Arturia PIGMENTS 5. Is it the time you finally BUY this synth?

[@FoliaSound]

Heeeey, people! What do you think about my take on Pigments 5? Using it at all? Planning to buy? Lemme know down below!

[@jno8039]

Nope. I still don't get goosebump

[@mcirill]

Hi - Appreciate your candid assessment - I just bought Pigments 5 for 99US, seems like a no-brainer! I had been relying on Reaper, along with free Synth1 VST, then just recently got an Arturia Keylab MKII with Analog Lab V. I love all the presets, but want to be able to tweak them more, which requires the full version of whatever VST was used - and I think Pigments is the best "native" VST that will allow me to learn more by editing presets, hopefully to inform the creation of my own sounds. Also the MKII has no built-in sequencer/arpeggiator - with Pigments, I don't have to rely on my daw's sequencer. Also excited to see what extent I can assign controls on the MKII to Pigments parameters. But I am busy and a dummy and it may take me some time to figure it all out. So I subscribed to your channel and will return to see if you continue to explore this VST.

[@akira20ish]

​@@mcirillI have serum way faster

[@jaypkock]

​@@mcirillI'm just starting up my home studio, rent-to-own on Analog Lab V Collection X so Im 100% with U on your comment

[@MrNeillawrence]

@@mcirill I'm on the fence - I've got the Keylab MKII but using Analogue Lab is frustrating as you can't change much. Had much more luck with Vital (which has a great community and loads of free patches) with some ability to use an Arp, but no sequencer as such. Very tempted by this one. Don't feel you are a dummy - I'm coming back to synths after 40 years so learning all over again

[@normannutbar424]

It’s been time to get Pigments for many years!

[@DerekPower]

I looked through the manual and it seems as if you can introduce probability for the notes. There's a lot more to the sequencer if you want to dig deep into it =] Having had Pigments from the onset, I would say that it's been great to see the improvements made to it and it's all been added for free. They make new sound banks each time for a very nice discount price, which comes out to about what you have to pay if there was an upgrade price.

[@FoliaSound]

Yep, the sequencer of this synth is powerful, but seriously: I couldn't find any settings for note density...

[@exitthelemming145]

@@FoliaSound Setting On/Off probability at or near 100% is going to give you high note density and values closer to zero low note density

[@LAZ-org]

Honestly cleaned house and got rid of all my hardware digital synths (keeping the analogs) except for the Hydrafreak and Microfreak thanks to Pigments. So much room now! It's just a beast!

[@awakenwithoutcoffee]

hi Paul, what do you use the HydraFreak and Microfreak for ? I'm looking to delve back into synths after a decade of acoustic playing. Cheers!

[@LAZ-org]

@@awakenwithoutcoffee heh i misspelled: its the Hydrasynth (Explorer). I use it as a controller for my analog synths because it has an excellent keybed w aftertouch. The synth engine is very flexible and can do many things but it still sounds metallic and tinny to my ears. Very much like a DX7. With the Microfreak I also use it as a MPE controller, especially for the Arturia CS-80 vst. It also has quite a few synth engines that sound great w pedals like the Microcosm. I would start with the Microfreak (has TONS of video tutorials) and if that grabs you level up! Hydrasynth, Korg Minilogue XD or Cobalt 5S are good options. Just make sure to listen to the demos to find the sound you like most!

[@pauljeavons8878]

This synth is so so good in every aspect. It's highly powerful but well thought out and makes it easy to program.

[@FoliaSound]

Eeexactly!

[@saren6538]

Yes but cold and sterile

[@cerebrumexcrement]

@@saren6538 just slap a saturator on it. 😅

[@humbledcomposer]

I subscribed in the first 5 seconds of watching for the first time. That is the kind of energy this dude brings to the table.

[@arturpolonski6234]

Arturia jest na maxa Pro User Friendly i będzie dużo zabawy w swoim czasie Paul cieszę się że się nimi zauroczyłeś jak ja już od jakiegoś czasu Wow pokazałeś CPU Friendly test i aż mnie zatkało jak mały bufor to jest mega znaczy że zabawka jest przednia umaż się prosi o używanie jej wielokrotnie w projekcie bez specjalnych restrykcji!

[@FoliaSound]

Tak, późno odkrywam Arturię, ale się z tego cieszę!

[@EQuBEMusic]

My quetion is Arturia PIGMENTS 5 or VPS Avenger 2?

[@FoliaSound]

Depends on your personal preferences and taste, both are amazing!

[@Chalisque]

I'd love Linux support. Arturia use Juce, and Juce has Linux support. I can have so much more of a lean, mean, configurable machine under Kubuntu (with Reaper and Bitwig as hosts). I'm having to reinstall everything on my music PC after a system drive failure, so while waiting for the warranty replacement to arrive, I threw Linux on it, and I was suprised how lovely it is not to have the excessive bloat of modern Windows. There's only U-he and Tracktion synths that have Linux ports, so I'm probably going to see what happens if I pretend that they're all I have. Perhaps even just Hive, Diva, and F'Em. Then perhaps I'll actually learn how to fully use these synths.

[@FoliaSound]

Pigments is made in Juce? I had no idea :O

[@JoaoLouro-i9n]

Windows VST plugins can be loaded in Linux using robbert-vdh's yabridge, wine-staging and pipewire, most stuff works fine

[@Chalisque]

@@JoaoLouro-i9n Thanks, that's the prod I needed to give it a try. Alongside trying to get pulseaudio running on Jack and other audio stuff.

[@Chalisque]

@@FoliaSound The strings utility (standard tool on *nix systems) yields: strings Pigments.dll | grep JUCE JUCE INITIALIZE GUI JUCE SHUTDOWN GUI JUCE shutdowned asked, still JUCE already initialized, JUCED_VIEW_COMP JUCE_BASE_VIEW JUCE_ JUCE Application JUCE FileBrowser JUCE JUCE Timer JUCE Message Thread Which is the surefire sign they're using Juce.

[@Chalisque]

@@JoaoLouro-i9n My concern is those that require activation, if they even run.

[@addLADN]

This synth is so hands on and most of all so much fun. Isn’t that what it is all about??

[@FoliaSound]

Yes, it is!

[@rudigerk]

Vital and Surge XT are more than enough for my Synth Needs.. Have you ever tried Surge XT? If not, it's worth a Video! (It's free). 😊

[@FoliaSound]

I know Surge, yet I never tried it... Maybe one day? :)

[@akira20ish]

Serum sounds way better

[@EugeniaLoli]

@@FoliaSound I'd love to see a Surge XT video too.

[@johnisrael5183]

its hands down my fav synth right now.....

[@bakedcreations8985]

06:02 You can tweak note density, go in to custom, all the way down there eq like parameters for tweaking the density. If with density you mean the controlling of increasing and decreasing the probability of a particular note to occur

[@FoliaSound]

Nope, I mean general amount of notes vs silence - this is what I was missing. I figured out the lower section later in the vid, but that was not it.

[@bakedcreations8985]

@@FoliaSound hmmm is not on-off switches on probability under the pitch row in sequencer is the same as the control of general amount notes vs silence? Please do correct me.

[@shanegates6329]

This is my first v-synth and I'm loving it! The tutorials are really nice, and it makes it easier to transition from the microFreak to pure software :) Great review Paul!

[@FoliaSound]

Thanks, Shane!

[@LoveIsWhoWeAre]

Great presentation style and vid!

[@JoeNorero]

Hey Paul somehow I feel you've already made that decision and if you didn't let me help you out....... YES :) I already did the upgrade for free and the sequencer is the bomb. Not only does it give you ideas but you can customize them to belong to you not only the arrangement but the actual patch that you choose I can't wait to make a few tracks with the new upgrade

[@FoliaSound]

Nice!

[@pnutbuttajellee1394]

I've got too many synths...I want Pigments, but no.

[@DroddMcGroggin]

Get it yet?

[@Chalisque]

I bought Pigments back with version 1 or 2 (can't recall which, but think it was 1). My only question is whether or not I grab the Explorations packs while on intro discount.

[@FoliaSound]

I create a lot of my own presets, so probably I won't ever buy any packs, but Arturia's presets are always highly usable!

[@alainsellier7751]

I did get it for the $20 special price. But, a bit disapointed and only like a few sounds from each bank. The factory presets that come with the v5 upgrade are very good.

[@qiubolevan6482]

Do you have any tutorials on how to optimize cpu? Because everytime i load up Pigments the whole daw keeps delaying its tasks, and also when loading up other native plugins (fl keys on FL studio) it has hella lot of latency, i'm new in this and technical crap is kinda overwhelming lol any help here will be appreciated

[@dubraja6469]

the probability setting correlates to note density

[@FoliaSound]

I'll tweak it more, thanks!

[@KLOVOrecords]

Arturia is great as always!

[@SandNigah]

I cannot say enough good things about Arturia, not just pigments but any of their stuff always has that Apple feel.

[@FoliaSound]

I think generally French designed pro audio/music products are extremely well designed. France has got huge culture of functional design and you can feel it everywhere...

[@el_dani]

Yeah, very sticky Microbrute gunk surfaces, I highly disagree with the Apple feel analogy

[@frans688]

To my preference, PhasePlant is my favorite.

[@gen-amb]

I’ve heard Pigments 4 called “the Iridium killer.” Ok maybe I have no Iridium. But if so, what are we supposed to call Pigments 5?

[@gen-amb]

There you go.

[@el_dani]

Quantum booster?

[@zaphodb5361]

Why not read the manual before commenting on the new things?

[@FoliaSound]

I sometimes just prefer to tweak things and find the solutions out myself, but you're right - I should've taken a look at the manual this time...

[@keyboardtek]

I have been using Omnisphere as my primary synth since it first came out and I have yet to explore all of its sounds and capability. How do you feel about Pigments versus Omnisphere?

[@ritchxmusic]

would be cool if the seq had a midi out as well

[@FoliaSound]

Yes, spot on!

[@hilmichildofgod]

it does. Just search it online how to.

[@heretic4521]

If you don't already have Pigments, today is definitely the time!

[@FoliaSound]

99 EUR for this piece of a synth? I'm totally in, but I don't want to spoil too much ;)

[@heretic4521]

Yes, $99 is a decent price even for us hobbyists, and so far it's given me 3 free upgrades, so I'm quite happy with it. There's really a lot here. This, and Phase Plant, and the world is yours!

[@gen-amb]

People will spend thousands to buy a piece of hardware. Pigments supports multi-threading. This price is not expensive. If you sign up to their website and buy anything from Arturia they will cut this price for you multiple times per year.

[@el_dani]

@@gen-amb maybe hardware also gets you 20 times the joy then another vst synth that you barely „touch“.

[@nics8040]

If price isn’t an issue, should I get pigments 5 or serum?

[@el_dani]

Both, if price isn‘t an issue 😂

[@ClevaTreva]

I'm thinking of reinstalling Pigments again after buying a new PC - do I have to install Arturia Software Centre or can Pigments run standalone? Unlike god-tier Pigments, ASC is one god-awful piece of software!

[@FoliaSound]

I never had problems with ASC, so I can't answer your question, I'm afraid...

[@gordowebb9910]

Anyone know how to install the explorations bundle? The instructions arturia sent me are wrong and the info on their website is wrong. Thank you.

[@FG-Supercharged]

Do you mean install after downloading or you cannot find the files to download and then install? On a Windows machine, if you download the files, they are just an executable installer (no need to "import" them). If you cannot find the files to download, they are in the "My Products" section of your account - click "See More".

[@djkanyon]

Still heavy on a CPU, and still silently downloads and installs Software Center (and if you delete it, some other Arturia plugins stops working). This is lame, especially for a fifth version.

[@GermoStaalfeldt]

really

[@AmadeusThron]

I WAS THINKIN ABOUT BUYING THIS ONE BUT GOT THE AMAZING UVI FALCON. Falcon by UVI is by far the most powerful synth with endless possibilities plus theis filters are just incredible. you gotte try it, but be warned, it takes some time to get used to it.

[@moontan91]

"it takes some time to get used to it" is an understatement.

[@vornamenachname255]

Just for the YT Algo

[@FoliaSound]

What do you mean? I really am a Pigments user for a couple of years now...

[@vornamenachname255]

@@FoliaSound The comment was just for the YT Algo, cause every comment helps the channel :)

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

Pigments looks good however several of its features like the partern sequencer has been in Reason for decades and it dont sound any different. I like the UI and how it's all put together but I am not really into sound desighn, so having all thoese different tools for building your own synth sounds isn't very interesting to Me.

[@koncreteto2758]

Does reason have anything polymeric? Didn't think so byeeeeee

[@Artek604]

It's an awesome synth (have it from v2 I think?) but like all Arturia plugins it takes way too much RAM and HDD/SSD space and takes too long to load. They should ask U-He to help them optimise stuff or something.

[@FoliaSound]

Give it a go, Artur, because it's got multicore support and a lot of optimization in v5!

[@Artek604]

Oh, I definitely will. But I'm on winter holidays now :)

[@sburton84]

It's great they've added multi-threading support but it's honestly quite surprising that it didn't already support multi-threading. I would've thought that would be standard for any professional polyphonic synths for several years now at least...

[@zyxyuv1650]

That's not a standard because the DAWs have to balance the DSP graph to fit the longest CPU time chains onto the least used CPUs, and it was much, much harder to do that when you don't have control over the graph's distribution because plugins can arbitrarily move threads around to different cores. That's why the Steinberg SDK didn't make it easy to make multithreaded plugins, or for plugins to communicate any of their "affinity intent" back to the DAW. So it's an exception to find multithreaded polyphonic synths, and they require a lot of work on the devs side to make them purposefully not disrupt DAWs performance, I.e. causing some of your track's other chains to suddenly randomly not have enough CPU. The poly synth's MT implementations actually have to take a "maximally ungreedy" strategy to try to sidestep the DAW's graph balancing, which is difficult and troublesome, so most avoided it.

[@kadiummusic]

Polybrute is a beast! 😎

[@peevee605]

It’s a beast. One of my very favorites.

[@word2RG]

500 👍

[@frequency_sequencer]

this synth is a no brainer

[@FoliaSound]

Agreed!

[@JoeNorero]

I'm on iTunes and Spotify you can find me there as LA Dubstar... great work on the videos thank you so much

[@FoliaSound]

Thank you too for being here, I'll check you out on Spotify!

[@akira20ish]

I own serum it’s loads easier

[@gogid2613]

Most of presets irritating and useless.

[@Jaysmokeofficial]

It's a cpu hog , sounds horrible and looks bad sorry not sorry i will never like arturia

[@AGZT94]

Hmm may I ask why?

[@stevecroxford60]

Your loss mate!

[@tonystephen6312]

Don't like trance or EDM so a no go.

[@deathhzrd]

Cool lol

[@blakeyonthebuses]

Sounds like a total load of crap to me! The trouble with computer based rubbish like this, is that it leads you down a rabbit hole of complete nonsense. I can get better sounds on a Ultranova.

[@FoliaSound]

Ok, I get your point, but I absolutely disagree. VST synthesis is really more than solid these days...

[@kadiummusic]

You know hardware synths are just full of pc boards don't you? 🤔

[@FoliaSound]

Yes, they are. But PC stands for "printed circuit", not for "personal computer" and that means they are not necesarily CPUs or other digital devices, but also - and most of all, actually - fully analog designs. Cheers!

[@michael7018]

Man how bad can a channel be..l

[@FoliaSound]

You mean: you don't like my channel? Go watch something else!

[@glm1051]

Do you have a channel we can check to see how awesome yours.... probably is not?? I thoroughly enjoy his channel along with others, always look forward to his videos, which I watch almost right away. He's honest and seems like a good guy.