There’s also a pair of new effects processors to add colour and class to your sounds. This does a lovely job of emulating Korg’s sharp, focussed, gritty and often angry-sounding filter, and is an enticing addition to Pigments’ toolset. Pigments’ filter stage remains as flexible as ever, and now includes a model based on the Korg MS-20 filter. The Wavetable, Sample and Harmonic models have all been given useful additions that provide each with even more scope for creating exciting and original new tones: Ring modulation and pulse width phase transformations within the Wavetable engine a phase modulation option within the Harmonic engine and new cross-modulation options and enhanced unison options across all engines. The enhancements aren’t purely cosmetic, though. And if you’re into microtonal composition, Pigments is now fully compatible with Oddsound’s MTS-ESP suite. The synth’s workflow has been streamlined too, with easier modulation assignment and adjustment, new LFO presets, new sync modes, and the ability to quickly bypass the effects and sequencer sections. This is a nice addition, providing the focus you need when performing with what is a very deep synth.

There’s also a new Play view that provides an entire overview of the synth, with all engines, filters and effects visible within a single view, albeit with only the most important controls available. Pigments 4 retains the same overall appearance of previous versions, but there’s now a choice of two themes: the original dark theme and a new light theme.

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This arrangement has not changed since we looked at Pigments 3, but Arturia has made some important enhancements nonetheless. (There’s also a third Utility engine that provides a pair of noise generators and a sub-oscillator, regardless of which models are loaded into the other two engine slots).

This chameleon-like ability starts with Pigments’ pair of flexible sound engines, each of which can load any one of four different models – Analog, Wavetable, Sample and Harmonic – each encompassing a different approach to generating source tones for the synth. “multi-coloured”) synthesizer is in reference to the instrument’s hugely varied and variable sonic palette. Arturia’s description of Pigments as a “Polychrome” (lit.

Pigments 3 presets