nitrateaudio
Active Member
good update. works well and lots of improvements.and free too.
Arturia Pigments 5
- Thread starter Pier
- Start date
ptram
Senior Member
I want Pigments each time it appears on offer. It's the most eye-candy of the serious synths.
However, I already have MassiveX and Largo for wavetable, Strylight for granular, and a ton of other things for virtual analog.
Is there a particular reason I should want Pigments as an additional tool?
Paolo
However, I already have MassiveX and Largo for wavetable, Strylight for granular, and a ton of other things for virtual analog.
Is there a particular reason I should want Pigments as an additional tool?
Paolo
Last edited:
Bee_Abney
How long have I been out?
Don't underestimate the value of the pretty colours. It is quite cheery.
Workflow is a major reason. You can do a lot of different things easily in Pigments; saving them as presets, going back to tinker and so on.
Then there is the sound, if you like it. It doesn't sound like the three instruments you mentioned.
And lastly, something I think you might like, is that you can import new wavetables. You can't do that with MassiveX or Largo. And with Pigments, you can even play any sample as a wavetable. It won't work that well on most samples; but it can sound great. But you can also find, buy or create custom wavetables.
Workflow is a major reason. You can do a lot of different things easily in Pigments; saving them as presets, going back to tinker and so on.
Then there is the sound, if you like it. It doesn't sound like the three instruments you mentioned.
And lastly, something I think you might like, is that you can import new wavetables. You can't do that with MassiveX or Largo. And with Pigments, you can even play any sample as a wavetable. It won't work that well on most samples; but it can sound great. But you can also find, buy or create custom wavetables.
Crowe
part raven, part troll
It's shiny?
But uhm, Sample and wavetable import, FX processing, brilliant sequencer and many, many options.
AnhrithmonGelasma
Senior Member
I demoed Pigments a bit last night, and the answer seems to be all of them. In MPE mode M1 is set to Slide/Timbre/Y axis by default, and was already mapped to parameters in every preset I tested. When I asked about this before (before Pigments 5, that is) I was told that Slide had no default mapping, so this is probably new. It's extremely convenient and seems to be working well in all the presets I've tried so far. And I'm generally liking the sound of them more than I expected (from the Youtube demos I'd heard---not sure how much of the difference is Youtube audio quality and how much is playing style).
Is it possible to record midi from the sequencer?
Bee_Abney
How long have I been out?
Yes, if you are sending it to another instrument track, you can record the pressed keys on the Pigments tracks and the sequence on the other track.
Ger
New Member
Well, I love it´s MPE capabilities, which really brings it to life in my opionion ... So if you also have some MPE capable input device, Pigments really shines and opens up in this field (if you are in for something like this ...)
PJMorgan
Active Member
No the plugin was asking me to sign in to authorise (which was previously done) & was just giving me a sign in error so it would only work for 20 mins in demo mode. It may have had something to do with me disabling the Arturia apps from starting up at login as I disabled startup apps last week that I didn't need running at login. I don't really know because just after I enabled the apps at login & restarted the Arturia server was back online & the plugin & software center was working again.
Bee_Abney
How long have I been out?
I think you may be right. I remember having the same issue when I disabled something at login once. I can't remember if it was Arturia, but it was definitely a plugin authoriser.
PJMorgan
Active Member
Yes just disabled again to see if the ASC was the culprit & indeed it was. I know UA Connect (for UAD plugins) is meant to run at login because the icon is right there in the menu bar. ASC seems to run at login as a background service.
Anyway getting back on topic here, I've demoed Pigments 4 & thought it was pretty good but didn't think it had much more to offer than the other synth plugins I have (Phase Plant, Serum, Hive 2, Ace, Bazille, Vital, Surge XT) I know shame on me for not yet owing Zebra.
My budget isn't really there for a new synth yet but I'll take a look to see what version 5 has to offer. I can get it for €69 until 13th Feb which is a pretty good price but I think I might be a bit synthed out...
jbuhler
Senior Member
Yes, this. Pigments is the first softsynth that I’ve used where the workflow and signal flow have really made visual sense to me in an analogous way that hardware synths often make those things viscerally apparent. So with most softsynths I’m basically a preset surfer making at best modest tweaks. But with Pigments I have much easier time getting my head around a patch to rework ii and I find it much more straightforward to design my own patches.
What version of Logic are you using? Mine is 10.7.9 and the sidechain option is missing too from the Pigments plugin window. Sidechaning works with other synth plugins though. There is a chance an update of Pigments will fix this.Yeah I indeed had a bug of sorts where that button would not show up on the pigments plugin specifically. Rescanning plugin parameters for pigments and deleting a certain file did not work, but unfortunately I tried a complete reinstall of Logic Pro and that did fix the issue... but at what cost. Currently setting up my key commands and custom logic preferences again.
MonsieurBasile
Member
10.7.9 here as well. You’re right in that it could be a fix pushed out by Arturia in the future. But yes, reinstalling Logic Pro, although that really isn’t an option for many, fixed the issue for me and it appears now.
VannKraken
In [music] therapy
I just got Pigments 4 last fall on sale as my first synth outside of those that come with Cubase (it was recommended by a colleague). I have to say for an investment that's less than 1/5 of Omnisphere, it has been a great tool for me to start out with.
There are a ton of presets that come stock, which I have supplemented with the free testers from Tom Wolfe (about to buy my first pack from him) and a huge Biome pack from Vicious Antelope that I spent about $15 on that has helped me find lots of suitable patches for the hybrid orchestral stuff I have been writing so far.
When I am ready to start working on my own presets or modifying existing ones, the tools under the hood also seem pretty straightforward to work with, too.
Getting free upgrades is like the cherry on top. Very happy with Pigments so far!
There are a ton of presets that come stock, which I have supplemented with the free testers from Tom Wolfe (about to buy my first pack from him) and a huge Biome pack from Vicious Antelope that I spent about $15 on that has helped me find lots of suitable patches for the hybrid orchestral stuff I have been writing so far.
When I am ready to start working on my own presets or modifying existing ones, the tools under the hood also seem pretty straightforward to work with, too.
Getting free upgrades is like the cherry on top. Very happy with Pigments so far!
Good that it worked out for you. I will wait and see.
AnhrithmonGelasma
Senior Member
I'm finding I like what some of the presets do with the Harmonic (additive synthesis) engine... but apparently you can only have two of the non-utility engines active at once, so for example no simultaneous wavetable + harmonic + granular. Now that they've added multicore support for better cpu performance IDK why they don't allow for more simultaneous engines. I like being able to use six different engines of any type simultaneously in Equator2---but it doesn't have an additive synthesis engine. (OTOH Synthmaster 3 does and I'll probably be upgrading to that soon from Synthmaster 2.)
Opening Pigments up like Phase Plant might be even better but I'd guess it would require a lot more coding to redo the architecture.
Opening Pigments up like Phase Plant might be even better but I'd guess it would require a lot more coding to redo the architecture.
OP
OP
Pier
Senior Member
It's weird Arturia hasn't released a "super synth" considering all the DSP they have at their disposal.
