

[SLiC]

It’s realy easy to make your own INIT patch and recall it, I always make my own anyway a there are certain routings I normally use that may as well be in my starting patch...I will often make more than one anyway, very similar to the template idea.

[Lotuzia]

It’s realy easy to make your own INIT patch and recall it, I always make my own anyway a there are certain routings I normally use that may as well be in my starting patch...I will often make more than one anyway, very similar to the template idea.

+1. Sometimes I even make a few custom init presets. I did this when working on the Tal-Mod, wich is semi-modular, and it saved me a lot of times after.