Pigments

If I could only have one synthesizer in my studio, it would undoubtedly be Pigments. Its ever-expanding range of synthesis techniques and e ects o ers a vast and rich sound palette, capable of creating virtually any sound. What truly sets it apart is its modulation engine—endlessly versatile yet intuitive, with visual feedback that makes even the most complex modulations easy to master.

For the Pigments 6 factory library, I focused on experimenting with the new features, especially the Modal engine and lters. The Modal engine is incredibly versatile, capable of producing everything from organic plucks to ethereal textures. The new lters, particularly the Lo- lter with polyphonic capabilities, open a realm of creative possibilities, inspiring dynamic and richly textured cinematic sounds.

I’ve been a fan of Pigments since it first came out and the ability to combine multiple Engines as the basis for a sound is such a rewarding approach for creative designs. Having been involved with Physical Modeling for many years, the new Modal Engine is wonderful, whether you’re just experimenting or chasing a specific texture.

For Pigments, I chose to focus primarily on the new Modal engines, with a bit of Harmonic and Wavetable layering to expand the tonal range. Exploring the Pigments Filters, I also discovered that the Comb LP6 filter can be another source of modeled textures, especially combined with the wide range of Noise sources in the Utility engine.

Pigments always impresses—it offers an expansive library of high-quality, usable factory sounds, paired with all the tools a dedicated sound designer could dream of. The addition of the Modal oscillator and Vocoder effects has been a game-changer, pushing Pigments into new creative territory and expanding its already massive potential.

When I saw the introduction of the Modal engine, I knew it was the perfect playground for creating physical-modeling-inspired sounds. Modal synthesis excels in producing dynamic, expressive tones with an incredible sense of realism. With this in mind, I focused on crafting “realistic” patches like mallets and wind textures, while also incorporating my signature gnarly, hard-hitting trance leads and basses.

Pigments stands out with its versatile engines. The Sampler/Granular engine allows for powerful sample manipulation with six slots and advanced features. The physical modeling engine is intuitive, sounds amazing, and delivers quick results. I often rely on the Harmonic Engine for its straightforward approach to additive synthesis. Finally, the new Vocoder effect is a standout addition, expanding the sonic palette with modern, cutting-edge tones.

For Pigments 6, I aimed to deliver modern, avant-garde patches with great usability and expressivity. I produced top-tier source material like wavetables, samples, noises, and modal engine transients. My presets have subtle modulations with velocity and random modulators, especially utilizing the powerful new voice modulator. Each patch is production-ready, optimized for spectral balance, crest factor, and stereo image to suit its type.

Pigments is probably my favorite soft synth since it came out. It was everything i wanted in my workflow : a granular engine, and a (good sounding) VA engine to create from intimate and subtle, to huge and growly soundscapes. Now, with the addition of Modal synthesis, the instrument really took another dimension ; i was so impressed by how good and seamless programming modal sounds were, given the complex nature of this type of synthesis. I can effortlessly create any type of sounds (bells and keys off course, but also pads and even basses !). The ability to modulate most of the parameters allows me to create a lot of movements within my patches.

Since the Modal engine was the star of the show, i really wanted to showcase how expressive and flexible it could be. I created a various range of presets, in order to see how far i could push this thing ; and the answer is, well, pretty far ! A trick i found, that you can find within one of my presets called 'Modalko', is to modulate the Attack parameter of the Modal engine ; it creates a really pleasant organic swell, that can be useful in a lot of contexts.

Pigments has always been an endless horizon of possibilities in terms of sound design, and I love the realistic, almost acoustic tones that we can now get from the modal engine. This is probably my favorite update besides the granular engine addition a few years ago.

I really want to offer the user the most freedom possible when playing with the macro controls, so I spend most of my time layering and finetuning those 4 knobs in Pigments.

The main strength of Pigments is, in my opinion, the amount of synth engines that it provides, each characterized by deep and specific functions that elevate its sound design level to the stars. In Pigments it’s very easy to use and assign modulations and you have 9 slots in which you can insert high quality effects. You don’t need much more to make amazing music and sound design!

I usually organize the sound design process from the beginning, trying to define the timbral macro objectives that I want to achieve. I’ve been collaborating on the creation of presets for Pigments for a while now but, every time, I’m amazed at how many different and alternative methods I can utilize.

Being specialized in reproducing famous sounds in preset form, I can easily affirm that Pigments is able to recreate 99% of the sounds of any other synth. It’s the plugin that you can always open to create any sound. Part of my professional activity is teaching sound design. For me, Pigments is a great teaching tool that allows me to approach complex notions of sound synthesis in a simple way. Its architecture and its visual interface allows it to go very far into sound design while remaining clear and simple to handle.

I have 2 different approaches when I create sounds:

-The first one is to recreate existing tracks, meaning I never run out of ideas, and I can be sure that the presets are inspiring and usable in tracks.

-The second approach is to build a preset around a feature to explore the specifics of the synth and bring out its sonic uniqueness. This type of preset also appeals to users who want to learn by deconstructing the sound.

Pigments’ main strengths are the great range of possibilities combined with an intuitive interface, timbral scope with accessibility. I found the sound quality of the various engines and fx immediately compelling and find Pigments a very enjoyable and rich sonic experimentation playground.

The various engines in Pigments offered scope for exploring a range of ideas, from re-imagining some field recordings using the granular engine to importing audio to create wavetables. I set out also to explore the new Harmonic engine, moving through cold glassy soundscapes to inharmonic metallic clangs and on to dusty lofi organs and electric pianos. The new Noise sources in the Utility section were very helpful for adding that “dusty attic” vibe I love.

I love the modulation possibilities at the oscillator level! So much great and crazy sound shaping possibilities on top of a really cool wavetable collection. The filters, partly from other Arturia products like SEM are so great, and combined with the oscillator possibilities this is a sound designer’s dream synt

I began my Pigments sound design with an early version without all wavetables, which was great to make the best out of the already existing, but limited features. Basically I wanted to create very organic, "never sounding the same" patches. My favorite types of sounds are keys and pads in Pigments, but I didn’t plan to create those specifically.

Pigments is quite flexible, and quite frankly I'm really fond of the possibilities of the wavetable engine: exponential FM, linear FM, the multiple phase modulation modes, same for phase distortion and wavefolding. Combined with the countless modulation capabilities with the LFO, envelopes, functions and so on, it's perfect for what I like! I love the "Highlight" feature: it's perfect for beginners to see which parameters will have the biggest impact on the sound, but also when I design patches for a track, I add tips and reminders for myself… ‘remember to tweak that when you'll be arranging the track’. That way, a few weeks later, when you do the arrangement, you can still remember what you had in mind when designing the track.

While I had some specific sounds in mind when creating my Pigments presets, I also let myself "float and follow" when discovering the wavetable engine, and sometimes it was more about finding a nice preset around a particular, unique feature

We really enjoy Pigments because it combines a very easy workflow with lots of tweakability and a fantastic sound. Version 2.0 introduces even more features that synthesizer freaks like us really love! The sample engine with granular capabilities make it even more versatile than before and the addition of FM and unison to the analog engine is very welcome too, as is the undo/redo feature (thank you!) And did you hear the tape delay already? Wow!

When we created presets for Pigments, most of the time we let the synthesizer guide us. It showed us all his strengths and unique features and we build a sound around that. We do often create sounds for a specific genre, but for Pigments we decided to make all kinds of usable sounds that fit much more than just one type of genre.

While learning Pigments and experimenting with various parameters, I quickly honed in on my favorite feature: the wave table editor. I always begin my synthesis work by crafting the wave unit first and work my way out from there. With Pigments, you can quickly get the tones and harmonics you need with it’s powerful features. I love using the different noise modulators in combination with simpler wave shapes to create realistic sounding instrument timbres.

My approach usually involves deciding on a theme and building the sounds around it. On new synths I like to explore possibilities and experiment to find a certain niche. With my 32 Pigments presets, I created a broad range of challenging tonal and musical pallets, and felt Pigments did a great job of meeting those challenges.

Pigments led me down this wonderful rabbit hole of new exciting ways of manipulating the sounds and made me rethink what I was doing. I’ve always said that music should never be fully retrospective, or never fully futuristic. The real beauty lies in the middle. No one writes a new language for their next book. You take the existing language and use it in new interesting ways that touch real people. The best way you can do that is by using the right pen, like Pigments.

It’s funny how sound design works. You never know what the trigger will be. A “standard” way of starting out would be to try and emulate your favorite sounds build off that. With the right plug-in, you start with those intentions and veer wildly off-course. That’s when the real magic happens. Not only does that entire song structure change, but the meaning and vibe. That’s really lightning in a bottle and you can’t account for when and how that happens, other than making sure you use the right tool that lets you do that and accommodates your trip.

For me, Pigments takes all my favorite Arturia features like Functions, filters, modulations, and macros, and puts them all in one place. It is a huge modular system, because all parameters are assignable to any modulator. In addition, it is very easy to learn, use, and master because the interface is very logical and well thought out.

When creating sounds for Pigments, I did not have a single mode of approach. For me, it's like I'm in front of my Eurorack setup. I always started with a very simple sound, and then explored my particular desire at the time. Sometimes I started with the sequencer, sometimes with the assignment of LFOs, or sometimes with a search in wavetables.

I was super-surprised and happy about all the different ways that Pigments lets you shape and “destroy” a sound. Having all these parameters right at your fingertips is fantastic if you want to create sounds that really remind you of a plasma chainsaw on fire. The great thing is that the Arturia team also put in some of the most famous filters in synth history so that you have the chance to tame all the madness that you just created. It’s a great mixture.

As Pigments isn’t modeled after something else, I started the sound design process completely unbiased. At first, I created sounds that focused mainly on just one of the many strengths of the synthesizer like just the wavetable section or only the powerful modulators. But after a while everything kind of grew together and I constantly went back to what gave me the most fun and that was the different shaping possibilities.

I directly clicked with Pigments, and while playing around with it I was able to make sounds that will fit perfectly into my work for movie trailers. The powerful sound engine, the clean interface, and the powerful tools, which are available to transform your own waveforms, are great. I’m able to import my own waveforms, and turn Pigments into my own instrument, allowing me to create my own unique sounds.

I don’t have a specific way of doing my sound design, to me it’s all a journey. I let my imagination run free, and let the natural flow take over.

Pigments is amazing, it’s such a versatile synth and everything you would want to do regarding sound design is possible. The new Harmonic engine is a great addition and the internal effects sound great. The visualization of all modulations is a great help when you want to see how a patch is constructed.

I tried to make use of a lot of the new features including the Harmonic engine, the new wavetables and the new samples. All sounds feature aftertouch, velocity and mod wheel assignments. Combined with the four macros, the user can drastically alter the original patch.

Pigments is the easiest advanced synth I have ever seen. It's really musically inspiring by design. The flexibility and the visualization of its modulations are what make Pigments unique. The new sample engine is well engineered, perfectly integrated with the other features.

All of my presets were made from scratch using the "Default" one. Thanks to Pigments it's quite easy to work like this. I want my presets to be modern, wide, big and clean at the same time. Because it's what we are looking for in cinematic music branch today. For creating my presets, I've looked over recent Trailer music, and their specific sound design, to make my own sound.

Pigments has a wonderful combination digital synthesis methods and analog-style filtering. Using only digital synthesis like FM en Phase distortion can sound cold or harsh. By running the sound through the Moog filter for example, you can obtain textures that have an incredible real-world quality. The combination of digital synthesis and analog filtering can yield a wild variety of sounds since the sonic possibilities of the wavetable synthesizer are virtually endless.

I also like the straight-forwardness of Pigments. For me, sound design is really something that happens in dialogue with the synthesizer. If I were to improvise on a piano or on a guitar, the result would be different because the physical and sonic particularities of the instrument will send me in a certain direction. The same happens with synthesizers; the particular sound, lay-out and functionality of a synthesizer invite you to use it in a certain way. So I start out with a more or less clear idea of what I want to make, and then synthesizer nudges me in a certain direction. The result will be some sort of compromise between my original idea and the influence of the synthesizer.

The feature sets of the wavetable and analog engines complement each other superbly, giving a very broad scope to the timbres that can be achieved. This, combined with the deep yet speedy modulation workflow, multiple filter models and extensive FX section really allow you to get mix-ready and expressive sounds. A personal favourite feature is the ability to quantize the OSC Engines and use modulators to create melodies and variation.

As there is so much variation possible in Pigments I had a very open approach to the sound design process. A common underpinning principle was always trying to stretch the musical idea as far as possible within each preset. This often made use of the extensive modulation routing to try and create layered voicings within the sounds and, because Pigments is not truly bi-timbral, this was always a fun challenge that often found me in new creative territory.

The main strength of Pigments is the ease of mapping modulation sources to destinations. As a person who tends to be fairly lazy at times, Pigments has helped me get used to producing again regularly due to its user-friendliness. Getting started a new sound from scratch is just super easy. I also find the layout simple yet intuitive.

As far as my approach to my sound design work goes, sometimes I have a specific type of sound in mind I want to go for, be it an iconic sound from a 80s hit song, or a sound effect from a popular video game; other times I just go nuts on every knob I can until it sounds good to my ears.