It’s long been a favourite among producers and sound designers, and Pigments’s fifth iteration offers many practical enhancements.

Arturia’s flagship multi-engine soft synth just got an upgrade! Pigments 5 is a free update for existing users, introducing several enhancements including multi-core support for CPU optimisation, algorithmic sequencing, external audio processing, and a revamped Play View.

Pigments 5: not the biggest update but a practical one nonetheless

Arturia’s users have often found one common snag in its fabulous synthesizer – its demand on CPUs. But Pigments 5 introduces multi-core support to enhance CPU efficiency, especially on older systems.

The feature is however disengaged by default. You’ll need to activate multi-core support in Pigments’s global settings, significantly reducing your CPU workload while making large polyphonic patches.

Arturia has revamped Pigments’s Play View which it introduced with Pigments 4. Play View simplifies the rather complicated synth, downsizing the user interface and offering a simplified view of oscillators, utilities, filters, effects, modulation, and macro controls.

Pigments 5 from Arturia offers multi-core support for older systems, external audio processing, an enhanced Play View and more.

Arturia hopes the updated play view will make the synth even more accessible to the “players among musicians” and newcomers to Pigments, mitigating its intimidating, busy interface packed with parameters. The French developer has an interactive audio spectrum in Play View too.

One of the coolest enhancements for Pigments 5 is its support for external audio processing. Via the utility engine, you can now route audio samples through Pigments using the track sidechain input. Sound designers and electronic producers can elevate their productions using Arturia’s advanced effects and modulation engines on their samples… something I’m rather excited about.

Although some users may have wished for a dedicated Pigments FX iteration, I think Pigments’s new audio routing is pretty cool and offers hours of fun and exploration. The utility engine upgrade, coupled with enhanced internal FX routing, will expand your creative possibilities tenfold.

Finally, Pigments 5 ships with 100 new factory presets that showcase the capabilities of the new features, fit for use in soundtracks and commercial music. The number of new presets brings the total number of sounds to 1500 +.

Furthermore, Pigments 5 boasts several new wavetables and samples including 808 basses and even vocal samples.

Price and compatibility

Though it isn’t the biggest update the synth has had, Pigments 5 is still significant. The enhanced play view may reduce the barrier to entry, the reduced load on CPUs will be well received, and external audio processing is extremely promising.

Available in VST3, AU, AAX and standalone, you can get Pigments 5 now at an introductory price of $99. Existing users however can get the update for free.