I found the Arturia support team very helpful and quick to reply, so would contact them.
Arturia Pigments 3 is out!
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- KVRer
- 3 posts since 2 Apr, 2021
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- KVRAF
- 3735 posts since 17 Sep, 2016
I would say that Pigments may hold the upper hand over many other synths in the workflow fun factor.3ptguitarist wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 6:02 am 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?
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.
Windows 10 and too many plugins
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- KVRist
- 50 posts since 16 Mar, 2005 from ddorf
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%.3ptguitarist wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 6:02 am 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?
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- KVRAF
- 15517 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
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.zzz00m wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 1:33 pmI would say that Pigments may hold the upper hand over many other synths in the workflow fun factor.3ptguitarist wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 6:02 am 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?
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.
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.
- KVRAF
- 18565 posts since 16 Sep, 2001 from Las Vegas,USA
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.
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.
None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- KVRAF
- 18565 posts since 16 Sep, 2001 from Las Vegas,USA
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.....
None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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- KVRAF
- 1655 posts since 18 Feb, 2012
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.
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- KVRAF
- 35439 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
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.Teksonik wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 4:34 pmIf 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.
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.
- KVRian
- 1441 posts since 4 Oct, 2012 from Utah
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
My Setup.
Now goes by Eurydice(Izzy) - she/her
Now goes by Eurydice(Izzy) - she/her
- KVRAF
- 18565 posts since 16 Sep, 2001 from Las Vegas,USA
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.....
Try this patch:
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.....
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None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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- Banned
- 194 posts since 25 Apr, 2021
So what exactly is not right? There must be always a particular reason.
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- KVRAF
- 15517 posts since 13 Oct, 2009
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.
- KVRAF
- 2956 posts since 31 Jan, 2020
What's the top synth?
Sorry, i got it, it's Tranzistow.
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- KVRAF
- 3983 posts since 20 Feb, 2004
Only one of the best-sounding synths in existence (with the shittiest interface )
A well-behaved signature.