Pigments 3.5 vs Dune 3.5

[_morton_]

Dune 3 has dumb UI like hardware synths.

I would have thought that was a plus to most people, at least anyone who is over a certain age or a musician

[chk071]

I agree. Dune's GUI is very logical.

Yeah, I don't think there's much to criticize about either Dune's or Pigment's GUI's.

[rezoneight]

You don't get the criticism because everyone has their own idea of what a good UI is and you happen to think Pigments has a good one. Good and bad in everything but people love to argue so here we are.

In terms of GUI and operation, there's a lot of objectivity and common sense though. At least I thought so. Puzzling.

It is puzzling. I happen to think Pigments UI is great because you DO get a ton of feedback instantly on what's happening. On the other hand I can see people not liking all the movement on the screen. Personally I think all of the color is great too but I also love the green LEDs on the System-8 so take that for what it's worth

[chk071]

You don't get the criticism because everyone has their own idea of what a good UI is and you happen to think Pigments has a good one. Good and bad in everything but people love to argue so here we are.

In terms of GUI and operation, there's a lot of objectivity and common sense though. At least I thought so. Puzzling.

It is puzzling. I happen to think Pigments UI is great because you DO get a ton of feedback instantly on what's happening.

Exactly! That's the big strengths of it UI, IMO.

On the other hand I can see people not liking all the movement on the screen.

Maybe. On the other hand, isn't it great to have visual feedback of what's going? I'm more like "Finally!" in that regard.

Nick Batt from Sonic State actually said in his review that Pigments is one of the few soft synths he really has the feeling that he knows what's going on "under the hood". I can only agree with that. Arturia IMO almost set the standard of what others should do with their GUI's with Pigments.

One of the few things I dislike, and which is not as well thought out IMO is the issue that you always have to open and close the modulation strip in the middle, otherwise you end up creating modulations, although you just want to turn some knobs or sliders. If they find a solution for that, then it's really, really good.

[carrieres]

I would like less tab for Dune4, more like Antidote (Reason Rack Ext)

[HcDoom]

I would like to see better GUI for layering/voicing - I never gelled with the D3 solution - even tho I use the synth on a daily basis.

[Azbest]

I don't use DUNE much because I don't like it's workflow at all and I don't use Pigments at all because I don't think it's sound is quite up there. So my advice would be if you want a synth that's really easy to work with, choose Pigments but if sound quality matters more to you, choose DUNE. In the end it's really that simple, I think.

Or you could go with Massive X and have both.

[_morton_]

I happen to think Pigments UI is great because you DO get a ton of feedback instantly on what's happening.

You get that on any synth, with your ears.

[rezoneight]

I happen to think Pigments UI is great because you DO get a ton of feedback instantly on what's happening.

You get that on any synth, with your ears.

I mean yeah I can tweak EQ too using knobs and my ears. Or I can dial it in specifically in FabFilter Pro-Q since I can *see* exactly what is going on in addition to hearing it. I can tell you what I'd choose because I prefer using both senses. You're free to just keep doing it the other way.

I mean hell...why have anything marked at all right? you can just turn random controls and do it with your ears. Why not add extra fun and have the controls change what they do every time you start up the plugin?

[T-CM11]

I happen to think Pigments UI is great because you DO get a ton of feedback instantly on what's happening.

You get that on any synth, with your ears.

No, you don't get visual feedback with your ears.

[pdxindy]

Dune's GUI is perfectly fine. The matrix is perfect, the drag-n-drop is in place, no stuff is jumping around (cause it's an audio-instrument, not a beat visualizer)

Vital is not quite there yet, to put it mildly

Dune sounds better than Vital... Dune has better filters.

Gui wise, Vital is far superior. Dune's hardware paradigm adds a lot of friction and has lots of wasted space. For example, it would be easy to create a GUI where all 3 Osc's were visible at once.

Dune's mod matrix is quite poor. Only 7 slots visible at once. Doesn't scroll with my trackpad or mousewheel except on the little scrollbar. Navigating the matrix sucks. The functionality is rudimentary. Sources still have to be selected manually from a list that scrolls. Destinations at least are drag-n-drop now unless that destination is a matrix slot, then it needs to be selected manually. Mod depth always requires using the mod matrix which is tedious when you have a bunch of mod slots used.

Dune's modulation has no visual feedback. You cannot tell whether a parameter even has modulation. Right click on Cutoff does not show that the parameter is modulated. The only way to know is to go scroll through the tiny mod matrix!

[Tobi MM]

Pigments' biggest strength was also its worst trait for me. There's so much visible, so much going, it simply melted my brain.

I like the visual blackbox that dune is.

[pdxindy]

I happen to think Pigments UI is great because you DO get a ton of feedback instantly on what's happening.

You get that on any synth, with your ears.

Yes, my ears tell me Cutoff is modulating by an oscillating source... but my ears don't tell me if it is an LFO or MSEG or which LFO or MSEG it is. Visual feedback tells me that right away.

[_morton_]

That's the joy of a mod matrix, it's basically a list of everything that's going on

Very convenient

[_morton_]

For example, it would be easy to create a GUI where all 3 Osc's were visible at once.

Let's see it then