Pigments 6 is available now. With a new synth engine, a vocoder, and expanded filters, modulation, and granular capabilities, Arturia’s sound design playset is deeper than ever. But it’s never overwhelming, and this release is the most refined yet. Here’s a review and complete guide to what’s in there.

We’re certainly in an age of vast semimodular soft synths. There’s the free/open source Surge, recent fan favorite Vital, and the unique-sounding Minimal Audio Current (which I recently reviewed). I expect we’ll also have to clear our calendars to dive into Zebra 3 from u-he, though maybe mercifully for finishing some tracks, that’ll wait until later this year. And add that to longer-running entries like NI Massive/Massive X and Xfer Serum (plus u-he’s own Hive), among others.

What I’ve grown to appreciate about Pigments as it’s evolved is that Arturia has made a wide range of sound tools accessible and harmonious. Ironically, the company’s wide stable of soft synths has sometimes left Arturia competing with itself. You could easily start in an instrument like JUP-8 V or CZ V, pop open the Advanced panel, and use these in much the same way as Pigments, to say nothing of the advanced Buchla and Moog modular. But that’s where Pigments 6 comes in, with some unique new tools that keep it squarely in 21st-century synth territory.

Pigments 6 brings one new modal engine, an internal vocoder (finally), 3 new filters, 4 new modulators, improvements to the granular engine, and a bunch of UX/UI improvements.

Modal Engine

Modal synthesis is a form of physical modeling synthesis that divides sounds into an exciter (bowing, plucking, striking, etc.) and resonator, then divides that resonator into simple component frequencies (modes). The upshot: you can make all kinds of nice plucking, bowing, pad, textural, and experimental sounds — with knobby controls throughout. And you get an optional Partials control, as on an additive synth.

Arturia has given you a full complement of controls for this. Pitch quantization can be enabled or disabled; you can disable it for making percussive sounds, for instance. There’s a Friction exciter with granular, noise, and synthesized friction modes. The resonator can be set to Beam, String, or Partials modes. And there’s a Shaper for additional harmonic control, with morphing, plus the ability to Warp detuned and inharmonic resonators.

Also, the Collision and Friction exciters can use external audio input as well as collision and sample modes, meaning still more effects possibilities.

There are additional extras everywhere: String Timbre gives you options of Pure, Pinch, Hollow, Nylon, Full, and Bass:

Shaper has its own complement of Forms: Square, Brass, Guitar, PWM, Chip, Glass, “Bad,” E-Piano, and Vocal:

No matter how deep you think the new Modal engine is, it’s probably deeper. And it’s unusual to see a complete modal synth inside a mainstream polysynth like this. (Tela from FORS is an interesting, dedicated modal synth that’s worth a try – especially as it sounds completely different than Pigments 6.) So for instance, NI’s Massive X is capable of some physical modeling techniques using the Exciter and a comb filter, but you don’t get a complete modal engine like this. And, sorry, Pigments is far easier to navigate than Massive X, too, so you’re trading complexity for… less functionality, at least as far as this particular area. This is a huge addition.

No matter how deep you think the new Modal engine is, it’s probably deeper.

New Filters

There are new and updated filter models here, too, each of which significantly expands sound design possibilities.

Lofi Filter is just a wonderful, unexpected treat. It’s a downsampling, aliasing filter with jitter control and pre- and post-filter routings. That lets you do all sorts of tricks, from emulating vintage chip hardware to really precise, gorgeous digital harmonic mangling. I mean, yes, technically, the modal engine is a much more important addition to Pigments 6, but that doesn’t mean you won’t pleasurably lose just as much time messing with the Lofi Filter, at least if you’re me.

Cluster Filter stacks filters together for some rich filtered sounds, with Peak (9 dB, 18 dB), Bandpass (12 dB, 24 dB), combined Lowpass + Highpass (12 dB, 24 dB), and Notch 24 dB modes. What does that “cluster” mean? Think multiple cutoff points with spread. (Polyverse Music has been doing some nice things with this in standalone plug-ins lately.)

Multi Filter gets some major additions, too. It’s in the FX section, but this makes it feel almost like a third new filter engine, with drive, analog/digital switch for resonance, and All-Pass Filters. Arguably drive and All-Pass modes should have been there from the start, but these subtle additions cement Pigments place as one of the major poly synths in software now. Distortion also gets the new All-Pass and Q options.

New modulators

One of Arturia’s key plays across its line is to give you quick, fun modulation. That balances the wormhole / deep sound design approach with the feeling of, “can I get something interesting right away so I can get on with, like, making music or something?”

I love how that modulation is always accessible in one easy-to-scan row, meaning assignments in Pigments are never far away. But it sometimes felt like the actual modulation options were a bit restrictive. So Pigments 5 fleshes those out:

Random generates, well, random values with Rate, Smoothness, Distance, and Jitter.

Voice Modulator I really love – it lets you assign modulation to values within each polyphonic voice and then can choose cycle / reassign / random for behavior in between. This makes loads of sense in a semimodular polysynth – instead of having to do some elaborate patching, this is just there to mess with.

Combinate – Envelope Follower is an amplitude-following modulation that you can assign to external audio or an internal engine.

Vocoder

There’s a vocoder! I think a lot of you have been wondering where this was for a while – especially as Arturia makes, among other things, Vocoder V.

The Vocoder is an effect, so you have to head to the FX page to find it. Once you’re there, though, you get copious ways of routing it / using it – you can set it to a standard insert effect, or route in any engine or an external input.

You also get three modes (Modern, Vintage, Dirty), a Carrier “enhance” feature, bands count from 4-40, and controls for Bandwidth, Formant, Decay, Gate, Sibilance, and Freq Tilt.

As with other effects, there are also quick-access presets so you don’t get lost.

Routing flexibility makes a great argument for why this works as an effect rather than a new synth Engine. You can instantiate the vocoder as an insert, aux, effect, or even multiple locations.

And more improvements

There’s more in there:

Granular Engine. This is an equally big one for me as a granular fan – you now get sample scanning, per-note grain randomization, and the ability to adjust grain size continuously. That makes Pigments more of a competitor (for my time, at least) with Minimal Audio’s Current and its granular engine. (Current is still deeper, and has a dedicated granular engine – Pigments combines granular features with its sample engine. Oh, who am I kidding? Like I ever would say I have too much granular. iPhone, field recording of some rain, I’ll see you next week.)

Random and Round Robin now triggers grains! This deserves its own bullet point! (You could already use Round Robin with MIDI triggers, which lets you set up, for instance, KORG Mono/Poly-style voice behaviors, among other things.)

More samples, more wavetables. I mean, don’t forget that you can import anything and use it. But Arturia has also expanded its offerings with a particular focus on granular samples – again, a smart move with Current going nuts with sample content. It’s nice having some easily accessible inspiration.

Keyboard Transpose and Fine Tune global controls. Handy. Don’t forget, while it’s not a new feature, that Pigments also has complete MPE support (including MPE pitch bend support) plus full tuning/microtuning support, including some presets and Scala import capability.

Improved UI/UX and refreshed Light theme. I’m a little fuzzy on what changed here, but it certainly feels nice enough. And there’s a refreshened Light theme, similar to what we’ve seen on Arturia’s effects lately, which for me improves visibility.

Other UI improvements:

  • Reworked file browser, making it far easier to navigate wavetables, samples, noises, etc.
  • Improved layout and UX for Keyboard, Filter, Tune, and Output sections.
  • Style refresh for visualizer, knobs, backgrounds, pop-ups, and more.

It’s all pretty seamless, but overall, I got the feeling I was moving around with some new-found ease.

Function Modulator has been overhauled. It’s got a new look and adds functions like grid quantisation, S curves, lateral shift,  double size, and more.

Quick Edit V2 now lets you drag and drop on modulation amounts to modulate them directly.

A live jam

I don’t like making videos quite as much as I like making music, and it is Jamuary, so here is me playing around with a tune in progress using just Pigments and focusing on its new features. This is why I’m often late.

Conclusions

It’s not just about money – these days, there’s a question of which instruments reward your time. Pigments 6 strikes a perfect balance of deep sound design capabilities and balanced modulation, control, and playability. There are few instruments that let you get at these kinds of modal and granular features, effects, and external routing with this ease. The Modal Engine alone is also worth some consideration – it’s uniquely voiced in a way that makes it comfortable to use, and it feels at home inside this larger polysynth context. (I’m not tossing other physical modeling synths, but this is a perfect complement.)

And Pigments remains a powerful way of playing with external audio – meaning I should update this guide with the mention of Exciter and Shaper audio inputs, plus the Vocoder FX:

Plus with MPE support throughout, this is another soft synth to consider when designing patches for your MPE controller of choice, like the Osmose – be your own Hans Zimmer!

The usual phenomenon happens that I’ve found with Pigments updates – each upgrade has me discovering some existing features I hadn’t fully explored before. That ease of discoverability and play is something special. It’s not that there aren’t other great polysynths out there – there absolutely are. But the ability to get into that flow is everything. And like some of those rivals, there is a sense of sonic character and personality all its own.

I look forward to getting back to it more.

Pigments 6 is available for $99 / €99 through February 18 as an intro sale (199 thereafter).

It’s a free update for existing users. (Amen.) A demo version is available via Arturia’s website, too.

Pigments 6 @ Arturia

Intro pricing is also available via Plugin Boutique. Through January 31, that includes the excellent Richter compressor for free with purchase.
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Pigments 6 [Plugin Boutique]