Arturia Pigments 4 has landed

[sQeetz]

All I care about is: is it usable? does it provide sounds I'm able to use in whatever song I'm working on?
Pigments was not a sound source I would choose, because it was so CPU demanding. Not anymore. It's significantly better

[chk071]

I couldn't see the 2nd filter, but could it be set to high resonance and self resonating? Actually I can't even remember if Pigments filters are capable of self-resonance.

Some of them are (Mini and MS-20 for example). As most self-oscilklating filters, they seem to need a bit of input from the sound generators though, so, I don't think they really produce sound when you deactivate any sound sources.

As others, I suspect that there's some fx tail or something. Or, it's simply a bug.

[chk071]

All I care about is: is it usable? does it provide sounds I'm able to use in whatever song I'm working on?

I would say, yes, definitely. I wouldn't use it for any kind of sound though. IMO, like Dune, it rather lends itself to pads and soundscapes, and rather soft sounds (and it's rather "clinical" and precise, which, of course, has its uses as well). Tried some sequenced and lead sounds earlier, and I quickly grabbed Massive X for those sounds, which sounded myriads better for the kind of sound I was after. The background moving wavetable sound stayed Pigments though. Actually, it was spot on for that, as it rather sounded kind of "background-ish", and not in your face, which was perfect for that kind of sound, hehe.

[Examigan]

I couldn't see the 2nd filter, but could it be set to high resonance and self resonating? Actually I can't even remember if Pigments filters are capable of self-resonance.

Some of them are (Mini and MS-20 for example). As most self-oscilklating filters, they seem to need a bit of input from the sound generators though, so, I don't think they really produce sound when you deactivate any sound sources.

As others, I suspect that there's some fx tail or something. Or, it's simply a bug.

Oh now I can see the 2nd filter in Tek's screenshot was switched off. I tested it myself and the Mini filter can self-oscillate with the oscs disabled, but the filter (of course) has to be enabled and you need to play some notes to hear it.

[sQeetz]

I would say, yes, definitely. I wouldn't use it for any kind of sound though. I

It does have its range. And the range it's comfortable with is more than adequate.
I'm cool with it

[Teksonik]

It's probably a bug. I haven't run across it yet, but it sounds like something is not being cleared out when all engines are toggled off.

That's what it feels like but if no one else is reporting the same issue that would tend to indicate a system speciic issue here or user error but there's really not much room for error. Layer light off should silence the layer. Maybe it's intended behavior but that doesn't seem logical. Could be a really specific graphics issue but it's running a pretty common Nvidia GTX card and like I said there are no issues in other plugins or DAWs. One specific issue in one specific plugin would be pretty weird but you never know.

FXs tails ?

No, the FX are turned off as well and I can still play the patch like the layers were turned on.

I couldn't see the 2nd filter, but could it be set to high resonance and self resonating? Actually I can't even remember if Pigments filters are capable of self-resonance.

There was no self resonance since that's not something I like to do very often.

If I save the patches then reload them the I/O lights will reflect the correct state. Light on: sound, light off: no sound or bypassed.

That would indicate it's not the patch at fault because when it was reloaded the fault would reload as well.

Sometimes just clicking on/off the lights a few times will fix the issue. Oh well, unless someone else reports the same or I can find the specific steps needed to reproduce the issue 100%, it must just be ghosts in my machine.

[pinki]

It's probably a bug. I haven't run across it yet, but it sounds like something is not being cleared out when all engines are toggled off.

That's what it feels like but if no one else is reporting the same issue that would tend to indicate a system speciic issue here or user error but there's really not much room for error.

Also reported by another user a few pages back...

[muki]

the ms20 filter is self-resonating
and would emmit a tone even when the engines are turned off
but
the screenshot shows that also both filters are switched-off therefor bypassed...

[Examigan]

I just noticed it happens for me if I use the standalone version, but not with the VST3 in my DAW. I tried turning off the engines in the standalone, but the meters still show the same activity.

[Teksonik]

It's probably a bug. I haven't run across it yet, but it sounds like something is not being cleared out when all engines are toggled off.

That's what it feels like but if no one else is reporting the same issue that would tend to indicate a system speciic issue here or user error but there's really not much room for error.

Also reported by another user a few pages back...

Can you narrow it down a bit? I've been following this thread but don't remember such a post.

[Teksonik]

I just noticed it happens for me if I use the standalone version, but not with the VST3 in my DAW. I tried turning off the engines in the standalone, but the meters still show the same activity.

So to be clear even with the light off a layer was still producing sound?

This morning I was able to reproduce the issue a couple of times but not consistently. The first time Engine 1 would not produce a sound even though the light was on and the other time Engine 2 was producing sound even though the light was off.

Saving then reloading the patches fixes the issue so it looks like a bug where sometimes the lights don't reflect the actual status of the switch. If the issue was a fault in the patch then that fault would be present again when the patch was reloaded.

For the record I've been using the VST 2 version. I have not tried the standalone or the VST3.

[noiseboyuk]

Will this ever have a paid update?

I'm afraid to buy this because of possible future paid updates.

You are joking, right?

I can’t stop thinking about this post.

[Examigan]

I just noticed it happens for me if I use the standalone version, but not with the VST3 in my DAW. I tried turning off the engines in the standalone, but the meters still show the same activity.

So to be clear even with the light off a layer was still producing sound?

This morning I was able to reproduce the issue a couple of times but not consistently. The first time Engine 1 would not produce a sound even though the light was on and the other time Engine 2 was producing sound even though the light was off.

Saving then reloading the patches fixes the issue so it looks like a bug where sometimes the lights don't reflect the actual status of the switch. If the issue was a fault in the patch then that fault would be present again when the patch was reloaded.

For the record I've been using the VST 2 version. I have not tried the standalone or the VST3.

When I was trying it yesterday, the meters were always showing activity as if I was playing (even when I wasn't playing anything). It also happened if I turned off the engines.

I just tried it again today after fiddling with the audio settings. I had forgotten to check that yesterday with the standalone version, and noticed it wasn't set to ASIO. After that, it worked OK. The activity in the meters is now only there when I play keys.

It's weird as at first, even though it wasn't set to ASIO, I didn't get any sound when I played keys (but the meters were showing the activity constantly), but now I can get the audio even if it isn't set to ASIO. Whatever it was, it seems to have cleared itself up, at least for now.

[EnGee]

I just noticed it happens for me if I use the standalone version, but not with the VST3 in my DAW. I tried turning off the engines in the standalone, but the meters still show the same activity.

So to be clear even with the light off a layer was still producing sound?

This morning I was able to reproduce the issue a couple of times but not consistently. The first time Engine 1 would not produce a sound even though the light was on and the other time Engine 2 was producing sound even though the light was off.

Saving then reloading the patches fixes the issue so it looks like a bug where sometimes the lights don't reflect the actual status of the switch. If the issue was a fault in the patch then that fault would be present again when the patch was reloaded.

For the record I've been using the VST 2 version. I have not tried the standalone or the VST3.

I'm going to try it on both Windows/Mac VST/AU today.

Edit:
I've tried several presets in Live and FLS (both the latest) on Windows both VSTs and couldn't hear anything when I disable the engines and filters. It still calculates the same CPU I guess.

What Arturia's support did say?

[_leras]

I would say, yes, definitely. I wouldn't use it for any kind of sound though. IMO, like Dune, it rather lends itself to pads and soundscapes, and rather soft sounds (and it's rather "clinical" and precise, which, of course, has its uses as well). Tried some sequenced and lead sounds earlier, and I quickly grabbed Massive X for those sounds, which sounded myriads better for the kind of sound I was after. The background moving wavetable sound stayed Pigments though. Actually, it was spot on for that, as it rather sounded kind of "background-ish", and not in your face, which was perfect for that kind of sound, hehe.

I'm looking forward to trying the new filter on synth sounds, could be just what it needs.

I would say Pigments also does acoustic plucky, piano, percussive real sounding instruments really nicely. Seems to really lend itself to that type of thing.