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Arturia Pigments Soft Synth


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How could we have been totally silent about this? They had a bit of a teaser run up going the last week too:

 

https://www.arturia.com/products/analog-classics/pigments/overview#null

You want me to start this song too slow or too fast?

 

Forte7, Nord Stage 3, XK3c, OB-6, Arturia Collection, Mainstage, MotionSound KBR3D. A bunch of MusicMan Guitars, Line6 stuff

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I doubt anyone but you knew they'd finally made the actual announcement, what with the teaser and all, and people thinking it was going to be a hardware product as well.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Exactly. I doubt there will be much excitement for this product in these quarters. I'll take a look at the loyalty price when I get home tonight anyway, and listen to the demos.

 

I didn't get an email, but probably haven't updated my account yet, as I had almost 1000 to contact since late October when my old domain got sold, and have barely scratched the surface so far. A non-stop nightmare (undelivered bills, etc.).

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Exactly. I doubt there will be much excitement for this product in these quarters. I'll take a look at the loyalty price when I get home tonight anyway, and listen to the demos.

 

 

$69 is the price. I just checked it in my Arturia account. I have not checked out the instrument yet. You can also use it for free until January 10,

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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I suppose not a bad price for a brand new polysynth that is wavetable based. I don't really have a need, but I like Arturia as a company and they're good about customer support, so I might bite.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Reminds me A LOT of Serum. The presets don't knock me out like Serum, but I do like some of what I've heard, in particular, the tails on the some of the pads. Nicely programmed. At $69 I'll probably do it. Actually glad it's not another vintage recreation.

 

The UI is VERY good, IMO. The visuals look great and provide very useful real-time information. A modern, clean look from the king of skeuomorphism.

 

Busch.

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I'm surprised to hear Mark Schmeider feels Arturia is good about customer support. I've never heard that before. My own experience just two years ago was terrible, with two separate problems with a brand new Keylab. After an initial automated email response each time, I never got another response despite multiple subsequent emails to them. There is no company or technical support phone number whatsoever to call... no on line chat or anything other than the email. I was lucky after a few months to be in Sam Ash speaking with a salesman who gave me the number for his rep in the company and she did get a new Keylab sent to me, which also had problems and I went through the exact same frustrating sequence, except this time I had some trouble getting though to the rep after after giving tech support a couple of months. At the time, I was googling quite a bit, trying to see if I could get a phone number or trouble shoot some of the problems myself and came across a massive amount of complaints about Arturia support as well as the same problems I was having with the Keylab. Maybe things have changed.
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Dune 3 is another softsynth that has come out very recently.

 

I have to say, I normally don't care what name things I use have, but "pigments" is just...weird. Shallow, I know :D Not any worse I guess than the silly aggressive video game names like "Avenger" and "Serum".

 

Name aside, I just don't need what this offers. If anything, I need Repro for something that really sounds analog :) But that Zebra upgrade offer is very compelling (buy Zebra v2 now, upgrade to v3 when it comes out for 30 bucks...or also buy the Dark Zebra now and upgrade for free). Reading about v3, it's going to have Diva-or-better sound quality to go with the Zebra flexibility, might have to go that direction!

 

I'd then have Logic synths (Alchemy) + Zebra and maybe Repro too, that would pretty much cover a LOT of ground....decisions!

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Dune 3 is another softsynth that has come out very recently.

 

Snagged Dune 2 on sale just before this came out. It can sound absolutely HUGE and punchy. Dune 3 sounds even better to my ears. I'll be upgrading as soon as I'm out of the end-of-year spend frenzy.

 

As for Pigments, I had a brief encounter with the demo last night. The visual feedback on what's modifying what and how much? Super cool. Soundwise, it's not bringing anything to the table that I don't already have (in spades), but that's me.

I make software noises.
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I'm surprised to hear Mark Schmeider feels Arturia is good about customer support. I've never heard that before. .......

 

Maybe things have changed.

 

As Arturia has made significant headway in the VST world, they revamped their customer support. Like Mark, I have had no issues getting an answer from them.

 

Yes, in the "old" days, Arturia support was a joke. The first run of the original Keylabs were bad.

Something lit a fire under them , as the 2nd version of the original is solid. My original Keylab 61 Black Edition is going strong.

 

About a year ago I had a question about the firmware, so I emailed support thru the website. Due to the time zone difference, it took a day, but I did receive a reply with a good answer.

 

Like Mark, based on my experience the last two years, Arturia has been a good company.

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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Dune 3 is another softsynth that has come out very recently.

 

Snagged Dune 2 on sale just before this came out. It can sound absolutely HUGE and punchy. Dune 3 sounds even better to my ears. I'll be upgrading as soon as I'm out of the end-of-year spend frenzy.

 

As for Pigments, I had a brief encounter with the demo last night. The visual feedback on what's modifying what and how much? Super cool. Soundwise, it's not bringing anything to the table that I don't already have (in spades), but that's me.

 

Same, it sounds like a good product but I already have WT in that vein.

 

I've only used the CM version of dune 1, but it's very nice for certain things. My music doesn't call for "punchy" that much (maybe it should, it tends to be too sedate!) but Dune lends itself very well for pads/synth string stuff. I can only imagine that Dune 3 is quite the step up.

 

Soft synths are getting better year by year IMO, at least as far as sound quality. I demoed Repro and The Legend and I can't imagine how they'd be too much better in sound quality....I'm sure usability, cpu usage (lowering) and features are always something to work on.

 

 

 

 

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Like Mark, based on my experience the last two years, Arturia has been a good company.

That's good to hear. My problems with my Keylab continued into v2 but glad to hear it worked out for you. Just curious and sorry for the hijack, but do you use aftertouch? All three of the Keylabs I had, had a 1/2 second delay when applying pressure before the aftertouch message would actually send and whatever effect assigned would begin, which made it largely unusable for me.

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I just wish they would bring out an 88v2. I have little use for unweighted controllers. My first Keylab88 got 6years of cigaret ash dumped on it from a faulty AC unit. It totally destroyed the unit. I got another one a few years later, still mk1 (there is no mk2 yet), but I feel like the built is significantly better, I think they modified a bit of the interior design, and the paint doesn't come off the way my first one did.

 

I suspect they'll announce a new 88mk2 flagship at NAMM, but we'll wait and see. My only concern is that they'll use the new mk2 layout as it is which won't allow for a laptop tray, which is a HUGE selling point for me.

 

I'll have to give Pigments a look. I usually HAAAATE Arturia UI design, but it looks clean. I'm unsure if owning a keylab whether I'll get a discount or not, I don't own their V collection.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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Cool, it's $99 for me. Been thinking of getting Serum, but I REALLY need something with random LFOs or modulators, and Serum's design doesn't allow for that. I'm going to try it out, and if it grabs me, at that price it will be mine!

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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I certainly don't NEED this soft synth, but I was blown away by the demos when I finally listened tonight, and bought it right away at my $69 loyalty price. I've only had a bit of time with it, but I have no regrets over this purchase -- this is an amazing synth, even if easily dismissed as redundant for those who have other wavetable synths.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Oh, I'd get it despite the silly name and redundancy if it's good...but I really need to save for a live hardware board right now, grr...and Kontakt is something I'd really like to get, unfortunately a ton of really cool instruments out there require the full version.
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Due to some stability issues I'm having with PPG Wave 3.V, I may try to port some patches over to Pigments during the holiday week as a learning exercise as well as a valid comparison of their engines and features.

 

It may be that they aren't at all on par. It's also worth taking note that a real hardware reissue of the PPG Wave (or its successor) has been in the planning stages and or crowd-funding limbo, for some time now.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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  • 2 weeks later...

Arturia announced v1.1 of Pigments today:

 

Pigments just got better. Just a month after its release, our heroic software team have upgraded Pigments to version 1.1. Heres a few of the new features youll find in the update:

 

Poly Aftertouch now supported

Added a 6dB LPF and HPF slope mode to the Multimode Filter

New master tune control

Turing and Binary random sources now have reset trigger sources

Velocity and Keyboard curve editor in Keyboard tab

Computer keyboard can now be used as a MIDI input in standalone mode

15 new presets from Andrew Huang

Various bugfixes and workflow improvements

 

 

Updating is easy. Just open up the Arturia Software Center, and hit Update on Pigments.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Arturia has released v1.1 of Pigments, its new hybrid wavetable + virtual analog software synthesizer.

 

Heres whats new in Pigments 1.1:

 

Poly Aftertouch now supported

Added a 6dB LPF and HPF slope mode to the Multimode Filter

New master tune control

Turing and Binary random sources now have reset trigger sources

Velocity and Keyboard curve editor in Keyboard tab

Computer keyboard can now be used as a MIDI input in standalone mode

15 new presets from Andrew Huang

Various bugfixes and workflow improvements

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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  • 11 months later...

I still haven't had time to try the upgraded version.

 

One of my earlier goals was to see if I could port some PPG Wave patches into it, as my Waldorf soft synth was flaking, but then it started working well again after an update.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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I've been using Pigments 2.0 for a couple of weeks and liking it. Buckle up for some thumbnail sketches.

 

Many of the presets reek of EDM to me. Trends drive instrument design too much. Its up to me to turn it into my own best version of Pigments, of course. Its not instant-grat like some synths. The mix is almost baffling, with gorgeous pads next to utterly trashable show-off effects, a standard FM bass and then a powerful, liquid lead. There's more vanilla than expected, but what's good is a bouquet of keepers.

 

There is a GUI commonality across Serum, Falcon, Hive and many others because that's how you do The Wavetable Stuff. Its pragmatic. With Pigments, its easy to click between all of the main playing fields. Thumbs up for Minimal Manual Need, especially if you're an old analog warthog like me.

 

The CPU meter in the lowest right corner is welcome. The graphics no doubt eat up CPU cycles, but its less intrusive than I'd imagined. I'll probably freeze a track or three of it at times. It sits in the middle range, not as slim a hit as PM synths, but a lot less than some big streaming honker.

 

With the animated mod routing strip in the middle, clicking on any field causes the controls to appear in the lower third of the screen. It makes for a smooth work flow.

 

I had no wavetable synth proper and I wanted a flavor of VA apart from the MonoPoly. Pigments handles both well. The former is covering a lot of the additive/FM/single-cycle wave area with class. The VA side is much more 'squirty'-capable than I had expected, although its best analog moment is still understandably clean. Its crawling with great filter variations.

 

The granular side is new to me, but its pretty easy to approach. Its an odd mix of rich pads and glitch, but it seems well-appointed. You can choose a slice and forward/backward scan it at the speed you like. I look forward to parsing it.

 

You can drop WAV files into Pigments and it will resynthesize them into formatted wavetables. Usefulness TBD, as the existing options are plentiful. I'm still pinning down the best presets to dissect. It was a practical, incremental buy more than an inspired one, but I'm gratified by the bang-for-buck.

 

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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