Arturia Pigments 3 is out!

[musicmanta]

I just bought Pigments V3 and supposedly I should get the Spectrum pack for free, but it didn't install with the plugin and when checking the website it tells me I can buy it for $20. How do I get this?

I found the Arturia support team very helpful and quick to reply, so would contact them.

[zzz00m]

Is this worth getting for $69? I have massive x and ableton wavetable. Is it necessary to get pigments 3 even though I have two other wavetable synths?

I would say that Pigments may hold the upper hand over many other synths in the workflow fun factor.

Pigments makes it very easy to shape your own sounds. You may even have so much fun doing so that many of your other synths, that also sound great, end up being preset machines.

[xd37076]

Is this worth getting for $69? I have massive x and ableton wavetable. Is it necessary to get pigments 3 even though I have two other wavetable synths?

Absolutely- especially as alternative to massive x, which is the opposite of workflow focused. Pigments3 is workflow pure and so perfect visualized. I was so disappointed of massive x that I turned to Pigments to 100%.

[ghettosynth]

Is this worth getting for $69? I have massive x and ableton wavetable. Is it necessary to get pigments 3 even though I have two other wavetable synths?

I would say that Pigments may hold the upper hand over many other synths in the workflow fun factor.

Pigments makes it very easy to shape your own sounds. You may even have so much fun doing so that many of your other synths, that also sound great, end up being preset machines.

I think that this is often underrated, and to be clear, I fully recognize that I'm guilty of taking part in the underrating. Workflow can make or break a synth in terms of whether it will get used for sound design. That said, of course, so can sound. A great workflow cannot makeup for truly terrible DSP.

But Pigments can do some kinds of sounds really well and the workflow complements those sounds. I feel somewhat the same way about the original Massive. I think that I can even be caught gushing over it in posts from long ago. I don't find that the original Massive filters hold up today, but they were passable back then and the workflow was better than many.

Pigments won't replace MassiveX or any of the Uhe synths for me, but it is my choice for a lot of sounds because of how much fun it is to use.

I guess I will say this, if you are intimidated or frustrated with the process of sound design, then I think that Pigments is a great choice to help you break through that barrier. In fact, in terms of the complexity/ease/sound quality tradeoff, it jumps right to the front of the line. Simpler synths have a faster workflow, but they lack the complexity of Pigments. Many synths are stronger in terms of sound quality, but lack Pigments' fun factor and ease of use.

[Teksonik]

I'll take range of sounds and sound quality over ease of use any day. Any synth can be easy to program it's just that some have a higher learning curve than others.

I find Pigments a lot of fun to program but every time I've tried to use it in a project it simply gets beaten out by other synths in my folder.

[chk071]

Any synth can be easy to program

I beg to differ...

[Teksonik]

Any synth can be easy to program

I beg to differ...

If you're going to quote me quote my whole message.

Like I said some have a higher learning curve than others. If you spend sufficient time with either of those they will become easy to program for you.

Whether the sound of those synths justifies the effort needed to learn them properly is subjective.

Once again I'll take sound over ease of use or fun any day. Pigments is a whole lot of fun but has failed to make it into any of my projects mainly because its sound is not up to par with the other synths in my folder. I still like Pigments but not as much as I was hoping to.....

[HcDoom]

Finally played with P3 for couple of hours, some mighty fine sounds in this beast. Is it the best of the best, no...there is no best. But this synth is on top of the game with couple of other big synths like Dune 3, Hive 2, Rapid, etc. Anyway, dont have any cpu issues as I am on Ryzen 5900x, but I can imagine someone with older cpus can struggle a bit with certain presets. Overall, sound quality is very good, I am not so keen on bass sounds (maybe I need to dive deeper into it), but everything else is top notch. Regarding GUI, one of the better ones on the market, who ever did it, knows his stuff.

[chk071]

Any synth can be easy to program

I beg to differ...

If you're going to quote me quote my whole message.

Like I said some have a higher learning curve than others. If you spend sufficient time with either of those they will become easy to program for you.

Whether the sound of those synths justifies the effort needed to learn them properly is subjective.

Once again I'll take sound over ease of use or fun any day.

Ususally, it's the same for me. Pigments is sort of a mixed bag though. I like the general sound of the sound engine. It sounds clear, it sounds "hi-fi". The filters aren't very good for me. What I do think is its great plus though, and what sets it apart from most offerings these days IS the operation. It makes a bit tedious and complicated tasks a breeze, and has a very visual way of doing things, which speaks to me.

I was still looking for a synth which has wavetable import (I have Synthmaster One, but, I really hate its sound). Additive synthesis and granular is a plus for me, especially when it's that easily operable and accessible like in Pigments.

BTW, regarding this: "If you spend sufficient time with either of those they will become easy to program for you." If you spend sufficient time with MS-DOS, you can work with as well, but, I'm sure almost everyone except some weird nerds who want to be different would take a graphical user interface over it every day.

Almost every soft synths has a decent user interface these days though, so, that kind of discussion is surely a bit redundant.

[dakkra]

Any synth can be easy to program

I beg to differ...

Like I said some have a higher learning curve than others. If you spend sufficient time with either of those they will become easy to program for you.

Modulars are the pinnacle of this idea. MUX, Falcon, BWS GRID, MSoundFactory, and Zebra all take some time to master, but become very powerful once learned.

That said, there is something to be said for fast workflow when feeling creative. It's personally why I have a handful of "bread and butter" synths. For simple tasks, Pigments, SM1+2, KHs One, Diva, and even Vital ( still don't like it's filters) become gotos for me if I'm not trying to achieve anything fancy. It's not due to lack of skill or that they're easier to program, but due to simpler workflow. Fewer tabs and menus, less tinkering, more set and forget. Quick results as it were.

IMO any decent setup should have both. We need workstation class tools (like the aforementioned soft modulars) and we need simple quick tools. Sure a Shop Smith an do it all, but you have to take time to configure it to your needs. That's a lot of time spend configuring instead of just running a drill press and table saw separately. Tool for the job

[Teksonik]

But this synth is on top of the game with couple of other big synths like Dune 3, Hive 2, Rapid, etc.

I own all those synths and Pigments is having a hard time finding it's place among them here. Every time I reach for Pigments I have ended up replacing it with one of those synths or ANA2, Go2, Warlock, Vital, etc.....

Anyway, dont have any cpu issues as I am on Ryzen 5900x, but I can imagine someone with older cpus can struggle a bit with certain presets. Overall, sound quality is very good

Try this patch:

Pigments_Preset_Contemplate Tek_20210501_18h55.zip

It pushes Pigments pretty hard. Part of the problem I'm having with Pigments is when I do call it up in a project that contains DUNE 3, Hive 2, and/or ANA 2 etc it doubles the CPU demand.

My studio system can handle it just fine but the CPU Demand to Sound Quality ratio is not what I had hoped it would be.

But again I still like Pigments I'm just disappointed it hasn't found its place on my A Team of synths. Perhaps in time it will.....

[Dark Lights]

But this synth is on top of the game with couple of other big synths like Dune 3, Hive 2, Rapid, etc.

I own all those synths and Pigments is having a hard time finding it's place among them here. Every time I reach for Pigments I have ended up replacing it with one of those synths or ANA2, Go2, Warlock, Vital, etc.....

So what exactly is not right? There must be always a particular reason.

[ghettosynth]

Any synth can be easy to program

I beg to differ...

Like I said some have a higher learning curve than others. If you spend sufficient time with either of those they will become easy to program for you.

It isn't just about learning curve. I think that you're missing important parts of the picture there. I've cited the K2000 as a great example of this. I became very familiar with it, it was still a slow menu-diving mess. One great contrast of power vs speed is pigments vs kontakt in terms of dealing with round robins or multisamples. Pigments completely lacks power there, but it is super fast in setting up the defaults and encourages you to just play around with sound design using samples in ways that are more powerful than just a single sample, but less powerful than a full fledged sampler.

Pigments does nothing that I can't do in Reaktor, and I love Reaktor, but I still find Pigments faster and more fun for doing the things that it's good at.

[Spring Goose]

Any synth can be easy to program

I beg to differ...

What's the top synth?

Sorry, i got it, it's Tranzistow.

[JerGoertz]

Sorry, i got it, it's Tranzistow.

Only one of the best-sounding synths in existence (with the shittiest interface )