Arturia Pigments - Software Review
At the end of 2018 Arturia launched their brand new software synth , Pigments. I recently purchased it and have been using it for the last week . Here is my in depth review and my overall thoughts on Arturia’s latest offering .
Pigments is an Polychrome Software Synthesizer created by Arturia . I feel that Arturia created Pigments with one thing in mind , CREATIVITY.
It’s no accident that Arturia chose bright colours in regards to their marketing of Pigments , it’s an visual representation of what you can expect to boost your creativity when using Pigments. The user interface is bright, colourful and slick looking, possibly one of the best looking synths out there today. And this is where Pigments truly shines. Sounds are no longer just heard , but you can ‘see’ the sound in front of you. From its many wavetable & filter features (among others) , you can adjust the sound according to how it sounds and ‘looks’ like. As mentioned before , the UI is bright and colourful, and its with these stand out colours that they help you and guide you as to what is happening where and if you want something changed , all you have to do is find it on your screen.
Also featuring a twin audio engine allowing you to mix virtual analog & wavetable oscillators for each patch/preset, two filter slots (where you have an abundance of filter options from modern filters to classic filters from their amazing V collection and more), a huge array of effects that can be routed to send and insert & so much more .
You’ll also find featured all the standard ‘bells & whistles’ you would expect from an modern synth with regards to envelopes, LFOs, function generators and more . It can become overwhelming upon launching this synth for the first time. You have this wavetable in the top right and bright bouncing lines and squiggles all over the place , knobs turning on their own BUT do not fret. It’s only when you delve deeper into the synth and actually start using it that you become accustomed to its UI. It has a slight learning curve , but once you start messing around with the settings/filter/LFO’s and so on , you’ll then get to see that it is quite easy to use and manipulate. The wavetable itself can be changed to your exact liking as you now have a ‘3D model’ of what the wave looks like and adjust it to your personal preference.
Their are an abundant of presets, I was actually taken aback with just how many are in store. They’ve been neatly grouped into Bass, Leads, Pads, Organ, SFX, Strings, Percussions, Strings and Keys. As with all Arturia software , you can expand the UI into its ‘search mode’ where you can search for a specific preset if you like. The quality of each preset is truly amazing. I was completely blown away with just how good each preset sounds. You don’t get that ‘cheesy’ sound as you do with a lot of other soft synths, but truly sounds like ‘real analog’ . The depth and warmth of each preset is truly astounding. Pigments has become my ‘go to’ synth when starting a new project , I cannot express more of just how much of quality sounds this synth has .
As a side note as of last week Arturia has recently added an update to Pigements to version 1.2 featuring new sounds and abilities which is a bonus if you haven’t purchased it yet.
This has by far become my favourite software synthesizer to date . If you’re looking for a quality synth without breaking the bank (they had this on offer with 50% off when I had purchased it for only €99), then this is for the synth for you.
Head on to the Arturia official website HERE