Arturia Pigments 3 is out!

[Teksonik]

There is also a free solution, Vital. Its wavetable editor also allows to manipulate partials the way you want. The wavetable can be used in Pigments.

I purchased Vital during the early access period and I've used some of its Text to Wavetables in Pigments but it's not quite the same since Pigments lacks the Vocode parameter. But you're correct Vital can be used with Pigments as a wavetable editor. To be honest I like Vital's core sound better especially the Unison but am still a big fan of Pigments. It would appear that earlier versions of Pigments might have been a heavy influence on Vital as there are some similarities.

And most people who own Pigments also own V Collection. Both Synclavier V and CMI V are capable of traditional additive synthesis with full control of 24 partials and morphing them across time. The result can be saved as a sample in CMI, and it can be used in Pigments or any other sampler.

I'm not sure about "most people" also owing the V collection but that's a good point those synths can be used to make wavetables for Pigments since it has no WT editor.

[pdxindy]

I've got other Additive synths like Morphine and for those who own Dune 3 you can use its Wavetable editor:

"The Sine tool open the additive editor, which allows to construct a waveform using individual
partials (1024). Each partial has a magnitude (upper part) and a phase (lower part). The additive editor is useful to create e.g. organ or vocal-like waveforms".

Wavetables created with Dune 3 using any of its methods and saved as .wav files load perfectly in Pigments and sound really good so the two synths work very well together.

There is also a free solution, Vital. Its wavetable editor also allows to manipulate partials the way you want. The wavetable can be used in Pigments.

Vital also can quickly make a new wavetable from a modulated one. This is faster than tweaking individual partials and can get lots of similar results. Good to have both techniques!

[Teksonik]

Which preset, for example, can max your cpu? or at least very heavy?
I have yet to find such preset!

In the following video at the 9:26 mark you can see Pigment's internal CPU meter hit 61%. He's using a patch called "Dark Strings of Heaven" which is in the Pigments 3.0 bank. Now I don't know what CPU he's using for the demo or his buffer setting etc but that preset is pretty hungry when playing chords or fast notes.

[muki]

He's using a patch called "Dark Strings of Heaven" which is in the Pigments 3.0 bank. Now I

yes, same here:
crackling (cpu overload) begins with the 6th or 7th note held from within logicX
i assume standalone will give me 1-2 voices more...

polyphony is up'ed to 16

i often test synth/cpu with notes held
if it's more than 10 (fingers) i use weights and rulers...

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

That is also quite a load you have there then @muki, 7 notes and 16 notes poly. I have logic X but do not need it. My overall impression is that Reason performs somewhat better, but I have not tested it systematically. As said, if I need 4 tones for a chord with a long release, I reduce polyphony to 4. I do this as a rule, since it allows me to use more VSTis before I have to render to audio.

[muki]

yes...sure---
this/my setting is just for testing...

[felis]

......
And most people who own Pigments also own V Collection. Both Synclavier V and CMI V are capable of traditional additive synthesis with full control of 24 partials and morphing them across time. The result can be saved as a sample in CMI, and it can be used in Pigments or any other sampler.

Well - sort of. My introduction to additive was several Kawaii K5000's. With those, you had control of envelopes and amplitudes for 64 harmonics, so I tend to see that as traditional additive.
Kind of a PITA to program though. The macros that Arturia uses simplify the process, sometimes with similar results.

Synclavier gets you close with amplitudes of harmonics, but no individual envelopes for them.
Instead, you use FM ratios and amounts to modulate the carriers.

The Harmonics engine of Pigments seems to rely heavily on the CMI, but with different names for the processes such as tilt, offset, and so on. Like a variation on a theme. IMO, If you don't have the Collection, you can get 'kind of' close to the additive stuff available in it with Pigments.

Also, I wanted to add that if you use too many higher harmonics and emphasis them, there are so many, and they're pitched so high and so close together, that it gets to noise, and a bit 'buzzy'.
If you take a look at the frequencies of the harmonic series, it doesn't really take all that many to get beyond the normal range of hearing.

[Artie Fichelle]

Pigments is fun, I like to use it, to hear it, to tweak patches.
But not a synth for everything. Since I like FM, I had the first DX 7 in Switzerland, I enjoy algoritm. Plus the synths from U-he. All their stuff is finest German engineering. And last but not least: Pianoteq, like French cheese, top of the top.

I started out with DOS 1.0. I used to like Apple, but poison now. Bitwig is fun, Reaper can do everything, but the hard way, sometimes. I think I own every DAW possible.
But I am gonna buy a hand pan.

[telecode]

He's using a patch called "Dark Strings of Heaven" which is in the Pigments 3.0 bank. Now I

yes, same here:
crackling (cpu overload) begins with the 6th or 7th note held from within logicX
i assume standalone will give me 1-2 voices more...

polyphony is up'ed to 16

i often test synth/cpu with notes held
if it's more than 10 (fingers) i use weights and rulers...

Thats a good patch to test. I tried it on my setup. At 48k 128 buffers it hits 50% CPU... at 96k 128buffers it hits as high as 80% CPU.. in standalone mode. :-0

that patch sounds much better at 96k..

[felis]

whoops

[felis]

double

[ecasasmusic2]

Synclavier gets you close with amplitudes of harmonics, but no individual envelopes for them.

But you can set infinite points across the timeline with different values for each harmonic, and you achieve the same result as if you were setting a very complex multipoint envelope.

[Teksonik]

Thats a good patch to test. I tried it on my setup. At 48k 128 buffers it hits 50% CPU... at 96k 128buffers it hits as high as 80% CPU.. in standalone mode. :-0

that patch sounds much better at 96k..

After doing some more testing today it appears that the meter on Pigment's GUI is more closely related to FL Studio's meter which shows percentage of audio buffer in use not really CPU demand.

When viewing in Windows 10 Task Manager the CPU demand is much less but still if the buffers fill up half way with one patch then that's a problem.

I tried two similar patches in Dune 3 and Pigments and although the D3 patch used 6 layers and 16 note polyphony for each and Pigments only 2 Analog engines and 8 note poly, D3 still showed less than a quarter of what Pigments was showing. It was more like Pigments filled the buffer six times more than D3.

But having said that I still like Pigments and it will get use here but I doubt multiple instances in each projects as D3 and Hive 2 do now.

Anyway can somebody test something please? Pigments allows you to add custom folders for your wavetables but it doesn't appear it refreshes the content in those folders even after reloading the plugin or even restarting the DAW.

I added a folder for my custom wavetables made using D3 and Vital but after adding new WTs they don't show up in the folder in Pigment's browser and deleting a file from the target folder does not delete it from the folder in Pigment's browser.

I had to re-point Pigments to the custom folder and then it just made a duplicate entry with a (1) behind it along with the original folder so Teksonik and Teksonk (1).

Obviously that's not good having to manually refresh the folder each time you add a new WT.....

EDIT: Ok what you have to do is manually import any new files each time even though you've already got Pigments pointed to the folder. It does not automatically refresh itself even after reload. It has to be done manually. PITA but not that big of a deal....

[jancivil]

Looks like a neat synth. My wallet is aroused by the sale price but needs to shut up now

[Dark Lights]

That is also quite a load you have there then @muki, 7 notes and 16 notes poly. I have logic X but do not need it. My overall impression is that Reason performs somewhat better, but I have not tested it systematically. As said, if I need 4 tones for a chord with a long release, I reduce polyphony to 4. I do this as a rule, since it allows me to use more VSTis before I have to render to audio.

In this case the release from the first hit would be stopped as soon as you hit the chord again, no?