Arturia Pigments 7

[zerocrossing]

I'm fine with the areola macro knobs.

I just wonder what was the purpose? We've been using knobs with pointers to adjust parameters since the stone ages and there's a good chance we'll be using a knob on our controllers to adjust the macros.

Sure, we'll get used to them but they don't really provide much visual reference. With a pointer you can see at a glance the approximate value. With the new knobs it's just "bigger is more" without any scale.

Seems like one of those "change for the sake of change" things to me.

It’s one of those useless “why should software look like hardware,” moves that clever UI artists use to make their designs worse.

[bmanic]

Yeah the new macro knobs are suuuuuper stupid. Yet another example of form over function.

[felis]

I just wonder what was the purpose? We've been using knobs with pointers to adjust parameters since the stone ages and there's a good chance we'll be using a knob on our controllers to adjust the macros.

Sure, we'll get used to them but they don't really provide much visual reference. With a pointer you can see at a glance the approximate value. With the new knobs it's just "bigger is more" without any scale.

Seems like one of those "change for the sake of change" things to me.

Mine gives a numerical readout from 0 to 1 in thousandths.
Much more accurate than a knob pointer.

Another great, free update from Arturia. I'm a happy camper.

[HM]

Explorations 1-4 for Pigments are reduced from 90 euros to 20 euros on Arturias site

Will this offer likely be available also in other web-shops ??

[IvyBirds]

I'm fine with the areola macro knobs, and areolas in general.

The nipple knobs should go to 11

[concealed identity]

I'm kind of surprised to see them put out a relatively smaller update with a full version number in the same year they released version 6. Like, I feel like they easily could have waited another six months or longer for a bigger update and nobody would have complained.

So it makes me wonder if there's a reason for that- a new synth on the way next year, or maybe the next Pigments update will be paid. Or maybe they just wanted something out by the end of the year to keep eyes on Pigments, or they wanted to test out the new Play tab before they add it to something else.

All of this is just baseless speculation, but it just seemed odd to release an update so quickly.

[dayjob]

So it makes me wonder if there's a reason for that

Cashing in on the Holidays? Shrug.

[concealed identity]

Yeah that's sort of what I was thinking when I said "maybe they just wanted something out by the end of the year to keep eyes on Pigments"- this year we've had Serum 2, Omisphere 3, Zebra 3, Absynth 6, Waveform, Kontrast, and I'm sure a bunch of others I'm forgetting. Maybe it's just a strategic update to stand out after a pretty busy 6 months of synth releases from competitors.

[S4410]

Yeah that's sort of what I was thinking when I said "maybe they just wanted something out by the end of the year to keep eyes on Pigments"- this year we've had Serum 2, Omisphere 3, Zebra 3, Absynth 6, Waveform, Kontrast, and I'm sure a bunch of others I'm forgetting. Maybe it's just a strategic update to stand out after a pretty busy 6 months of synth releases from competitors.

i agree, this is a minor update ,mostly for marketing reasons. Omnisphere 3, Zebra 3 and Absynth 6 were huge releases expected for years. I bet U-he also rushed to release the public beta before the new year because of the competition. Great times for synth lovers!

[martinjuenke]

You get what you pay for I suppose.

Well version 6 was free as well, but it seems it had more new features, for example the modal engine... Just my two cents.

It's anyway an even nastier (in a good way) beast now

6 and 7 both came out this year, I think the numbers are irrelevant, basically this is just a synth that gets lots of updates

for me it's more a 6.5 update than a 7.0

Who cares?

[Teksonik]

Seems like one of those "change for the sake of change" things to me.

Mine gives a numerical readout from 0 to 1 in thousandths.

So do the old knobs from Pigments 6 (I still have the old version installed on this system). So in that regards there is no difference.

Anyway you're confusing knob range with how that range is displayed. The new "knobs" lack any visual point of reference. If the circle had round grid marks similar to a radar screen then you'd have some visual reference points.

The only time you get a numeric readout is on mouse over. Any other time you must rely on visual clues.

I notice that the new knobs don't appear on the Browser Tab, the old knobs are still there. So if the new ones were an improvement seems like they would have changed them on the browser tab as well for consistency. Are the new knobs impossible to use? No, of course not. Are they an improvement? No, they are not...in my opinion. Feel free to disagree.

[mabian]

I agree, the change on the macro knobs appearance is for the worse in my opinion... I hope they can set an option at least to get back the old ones... I will try soon on Linux/Wine, hoping it all still works: usually when "UI optimizations" are mentioned there's a high risk of something breaking or degrading, it happened recently with Addictive Drums 2...

- Mario

[Teksonik]

I've spent a couple of hours with Pigments 7 today and it is no doubt a great synth. I've already made a half dozen patches this morning but need to work with the new filters more.

So yeah, a nice free update to a great synth. What's not to love.

It could be my imagination or the placebo effect but the CPU demand does seem to be lower so that's a good thing.

It looks like they replaced the candy colored top bar from Pigments 6 which I had to edit and replace. Does the top bar look like this now for everyone or is Pigments still seeing the edited top bar from the previous install files here?

Pigments 121725-2.png

[Vortifex]

It looks like they replaced the candy colored top bar from Pigments 6 which I had to edit and replace. Does the top bar look like this now for everyone or is Pigments still seeing the edited top bar from the previous install files here?

Pigments 121725-2.png

That's how it looks for me.

[Cuauhtli]

Maybe in the next update the knobs will sag more as you increase the value to give more visual feedback.