2024.. pigments 5.. dune 3.. and sequencer/sound capabilities (arp/sequencer, stepic/pigments/dune??)

[avid_d]

I will. I started playing around with it.. and I am like.. I suck. Maybe I am just not rhythmic lol. But it was a very cursory glance at it. I'll watch the videos to get more ideas and try to figure out what sounds work with it. The one thing I was really interested in is that one click midi learn for the automation lane stuff.. not sure I was doing it right though. Couldn't tell if the numbers on the far right were CC values because I am pretty sure various synths respond to some CC channels built in, so not sure if you say, turn the number to 7 (which I vaguely recall is volume?) if you just right click and do Learn CC on the synth knob/fader/etc or what. I did see it start to work but wasn't quite sure what the heck I did. I'll keep playing with it though. Looks pretty powerful.

As been said by others here, I would recommend that you go slowly - perhaps concentrate on the note and octave lanes to begin with. Also, if you want to use the random features, I found it easier initially to get some reasonable patterns by going into the settings section and limiting the range of the random generation. (I began by limiting it to just two octaves and looked to build some Berlin School style bass lines.)

A nice feature of Stepic is using its ability to generate chords rather than just individual notes. I found this a nice way of beginning to get to grips with the random elements of the lanes.

 

[beuwolf]

Yup. But I am dying to learn how to use the automation lanes and attach it to synth LFOs, etc. That's where you get those very cool sweeping and changing sounds over time. I kinda got that working but dont really understand how its doing what it does yet. I want to know exactly what I am doing.. e.g. manually change some knob that makes it sound cool.. then apply that to automation and know how to configure that over time, etc. But all in due time.

 

[cuttime]

Yes. But do not pay that $ amount and wait for a sale! $99 sounds way better, no? There are sales regularly.

Also:

For the life of me, I cannot get Pigments to publish MIDI outs. I'm on P5 right now and I use MIDI Monitor or ShowMIDI for diagnostics and various DAWS as hosts. Both AUs and VST3s. If I could actually get some MIDI out from Pigments, I think I could suss the routing. On an M1 Mac Studio. The Google tells me I'm not alone.

 

[beuwolf]

Not sure if this is correct.. but I was curious to see how our AI lords would respond: https://gemini.google.com/ OK.. so I tried a pre canned link.. didnt work.. so if you use the gemini google AI.. and ask it how Pigments 5 gets MIDI out it will give you a response. Not sure if its accurate though lol.

 

[avid_d]

Yup. But I am dying to learn how to use the automation lanes and attach it to synth LFOs, etc. That's where you get those very cool sweeping and changing sounds over time. I kinda got that working but dont really understand how its doing what it does yet. I want to know exactly what I am doing.. e.g. manually change some knob that makes it sound cool.. then apply that to automation and know how to configure that over time, etc. But all in due time.

I see.

Using Stepic's midi cc control is not something I have used that much, even though I took some time at the start to set up the mapping with some of my VST synths. My ageing mind found it easier to keep a track of everything by sticking to either the modulation functionality within a synth, or using Bitwig modulators. Also, I often use the same instance of Stepic being sent to several different synths at the same time, so just having Stepic generating notes, velocity, length etc is more than enough for my brain cells.

You clearly have the potential and desire to do far more with it. Have fun.

 

[yydr_cc]

Not sure if it was mentioned here but @Sample logic has a standalone arp but it's a buggy piece of crap and way overpriced. And there's no demo and no refunds. So you have to buy it to see if it's going to work in your DAW. Stepic is vastly superior and much lower price, so why bother? I can't think of anything the Samplelogic piece of crap does that Stepic doesn't.

Animation Station is a big disappointment until you run multiple instances feeding into multiple instances of the same instrument eg a couple of tracks with the same or complimentary instrument on each track each track being fed by its own instance of Animation Station. The trick is to have different settings for each instance of Animation Station, set to different lengths and various levels of density. That can get some good results. I still wouldnt recommend it tho

 

[Arksun]

I concur. As much as I love Dune, the SEQ is arguably it's main weak point, especially compared to Pigments brilliant SEQ/ARP, however this certainly doesn't seem to limit Kevin Schroeder.

You could also argue Dunes arp is better in many ways too, because it can be assigned specifically to any of the 8 layers(Voices) and there's 2 of them, so you can have 2 different sparkly patterns sitting on top of long held notes underneath. Plus the Arps have 3 modulation sources for other things

 

[jobinho]

You could also argue Dunes arp is better in many ways too, because it can be assigned specifically to any of the 8 layers(Voices) and there's 2 of them, so you can have 2 different sparkly patterns sitting on top of long held notes underneath. Plus the Arps have 3 modulation sources for other things

I much prefer Dune's arp to Pigments which I find to be rather lacking. As you say, there's no assignable modulation which is huge, but also very few play modes, no chord mode for polyphonic repeats. Dune's arp crams in many more useful features and there's two of them for syncopated rhythms. Dune has 64 steps vs Pigments 16 from memory, really no comparison, for my needs at least.

Omnisphere has a great arp too with a large intuitive interface. It does humanizing and has even more play modes than Dune.

 

[Pier]

As you say, there's no assignable modulation which is huge

Velocity?

 

[Arksun]

I much prefer Dune's arp to Pigments which I find to be rather lacking. As you say, there's no assignable modulation which is huge, but also very few play modes, no chord mode for polyphonic repeats. Dune's arp crams in many more useful features and there's two of them for syncopated rhythms. Dune has 64 steps vs Pigments 16 from memory, really no comparison, for my needs at least.

Omnisphere has a great arp too with a large intuitive interface. It does humanizing and has even more play modes than Dune.

If one were to combine the best aspects of Omni, Pigments and Dunes Seq/ARP together, it would be absolutely perfect

 

[pete_crum]

If one were to combine the best aspects of Omni, Pigments and Dunes Seq/ARP together, it would be absolutely perfect

Slightly OT: Fantastic job on Equilibrium and the recently-released Equilibrium 2 sound sets. A nice variety of cool, interesting, usable sounds in those!

 

[Arksun]

Slightly OT: Fantastic job on Equilibrium and the recently-released Equilibrium 2 sound sets. A nice variety of cool, interesting, usable sounds in those!

Thank you so much, means a lot!

 

[vitocorleone123]

BlueArp is free and also worth having.
That said, I'll be getting Stepic soon enough.

Scaler 2 is also worth having (to me), though Studio One 6.6 broke it until it's updated later this month.

 

[MLaudio]

As some others have mentioned, the big thing Dune has over Pigments is the ability to layer two unique ARP sounds over multiple other textures. This makes it WAY more flexible when building patches. The layer system, similar to Rapid's, is a lot of fun.

And Dune just sounds better as well Had to throw that in.