Pigments is mind-blowingly excellent

Software Instruments Pigments
#1

I just wanted to offer some feedback from my initial experience with Pigments 4, acquired two days ago. I hope this post doesn’t sound too extreme, but I am profoundly impressed by what the developers of Pigments have accomplished.

As a bit of background, I started experimenting with musique concrète in 1954, when I was a kid, by breaking and splicing segments of wire from my dad’s wire recorder. So I was a virtual contemporary of Pierre Schaeffer, although I was too young to know it. Since then I’ve explored all kinds of sound design and synthesis, crude home-made circuits, modified home organs, Bob Moog’s first modules, Wavestations & Wavestates, endless experiments in Reaktor, and the best software designs from Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Steinberg, and others. And as a software architect & coder for many years, my favorite area was user interface design.

I’m delighted to say that Pigments is the most beautifully designed and conceived soft synth I’ve ever seen or used. There are a lot of excellent synths out there, some of which are extraordinarily appealing – and even usable – but Pigments continually amazes me with the intelligence and elegance of its entire structure and presentation.

The completeness and thoughtfulness of all the user conveniences throughout Pigments, even in the functionality of the patch manager mode, are wonderfully friendly and useful while also being consistent, clean, and visually appealing. The synth itself, and its design and layout, is downright beautiful. But the aesthetic appeal isn’t just layout – every conceivable parameter is intelligently animated and visualized, far more usefully than any other synth I’ve used. The modulation management system is unique, and affords multiple self-explanatory ways to create, edit, and review even very complex assignments – I’ve never seen mod management even close to this level of usability.

The designers and programmers responsible for this evolving masterpiece deserve the highest praise for such a rich and accessible sonic playground. I am blown away, and I’m still discovering not just new layers of functionality, but new ways in which the holistic design brilliantly anticipates the sound designer’s usability needs.

Congratulations on creating a best-in-class tool for artists that is in itself an artistic masterpiece. I look forward to its continuing evolution and refinement, and I hope that Arturia can remain independent and thriving in the challenging world of mergers and consolidations. Thanks for packing so much care and quality into one (reasonably priced) monster synth.

My best to everyone involved,

Allen

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#2

I’ve had Pigments4 for about 5 months now, and I have to agree with you – it was and still is one of my very top synths, used in almost everything, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of all the content available for it.

I’ve been seeking and collecting software (and now hardware) synths for over 20 years, and I’ve played every great software synth that exists with almost zero exceptions. I still havent purchased UVI Falcon because its super expensive and Im not 100% sold on it, but that is the ONLY strong synth I havent touched. Pigments is instantly in the very top 1% of those synths, offering a GIGANTIC sound palette and many powerful features.

I, too, VERY MUCH hope that Arturia remains independent, or independent ENOUGH to continue to make quality software and hardware, as they do, and I also see the many industry brands moving in a dubious direction. CoughSoundwide/NICough.

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#3

Honestly, I’ve had Pigments since 2021, and since then, it’s become my drug of choice!

The ideal fusion came with I adopted Analog Labs V which makes it relatively easy to create hybrids of Pigments with other Arturia V synths, opening incredible sonic potential.

The power and flexibility just feels limitless.

Just keeping it💯

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#4

I just spent an hour exploring modulators and routings. In almost any other synth it would have taken four times as long to make all the settings I worked with, and the process would have been … opaque at best. With Pigments, it was fun and largely self-explanatory – a visual experience instead of trying to navigate long lists of sources and destinations (e.g., one of my all-time favorites, Omnisphere). Considering that I’ve only used Pigments for a few days, the learning curve was pretty comfortable.

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#5

Can you explain more on how you do that? Would love to know how! Bought the V collection 9 just days ago, but seems this is a feature I had missed out on, when it comes to Analog Lab V.

#6

I didn’t actually do anything. Analog Labs V recognized all the Arturia software licences associated with my account and my hardware DAW. When I updated my account email earlier today, I did have to resynchronize my licences with the Arturia Software Center app, and Analog Labs V, Pigments and Augmented Brass for some odd reason needed me to re-Activate my licences apart from ASC.

I’m going to study Analog Labs manual to see if there was a setting I accidentally had turned on that made it automagically capture my other Arturia apps. If I learn anything useful, I’ll get back to you.

#7

I may have misunderstood this part. I thought you were basically saying that it was possible to BLEND two instruments together, as to make a third instrument(hybrid) from the BLENDING/MIXING of the two. (ex: Pigments blended with Augmented Strings).

I define “hybrid” as “a new thing made by combining two different elements”.

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#8

Yes, I discovered hybrid blend presets in Analog Labs V and have been slowly figuring out how to create new ones instead of extremely modifying the ones I found. Here’s a link to the manual in English https://dl.arturia.net/products/analoglab-v/manual/AnalogLab-V_Manual_5_3_EN.pdf

Update
I first noticed what Arturia labels as Hybrid Presets after purchasing the _V Collection 9
Here is one of several examples.
Note the layer symbol, that I put a fuchsia coloured circle around. I wish Analog Labs had a switch that automagically reveals all Hybrid presets like the one for User created presets

arturia_hybrid_00
arturia_hybrid_002302×1131 262 KB

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#9

Ohh, so I got it right the first time around! great stuff!
I’ll read that PDF, thanks for sharing! And see if I can figure out that stuff there - sure looks interesting!
Thanks for the share!

I’m glad I asked you that question!

Well, you may also update this post if you find out more about the accidental setting, that did things automagically, that is also interesting!

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#10

I made this into a feature request for a Hybrid filter switch that works like the User preset filter switch. I also requested a detailed tutorial on building these Hybrids. Hopefully, these can be toggled from the controller during a live performance.

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#11

I’m 27 and I’ve never owned a physical synth, or had a friend who had one, so I always struggled with software synths that tried to emulate the analog interface of a real one. Pigments is the first softsynth that I enjoyed making my own patches with, and I love that the interface has been designed for a computer user in mind. The modulation assignment is especially impressive.

2 Likes
#12

“I’m 27”
Lucky you! :older_woman:

I discovered midi in the 90’s. My firsts synths were used Esq1 and VFX (Arturia SQ80), DX7. Used but never programmed!
I bought one the first Evolver by Dave Smith.

There are so many great Pigments presets that one can tweak.

I think what is called “hybrid” in the discussion is what Arturia calls a “multi”. It will appear as an Instrument in AL, as a multi.
A multi’s type can then be called hybrid, string ensemble, sequence, choir, etc.

4 Likes
#13

I just wanna chime in and say that I’m having so much fun programing my own sounds in Pigments. I love learning how all the various synths in the V Collection work. But I find that I can often figure out a way to get what’s in my head realized in Pigments quicker than I can in synths that are perhaps simpler. There is something about how Pigments is designed that makes sense for my Guitar Player brain. I spend much more time in Pigments than any other synth. I’m so glad I purchased it.

Morris

1 Like
#14

I like the way you can change the colours of the GUI. You can make Engine 1 a different colour to Engine 2 so you can easily see at a glance which one you’re editing.

#15

Thank you so much for these kind words Allen.

Pigments is the fruit of a huge collective effort made by passionate people who daily infused their work with love.

Pigments is doing well indeed, it’s getting more and more mature, pleasant to use, and efficient. We keep and will continue improving it, keeping a close attention to its overall complexity, as we want musicians to remain efficient in their workflow and not being overwhelmed by infinite possibilities & settings.

Of course, thanks to this new forum we keep an eye to what people want.
So feel free to post what you miss the most / what feels frustrating, it helps !

Thanks again for the love, it’s definitely boosting our motivation. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Edouard, Product manager on Pigments.

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#16

Pigments is mind blowing excellent. i can second that!

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#17

I will third that :slight_smile: The possibilities in Pigments are huge! I’m looking forward to seeing it grow further!

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#18

Hi :smiley:
I agree with all of you

I started testing Pigments 3 and without a doubt it became one of my favorite synths by far and when version 4 arrived I practically started using it in almost all my productions.

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#19

hi greg. nice to meet you here. :grinning:

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#20

Great to see all the love for Pigments!
It IS an amazing instrument and is only likely to get even better :heart_eyes:

1 Like