Pigments - Quick tour
The result of 20 years of analog emulation and musical instrument crafting expertise.
Pigments is a crossbreed of true analog emulation TAE© mixed with complex digital engines, featuring practically infinite modulation and sequencing possibilities.
Let's have a closer look at its features.
Each engine can either be a Complex Wavetable oscillator, or a virtual analog TAE© triple oscillator based on some of the world’s most famous analog synth design.
You can adjust the mix of each engine output to Filter 1 or Filter 2 with the Filter Mix knob
Wavetable
Wavetable panel
From this panel, you can select between a wide
variety of carefully curated wavetables.
Each wavetable are split between 2 to 256 slices, which can be
played back individually or in a morphed fashion.
The playback position is controlled by the Position potentiometer.
Waveform Modulations
The Wavetable modulation panel lets you explore
creative waveshaping possibilities thanks to advanced modulation, including:
Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation, Phase Distortion and Wavefolding.
Unisson & Chord mode
The unison parameter lets you duplicate and detune the
oscillator signal to create a chorus and a wide stereo effect.
Classic mode: Duplicates the signal to up to 8 voices.
Chord mode: Duplicates and tunes the signal to create chords.
(Octave,
5th, minor, m7, m9, Major, 7, M7, M9, 6/9, sus2, sus4.)
Analog
Analog Oscillator 1 and 2 
This panel lets you adjust oscillator 1 and 2
parameters such as their waveform, width, volume, tuning or hard sync.
This
part of the engine also features a noise generator with different filtering
possibilities, letting you blend through White, Blue and Red noise.
Oscillator 3 and Modulation
Similar to Osc1 and 2, Oscillator 3 can also be
used as a modulation source to create FM.
In the Modulation panel, raising the Amount knob will modulate oscillator 1
and 2 frequency.
You can crossfade the modulation source between OSC3 and the Noise
generator.
Analog Oscillators Drift
The Drift parameter progressively randomizes the pitch
by a small amount, which can make your synth sound more natural or fatten
chords.
Tuning and Quantize
Tune:
The Coarse knob lets you tune the engine
chromatically (+/-60st), and the Fine knob lets you fine tune your pitch (+/-100cts).
Quantize:
Lets you restain the engine to a defined scaled when its coarse
pitch is modulated.
This is very useful to create generative music.
Filter 1
Filter 2
Filter Modes
MultiMode:
Pigments' signature filter.
Offering 12 modes,
between -12 to -36 dB/Octave slopes.
SEM:
One of the most popular analog filters.
Available in
all of its multi-mode glory.
Matrix 12:
Faithful reproduction of the Matrix 12 Filter.
The Oberheim flagship synthesizer.
Mini:
Undoubtedly the world's most famous filter.
The iconic
24 dB/octave Ladder filter.
Surgeon:
This is an extremely steep filter (64 dB/octave).
Featuring
several interesting Modes.
Comb:
Filter adding a delayed version of the input signal to
itself.
Phaser:
Processes the sound with an adjustable number
harmonic peaks and notches.
Formant:
Mimics the human speech resonances.
Filters Rooting
The filters can be placed in:
Serie:
Blend:
Parallel:
Note 1: If Filters 1 and 2 are placed in series and panned to the opposite extremes (Filter 1 hard left, Filter 2 hard right, or vice versa), no audio signal will be heard from Filter 1.
Note 2: If Filters 1 and 2 are 100% in series and the Filter 2 volume is at zero, no audio signal will be heard at all, even if the filters are bypassed.
It is composed of three elements.
Amp Mod
You can even modulate this amount with another modulation source.
Note: When the amount is
set to 0, the sound will always play at its maximum level. When set to
the maximum, the volume will be fully dependent of it's modulation
parameter.
Voice Pan and Send Level
Send Level controls how much signal will be sent to the Send Bus. (FX Return)
Note: Both
parameters can be automated with modulation, letting you create very
interesting effects.
Let’s take a look at them in more detail.
Overview Mode
In this mode:
- Clicking on a modulation source name opens the Assign view.
- Clicking on the visualisation opens the corresponding Modulation panel.
Assign and Edit Mode
- Assign the selected modulation source to this destination parameter.
- Define an amount of modulation.
Note: You can also side chain your modulations from the modulation strip, by selecting a side chain source and defining an amount of sidechain.
Modulation Sources View
3 x Envelopes
This section is made up of 3 customizable envelopes. Featuring deep controls on their time and curves, Env 1 is pre-assigned to the VCA and triggered by the keyboard, the two others can be triggered by any other source.
3 x LFOs
The LFOs can be formed of pure sine waves, passing through twisted asymmetrical saws, up to random sharp or smoothed squares. Each LFO can be retriggered from any modulation source.
3 x Functions
The triple function generator lets you draw and
shape complex patterns of up to 64 points that can be triggered once or even
looped. Furthermore, a bank of function presets is available, with the option
to save your own sketches.
Need inspiration? Use the regen
function to randomise the position of your points.
Turing
Sample & Hold
Binary
2 x Combinators
Combinate allows to merge two modulation
sources.
Different mathematical operations are available, which
can dramatically change the overall result.
Keyboard
All the standard MIDI messages sent by keyboards can be used as modulation source, such as the notes, velocity, aftertouch, modwheel and expression pedal.
Macros
Macros are four unipolar knobs that can be assigned any number of modulation routings and even to an incoming MIDI message like a controller, acting like dozens of extra pairs of hands.
Each effect bus has 3 effects slots on which you can insert any of the available modules.
To modify the order of your effect chain, you can move an effect from one slot to another with a simple drag & drop.
FX Busses A & B
These work exactly the same as inserts on a mixer bus.
FX Send Bus
It works as an auxiliary send on a mixer.
Note:
If you lower the volume of the A
and B
Busses, no audio will be heard at all, except the signal sent to the FX
send
Multi Filter
Param EQ
Compressor
Disto/Overdrive
Wavefolder
BitCrusher
Chorus
Flanger
Phaser
Stereo Pan
Delay
Reverb
The only track that is not used by the Arpeggiator is the pitch.
6 x Tracks
Pitch
Tune each step, and even use scales in conjunction
with
randomness.
Octave
Each step of the Octave track can be set to a value
within the range of +/- 2 octaves.
Velocity
Set a velocity value for each step. When "As
played"
is set to 0, the input MIDI notes velocity will be ignored at the
expense
of the sequencer notes.
Trig Probability:
Determines if a given step will be
played or
not.
0% = Never / 100% = Always.
Gate Length
Adjust how long the step is played.
From
5%
to 400%.
Slide
Controls the speed at which the pitch value of the
current step will transition from the pitch value of the preceding
step.
Randomize
You can set how much the randomisation will affect the step values with the dice percentage on each track. Then randomize your step values with the Regen button or the auto regen.
Polyrythm
Create syncopated rhythms by defining a different length to each track.