Arturia Pigments on sale!

[BONES]

Meh. I installed the demo and after 2 x 20 min sessions previewing presets and trying to tweak a few things, I'm not convinced. Yes, it does sound quite nice but so do all the other synths I rely on and the only new things this seems to offer are things that I don't see the point of. You know, weird stuff that I've never heard in another synth but can't imagine anyone at all finding a use for in a song. The modulation stuff is nice, very nice, but not enough to get it over the line for me. It's sound reminds me a lot of Equator but without the amazingness of 5D touch and MPE to really sell it. None of the presets I tried even had anything dialled in for aftertouch.

[drdriller]

-two filters that have very flexible routing. you can have the filters in parallel or in serial or anything in between. You can have each OSC go different filters while still having them serial. Massive does all this, but Serum only has one filter, Parallel is tough on the same OSC in Avenger, and I think it’s either serial or parallel in icarus and all oscs are treated together.

-Loopable envelopes, so they act more as LFOs. Very cool. Also Envelopes can be switched to ADR so there is no sustain and runs its cycle when triggered. I don't think any of these synths offer that, though I think Omnisphere does.

-Envelopes have modifiable attack and decay curves. Avenger can do this, too, but Icarus and Serum can’t (to my knowledge)

-Lfo shape is modifiable. Icarus can do this, but not nearly to the same extent. You can straight up change a shape in Avenger, but not slowly over the course of a bar or whatever like in Pigments. I don’t think you can do much with the LFO in serum.

Serum has two filters, the second one is in fx section so they can only be serial.

In Serum lfo can switch to enveloppe mode so they act like enveloppe without sustain.

in Serum enveloppes attack, decay and Release curves can be edited.

you can also draw your LFO shape by hand (or quantized step or ramp), you can even import the shape you drawn into a oscillator, and shape can be saved/imported on the same format than xfer lfo tools VST.

[jeffb01]

First of all, I love Serum - and wrote this up to show some things Pigments can do that a lot of other synths can't. So this is for clarification.

Serum has two filters, the second one is in fx section so they can only be serial.

That's pretty much what I was saying. I don't really count the FX section filter. Pigments has one in the effects section, too - but I don't say Pigments has 3 filters. Though I will say that serum's one filter is very flexible how you can choose what osc/noise/sub goes thru it and I love the wet/dry which most synths don't have (including pigments - though there is a workaround if you use only one filter). The filter in Serum's FX section is stuck with everything (though noise and sub have direct out) and I don't think it even has key tracking.

In Serum lfo can switch to enveloppe mode so they act like enveloppe without sustain.

That is true. Very nice feature. But they lose some of the benefits of an envelope (modifying attack or decay over time)

in Serum enveloppes attack, decay and Release curves can be edited.

I understand, but I don't believe they are modifiable. in other words, as the song goes on, can you change the curve to make a sound pluckier and pluckier.

you can also draw your LFO shape by hand (or quantized step or ramp), you can even import the shape you drawn into a oscillator, and shape can be saved/imported on the same format than xfer lfo tools VST.

I understand. Pigments has this too (not the importing into Osc) - it's called function. I was trying to say you can modify the shape over time. Like in pigments, you can have a sine wave as an LFO that slowly turns into a square and then slowly turns into a sawtooth.

Please let me know if I got something wrong. Believe me, Serum does tons of things Pigments can't - but I made this to show what differentiate Pigments. I think after Massive X, I'll make a thread that has a battle of the wavetable synths blowout.

[jeffb01]

Meh.

Meh?!? You scolded me for being disappointed in Sektor. I guess I'm the Bizarro version of you. You loved Sektot but "Meh" on Pigments and I'm completely smitten with Pigments. You don't like VST monosynths and think Motorsynth is totally stupid (thought you're probably right on that). I am Bizarro Bones.

[Rastkovic]

Serum has two filters, the second one is in fx section so they can only be serial.

The 2nd filter in Serum is only monophonic, like Pigments 3rd filter(!) in the fx section....

[drdriller]

Serum has two filters, the second one is in fx section so they can only be serial.

The 2nd filter in Serum is only monophonic, like Pigments 3rd filter(!) in the fx section....

?? filter in fx section is exactly the same than the filter section except for display.

in Serum enveloppes attack, decay and Release curves can be edited.

I understand, but I don't believe they are modifiable. in other words, as the song goes on, can you change the curve to make a sound pluckier and pluckier.

all enveloppe curves can be automated

[jeffb01]

all enveloppe curves can be automated

I tested it. It is monophonic. Well, anyway:

How can I modulate the decay curve of an envelope? I don't know and would like to know if it is possible.

[drdriller]

I tested it. It is monophonic. Well, anyway:

Filter
The effect filter operates identical to the per-voice synth filter found on
the main OSC tab, except running as a master effect. Please refer to
the chapter titled “Filter Module” for speci fics about the controls.

How can I modulate the decay curve of an envelope? I don't know and would like to know if it is possible.

i don't know which daw you use but in ableton just move while recording, or assign it to a macro (press map, move)

[jeffb01]

i don't know which daw you use but in ableton just move while recording, or assign it to a macro (press map, move)

Indeed it works in bitwig. very cool. thanks. It doesn't work with the lfo, but very cool. I can't figure how to do it within serum, but that's a simple enough way. You won this one.

[drdriller]

no way to morph the lfo shape, a good point for pigment.

[BONES]

Meh?!? You scolded me for being disappointed in Sektor. I guess I'm the Bizarro version of you. You loved Sektot but "Meh" on Pigments and I'm completely smitten with Pigments.

If I didn't have Equator or a Seaboard, I'd have been a lot more impressed with Pigments, I'm sure. But it reminded me a lot of Equator's sound which made it seem redundant in my set-up. And my "special" price is US$99, which is the most I've ever paid for any VSTi.

[Rastkovic]

Serum has two filters, the second one is in fx section so they can only be serial.

The 2nd filter in Serum is only monophonic, like Pigments 3rd filter(!) in the fx section....

?? filter in fx section is exactly the same than the filter section except for display.

Äh, no. The filter is identical, but the 1st filter is polyphonic, the 2nd filter in the fx section is only monophonic. Disable the main filter, use the fx filter and play some poly stuff (some chords and a melody on the top). Now it works like a Korg Poly-800.

Btw: You have already quoted the correct part in the manual....

Filter
The effect filter operates identical to the per-voice synth filter found on
the main OSC tab, except running as a master effect. Please refer to
the chapter titled “Filter Module” for speci fics about the controls.

[pugilistas]

Does Pigments now allow a single midi source to go to multiple destinations? Last I looked, this did not appear to be the case. That's a 'deal breaker' for me. Otherwise I'd be intrigued....

[dentnile]

Does Pigments now allow a single midi source to go to multiple destinations? Last I looked, this did not appear to be the case. That's a 'deal breaker' for me. Otherwise I'd be intrigued....

What is that? Is that not a feature of the DAW?

[zerocrossing]

I bought Pigments a while ago and it sounded good to me. It still does, but as I was going through the presets, I noticed that most of them cause CPU crackle, even though the CPU doesn’t seem to be spiking. I don’t remember noticing this during my demo.. but maybe I was mostly making my own patches... it just seems odd because I don’t see much about the factory patches that would suggest high CPU needs.