Ambient Granular Pads with Pigments 2

[@VenusTheory]

🎨 Get Pigments ► bit.ly/3JTdLel

[@ProjectVastness]

I tried your example, but I used 3 instances of granular. One with a piano, other with a voice choir and other with a patch that is kind of a low wind/Storm rumble. And besides the effects you mentioned I used a little of saturation for warmth . Became just epic. Thanks for your video and advice.

[@אלוןכנפי]

dude, you literally have the best youtube channel i think. it always have good valuable information which is presented in an organized way and very understandable. and you are funny but you dont over do it all time. and your voice is top notch man. love you!

[@TheRoyfer]

טוב לראות ישראלים פה (:

[@SabastianWeaver]

You can also feed these Granular soundscapes into impulse responses (dripping water, rain, bonfire, glass breaking, eta) Omnisphere has a lot of these built inside it! That gives the Granular soundscape a lot more movement. I do it all the time! Also try resampling them and adding them to different Sampler VSTs or devices like CMI V, Synclavier V, Kontakt, eta! These all have a distinct character to them!

[@VenusTheory]

Another similar trick is using field recordings and a vocoder setup to use the field recordings to play the pad which is also super fun/weird. I do need to experiment with CMI resampling though, I've done that a handful of time with drums and stuff and it gives some wicked results.

[@ALE220fficial]

​@@josephchandler1220oh, you, oh you. The CMI Is One of the best i know to sample stuff into, if you have it still i would also recommend using the built in sequencer to sequence your drums. It creates come beautiful warm percs.

[@Jarrix]

revisited this video after 2 years and now i finally achieved what i wanted

[@mattshalash]

if you use Logic Pro X, Alchemy a stock synth has a granular mode that's very good.

[@giovanni_siciliano_ivano]

alchemy is best, pigment is to buy for wavetable

[@amsrytm]

Thank you! You just saved me hundreds, if not thousands bucks looking for some hardware to do granular. Great vid!

[@IdemZerum]

Dude you're a legend for this

[@voreshbo7031]

I dearly appreciate you huuuumongously , thank you for all your work and all you share with us! 🎉❤

[@leinadisjourneys]

Just starting out with making stuff on the computer using Pigments and I just wanted to say thanks, content like this is a huge help!

[@CraftyOldGit]

This has been very helpful, thank you. I just made an epic drone/pad thing from scratch, the first time I've ever gone without presets.

[@weeyvngy2754]

If you're looking for a granular engine, Alchemy (stock logic plugin) has a granular synthesis engine. Although it's unavailable for other DAWs, logic's price is on par with some synths and that's with everything included.

[@gabsauvage]

Best intro ever

[@agreen9903]

i really enjoy listening to pads made in pigments and falcon really loud while at my front door doing ass yoga after taking Laxatives, sorry ive been indoors to long

[@VenusTheory]

When the ass yoga beat hits

[@AndreasR77]

Watching this on the toilet. Thanks for reminding me to wipe.

[@user-yv1dv1sp3c]

Same i forget sometimes.

[@VenusTheory]

The real pro tip of this video

[@DARTbeats]

I just be using my underwear since im gonna wash it at some point anyways

[@curedive1157]

3 years later since you posted this. First thing I saw when I checked from my phone from the throne

[@AndreasR77]

@@curedive1157 here's to you, fellow toilet king

[@clear_gray_sky539]

Super well organized video , great job

[@DDRMR]

Brother, holy wow. Thank you for making my decision to cop this synth on Splice final

[@VenusTheory]

Enjoy! Definitely a great addition to the arsenal!

[@joshguitarreiru]

Thanks for sharing your knoweledge! Definatelly will apply that to find my own pads with Pigments

[@ndwknss]

dude i kinda miss this hairdo let's bring that thing back

[@HarryStone]

Content is great too but man it sure is nice to hear one of these synth videos where the voice narration sounds good.

[@wjniemi]

I got 42 on one of your questions. Will sit down later today with this video and pigments after the gardening is done...

[@jamax5706]

Nice, nice. Time to start doing some meditation music yeahhhh. Thx Cameron

[@VenusTheory]

p o s i t i v e v i b e s

[@agamaz5650]

FINALLYYYYY SOMEONE TEACHING THIS. Everyone just said.... just use a sample... Lol I dont wanna steal others pads make your own musicians

[@DanieleIppolito]

suuper awesome!😍

[@shaabrother7691]

Got to say your tutorials are top my man

[@bjam2424]

thanks so much for this tutorial. very easy to follow and i learnt so much about pigments.

[@joncorv]

Lovely stuff. Thank you for sharing.

[@chaosevolution]

Idk whether to buy this or start using Alchemy which is already free in Logic Pro X

[@valdemargutierrez6944]

Awesome tips man, thanks a lot

[@ckjjclan]

Thanks! This was great.

[@poletteh.2803]

love it!

[@Theta313]

Puredata is great for granular synthesis. It's a bit of an advanced usecase, but it's free and awesome

[@bronxboys101]

Good stuff bro

[@vic2net]

Thanks for nice free plugins that you show at end of video, I'll try them :)

[@VenusTheory]

Enjoy!

[@lambd01d]

Ribs is a great free granular VST, but it takes a while to work out. You have to send MIDI notes to it to make a sound.

[@refl3xes835]

I usually am able to figure out my way around plugins but man Ribs defeated me lol. It's too bad cause it does appear to be pretty powerful but man it was NOT very easy to learn, so I picked up Pigments off Splice

[@krysidian]

If you click on "FX" on the top left of Ribs you can also use samples, I just found out. But it's difficult to find tutorials online

[@stephenroldan5107]

Working on that one. But the learning curve

[@ivielcuervodel97]

GREAT VIDEO

[@kmdaykin]

Free granular stuff. Not VST but still free. VCV rack, voxglitch ghosts module and audible instruments texture synth (model of MI clouds).

[@ickebins6948]

Cloudseed is just an insane plugin ...

[@leroycarr9]

Thanks man. Great video tutorial.

[@GazingSkies]

So it's not free but Fragments by arturia is amazing. I'm also really picky with my granulizers (FL Granulizer was the best I used but since I switched to Ableton, I had to find an alternative). Fragments is the easiest to use while getting amazing sounds right away. I also have portal but for granular, I prefer this one (plus normally it's cheaper than portal)

[@xiaobi100]

I use crusherx, one of the most complex granular synth/effects.

[@leftlane5085]

thank you so much for this. this channel is dope, and pigments is too

[@PolarityMusic]

I hear granular pads, I upvote

[@VenusTheory]

A gentleman of culture, I see

[@ulfb5467]

Really nice tutorial, thanks a lot 👍

[@VenusTheory]

Glad it was helpful!

[@slowbrain8869]

on time on time :)

[@VenusTheory]

Always

[@mateusdelbem1199]

thank you so mutch!

[@dmitrijsroscenkovs6455]

Thanks a lot! Great explanation!

[@Trackformers]

CAmeron!!! For granular, u think i should get Pigments or Quanta?!?!?!

[@JayTheLane]

Bagged Pigments 2 a year ago on special. Great synth. Once your learn it, it truly means is a great tool. However, Phase Plant is also amazing 😎

[@stephenroldan5107]

Got it yesterday for 69 bucks

[@HealyHQ]

@@stephenroldan5107 nice

[@mageprometheus]

Yay, now I just need a spare 6 cores to run pigments. 😏

[@VenusTheory]

Well hey, once you do get them it's pretty badass haha

[@PerfectViolation]

Feed your synth and will grow up to be big and musical.

[@-zoave-]

I have a late-2013 macbook, i7 quad, and it runs well 👌 If I need several Pigments instances on a project, I just sample the sounds I create or export tracks in audio.

[@Theta313]

haha so true

[@stephenroldan5107]

M1

[@Dantexshadows]

@ Venus Theory "Inertia Sound Systems Granulizer 1.1 Demo" is the only kinda free granular vst I've found.

[@nolambda6486]

I used to put whole track I made in paulstretch to get some ambiance pad. worked f*king well ^^

[@phaneserichthoneus8895]

That was a highly useful tutorial. I should probably use a purer wave file. I used a highly processed preset from another synth. It wasn't a bad result in Pigments, but I can't wait to try other sounds. As for CPU usage (running an AMD Athlon 64 Vishera 6-core): The initial note hit about 25/26. Jumping to another note made CPU usage rise to about 42 until the first note faded out and it dropped back down to 25/26. For my next trick: learning how to make the best musical decisions so I can bounce to audio and stick with what I have instead of constantly changing my mind and having to delete audio, change the MIDI, and bounce/freeze again.

[@VenusTheory]

Glad you liked the video!

[@umanoid1523]

Great tutorial. I picked up pigments on Black Friday last year and have only used a couple of tweaked presets. I was a little intimidated by the interface so still haven’t done a deep dive. I picked it up mostly for ambient pads and landscape textures so this helps.I usually drench my pads using Valhalla delays and reverbs since they turn any type of pads into instant God mode. Time to play.

[@VenusTheory]

Glad you enjoyed the video! Pigments is a beast and has a LOT of features under the hood. Perhaps at some point in the future I'll do some new Pigments content to break down some of the features and some ideas on how to use them.

[@akshaydabhadkarofficial5104]

Hey Venus Theory, what do you think about Black Hole by Eventide? I really like it for the long spacey scapes!

[@VenusTheory]

Heard very good things - it's on my list of things to try at some point!

[@akshaydabhadkarofficial5104]

@@VenusTheory Yes please! It has a few unique quirks as well which I really like! And thanks for all the amazing and to the point content. Love the channel!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻

[@farhanissimo]

Hi Cameron! I want to have the exact sound that you made. I used a piano melody (from MIDI) as a sound. But the problem is come with very very different sound with you. Can you help me to identify what's the problem? Thanks in advance

[@ronnyb5890]

omg,cameron has become a philosofer (stone) lol,anyway,great,i have pigtails 2,great synth,also recommend avenger,and arturia's V collection,the soft synclavier is out of this world :-) great tutorial on how to use pigments cameron,learn a lot from videos like this,thanx

[@VenusTheory]

Synclavier is a beast from the V Collection for sure - still hurts my head a bit when you really dig into all that it can do haha. Glad the video was helpful!

[@ronnyb5890]

@@VenusTheory yes it is cameron,and the cmi too

[@Stilhedmusic]

how does this pad sound in mono? 🤔

[@aarondnvn4513]

Amazing stuff as always! If anyone has reaktor, there’s an affordable granular synth called “granö” that looks promising!

[@VenusTheory]

Glad you enjoyed it! And for sure - Reaktor has some great granular stuff, the user library as a whole is pretty hard to beat!

[@SuperJzero]

If you have the full version of Kontakt, Rigid-Audio.com has a number of cool granular based instruments that can be had for super-cheap on sale. Aquiver and Atheos are pretty cool. I think aquiver was 4 euro on Sale over the holidays.

[@slowbrain8869]

damn the comeback kid delay is some magic

[@VenusTheory]

Great delay unit - that and a few of the PSP delays are some serious sauce.

[@patzuck2435]

Coolseed is Windows only ?

[@ComposingTheNarrative]

PolyGas is another free granular synth. I've always found it a little overwhelming to learn but the few presets are pretty nice, "Secret of Winter" especially.

[@VenusTheory]

I wonder if it's working again - I tried it a few years back and it would just crash my DAW constantly haha. Might give it another go!

[@ComposingTheNarrative]

@@VenusTheory Well darn lol. I'm running the latest version, 2.4, in FL 20 fine, but I don't think it's been supported for a few years now. Thanks for all the awesome videos btw! :)

[@888y8z]

Hey Cameron (or anyone who has insights), Do you know if CouldSeed works on a mac...or is there something similar that would? Thanks 🙏

[@VenusTheory]

Unfortunately it's not available for Mac, but hopefully someone picks up the development of it and ports it over to Mac and Linux!

[@888y8z]

@@VenusTheory Darn, ok cool, thanks for the reply!

[@christophertodman8254]

haha your intro was funny bro.

[@lokelosk]

Pigments is great for ambient stuff. The first ambient track I made was using 3 instances of Pigments without any automation. It plays itself, if you set it up right. It's awesome.

[@VenusTheory]

Great synth for sure!

[@DarkSideofSynth]

Yes, Pigments is really a beast. A super fun synth to play with, and also to design sounds.

[@Melanholix]

Ribs is free and seems very powerful if you can wrap your head around it, but honestly the interface is strange and the fact you have to use it as an insert effect and not sound generator makes it very confusing. I gave up on it and bought The Mangle, it is pretty straightforward and quite impressive after a few days of using it.

[@VenusTheory]

Yeah I was about to suggest Ribs in the video but honestly it's so convoluted that I didn't bother haha. It's capable of some really cool stuff but not really 'plug and go' or beginner friendly. Heard very good things about The Mangle though - I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

[@Melanholix]

@@VenusTheory Yeah, Mangle is easy, I already made some great atmosphers with it.

[@Idc.350]

In your opinion, can this be used as a good alternative for something like Omnisphere?

[@ivansoto9723]

Omnisphere for more warm vintage sounds and Pigments for more cold futuristic sounds.

[@remalistochastis]

Hi, great tips, thanks a lot! Alchemy (Logic Pro X) is also - among others - a great granular synthesiser, and free (for Logic owners of course)

[@VenusTheory]

Alchemy is dope! I have very fond memories of it before it was abandoned and eventually stopped working on Windows

[@remalistochastis]

@@VenusTheory given the opportunity - if I may ask - I am a Mac user since ever (graphic designer, using Mac since 1987) but I am considering of using a PC for Adobe's suite also. I have recently purchased Logic, which - as I feel it of course - is very straightforward, user friendly and easy to understand and I can share the licence with my daughters also for the same price!. I am just an amateur but I want to be able to use a DAW also on Windows. To also encourage my daughter to eventually use it. As things are going so bad in Greece, the only affordable DAW for me and for her now is REAPER. Do you think I can adopt and understand the functionality? At first glance, thinks were not so obvious as with Logic X. Can you recommend another DAW which is as "you just do" as Logic Pro? Or if I give Reaper a chance I can work with it just fine?

[@mr.spoogy9436]

i think polygas is pretty decent. there is a vst version of paul stretch. otherwise cecilia is pretty good but you should know that :] keep up the good work :)

[@mr.spoogy9436]

the paul stretch vst is free btw

[@VenusTheory]

Sadly last time I tried Polygas it didn't play well/crashed a lot. However I think it's since been updated - might have to give it another shot!

[@mattycoulson9999]

Really getting into granular synthesis thanks to your videos, settled on Quanta for making these sort of pads. I was just wondering if there's any external synths you (or anyone else in the comments) would recommend for this sort of ambient music? Been playing around with my mate's Behringer Model D but despite its brilliance it's hardly ambient hahaha. Cheers

[@VenusTheory]

Glad they've been helpful! In terms of hardware there isn't too much I know of that does granular outside the Blackbox from 1010 Music, Waldorf Iridium (upcoming), and the Tasty Chips GR-1. For my own productions for ambient stuff, I really enjoy my Novation Peak and Waldorf Blofeld. Might be grabbing an ASM Hydrasynth or a Waldorf Iridium in the future though. Another great purchase to keep in mind might be the upcoming MOD Dwarf pedal which offers a modular effects environment that you could use with any synth to build some cool ambient machines/sequencers/etc, and it also has some synth engines of it's own!

[@annibalehexe769]

Hi ! Thanks for the tutorial, great video. I just didn't understand something, but it's just pigments related. I can't drag & drop the sample like you did in the video. I have the latest version of pigments and I'm in Studio One (the drag & drop daw), but I can't do that. Is this possible only in Bitwig ?

[@VenusTheory]

Yo! I know Cubase actually has some similar weirdness at times if the samples are in certain directories. You may need to drag it in from your sample folder directly instead of from the timeline in the DAW. If that still isn't working though I'm not really sure haha - perhaps contact Studio One support and they might be able to clarify why drag/drop doesn't work in all cases.

[@annibalehexe769]

@@VenusTheory Hi ! I tried the standalone version and it works fine, so I guess it's a Studio One problem. I contacted Arturia to see if they can resolve it from their side. If they don't I will contact Presonus. Thanks !

[@HighlandStudio91]

Lovely stuff, sir! Any chance you've done sound design work for KV331 Audio(or will do so in the future?) Reason I ask, is that I recently purchased Synthmaster 2, as I fell in love with some of the presets from the Player version. Once I began digging into SM 2, I discovered...much to my dismay, a rather large portion of the presets are these monochromatic chord/arpeggio disaster pieces that are replete with unwanted bleeps, bloops, waggles, farts & various other grotesque sounds. Sadly...I am not a sound designer, but a tweaker and I am not quite getting my money's worth out of Synthmaster. I have high hopes for the upcoming Synthmaster 3...but in the interim, I would like a lot more usable presets to go monkey-shit with...ya dig?

[@audiolego]

Demoing Pigments now. It's downloading

[@audiolego]

Lov❤u man

[@radiofloyd2359]

The demo sucks :/ But the vst itself, I can attest, is very good.

[@mimicontre]

nice advertisement for lukewarm coffee

[@serdi5869]

what version Pigments bro?

[@max-tf3vo]

Can you make a tutorial on Portal? 🤔

[@VenusTheory]

I don't have Portal myself but if I ever get a copy, for sure!

[@max-tf3vo]

@@VenusTheory oh yessss😊

[@taighaaa]

who knew pete davidson knew so much about sound design

[@shaabrother7691]

Have you made any neuro sounds in p2?

[@VenusTheory]

I have! I made a free pack for Fragment Audio that you can get at: www.fragmentaudio.com/free/arturia-pigments-209.html

[@gaffenz1137]

Great intro.

[@eamonnw]

morning coffee, upbeat bluesy folksy guitar, post apocalyptic bunker infiltrated by radiation glow of nuclear winter, and no green plants in the background wtflsakdfjlsdk;as;d idk what im supposed to think

[@MarkusJevring]

Wow, this was absolutely amazing! I'd never heard about the concept of granular synthesis before! Could you get close to this with a hardware synth, or is this something you absolutely need granular synthesis for?

[@VenusTheory]

Yo! Well, there are a few granular hardware synths (microgranny, tasty chips gr-1, waldorf quantum I believe too) so there is that option. However, generally speaking, software is going to be significantly cheaper and probably offer more really haha. Granular is quite a bit of fun and there's not really anything else that sounds like granular synthesis. With some hardware samplers though that allow for extremely short sample loop lengths, you more or less get a 'granular' synth with a single active grain as Granular and Sampling are very very similar processes, just different in how they produce the end result.

[@OwenDavidson-Music]

Quanta is basically a free granulator, the only catch is that the free trial only lasts 30 minutes before you have to open up a new instance, just Mae sure you bounce it out.

[@mynoritylive]

🔥

[@SoundcaseB]

Hi, i can't say they are finished (and cool ? i don't know :) ) songs but here is my examples from UVI Falcon and New Sonic Arts Granite Falcon-1-Don't Look Bach: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYGpgHWeer5njs0 a whole song in the Multi Granular automating and also modulating the Position parameter and modulating the filter and gain parameters to create various background textures behind the simple arrangements (a piano and a bass) in this one i also used Zynaptiq Pitch Map to lock to scale (C-Am) of the Falcon's output. Falcon-2-Freeze in the Phrase: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZuwiaqNqrWYpqs a whole song in the Multi Granular automating and also modulating the Position parameter and modulating the gain parameter to create various background textures behind the one-same piano phrase. New Sonic Arts Granite in action kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnepfYqsarCheNU (a little extra info: i am using Reaper and its Lua Extension called LBX Stripper to store and recall the Vst Parameter values and modulations via Stripper's Snapshot system .. Hope make sense.) Cheers!

[@VenusTheory]

Really cool music dude! I'll have to dig around your other works when time allows!

[@SoundcaseB]

@@VenusTheory glad you liked, Thank you so much ! .. anytime you are welcome. btw.except the "WORK" playlists mostly the experimental / having fun stuff .

[@musicgrynd]

I just forgot to wipe.

[@Cola.Cube.]

Lol, you had manga hair back then🤣🤣

[@VKHSD]

high as fuck this is speaking to me

[@manuelhe46]

Can you spend more time on the screens? Im trying to get the knobs set like yours and you keep cutting away

[@Aardvarked88]

Pause?

[@abletonproducer0014]

Hikichiki pikichiki

[@lberceli]

Is anyone else having trouble producing sounds this way that are remotely in tune? This sounds amazing but I can’t get it to play nice with the rest of a track.

[@kiqyou]

kek. you didn't bounce with the gain cause you put it on the v piano not the audio track

[@elisable8308]

So, how exactly does this help me wipe better...DISAPPOINTED lol

[@VenusTheory]

Unfortunately I couldn't find toilet paper at the store for that part of the tutorial.

[@bartek4089]

Just use your hand

[@ゆーぐれSOS]

🔥