Let's Play Arturia Pigments: Part 04 - Sample Engine, Granular, and the Sequencer

Arturia Pigments has slowly and sneakily become my go-to VST synthesizer. It's also the one I reach for when I want to explain synthesis to people in my lessons. In this series, I'll show you how it works, and why I think it's dope.
www.arturia.com/products/anal...
Part 01 - The analog engine and filters
• Let's Play Arturia Pig...
Part 02 - Modulation (Envelopes, LFOs, and more)
• Let's Play Arturia Pig...
Part 03 - The Wavetable Engine (and FSU section)
• Let's Play Arturia Pig...
Part 04 - Sample Engine, Granular, and the Sequencer
• Let's Play Arturia Pig...
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Thank you for watching. My name is Jeremy, and this is Red Means Recording. I've been making music for a few decades now, and this channel is a place to make music and to talk about the tools and techniques to make music with. We'll use synths, drum machines, modular gear, and software.
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[@shadowhenge7118]

Once you get into this thing you realize how much the bar has been raised. All it needs is more of the emulations from thier other v collection filters and oscillators and it'd destroy almost every other soft synth in the industry.

[@chr1sdanger]

You may have fun with the Synthesizers section in the Wavetables and there are a decent amount of emulated filters included!

[@musicplaylistize]

I'm replying more for newcomers, but this in combination with fabfilters new volcano3 (a crayy filter engine) can litteraly do anything. tools hlof this quality have never been so cheap.

[@Skiddoo42]

There are a couple of functions on the seq/arp that could be improved. I wish I could switch out presets after setting up my sequences, for example, and I wish there was a way to automate randomizations to apply automatically each bar. Maybe I'm overlooking a button somewhere?

[@joshuamorganmusic]

More pigments vids yes please!!! Maybe like a ‘how to neuro bass” or “how to cosmic zipper” or something similar. These are some seriously inspiring vids, thanks for all ya do🤘

[@markfwarren1]

I just wanted to thank you for doing this series. I had been getting into synthesis more and more in recent years and at the beginning of 2020 I wanted to kinda commit to one vst to be the synth that I learned inside and out. After doing a trial of Pigments, I loved the sound and something clicked with the workflow. This whole year I've been really exploring different kinds of synthesis from Granular to generative and just learning every knob and feature of Pigments. There did, however, come a point where I started to doubt my instincts and give into the narrative that all digital is bad and everything must be analog. Then I pulled back from that to see the benefits of both and how it's really about how that particular synth sounds and your particular connection with it. As I was falling back in love with Pigments recently, you started this series. And to see you, a KZbinr who does a lot of videos with hardware and modular, and someone whose ear and taste in music I respect, it was very affirming to see you love Pigments the same way I do. Plus it was a nice detailed, refresher overview of the synth. Anyway, thanks so much! And I'd love to see more Pigments videos, maybe some specific patch walkthroughs!

[@johnfowlertrailrunning]

Thanks so much for such an informative series of videos! I’m not only learning so much more about Pigments, but I’m also realising all the new possibilities with my hardware synths that have sat around gathering dust for the last year or so! 🤓

[@citizenofearth]

I paid 60 dollars for this amazing synth and I think it's worth way way more. I need to rewatch your videos a bunch more of times though to learn how to use it properly, by the way your tutorials on Pigments are the best that I could find. Thanks a million!

[@krazywabbit]

Hi, I'm three years from the future of this recording. This was super helpful as I am jumping into the pigments pool. Thank you.

[@phillix1]

Best Pigments videos I have seen so far! Very useful!

[@docamanero]

thank you dude, this series of videos about Pigments is amazing! I learned a lot and your tips opened my mind to find new sounds in this amazing synth!

[@IntheVastForest]

Thank you for sharing this series! Every component you cover has blown it apart and opened up a new world of sound design for me, and I've been a user since day one.

[@austinbru]

You're a treasurer man. THANK you. I bought pigments as soon as it came out, and then was completely overwhelmed by it. I feel reinvigorated to take a deep dive

[@andrewbrehaut]

This whole series has been great, but this episode is fully 🤯🤯🤯

[@RedMeansRecording]

It's my favorite of the bunch too. Resynthesizing samples is my favorite

[@andrewbrehaut]

@@RedMeansRecording do you have any recommendations on sources for the sorts of long samples you are using with the granular?

[@RedMeansRecording]

Check out the morphagene reels on freesound.org

[@muitosabao]

indeed! this is amazing!!!

[@johnpaulpatton9786]

Thank you for making this series of videos! Arturia did a great job of making a very complicated synth easy to understand and navigate with a brilliant workflow, and you have done a fantastic job of breaking down each section and describing what is possible. Thanks again!

[@bluDii]

Just wanted to say thank you for these videos. I watch them every now and then to get inspired, and just following your curious mind get lost in Pigments is super helpful. Really hoping for more videos!

[@hisroyalillness]

Thanks for sharing all this knowledge. We owe you bigtime!

[@robertmason8416]

Thank you sir.... you have convinced me to get this ! Great job on going through the usage of the sample engine. I am sold!

[@Nightmoore]

I'm way late to the party here, but I wanted to thank you for doing this series. This is the only tut I've found on youtube that goes over the whole synth since the big update when Arturia added the samples and granular stuff. I don't even think Groove3 covers Pigments since they upgraded to this version. This was very comprehensive and made me realize there's WAY more under the hood than I realized. You certainly earned a new subscriber here. Can't wait to check out your other videos!

[@jonmackenzie]

this series has really made me love my fav soft synth even more, lots of cool ideas i've never even though about, lots of really tasteful ideas here, and my god i didn't realise the sequencer was that cool! thanks for making this series :) one of my fav tricks with the granular engine that i don't think you mentioned is that you can turn on the quantizer and then the pitch randomization will be quantized to those pitches so if you turn off all notes except the root you can basically just randomize the octave (or can add fifths in there too or whatever else)

[@JoelMartinez]

Pigments is by far my favorite software synth

[@NicChap]

U R a Master! Just purchased Pigments during their black friday promo (what a steal). Soooo many things in this Synth!

[@craigturb]

Awesome video. Thanks Jeremy. I have only scratched the surface of Pigments so far...this has certainly inspired me to experiment. There is so much you can do with it!

[@kilianernst375]

thank you so much for this nice series! it was so much fun to watch and I learned many new things! I Bought Pigments myself but never really startet designing my own sounds because I got kinda overwhelmed. :D 'd love to see more Pigments content! It doesn´t even have to be a particular tutorial or breakdown, just watching you doing sweet patches on Pigments is so satisfying and inspiring! :)

[@karanfadnavis]

This has by far been the most exhaustive explanation of Pigments. I've gone through all the 4 parts and now it's time to make some Ambient (cheat codes on 😂). Thanks so much for the effort you've put into this!

[@fincorrigan7139]

Every time I sit down to start watching this wonderful series on Pigments I jump up and rush to my PC to spark it it up and let my imagination go wild.......One day I will finish watchi................

[@signaltouch7413]

Thank you Sir , you are one of the best instructors!! liked and subscribed and shared to friends

[@laosrtz]

Such an amazing tutorial, thank you so much! I love pigments

[@stevemeyer868]

Thanks for making this series! Pigments is my favorite synth and it's great to see your approach to it. I got myself a Subharmonicon because of you (and I'm loving it). I'm just concerned, that I might fall into the modular rabbit hole after watching all your videos about it. Keep on rocking and thanks for the music!

[@srcero5192]

Pigments is my favourite since I bought it. The posibility to send each filter to a diferent FX bus is the only thing I miss in this synth. Really beautiful sounds, man. More of this videos, please!!!

[@stevemeyer868]

That's the one feature I really miss. I loved this option back in Massive and Massive X somehow didn't work for me. So glad, I stumbled over Pigments. Still my fav synth.

[@raffaelesantabarbara1449]

This thing is sooo good! Awesome is an understatement. I had it for a while now and I’m still amazed at the things one can do with it. Not to mention the price tag! Easily a (perhaps) thousand dollar plugin for a fraction of the price ❤

[@muitosabao]

Please make more of these sound design on pigments. A pleasure to watch! Thanks for making them.

[@neilingle794]

Really enjoyed this video. I'm familiar with Pigments and have used the sequencer with randomisation to create some pretty wacky generative effects. Videos like this help to validate my approach, and remind me just how much fun Pigments can be, especially with its intuitive GUI and powerful modulation capabilities. My main takout from this vid is your clever use of samples (round robin etc) with the sequencer, never really tried that...

[@nkozi]

I've owned Pigments for a while but this is really shining new light on it for me, especially now that I use modular synths and processes often. Thanks as always for great videos, dude! Very inspiring to me as I get into video production.

[@RedMeansRecording]

Yeah modular actually made me appreciate pigments more.

[@robertobreve8623]

Another amazing video, please more :) This is so awesome

[@jamessusbilla]

WOW. thank *YOU* i've been using pigments wrong all along. this is life changing. =)

[@crysthianchavez2588]

I loved this series. If you did more pigments based videos that would be great!

[@ob1quixote]

Thank you for this. I too normally just don't even look at included sequencers, but this one seems like something special. Also, please say, "HI," to Cat for me.

[@benoftroy]

Awesome video series! Enjoyed them all and learned a lot. Would love to see another vid on the FX section. I know you can do some pretty complex routing with effects and I'd love to see how you use it.

[@badaegis]

Ah, an excellent use for my field recordings, thank you.

[@michaelsmullen9891]

Arturia are great. I am going to have a lot of fun with Pigments over the coming year/years!

[@issiewizzie]

Wave sequencing in a different form fantastic😊

[@PrimaudiaRecord]

9:48 Absolutely made my day, excellent stuff :)

[@duncansmith6318]

Some of those sounds are straight out of an Ozric Tentacles set! Sublime.

[@Skiddoo42]

Ethereal cereal, man

[@marillion335]

I love my Pigments. I have a 24" Dell touch screen attached to the PC and it is so much more fun using Pigments without the mouse. Some of the interactions with touch screen are a bit awkward - like clicking on the + to assign modulation but most dials and controls work flawlessly.

[@Rebellalliansen]

Thank you! You are awesome 😘

[@robaire.b]

Great video

[@macronencer]

The custom scale with note probability (in the sequencer) is awesome! I need to start using Pigments again... it's the only music software I have on my laptop as well as my Mac Pro, so that I can play with it when I'm on trips (not that I've been on many of those in 2020...)

[@greatadventures4579]

I said this on a previous video. You presentation style is very well done and articulate. I really like Pigments. Anything you do with it would be of great interest to me. Maybe making patches with multiple modulation additions.

[@jszack]

So good.

[@francescoNemesi]

Great! More pigment please! :)

[@miahorg]

Very cool, now I know who to blame when I fall into a cave this weekend trying to make 303 noises with the Pigments sequencer.

[@TheOneTrueAnswer]

23:45 It really sounds like a youtuber intro, but from the 5th dimension; to be played over Battlefield 8 footage.

[@Oyasoom]

My only regret about the sequencer is the fact that we can't modulate probability dice. But this is minor. That said, I think Pigments is near perfection. As someone who wants to get into (semi-)modular, but can't spend that much, Pigments was perfect to quench my modular needs.

[@ToyKeeper]

The bit at 18:55 is particularly fantastic.

[@Konk_Ambient]

U the best man.

[@Konk_Ambient]

Musical instinct lv99

[@romanmenarguezblanc9571]

MORE!!! MOOOREEE!!

[@TerenceKearns]

That polyrythm thing with settable realisgnment intervals has so many possibilities. Super cool. I agree, I normally don't care about sequences built into synths but this one is super dope. Hey if you ever get a chance to review Blue Arp, that would be cool. Check it out. It's been around since forever and it's free. The interface looks horrific at first, but then when you learn it, you realise it's actually pretty sweet.

[@samglass2004]

Love to hear a whole piece of music done with pigments plus are most people hobbiest just having fun at home and not really really into Music I sometimes feel like thier is really no one who takes all this software and gear seriously but maybe iam wrong?

[@amb13nt59]

Thank you for this! Really looks like a great VST. Can I ask, does anyone have both this and Omnisphere? If so, any preferences? Is this a good addition to Omnisphere?

[@wallendiaz]

15:35 Wow, Are you playing your Midi Keyboard to create this sound while you explain everything, or this sound is generated by the Sample that you are using in Pigments? 😮 Incredible, thanks!

[@TerenceKearns]

24:00 I think that is a whole new genre of goofy dance music with the twitchy slide called "goof"

[@jonlewis3838]

I don’t know if you mention it anywhere but where did you get the flute sample?

[@Brucelectricmoose]

Think it sounds cool

[@TommyLoaded]

HOLLO KNIGHT SAMPLE - I SAW THAT

[@faviooviedo2740]

how do i use a .wav sample with engine without affecting the tempo when i change the pitch?

[@Taylor-op8tv]

Sorry to ask for moar while you deliver us greatness, but do you think you could do the same kind of series for Vital synth? Love you Jeremy.

[@RedMeansRecording]

I'll give it a spin

[@barrycole5930]

Awesome series thanks for these vids, will you be doing a Pigments 3 update for the new features?

[@RedMeansRecording]

Yes! Check out loopops video on additive synthesizes now for a great look into that engine

[@chrisccc503]

this plug in does not recognize my midi under settings at all and will not play it....how do you do this?

[@robbybobbyhobbies]

24:35 Jean Michel-Jarre buys a copy of Pigments, plans Oxygene ultimate, final director's cut edition.

[@louismartin8840]

Hi Jeremy ! Thanks for sharing your experience and skill :) I have a question about the soud material used for granular synth : around 15min20s and 16min30 you explain that some material are more "granular friendly" than others. for example you say that the composer was very smart when he recorded chords and notes in the material you used. is it possible to have more details about this ? which criteria are smart from you perspective ? do you have some examples ?

[@RedMeansRecording]

granular smears pitches when pitched samples are used. some intervals sound better smeared than others. watch my "safe notes" video for more information. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJzUdX6jfNOgnNk

[@louismartin8840]

@@RedMeansRecording : wonderful thank you !

[@blindianajones]

Appreciate you doing these Pigments videos. Hmmm... $200 for Pigments vs 5k to 10k for modular... And I can actually understand what the hell is going on with the software. Btw, has anyone done midi mapping to a controller for Pigments. I have a novation launchkey and wondering how best to map controls for the engines, filter, envelopes, sequencer, fx, etc. Or is that all too much for a controller to map?

[@tazkiller01]

hello, more pigments video of curse :D

[@boozledropmusicproduction2242]

Is the sample engine limited to 5 samples across the whole keyboard…? Or am i missing something..?

[@unc1589]

This thing is a beast. Can I drop any wav samples into it?

[@RedMeansRecording]

Yes

[@avatr7109]

Can we play different Keys while in Granular mode ?

[@RedMeansRecording]

yup!!

[@ben_burnes]

Seeing your sample folders on the left, you're gonna make me put those Hollow Knight sound effects in the granulizer myself then huh?

[@RedMeansRecording]

DO IT

[@ben_burnes]

@@RedMeansRecording I'm really thankful for this series though. I love pigments and I know I'm only scratching the surface. Plus always glad to watch more of your videos 🥰

[@TerenceKearns]

9:50 very Nine Inch Nails... all you need is some low-down chug distortion guitar rhythms and a progressive rock drum improv.

[@xamxamxamxa]

🌚🖤🎶🎶

[@Nomo_Popo]

Red everything pls thx

[@traumadiffuser3705]

Why did you made Part 05 of this series privat?

[@RedMeansRecording]

There is no part 5?

[@traumadiffuser3705]

@@RedMeansRecording Then it must be a glitch in your Playlist. Thanks!

[@Mancheguache]

Well - I paid for the synth...but Arturia haven't sent me a verification code to activate my product and their servers can't be connected so I can't activate it that way. A load of money down the god-damned drain.