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Pigments

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.

Audio Generation and Shaping

Please check below what composes Pigments audio path.

The Engines

Pigments is equipped with three sound generators called Engines.
Each engine can either be a Complex Wavetable oscillator, a Virtual Analog TAE© triple oscillator or a Sampling and Granular engine.

Virtual Analog triple oscillator engine

Our award-winning work in analog emulation lets you choose from the best sounding components from the best synths ever made. Sine, saw, triangle, and square waves each with their own adjustable parameters.

NEW in V2 Analog engine unison

NEW in V2 FM assignable per oscillator

Complex Wavetable engine

Pigments is equipped with an advanced wavetable synth engine. Choose from over 100 wavetables or import your own, select any waveform snapshot, or morph between them. Explore limitless shaping possibilities with Frequency Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation, Phase Distortion and Wavefolding.

NEW in V2 Sampling and Granular engine

Browse hundreds of samples create the basis for your sound, or import your own. Render any sample into a granular synth patch with the touch of a button, and warp, contort, stretch, and modulate your samples like never before.

The Filters

After creating your sound with the synth engines, Pigments sends the audio signal to two slots which contain our best analog filters emulations, alongside brand new filters designs.

Filter 1

Filter 2

Filter Modes

Formant
Mimics the human speech resonances.

Phaser
Processes the sound with an adjustable number harmonic peaks and notches.

Comb
Filter adding a delayed version of the input signal to itself.

Matrix 12
Faithful reproduction of the Matrix 12 Filter.
The Oberheim® flagship synthesizer.

MultiMode
Pigments' signature filter.
Offering 12 modes, between -12 to -36 dB/Octave slopes.

Surgeon
This is an extremely steep filter (64 dB/octave).
Featuring several interesting Modes.

Mini
Undoubtedly the world's most famous filter.
The iconic 24 dB/octave Ladder filter.

LowPassGate
NEW in V2
Modelisation of the classic vactrol VCA/Filter with different operation modes and time settings.

SEM
One of the most popular analog filters.
Available in all of its multi-mode glory.

Filters Rooting

These parameters let you adjust the rooting of the filters by clicking in the middle of the semi-circle and dragging the cursor up and down.
The filters can be placed in:

Serie:

In series, the output of Filter 1 is fed directly into the input of Filter 2.

Blend:

It's also possible to create a blend of both the series and parallel filter routings.

Parallel:

In parallel, each filter routes to the output separately.

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.

The Output

Before the signal passes to the effects busses, the last link of the audio chain is called the output.
It is composed of three elements.

Amp Mod

The Amp Mod parameter lets you select which parameters controls the amplitude of the output signal.
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

Voice Pan lets you set the default stereo position of the output.

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.

Modulations

The modulation capabilities of Pigments truly set it apart from other software instruments.
Let’s take a look at them in more detail.

The Modulation Strip

Overview Mode

In overview, the modulation strip lets you visualise the active modulation sources.
In this mode:

Clicking on a modulation source name opens the Assign view.
Clicking on the visualisation opens the corresponding Modulation panel.

Once assigned to a destination, the modulation sources are highlighted, and their current value is represented in real time.

Assign and Edit Mode

Click the name of a modulation source to access this mode:

After clicking on it, the modulation strip will let you see each mod routing assigned to the various modulation source, with further details such as the destinations, amounts and side chains.

Once in this mode, click and drag up or down the ring surrouding a potentiometer will:

Assign the selected modulation source to this destination parameter.
Define an amount of modulation.

The amount can then be modified directly from the control, or from the modulation strip.

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

When hovering a control with your mouse, you will notice that a (+) appears.

Click on this (+) to enable the Modulation Sources View.

This view lets you see which, and how much the modulations are affecting the selected parameter, and lets you edit these modulation amounts.

The Modulation Sources

As Pigments' modulation possibilities are practically unlimited, it would be impractical to show you every way they can be used to shape your sound. However, see below the available modulation sources:

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

The Turing machine generates and loops randomness. Length controls the size of the loop. Flip controls the probability of value changes.

Sample & Hold

A enhanced standard. Instead of sampling noise, you can sample any source, pick any retrigger source, smooth the Rise or Fall and more.

Binary

A binary generator that includes controls to adjust the predictability of the outcome. Such as the probability, correlation and rate control.

3 x Combinators

Combinate allows to merge two modulation sources.
Different mathematical operations are available, which can dramatically change the overall result.

NEW in V2 Remap algorythm

NEW in V2 Third combinate available

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.

NEW in V2 MPE Support

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.

Effect Processing

Refine your sound and reach the perfection with high quality effects.

The FX Busses

Pigments is equipped with three effect busses to process your sound: FX Bus A, FX Bus B, and Send FX Bus.
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

The FX Busses 1 and 2 are the last part of the audio chain before the output.
These work exactly the same as inserts on a mixer bus.

These can either be rooted in series, reverse series or parallel, thanks to the Bus A/B Routing knob.

FX Send Bus

The FX send bus is not an insert on the output.
It works as an auxiliary send on a mixer.

The signal is duplicated and sent to the bus with the Send level. Once processed, it is reinjected at the very end of the audio chain.

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

The Effect Modules

Now we’ll cover the individual effects found in Pigments.

Multi Filter

Filter with multiple types and slopes.

Param EQ

5-band full parametric EQ with frequency, gain and Q.

Compressor

Essential dynamic-shaping and peak-taming processor.

Disto/Overdrive

Two flavours of saturation with a distortion and an overdrive.

Wavefolder

Folds the peaks of input waveforms to create richer harmonics.

BitCrusher

Bit depth reduction with a range of 16-bit to 1.50 bits, with wide sample rate reduction options.

Chorus

Classic, sweet pitch effect, capable of serious wobble.

Flanger

Metallic pitch effect with many tonal adjustments and sync options.

Phaser

The classic sweeping swirl underwater effect.

Stereo Pan

Moves the sound left/right with definable depth, rate, and sync options.

Delay

Repeat the input signal with adjustable time, tone, stereo width, ping-pong, and sync options.

Reverb

Provides spaciousness ranging from small room to large hall.

NEW in V2

Tape Delay

Analog modeled tape delay effect with adjustable time, fine tuning, intensity, stereo width, ping-pong, and sync options

Sequencer & Arpeggiator

Add life to your melodies with a fluid workflow, syncopated rhythms and subtle random generation capabilities.

The Tracks

The sequencer and arpeggiator are sharing different tracks dedicated to several functions.
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.

Randomization and Polyrhythm

Never get bored of your sequences! Pigments lets you add some randomness and rhythmic syncopation to your sequences and arpeggios.

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.

NEW in V2 Lock colums to prevent randomisation on specific steps.

NEW in V2 Randomness is now applied in a non-destructive way, letting you always return back to where you started.

Polyrythm

Create syncopated rhythms by defining a different length to each track.

If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us.