Arturia Pigments 2: Arturia's polychrome virtual synthesizer

Grigory Liadov

Pigments has a special place in Arturia's software range. Earlier instruments recreate legendary hardware from the last century. Pigments is a completely new synthesizer, with a powerful architecture, modern processing algorithms, and a convenient interface. Its varied, high-quality sound should appeal even to demanding musicians, producers, and sound designers. Arturia calls Pigments “polychrome”, or multicolored, to describe its wide range of sounds.

Pigments combines conventional analog-style oscillators with simple waveforms and more complex wavetable synthesis. Version two adds samples and granular synthesis. This combination provides many ways to create interesting sounds. A dual filter includes morphing. Almost any parameter can be modulated through a simple assignment process, with a clear display of changing values. Pigments also has spatial and dynamics effects, plus a built-in sequencer with randomization. These features set it apart from other synthesizers and help create distinctive sounds with a changing character.

Pigments runs standalone or as a VST, AAX, AU, or NKS plug-in. It uses Arturia's standard interface framework, including the usual settings, a short introduction to the main functions, and a store for additional presets. More than a thousand ready-made presets are organized by tags.

Two sound-engine sections select the oscillator types.

Analog mode provides three oscillators with sine, triangle, sawtooth, and square waves. The third oscillator can modulate the first two within the engine section. Drift randomly varies oscillator pitch with each new note within a selected range. This prevents repeated notes from sounding identical, or can make their pitch completely unpredictable. Voice count also changes smoothly, avoiding abrupt sound changes when this parameter is modulated.

Selecting Wavetable changes the ENGINE view to the chosen table and its modulation settings. More than 100 tables are supplied, and users can import their own waveforms. Some controls are familiar from earlier Arturia products. The main options include phase and frequency modulation, with waveform distortion according to the chosen algorithm. An additional modulator can use a waveform or noise as its source.

The third engine type plays loaded samples or uses them for granular synthesis. Many supplied samples are grouped by type and sound character, and users can load their own files. The small built-in sampler holds up to 6 samples. Depending on the configuration, these can play in sequence, randomly, under modulation control, as two layers, or across octave ranges.

Granular settings are straightforward. They control the amplitude envelope and its shape, duration, rate, depth, grain count, and randomization amount. A built-in modulator is available here too. All granular settings can also be assigned to other modulation sources.

The filter section has two separate filters with clear graphical feedback. Several filter types are available, each with its own interesting interface. Some come from earlier Arturia synthesizers; others are unique. For example, the powerful analog-style MultiMode filter has 12 low-pass, high-pass, and notch configurations with different slopes. It sounds musical. The filters can work in series, with continuous adjustment of their relative contribution, or in parallel for separate use and routing.

The lower part of the window is dedicated to modulation settings and routing. Assignments are simple and clearly displayed: select a source, then drag the desired knob. Sources sit in the center, colored by group. Each source's small window dynamically shows its changes.

There are many modulation sources beyond MIDI keyboard controls, conventional envelopes, and LFOs. Advanced generators create user-defined shapes and sequences, alongside randomizers. Three COMBINATE sources combine the output of two other modulation sources. Pigments offers impressive modulation while keeping operation simple and convenient.

Effects have a separate tab. There are three buses with three effects each. Buses can be routed in parallel or in series. A total of 14 effects offer good sound quality and convenient presets.

The built-in arpeggiator/step sequencer deserves special mention. Compared with conventional designs, its main strengths are flexible randomization and convenient editing.

The source describes five sequencer parameter tracks, covering pitch, octave, velocity, note probability, duration, and glide. Each track has its own randomization range. Random changes can be locked for individual steps. RANDOMIZE can also generate one fixed set of values for the whole sequence rather than changing them continuously during playback.

A sequence can run for up to 16 beats. Each parameter track can be shortened to a single step, with an adjustable delay before advancing to the next step. Swing and synchronization of the overall playback rate are also available.

Conclusions

We have covered the main Pigments features and highlighted the most interesting parts of this powerful, unusual instrument. It is an attractive synthesizer, thanks not only to its many features and convenient controls, but also to its high-quality, bright, modern sound. Its high processing demands deserve attention, but the result is worth it. Many sound examples are available on the Arturia website. A trial is also available for readers who prefer to adjust the controls and test the synthesizer themselves.

Note. This is an adapted machine translation into English. It follows the “In simple terms” approach. Read the original article at https://prosound.ixbt.com/soft/arturia-pigments.shtml.