New Pigments 2 Thread (On Topic Discussion Only, Please)

[exponent1]

What would be the point of owning more than one synth if every synth had every feature you've ever heard of?

Exactly this I personally only try to acquire synths that have unique features and try to minimize overlap as much as possible.

That said, has anyone tried outputting the MIDI out of Pigments' sequencer? Is it possible? Are there any practical ways to get it out? I mean probably Ableton Live could do an Audio to MIDI thing from Pigments' output.

I've been playing around with Stochas and it reminds me a lot of Pigments' sequencer and randomization features.

[chagzuki]

The 'super' mode is supposedly based on the Roland JP-8000 and creates a fairly subtle stereo effect, it's not what most people mean when they think of supersaws, so the classic mode is more extreme and the super mode is actually more classic.

I just tried playing with that Bones, and I think what you're hearing is a result of the 'drift' control on the analog engine, which applies slight randomness to new note events, and so is affecting the phase between the detune voices. If you turn drift to zero it should stop. Could be quite a handy effect.

[c_voltage]

What would be the point of owning more than one synth if every synth had every feature you've ever heard of?

Well...generally yes. But at other side, i'm afraid that with such approach discussing the imperfection of something is generally pointless, because everything was already in some synthesizer.

[c_voltage]

Although in fairness, I really have to admit that I watched at times, carried away by requests to devs, I do not notice how I try to level all the products, in particular it concerned reverbs. In principle, it's good that you mentioned this factor, it is sobering. (I was just going to write to one of the dev).

[BONES]

In a way it is what attracts me to emulations. Yes, they do include a few modern conveniences but, by-and-large, they remain fairly basic synths that are quick and easy to patch. They work or they don't. I like that.

I'm also like that with large banks of presets - the more presets a synth ships with, the less likely I am to use it. Mind you, synth like Pigments with a search feature in their browser make it easier. e.g. The other night I knew I wanted something that used a saw wave prominently so I just searched "saw" and got a short-list that took just a few seconds to sort through to find what I was looking for. The patch I found is so good that I have used it in two other songs since (after making a few edits for each song, of course) but because the factory bank is huge, I may never have discovered it in the normal course of events. (See how I cleverly got us back on topic?) With my covers count now pushing 30, I am using a LOT of synths every day at the moment. It's great because it prompts me to try out synths, like Pigments, that I had almost forgotten about. It was actually the revival of this thread the other day that reminded me to give it a go and I am very glad I did.

[rezoneight]

In a way it is what attracts me to emulations. Yes, they do include a few modern conveniences but, by-and-large, they remain fairly basic synths that are quick and easy to patch. They work or they don't. I like that.

I'm also like that with large banks of presets - the more presets a synth ships with, the less likely I am to use it. Mind you, synth like Pigments with a search feature in their browser make it easier. e.g. The other night I knew I wanted something that used a saw wave prominently so I just searched "saw" and got a short-list that took just a few seconds to sort through to find what I was looking for. The patch I found is so good that I have used it in two other songs since (after making a few edits for each song, of course) but because the factory bank is huge, I may never have discovered it in the normal course of events. (See how I cleverly got us back on topic?) With my covers count now pushing 30, I am using a LOT of synths every day at the moment. It's great because it prompts me to try out synths, like Pigments, that I had almost forgotten about. It was actually the revival of this thread the other day that reminded me to give it a go and I am very glad I did.

OK cmon man. Share the patch name for crying out loud....

[bmanic]

I like to take time going through presets. I then mark the ones I like as favorites.

It's been a hobby of mine for the past 5 years or so to fire up Omnisphere at least once a week and just randomly go through presets and giving them stars. I still haven't covered even half of them.

[BONES]

Yeah, I do that, too. I was really thorough with Hive when I got it, using it's colour-coded system to mark different types of sounds. But when I started trying to use it in actual songs, I realised it wasn't as good as I thought it was, so all that work was basically wasted. Elsewhere I realise after I have done that that the majority of patches I mark up are just variations on one or two themes. Those are the main couple of reasons I prefer synths with smaller patch libraries.

OK cmon man. Share the patch name for crying out loud....

It's called "I Saw ..." I can't remember what the last word is but only two of the five results actually had "saw" in their name. Interestingly, I expected it to use the Analog engine but it's made with wavetables. It has a nice unison fuzz to it that works perfectly. In P-Machinery I had to add a lot of velocity modulation to the filter cutoff to get it to cut through in some places and sit back in others but the result is exactly what I was looking for. If you heard it you'd probably think it was two different parts but it's the same patch with almost no velocity in the verses and then full velocity when I need it to cut through. In the other places I've used it, I've kept the raw saw sound of the original, just making a few envelope tweaks to get a bit of extra movement in it.

[SharksFin]

great patch for a bit of Gina G

[BONES]

What's "a bit of Gina G"?

[WatchTheGuitar]

What's "a bit of Gina G"?

This question can only be answered in the manner of a Cornish pirate or farmer

[AnX]

What's "a bit of Gina G"?

GB eurovision entry in the 90's

prob not your cup of tea

[BoogerSnot]

How are the expansion packs for Pigments? There’s a lot, upwards of 30 or so I believe. They let you sample some parts of them, and some of them seem kind of cheesy, but I like presets for when I don’t want to build from scratch.

Any recommendations, or links to demos, etc. are appreciated.

[Tendou]

How are the expansion packs for Pigments? There’s a lot, upwards of 30 or so I believe. They let you sample some parts of them, and some of them seem kind of cheesy, but I like presets for when I don’t want to build from scratch.

Any recommendations, or links to demos, etc. are appreciated.

well, depends in genre but if you are into melodic techno or techno I can recommend the one by Yalcin Efe, sold on his label website - MercurialTones

[simon.a.billington]

First of all, I was not suggesting presets are a waste of time, I was responding to the notion that any VSTi you buy today doesn't come with enough of them and you need to buy more...

Oh yeah. I would agree. While a synth may have huge potential the library may be too focused on certain types of genres, so many of the presets aren't immediately usable.

In order to get to know my synths better I have this idea that for each project I do, focus on just learning one synth more intimately. It may take a few projects to get to know it really well, depending, but once I've mastered that one to a fair degree, I'll move on to the next.

That's the plan anyway.