Tutorials | Pigments 3 - Episode 7: Harmonic Engine

Sam takes a closer look at Pigments’ ultra-powerful new Harmonic engine, opening up a whole new world of sonic possibility with the power of additive synthesis.

00:00 Intro
00:51 Harmonic partials
02:21 Harmonic presets
02:58 Odd & even harmonics
04:04 Tilt & tilt offset
05:14 Formant filters
07:47 Stereo image
09:32 Modulator
10:27 Partial Modulator

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Pigments 3 is a state-of-the-art #software instrument that gives you the power of every shade of #synthesis. With colorful sound engines, effortless modulation, professional utilities, and studio-grade FX, explore an infinite spectrum of sound.

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Arturia is one of the world’s leading developers of music software, studio controllers, hardware synthesizers and audio interfaces. Creating gear for pro and amateur musicians alike, we create equipment that is both easy to use, enhances your workflow, and sounds amazing.

[Emily_M]

Not at all what I was expecting when I saw Pigments was getting an additive oscillator, but I think this is a pretty novel way to handle it in what turns out to be quite a musical fashion. I made a very metallic bell-like preset with it tonight that sounds wonderful and I'm excited to use in something :D I did not expect this to be free at all (or even be coming), so thank you!

[ArielTavori]

Thanks for the update and the video, and most of all for not trying to charge us again for it.

IMHO pigments is the reigning king, and I really hope you guys keep up the diligent work and continue actively developing it!..

[macronencer]

OK, this is one thing I was definitely hoping for, ever since I discovered Razor. Excellent work, Arturia! The level of detailed modulation control on this engine has been really well thought out. Absolutely brilliant.

[fransteeno]

Extremely Fascinating! It is a whole synthesizer all by itself.

[mr.kybernaut]

Pigments is getting into the "legendary" area of VSTs. Really cool addition.
I always wondered: how to easily and intuitively work with additive synthesis. Once again, Arturia solved the problem!

[aquaticborealis]

I'm not a sound designer, but this synth is epic in what it offers in that regard. I play with the presets, and they are very good.

[MrRexBaron]

Thank you so much - also like how its being recorded in a sauna !

[sensium]

The workflow and the UI is a dream! Love this Synth! Thanks Arturia!

[hisroyalillness]

Pigments - what a beast. Thanks for these great tutorials

[jozard]

The Shepard mode is very cool, I'm inspired to create some ambiences with it

[marike]

Just installed the update, Pigments 3 is running flawlessly on my M1 MacBook Air, and it could be my imagination but it seems to sound better than ever. merci beaucoup, Arturia. 👍🎹

[Wagoo]

When Piglets is feature complete it'd be nice if you could turn it into a hardware synthesizer. Something to compete with Quantum/Iridium, that can keep my Origin company?

[syntropiqueTV]

YEAHHH!!! What an amazing synth at a crazy good price. Now I want the hardware version.

[dh.l]

Incredible! Thanks so much for the free upgrade!

[brianreilly]

Great tutorial very helpful, awesome plugin, much thx!!

[laons]

build a midi controller based/for on this synth and I will be the happiest man on earth

[l.romain]

They should add a knob to the partial section. This knob will create a resonance At the partial cut off. Or silence all neighboring partials. So you can scan through the harmonic series of any wav form, such as saw and square harmonic series. I can then choose the 3rd harmonic of a saw wav and modulate it with the other engine. I can also swipe through the harmonic series while I’m using it to modulate the other engine. Or I can layer this harmonic and distort it with a sine wav from the other engine. Just a thought I think would be cool.

[adamsmith]

Reminds me of Virsyn Cube, a great additive vst that I used to use back in the day. I've still got the installer. Although I don't know if will work on later systems. Great synth. This is a useful addition to an already full featured synth. Further to this, it would also be cool if you added some more functionality to the wavetables in Pigments. along the lines of the spectral filter and other modifiers in Reason's Europa, that massively increase the timbral capability of that method of synthesis.

[philippebackprotips]

Cool. Does not beat Air Loom 2, which is pretty old, granted. Maybe more along these lines later in Pigments. Pigments definitely cool. I wish all of those LFO, evelope and what not tabs could be detached and put around in a big screen (or several ones) so that it all is direct and no tabbing all over the place needed.

[petervoglmusic]

what happened to the section modulator dial? It was never demonstrated or explained....