# News Arturia



## Trancer (Apr 20, 2021)

Here is the news Pigments version 3. 






Arturia - news-pigments-3


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www.arturia.com













Arturia introduce evolution of cutting-edge softsynth: Pigments 3 | Music Instrument News


On April 20th 2021 at 6 PM CEST, Arturia will unveil the latest version of their state-of-the-art softsynth; Pigments 3 promises to redefine the softsynth game, bringing new sound engines, FX, advanced routing, and much more - while retaining its unparalleled ease of use and signature...



www.musicinstrumentnews.co.uk


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## Markrs (Apr 20, 2021)

Trancer said:


> Here is the news Pigments version 3.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Pigments 2 is a synth I have been tempted to buy several times but haven't, I will wait to see what the improvements are and whether that changes my mind to get it or not.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Awesome. Thanks!


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

So, what’s new. Most importantly: 512 partial additive! And three oscillator layers. Cool.

—————————

New in Pigments 3

Harmonic engine – detailed additive synthesis with up to 512 partials, dual formant filters that can be morphed from A to B, odd and even harmonic customisation, and various colourful ways to modulate partials.

3rd Utility engine – add an extra oscillator layer and up to 2 noise sample layers to Pigments’ dual-engine sound for extra depth and sonic colour.

64 new wavetables, bringing the total to 164

Ramp waveform, for Virtual Analog engine.

Jup-8 V4 Low-pass filter – the revered filter from our meticulous emulation of a polysynth icon.

Enhanced filter routing – route either filter to either FX bus for detailed sound.

Pitch Delay – a clean, modern algorithm for creating exciting pitch-shifting ambience.

Multi-Band Compressor – a much-requested tool for creating a tight mix-ready sound without ever leaving Pigments.

BL-20 Flanger – a faithful reimagining of an elusive analog studio effect.

Chorus JUN-6 – one-touch analog sparkle and stereo fatness, taken from our faithful Juno-6 emulation.

Expertly-crafted new presets by world-class sound designers.

Enhanced in-app tutorials from the product designers.


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## Trancer (Apr 20, 2021)

You're welcome, with great pleasure.

For my part a little disappointed anyway.

Not really a Revolution, at all, just an evolution of positioning in the face of very tough competition.

So differentiating is Arturia s option.

To be continued...

Hoping that not a cpu destroyer and no display bugs or the like.


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## Markrs (Apr 20, 2021)

I do admire that the upgrade is free to owners of pigments which was also the case when the release V2 I believe.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Markrs said:


> I do admire that the upgrade is free to owners of pigments which was also the case when the release V2 I believe.


Yes true. Over the course of just one year they’ve added granular synthesis and now additive and an extra layer plus a bunch of other “stuff” for free. That is kind of a big deal honestly. I admire them for it.


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## Elrik Settee (Apr 20, 2021)

Indeed, most generous with the free upgrades.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

I also like how Pigments kind of inherits traits of the Arturia emulations, like the Jupiter 8 filters, and their FX, like the Juno 6 chorus. Nice little touches, worthy of a flagship product. A while ago I was able to fetch the new sounds Simon Stockhausen patched for Pigments and I have to say they are pretty awesome.


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## Nimrod7 (Apr 20, 2021)

Wooww free upgrade again! Super excited to download and play this afternoon. 
I am big fan of the UI, but somehow pigment never end up being in my projects, probably my fault since I haven't spend the same amount of time I spend with Zebra, Serum etc. 

I will give it a big chance this time!


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Nimrod7 said:


> I am big fan of the UI, but somehow pigment never end up being in my projects


I totally recognize this. It's almost like I love the thing with my brain, not from the heart?


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## Greeno (Apr 20, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> I totally recognize this. It's almost like I love the thing with my brain, not from the heart?


same here, hmm.

I think the problem is that it tries to fit all pallettes, synths that are majorly successful focus in a bit on a 'sound' like Diva does analgog and Hive does saw sounds, serum is very bright and great for dance music. It is very very capable so no doubt can do many things really well. I just think that maybe it needs some sort of focus..even to help market it a bit better. Perhaps some killer sound packsby high profile peeps is what it needs, Having said that I think there are some out there.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Greeno said:


> same here, hmm.
> 
> I think the problem is that it tries to fit all pallettes, synths that are majorly successful focus in a bit on a 'sound' like Diva does analgog and Hive does saw sounds, serum is very bright and great for dance music. It is very very capable so no doubt can do many things really well. I just think that maybe it needs some sort of focus..even to help market it a bit better. Perhaps some killer sound packsby high profile peeps is what it needs, Having said that I think there are some out there.


The latest sounds done by Simon Stockhausen are very good.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Arturia - Pigments







www.arturia.com


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## Greeno (Apr 20, 2021)

Just tried to find Pigments 3 on their page, not appearing at all?? 

Not in my Arturia Software centre or account for upgrade?


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Greeno said:


> Just tried to find Pigments 3 on their page, not appearing at all??
> 
> Not in my Arturia Software centre or account for upgrade?


The above link should work. But it has not appeared in my account yet either. Phased roll-out?


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## Trancer (Apr 20, 2021)

Went to Arturia's site and he looks really monstrous, this Pigments 3😊

Although I was really expecting something else, a tour de force what this new Pigments offers.

Now, you have to see its cpu consumption and if not display bugs and others.

CONGRATULATIONS Arturia on this new version.

Note a superb introductory offer, a very good deal.

Thank you Arturia😊


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## Greeno (Apr 20, 2021)

sorted it, you have to go to your ASC and click on 'synchronise'


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## Loïc D (Apr 20, 2021)

Wow, I didn’t know about the free update.
Pigments is my go-to synth for any kind of sounds. I find easy to understand & program YMMV.


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## Markrs (Apr 20, 2021)

As I have Analog Labs the buy price is only $69 which seems like a good price. Fighting with the old GAS on this one


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## sostenuto (Apr 20, 2021)

w/Spectrum Sound Pack as well @ $69. ( _Analog Lab 4/5 user_ ) ..... Was leaning toward Pigments for long time anyway. Yup ! 👍🏻

_GAS now xfr'd to new Drum Fury 2 Crossgrade @ $50. _ __ (edit) plus process to Checkout offers addition of Guitar Fury for additional $70. ! GAS ++ !


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## rnb_2 (Apr 20, 2021)

I have to applaud the free upgrade to v3 for current owners. I bought the Spectrum sound pack, but no luck downloading it thus far.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> I have to applaud the free upgrade to v3 for current owners. I bought the Spectrum sound pack, but no luck downloading it thus far.


Does it come with loads of three layers full of additive sounds?


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## Wes Antczak (Apr 20, 2021)

Just finished downloading and installing v3 from ASC. Fantastic free upgrade for existing users which brings some good new things, including updated filter and effect options! Of course YMM(and probably will)V, but personally I am really stoked about it!


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)




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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)




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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Aaaaand here’s Cameron’s new video


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)




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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)




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## cuttime (Apr 20, 2021)

Anyone find an English manual? It seems the manual links are all 404. It may be there somewhere, but it seems Arturia has some of the slowests servers in the world, at least serving the USA.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Anyone experience a total fail with the Arturia downloader? Can't seem to login at all at the moment.


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## cuttime (Apr 20, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Anyone experience a total fail with the Arturia downloader? Can't seem to login at all at the moment.


Yes, just now. Time to wait.


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## rnb_2 (Apr 20, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Does it come with loads of three layers full of additive sounds?


As soon as I'm able to download it, I'll take a look - still in 404 Town here.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

cuttime said:


> Yes, just now. Time to wait.


Thx. Here’s some elevator music:


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## Sunny Schramm (Apr 20, 2021)

Markrs said:


> As I have Analog Labs the buy price is only $69 which seems like a good price. Fighting with the old GAS on this one


same here - because of the keystep  Pigments 3 + 5 Soundpacks!


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Sunny Schramm said:


> same here - because of the keystep  Pigments 3 + 5 Soundpacks!


Nice!


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## Crossroads (Apr 20, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Anyone experience a total fail with the Arturia downloader? Can't seem to login at all at the moment.


Same. Goddamn EW taking their sweet time with OPUS and now Arturia's servers crapping out... it's like Christmas morning but the presents are waiting at your aunts house at the other side of the country


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## fourier (Apr 20, 2021)

Loïc D said:


> Wow, I didn’t know about the free update.
> Pigments is my go-to synth for any kind of sounds. I find easy to understand & program YMMV.


Same. By far the easiest to play around with and mold the sounds you want of any VST I've tried in my lifetime. Eats some CPU, but no more than Diva, for instance.


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## Trancer (Apr 20, 2021)

When you talk about the relatively identical cpu consumption between Diva and Pigments 3, how many percentage per session is it?


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## Pier (Apr 20, 2021)

The harmonic engine sounds great from the demos.

Anyone running v3 on hiDPI on Windows? Last time I tried with v2 it was an absolute train wreck.

I'm not surprised Arturia is offering it as a free upgrade. There's such hi quality free stuff on the market like Vital and Surge.


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## Pier (Apr 20, 2021)

fourier said:


> Eats some CPU, but no more than Diva, for instance.


I mean... Diva eats CPUs for breakfast


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## Sunny Schramm (Apr 20, 2021)

Pier said:


> The harmonic engine sounds great from the demos.
> 
> Anyone running v3 on hiDPI on Windows? Last time I tried with v2 it was an absolute train wreck.
> 
> I'm not surprised Arturia is offering it as a free upgrade. There's such hi quality free stuff on the market like Vital and Surge.


You can resize the GUI as you like it. Seems to be like Nexus 3 - fully vectorized.


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## Markrs (Apr 20, 2021)

Decided to buy it. I feel $69 for what you get is a good price


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## doctoremmet (Apr 20, 2021)

Markrs said:


> Decided to buy it. I feel $69 for what you get is a good price


Sure is. Enjoy!


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## Pier (Apr 20, 2021)

Sunny Schramm said:


> You can resize the GUI as you like it. Seems to be like Nexus 3 - fully vectorized.


Yeah but does it render at 1:1 pixels?

In v2 it could be scaled but rendered in very low DPI and also had cropping bugs...






See compared to FabFilter:


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## Markrs (Apr 20, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Sure is. Enjoy!


Well I will have to play with it tomorrow as the Arturia servers don't feel like working.


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## KarlHeinz (Apr 20, 2021)

Markrs said:


> Well I will have to play with it tomorrow as the Arturia servers don't feel like working.


Yeah, thats really annoying......took me hours to connect for the update then some more hours for the new soundset to just get recognized. Download then works with no problems AFTER being recognized. This Arturia ACS seems one of the most buggy ones out there, or maybe better say just the server architecture behind it or whatever (especially in cases like this). This could be real kind of kill the joy for such an impressive new upgrade and new sounds .

Glad I got it working now and promise I will find the time to get a little deeper into it this time, sigh....

Thats one of the things I really love about it: one of the best and most "visual" GUI out there, manuals, tutorials: your really have NO excuse to not getting into it (apart from being lazy like me ).


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## Markrs (Apr 20, 2021)

KarlHeinz said:


> Thats one of the things I really love about it: one of the best and most "visual" GUI out there, manuals, tutorials: your really have NO excuse to not getting into it (apart from being lazy like me ).


The tutorials and the very visual GUI were a couple of big reasons for me getting this. Same reason I think Vital is great, very visual but some many guides to using it online


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## Dirtgrain (Apr 20, 2021)

I got Pigments 3 upgrade downloaded earlier. But then I bought preset pack. The download button for it on the Arturia site goes to a dead page. I wonder if they disabled it temporarily so Pigments 3 uploads would be faster.


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## jcrosby (Apr 20, 2021)

Just saw this about an hour ago... Great news, Pigments has become one of my staple synths.


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## Trash Panda (Apr 20, 2021)

I see JRR shop has it for $99: https://vi-control.net/community/th...troductory-sale-now-99-instead-of-199.108588/

Already have Omnisphere, Zebra/HZ, Diva, Vital and others. Not sure what this will do that these can’t, but it seems like a great deal.


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## sostenuto (Apr 20, 2021)

Trash Panda said:


> I see JRR shop has it for $99: https://vi-control.net/community/th...troductory-sale-now-99-instead-of-199.108588/
> 
> Already have Omnisphere, Zebra/HZ, Diva, Vital and others. Not sure what this will do that these can’t, but it seems like a great deal.


" ...... seems like a great deal " _ translates to maximum GAS _ !


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## Trash Panda (Apr 20, 2021)

sostenuto said:


> " ...... seems like a great deal " _ translates to maximum GAS _ !


More like “give me an excuse to buy this because the GAS is weak right now.”


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## fourier (Apr 20, 2021)

Trancer said:


> When you talk about the relatively identical cpu consumption between Diva and Pigments 3, how many percentage per session is it?


I'm not able to check right now, but as far as consumption goes I've kept tabs on my channels in Ableton - Diva, Pigments and some of the Eric Whitacre Choir patches sticks out quite vividly. I've not tested Pigments3 yet to see if they've done any improvements on this, but I'm assuming the new MB compressor and third sound engine wouldn't make the heavier processed sounds less kind on the cpu.

All that said, I've not had any concerns running a dozen channels with Pigments3, but it's quite resource heavy compared with the likes of Spire, Serum and Sylenth.


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## Trancer (Apr 20, 2021)

Thank you for your answer 😊

No display or other bugs?

Pigments 3 can be compared with Serum?

Beyond cpu consumption.

Pigments 3 or Serum?


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## sostenuto (Apr 20, 2021)

Serum is classic, but 'hello' ! Best eve deal was @ $130. (edu) and nothing much lately. 
Goin with Pigments 3 cuz it is alive, well, and improving !!


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## jbuhler (Apr 20, 2021)

sostenuto said:


> Serum is classic, but 'hello' ! Best eve deal was @ $130. (edu) and nothing much lately.
> Goin with Pigments 3 cuz it is alive, well, and improving !!


I’m honestly surprised you don’t have it already!


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## sostenuto (Apr 20, 2021)

jbuhler said:


> I’m honestly surprised you don’t have it already!


Soooo close, so many times. No clue the barrier. In fairness __ weak chops sorting the many synths since Serum Intro in terms of 'real' pros/cons. _One trusted source goes elsewhere for Pads._ 

Current Arturia - Pigments 3 _ crossgrade offer _ is a 'go' unless it prods xferrecords to a new mktg effort. ( current $189. is not very realistic for some ). 

_Following your many posts re. SFA /OT, while learning, sorting._


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## vitocorleone123 (Apr 20, 2021)

Pigments: Amazing UI, boring core sound.

To me.

Had it since v2 and am still trying to “get into it” from time to time. Might just not be my thing. I’ll try out v3, of course, since it’s a free upgrade.

To date, I turn to Hive2 and now also Vital, when I want this kind of sound. To be fair, Omnisphere also often collects virtual dust on my hard drive.

Edit: from what I can tell, v3 is at least as much of a CPU hog as v2.


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## vitocorleone123 (Apr 20, 2021)

Pier said:


> I mean... Diva eats CPUs for breakfast


Not even close anymore on a modern CPU. Sure, you can make it, but most patches are pretty tame now in terms of CPU vs J8, Pigments, Oberhausen, and more recent synths.


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## jcrosby (Apr 20, 2021)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Pigments: Amazing UI, boring core sound.
> 
> To me.
> 
> ...


Between wavetable, analog modeling, granular, and sample playback; plus FM, waveshaping, phase distortion... And some incredibly solid sounding modeled filters... I don't really see how it can be described it as even having a _core_ sound short of maybe some of the presets or the wavetables coming across as a bit generic. As long as you know how to program it it can more or less sound like whatever you want.


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## vitocorleone123 (Apr 20, 2021)

jcrosby said:


> Between wavetable, analog modeling, granular, and sample playback; plus FM, waveshaping, phase distortion... And some incredibly solid sounding modeled filters... I don't really see how it can be described it as even having a _core_ sound short of maybe some of the presets or the wavetables coming across as a bit generic. As long as you know how to program it it can more or less sound like whatever you want.


Sure... but that doesn't mean it necessarily sounds interesting/good - I just seem to like other synths a lot more. I'll bow out as I don't mean to grump. I was just lamenting that I truly wish I could love it and just haven't been able to.


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## Markrs (Apr 20, 2021)

Not sure if anyone else had this issue, but after buying Pigments 3 the new soundpacks were not attached to my account, so I couldn't use them. I now have a support ticket raise with Arturia.


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## KarlHeinz (Apr 20, 2021)

For me it took a while to have them being registered from the center. Then what I forgot and wondered: AFTER they been registered (they show then as "owned") you have to click on that little icon on top to download them (inside pigments, I used the standalone version for this) before you can use them and they show up in the preset browser as banks.


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## fourier (Apr 21, 2021)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Sure... but that doesn't mean it necessarily sounds interesting/good - I just seem to like other synths a lot more. I'll bow out as I don't mean to grump. I was just lamenting that I truly wish I could love it and just haven't been able to.


This is very subjective so it's perfectly in your place to feel this way. I remember feeling this way about Nexus and Nexus 2 back in the day.

Pigments might perhaps not have that "piercing" sound on a lot of presets that other synths hit you with (again Serum comes to mind). I like to play around and tweak sounds a lot, but I did buy a sound bank called "Shadow Scanner" @ https://www.arturia.com/products/analog-classics/pigments/sounds when they had a 50% off sale, perhaps sound banks such as this can showcase a bit more of the range of the synth if you seek to use it to put sound on picture?


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## jcrosby (Apr 21, 2021)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Sure... but that doesn't mean it necessarily sounds interesting/good - I just seem to like other synths a lot more. I'll bow out as I don't mean to grump. I was just lamenting that I truly wish I could love it and just haven't been able to.


All good! Different strokes for different folks... Just wanted to add a different perspective.


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## gamma-ut (Apr 21, 2021)

fourier said:


> Pigments might perhaps not have that "piercing" sound on a lot of presets that other synths hit you with (again Serum comes to mind).


Often as not that comes from the multiband OTT-style compressor that a lot of Serum patches have in the FX chain. Knock that out and it's suddenly Today Bass rather than Future Bass.


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## Pier (Apr 21, 2021)

gamma-ut said:


> Often as not that comes from the multiband OTT-style compressor that a lot of Serum patches have in the FX chain. Knock that out an it's suddenly Today Bass rather than Future Bass.


Yeah. Spire also has a "beautifier" multiband compressor. Massive 1 also has a "dimension expander" effect that was used everywhere.

Effects have a huge impact in the final sound.


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## Greeno (Apr 22, 2021)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Sure... but that doesn't mean it necessarily sounds interesting/good - I just seem to like other synths a lot more. I'll bow out as I don't mean to grump. I was just lamenting that I truly wish I could love it and just haven't been able to.


I know what you mean, I think it is one that you need to delve into. To be fair it doesn't sound as characterful as say Diva or Hive2 but is really really capable of doing anything. I think the soundpacks will help bring out it's character, a bit like what happened with Massive X.


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## SteveK (Apr 25, 2021)

Picked up Pigments 3 yesterday morning as had a really good crossgrade price having recently bought the brilliant V Collection 8.

I was not really that aware of this synth until seeing it mentioned in this thread and others on VI and some of the recent reviews. I’m really impressed. Amazing flexibility and personally I think it sounds great and I also use Omnisphere and Zebra plus lots of other VSTs.

The presets are often brilliant especially the 5 banks of 100 that are free at the moment. I messed for 20mins and it inspired me to make a track immediately. Very inspiring and multiple instances layered well. Initially seemed to be quite high CPU usage (c7-15%) but once I started adding multiple instances it seemed to be fine which was odd...

Overall I’m blown away by this. Very glad I got it thanks to the posts I read on here.


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## Markrs (Apr 30, 2021)

Here is a nice walkthrough of the new features in pigments 3


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## sylent01 (May 2, 2021)

Just picked this up. Has anyone figured out how to automate the macro controls? I haven’t been able to assign any cc’s to the controls. Full disclosure- I haven’t read the manual yet.


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## Teksonik (May 2, 2021)

Click on the Cog Wheel, Select Midi, Double Click on the CC# and put whatever number you want. Or while on the Midi Setting Tab you can click on the Macro Knobs and turn a knob on your controller and it should auto assign. Then save the User Config file.


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## from_theashes (May 6, 2021)

Just picked up Pigments 3 as a Crossgrade from Analog Lab 4. As a synth-noob I was looking for a Synth for soundscapes and pads... never got along with Massive (X), Super 8, Vital, Reaktor, etc. 
I actually didn’t know, that a granular synth would be my holy grale xD
It’s so intuitive and easy to use and those free sound packs are really good! Best 69€ I‘ve spent in a long time.


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## SteveK (May 6, 2021)

from_theashes said:


> Just picked up Pigments 3 as a Crossgrade from Analog Lab 4. As a synth-noob I was looking for a Synth for soundscapes and pads... never got along with Massive (X), Super 8, Vital, Reaktor, etc.
> I actually didn’t know, that a granular synth would be my holy grale xD
> It’s so intuitive and easy to use and those free sound packs are really good! Best 69€ I‘ve spent in a long time.


I agree. I’d never really seen it or thought about it but since I got it I’ve been exploring it non-stop and it’s the VST I open every time I fire up Ableton now despite buying the whole V Collection 8 at Easter! It’s very interesting just to play around and sounds really nice.
I’ve really got too much stuff to explore now having been on a buying spree of sample libraries and some great synths like Omnisphere and Zebra during our lockdown over the last year...
Wish I had more time- looking forward to retirement and lots more scope to focus on music


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## Reid Rosefelt (May 6, 2021)

Excuse me if everybody knows this, but you can get free demos of all the Arturia synths. I think they are fully functional except I don't think you can save your own presets. I've been fooling around with it in 15 minute periods since it came out. With my previous Arturia purchases it's been 49 euros before, but I finally pulled the trigger on it now because of the free presets. 

I like it a lot. Of course, I've been liking it a lot for a long time without paying for it. My only concern is if it will have feature creep. The thing that drew me to this at the beginning is that it was super simple to program, like one of my other favorites, Rob Papen's Go2. If they keep adding more and more kinds of synthesis and other features, it will become harder to master and more of a drain on the CPU. But I know I'm in the minority about this. For me, less can be more with synths.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (May 6, 2021)

> @TigerTheFrog : For me, less can be more with synths.


Ah, true, but in the immortal words of Frasier Crane:
"If less is more, now imagine how much more, _more_ would be!" 

Seriously though: feature creep can be a problem but, as you say, it is not yet the case in Pigments 3. The new features are _really_ useful and powerful (and musical!) and are as easy to use as the previous ones imho thanks to their very well-designed interface.

CPU drain is also not _yet_ a problem (as my latest track _Perception _will attest) and maybe, just maybe, we will move on to GPU-assist (especially for granular and harmonic additive synth engines) before it becomes one. Just my Canadian 2 cents.


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## Reid Rosefelt (May 6, 2021)

sylent01 said:


> Just picked this up. Has anyone figured out how to automate the macro controls? I haven’t been able to assign any cc’s to the controls. Full disclosure- I haven’t read the manual yet.


If you have NKS (and I expect all Arturia controllers) the macros are all mapped automatically. 

Pigments is especially nice uploaded into Komplete Kontrol.


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## Fleer (May 6, 2021)

TigerTheFrog said:


> Excuse me if everybody knows this, but you can get free demos of all the Arturia synths. I think they are fully functional except I don't think you can save your own presets. I've been fooling around with it in 15 minute periods since it came out. With my previous Arturia purchases it's been 49 euros before, but I finally pulled the trigger on it now because of the free presets.
> 
> I like it a lot. Of course, I've been liking it a lot for a long time without paying for it. My only concern is if it will have feature creep. The thing that drew me to this at the beginning is that it was super simple to program, like one of my other favorites, Rob Papen's Go2. If they keep adding more and more kinds of synthesis and other features, it will become harder to master and more of a drain on the CPU. But I know I'm in the minority about this. For me, less can be more with synths.


Just got in as well, $49 for Pigments 3 plus those five banks is the deal that won me over. Before, I was thinking Kilohearts Phase Plant could cover similar needs, but I always liked the sounds I heard coming out of Pigments vids. Happy camper now.


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## SteveK (May 6, 2021)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> Ah, true, but in the immortal words of Frasier Crane:
> "If less is more, now imagine how much more, _more_ would be!"
> 
> Seriously though: feature creep can be a problem but, as you say, it is not yet the case in Pigments 3. The new features are _really_ useful and powerful (and musical!) and are as easy to use as the previous ones imho thanks to their very well-designed interface.
> ...


Nice track!
My wife and I love Frasier and watch it every day when I take a break from work!
Pigments 3 is a revelation. A great synth.


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## from_theashes (May 7, 2021)

Ok, I played for about 2 hours with Pigments last night and just threw different samples into the Sample Engine of the same preset and played with the different noises... that way I created 20 different pad-Sounds in minutes! What an awesome synth!


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## rsg22 (May 7, 2021)

Been meaning to pick up Pigments - anyone know how long the current sale will last?


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## from_theashes (May 7, 2021)

rsg22 said:


> Been meaning to pick up Pigments - anyone know how long the current sale will last?


Intro offer ends May 13.


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## rsg22 (May 8, 2021)

I'm still trying to decide about Pigments, I have a couple questions I'm hoping someone here can answer. I own a few Arturia soft synths already.

I listened to every sound demo on Arturia's website, and some others, I can't help but feeling this is an EDM focused synth. Though there are some sound samples on their sound design page I liked, and a few of their add-on sound packs were darker, more atmospheric and cinematic in nature which was good to hear. Is anyone here using Pigments in a hybrid score setting? I'm not as interested in the EDM side of things.

On paper Pigments is everything I'm looking for, all those different sound engines in one package. I don't really own a synth like that.

Also I'm assuming the virtual analog engine in Pigments is the same as the one in their V collection?

Thanks for your insights.


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## doctoremmet (May 8, 2021)

rsg22 said:


> Also I'm assuming the virtual analog engine in Pigments is the same as the one in their V collection?


I am not sure what you mean by “engine”? The core DSP that is used? There are some shared elements in Pigments, derived from their V collection instruments, the Matrix 12 filter, the Juno 6 chorus, and v3 has added the Jupiter 8 filter. So in a way your assumption is correct. Of course, it is NOT the case that Pigments can basically achieve the same results with its VA engine as all V instruments combined  - or put differently: Pigments is not the underlying engine of all V instruments.

As for your assessment that Pigments is largely geared towards EDM, I’d argue that is not at all my perception. Like with most other synths, there are of course a lot of EDM presets - it is an important market after all - but there are also true cinematic sound designers such as @Empty Vessel that have contributed presets. 

And if you are more a “presets” user, and want to have an idea of some of the third party cinematic sound banks out there, @tomwolfe has just released a great new one. And Simon Stockhausen / Patchpool a short while ago. Maybe these contain some sounds you deem more usable for your goals?





The 500 presets in the Spectrum pack Arturia delivers with Pigments 3 are also very usable outside of the EDM realm imho.





__





Tom Wolfe's 'Aurora' for Arturia Pigments out now - cinematic textural presets


Hey everyone! I’m pleased to announce the release of my new sound bank, Aurora for Arturia Pigments. With a focus on cinematic textures, Aurora contains more than 100 presets and 40 samples for Pigments. From granular soundscapes to atmospheric pads, this set is full of long, morphing textures...




vi-control.net


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## kgdrum (May 8, 2021)

@rsg22
I was on the fence with Pigments and I picked it up the other day.
I have to agree with @doctoremmet Pigments is a great synth and I also agree it’s not aimed or limited to EDM.
Another synth which I have & love is from U-he that would be an example of a synth that has more of an EDM focus would be Hive.
Of course any synth can be programmed to sound however you want, Pigments is a versatile modern synth and imo not aimed towards the EDM crowd specifically.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (May 8, 2021)

@rsg22 : "Pigments seems to be an EDM focused synth" was also my first reaction when I first looked into it BUT, as @doctoremmet mentions, it's much more than that. It features several synth technologies (engines) that cover the full gamut from older techs to the later ones like granular. And I expect it to continue to expand techniques and evolve with even newer technologies (GPU-assist anyone?). Sound creators like Simon and Tom mentioned above are really showing us what ethereal evolving _textures_ Pigments can create, hence the name I guess


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## from_theashes (May 8, 2021)

rsg22 said:


> I'm still trying to decide about Pigments, I have a couple questions I'm hoping someone here can answer. I own a few Arturia soft synths already.
> 
> I listened to every sound demo on Arturia's website, and some others, I can't help but feeling this is an EDM focused synth. Though there are some sound samples on their sound design page I liked, and a few of their add-on sound packs were darker, more atmospheric and cinematic in nature which was good to hear. Is anyone here using Pigments in a hybrid score setting? I'm not as interested in the EDM side of things.
> 
> ...


I mainly use Pigments 3 to create cinematic and atmospheric pads and textures... and it’s so much easier than with any other synth I used so far. The sample engine really is perfect for that.


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## doctoremmet (May 8, 2021)

Such unity ❤️


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## Michel Simons (May 8, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Such unity ❤️


Nah, it's purely an EDM machine...


...just kiddin'...


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## rsg22 (May 8, 2021)

I really appreciate all the great feedback - you made this decision easy - purchased!

Addressing a few comments below...



doctoremmet said:


> I am not sure what you mean by “engine”? The core DSP that is used? There are some shared elements in Pigments, derived from their V collection instruments... [snip]
> 
> As for your assessment that Pigments is largely geared towards EDM, I’d argue that is not at all my perception... [snip]
> 
> And if you are more a “presets” user, and want to have an idea of some of the third party cinematic sound banks out there... [snip]


Apologies for the "engine" confusion - I'm using the terminology from Arturia's Pigments page - in that Pigments has four "sound engines" (Harmonic, Wavetable, Virtual Analog (<- the one I was referring to), Sample/Granular).

To clarify - it wasn't my assessment that Pigments was an EDM-focused synth, just that the marketing and most of the demos seemed to lean that way. My choice of wording perhaps wasn't the best.

I will check out some of those sound banks, thanks. I rely on presets to get an idea of what a synth can do but usually end up programming my own sounds.

Also thank you kgdrum, Tatiana Gordeeva, from_theashes for your feedback!


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