Can any other synth match Arturia Pigments 6’s astonishing sonic diversity?€199 for new licences 
Free update for existing users
Arturia Pigments has been my number one synth plugin since 2021. It’s my go-to instrument for serious projects or when I’m just looking for some sound-design fun, yet I still discover new sounds and techniques almost every time I fire it up. Those pleasant sonic surprises, and moments of inspiration sparked by a new sound, come thick and fast while exploring Pigments 6.
Crucial to Pigments’ versatility is a semi-modular design that allows a wide choice of tone generation, filter and effect models to be loaded into various slots that host them. Unsurprisingly, the recently launched sixth generation of the synth features new models in all of these areas.

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What is Pigments’ new Modal synth model?
Pigments 6’s tone generation stage has a pair of slots for loading synth engine models, plus a Utility Engine that provides noise sources, a single analogue-style oscillator, and an optional audio input path. We have the Analog, Wavetable, Harmonic and Sample engines from Pigments 5; the latter’s granular mode now has a Scan parameter that shifts the grain playback position while a note is held, creating extra variation and evolution in the resulting sound.
New here is Modal, a physical modelling synth engine built on Karplus-Strong String Synthesis foundations. This engine is particularly effective for emulating plucked and struck instruments because it closely models their acoustic properties.

At the start of Modal’s synthesis chain is a choice of different impulse sounds, plus the option to use an audio input to seed the resonator. I have marvellous fun plumbing in drum hits and other percussive noises, and the results are enticing, especially when Modal’s other tools get involved.
The resonator section offers a choice between String and Beam models; these are essentially comb filters with incredibly narrow bands that tune the impulse to a more rarefied and controlled series of partials. String produces brighter tones with many partials, while Beam produces hollower, purer tones containing fewer partials.
Arturia has also added an Exciter stage on top of these Karplus-Strong foundations. This feeds additional impulses into the resonator while a note is held and sustained – think of a bow scraping across a violin string, or a hammer bouncing on a hammered dulcimer’s strings. Like the Impulse stage, the Exciter offers a choice of sounds and noises and, again, there’s the option to feed an external audio input to the Exciter. Modal’s potential as an effect processor gets better and better!
The actual sound produced is determined by various factors: the shape of the filters, the number and decay rate of partials, whether the partials are harmonic or enharmonic, and so on. But Arturia has done a first-rate job of distilling this complexity into a straightforward and understandable set of parameters. You still have to explore how to coax interesting tones from the engine, but Pigments’ integrated help system provides tutorials to keep you on the right track.
Modal adds a completely new and distinct voice to Pigments, and its acoustic realism (and, if you like, surrealism) both complements and contrasts with the analogue and digital synth tones the instrument was already so adept at creating.

What’s new in Pigments’ Filter section?
The MultiMode filter found in previous Pigments incarnations has been overhauled and renamed the Classic filter. All variants now include input overdrive for injecting additional harmonics into a sound, and can now switch between Digital and Analog modes. Resonance behaviour changes so that, in Analog mode, there is less loss of overall loudness when resonance is increased, which in turn gives smoother, warmer-sounding filtering.
New to Pigments 6 are the Cluster and LoFi filters. The first of these creates up to five filter bands centred around the chosen cutoff frequency, and control over the frequency spread of those bands (a nice target for an LFO, perhaps…). Cluster works particularly well on pads, giving movement and variation, and can create immediately striking results when its output is mangled through the synth’s Bitcrusher.
LoFi is a downsampler wrapped in filter’s clothing. This filter creates consistent degradation, no matter how complex or loud the incoming signal, while steep low-pass filters at the downsampler’s input and output allow welcome fine-tuning of the effect. The downsampling frequency can be jittered to give variation and, more fascinatingly, can be modulated by the synth’s modulators or the output of either tone generation engine. This results in exceptionally ear-catching tones and effects.

Does Pigments 6 have new modulators or effects?
Despite already possessing one of the best modulation systems of any synth, Pigments 6 brings even more polish to this vital part of the instrument.
Hovering over a modulated parameter pops open a panel that shows tiny pie charts that visualise (and allow adjustment of) the strength of all assigned modulators. This is incredibly handy but is made all the more useful by the newfound ability to create modulator side chains by dragging a source to one of these pies.
The modulators have received some attention too. Combinator modulators have gained an Envelope Follower mode that can be triggered from any tone generator or filter output, or from an external audio input. This is perfect for creating modulations that are synced to something other than tempo.
The Random mode of the Random modulator group has been made even more… err… random, with the addition of a Jitter setting. Conversely, it is now more tameable too, thanks to Distance and Smooth parameters that limit the magnitude and rate of change (respectively) of the modulator’s output.
Envelope Follower. Image: Press
Random modulators have a new Voice Modulator mode. This allows a sequence of up to eight values to be defined that Pigments can step through in various ways each time it needs to produce a new voice. I particularly enjoy using this to emulate the imperfections of vintage synth circuitry, recreating the subtle differences in tuning and waveform that an aged synth may produce.
The last modulator improvement is a revamped Function Generator. These are drawable modulation curves that either loop repeatedly to give LFO-like results, or can be fired once per note like an envelope. In either case, the shape of the LFO/envelope is entirely customisable, and so can be used for anything from creating ultra-slow risers to intricate rhythmic patterns.
Function Generators now have a Free Running option in which the curve continues to loop irrespective of incoming notes or other retrigger events. Meanwhile, the remaining retrigger options have been relabelled to make their action clearer. Creating custom curves is less fiddly now, thanks to a drawing grid and snap-to-grid option, while a tracer now runs over the curve so you can better understand what it is doing and when.
Finally, Pigments’ effects section has a new Vocoder processor. This can produce up to 40 filter bands with three different filter modes (vintage, modern and dirty), while the cross-modulation signal can be sourced from any synth, utility or filter engine output, as well as external audio input. It’s remarkably flexible!
There remains a slight gripe in the effects section — some parameters of some effect models can’t be used as modulation destinations. These are never vital parameters, but frustrating on those odd occasions when you want to, say, control an EQ boost/cut with an envelope generator.

Is there any reason not to get Pigments 6?
Pigments is resource-hungry, much like other powerful soft synths. If your machine matches the minimum specs you’ll have no problem running at least one instance – probably more – and in the studio, it’s not a big deal thanks to track bouncing and freezing. But an option to disable all of Pigments’ (admittedly beautiful) animated graphics may help free up resources for additional Pigments instances, or for other instruments and plugins to use.
Its taste for CPU cycles aside, there’s everything to love about Pigments 6. The additional sound design pathways opened up by Modal just beg to be explored, and the expansion in the ways external audio inputs can be used means Pigments is heading to being an awesome effects processor as well as a truly awesome synth.
The €199 asking price isn’t a bank-breaker, but it’s no impulse buy either. However, due to its semi-modular design and wide choice of synth, filter and effects models, Pigments is a veritable chameleon of an instrument – an ‘every synth’, if you will. It’s an analogue monster, a digital dream, a sampling powerhouse, and now a physical modelling marvel (or indeed any combination thereof). Add to this an exquisitely rich and detailed sound quality, and the asking price starts to look reasonable. That all of this is free to existing users is astonishing, given the updates alone are worth the full asking price.
Vocoder. Image: Press
Key features

Standalone and plugin instrument for Windows 10+ and macOS 11+
Large library of presets included; additional libraries available
2 synth engines with choice of Analog, Wavetable, Sampler, Harmonic and Modal
Utility engine with noise, simple analogue oscillator and optional external audio input
2 filter engines with choice of Classic, Cluster, Phaser, Formant, Surgeon, LoFi, Comb, Mini, MS-20, Matrix 12, Jupiter 8, SEM and
Lowpass Gate
2 insert effect chains and send/return effect chain
3 effects per chain with choice of spatial, dynamics, filters/EQs, distortions and modulations
Pattern sequencer/arpeggiator
24 modulation sources with easy mapping and side-chaining

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