your story of your father playing exciting things on his guitar and your reaction brings back my earliest memory of music, which may even be one reason for becoming a musician at all (and not a behavioral scientist as was also in my wishlist later on): i must have been four or five years old, when our parents stayed with us in a youth hostel and there was this group of young students - one of them had a guitar and liked to sit in the yard and play a little - i remember that i was utterly fascinated by those sounds coming directly out of this wooden box, unbelievable for me - so when i kept staring, he played some chords extra for me and they had exactly the same effect like you describe here, haha... later songs like "venus" by shocking blue or "my sweet lord" by george harrison became faves just because of their guitar intros! thanx for your little story, much appreciated - cheers from a german coffee junkie 🙋♂️
UVI Digital Synsations also have a great ARP but I cant get it to send MIDI data to other instruments. Do you happen to know if that's possible? (EDIT: found an old KVR thread which says it's not poasible, UVI Workstation is not sending out any Midi data. Too bad)
Once again you are the man! I thought pigments was already in a class of its own but you just unlocked a new realm for me to run free on. Thank you, your a scholar and a gentleman!! 💪🏼👍🏻👊🏻🎸🎹🎼💻🔊
@@VenusTheory hey brother, do I really need Output's Portal Plugin if I already have Pigments? Seems like the granular engine can get me relatively similar results as Portal.
So I talked to a great customer support agent at Arturia named Baptiste and he helped me figure out how to do this in Ableton: 1. Insert a Midi track with Pigments on it and enable the sequencer. "Midi from" All ins, All channels. 2. Insert another empty midi track with the "Midi from" set to Pigments (in both the first and second slot) and the "Midi to" set to whichever instrument you want to trigger and track in (two slots). 3. The instrument you want to triggers midi settings should be "Midi from" All ins, All channels (two slots) 4. Set "monitor" to Auto on all 3 tracks. Arm all 3 tracks. 5. If you do not want any sound from the Pigments instrument you can either 1. turn off the sound engines in pigments (saves some CPU), or 2. deactivate the track in Live (but make sure its still armed)
Nope. Tried it. Not sure what I’m doing wrong but can’t have 2 different instances of pigments seq routed into a single different synth using your method.
Could you put " "Midi from" All ins, All channels" into a complete sentence so I can understand what you mean? I do not yet see a way to generate and send MIDI from the Pigments sequencer. What am I missing?
I finally got this working in Ableton - to have 3 instances of Pigments Sequencer / Arp feeding 1 other Instrument you need 6 midi tracks - 3 with Pigments and 3 to route the Midi from Pigments to your Instruments (Using the Midi From and Midi To slots) as set out above. The trick to getting it to work was I had to arm all 6 Midi Tracks.
Pigments has also random sample playback in its sampler engine, which can be used in with all other random generating stuff, so it even can create randomly modulated percussions. Pigments has lots of things that can inspire you in exciting ways.
Arturia is one of those companies that inspire with their hard- and software. Would love to see how they brainstorm for finding and developing new ideas.
Imagine if Arturia released just that part of Pigments, the arp/sequencer with the LFOs and random generators and such. That would be the ultimate arp/sequencer plugin and would actually be super cool to have.
Stepic is pretty similar the Pigments sequencer, and is insane. I actually use that with pigments instead of the built in now, just gives me more control and allows me to switch between presets while keeping the same sequence.
I’ve had Pigments since it was first released and never knew it could do anything like this. Then again, I was using Reason as my DAW, which doesn’t support MIDI routing between VSTs. I use Cubase Pro 11 now, so I’m guessing (hoping) that these techniques will work in Cubase. I love Dune 3 as well, but I can see this being used on other instruments, too, such as pianos and other top layers that can add a touch of sparkle to a piece. Great tutorial, Cameron, as always, and we appreciate the hard work and time you invest in creating these videos, thank you 😊
I also moved from Reason to Cubase a few years ago. This type of stuff is super easy in Cubase, you can send the MIDI receive right on the instrument panel. I use this to sequence my hardware, receive MIDI from Reason Rack players, etc.
Haha well hey glad it showed you something new at least! This will work in Cubase as you can route MIDI stuff there to drive other instruments. Lots of fun to experiment with and add some spicy sauce to a track or get some ideas cooking!
Is there a tutorial on how this setup works in Cubase? I have researched but have not found anything similar for Cubase. Maybe I just searched the wrong way. What is the name of this technique? I would be very happy about a hint.
@@dyka890 here is how u do it in Cubase: Pigements is the Midi Generator ( like he showed all its possibilities) and for the simplicity i used the Steinberg Synth Retrologue to receive these Midi informations. Just tell this track to receive from Pigments. I made a screenshot for you, how to set this up.
What a great sequencer - and by accident I just bought Pigments today - then RUclips suggested your video. Thanks by the why for your gorgeous toy Noctua!
Great video. I'm loving Pigments and using it for so many components in my music. Great ideas here on the sequencer, which I'm just starting to learn more about. Incredible powerful and complex.
Ableton users: Ableton won't let you send midi out of track with an instrument (Pigments) loaded. You need to set up an empty midi track for each instance of Pigments then select "Pigments" under "Midi From" and "Your synth" under "Midi Out". Make sure the empty midi tracks are armed. This works fine with the sequencers. I can't figure it out with the appreciator as the track with the triggered synth needs to be armed. Let me know if you find a workaround.
I'm still unable to get it to work in Ableton. Tried both your method, as well as selecting the "MIDI from" on the synth I want to receive the MIDI info from Pigments, as Pigments and setting the monitor to In. All I get is the first MIDI note that I play with Pigments in the second Synth. It doesn't actually play the sequence. Any tips or workarounds on that? @venustheory?
I have pigments midi from all channels, did what op said to do (turn the sound engines off pigments) then my audio to is set to my audio interface Then on my other track next to it, I have another vst // the midi comes from pigments (monitor is set to off in both) then on that track the audio is set to the same track on the audio interface
Super cool! I didn't realize you could use the sequencer of one synth to power another. The idea of stringing 3 together for polyphony is such a great idea. Thanks, Cameron!
I agree…was thinking they should extract the arp/seq as a MIDI effect plugin. Ideally it would still have all the modulation sources and routing as well.
VERY interesting & inspiring! I have Arturia's V Collection 8 & a ton of other VSTs that are retro-focused, so I have never felt the need to consider Pigments. However, the more I learn about Pigments, the more tempted I have become. Thanks for sharing a vid that highlights the sequencer/arp & export data functions in Pigments!
It's actually a really ridiculous synth - I slept on it at first, but once I started really exploring it (and with all the new updates) it's always surprised me how deep it is!
Thx a lot! Just bought that synth a few days ago and had no idea that it does so much stuff! Bought it only because it is a wavetable synth but as soon as I started diving deeper I was surprised very positively! Thx for your videos! Very inspiring!
Pigments is the gift that keeps giving! Had no idea about this, thanks for sharing! You made me love Pigments even more which i didnt think was possible :)
11:35 yeah that was super. I've always focused on my hardware sequencers, but this does have some really nice features that they don't. I'm definitely going to try this as a controller for some hardware synths this weekend! Thank you so much for the little tutorial.
Thanks mate this is absolutely great when I'm lacking for ideas! and on top of this you can then laod what you've got as a smple back into pigments to play around with even more.
One of my favorite things to do with the pigments Arp it to make a really chaotic sequence then use the function generators and combinator to make a trance gate to pull it back into a regular pulse
I'm using FL Studio and I think routing inputs and outputs is done using a plugin called Patcher, where you can model very complex routing schemes. Pigments is my main synth, it's so powerful and fun to use. Thanks for the video, nice as always!
It can be done even in even more simple way in FL Studio - just add as many Pigments instances as You want into the Channel rack. Then (in the plugin window in the Detailed settings->VST wrapper settings) set the midi Output port to, lets say, number 2 on all of them. Now insert the target instrument to the Channel rack and in the plugin window set the midi Input port to the same number. Voila, You got it.
I knew that you could use Pigments as a sequencer for other VST instruments; but I didn't know that you could run multiple sequencers with a single instrument instance. That is definitely something to have some fun with; as running them through different instruments/instances to add different layers of sound. If you set each instance of Pigments to a different rhythm but only using the arpeggiator and route them to a string library, you'll get instant system-style string textures. You could add the sequencer too, but that could be a bit much. You could use woodwinds, or several Moog emulations, or whatever you want, up to the limits your computer can handle. Getting that wall of seething, pulsing sound under your fingers can be quite inspiring. I often do this with three or four instruments, then edit the midi to increase the variety between them, or to tidy up any areas where it feels like a little more synchonisation is needed. It needs a fair amount of editing plus mixing to avoid just having too dense a wall of sound; space needs to be created with panning, automating volume levels, EQ, and so on, to give each instrument its due. But it is quick, inspiring, and rather satisfying.
1, 2, 3. 1 Your video reminds me on using one plug for this but feed another plug as the source of sound (the modular way). 2 Kept me to have a deeper look at the Pigments sequencer. 3. The same root of interest, let the parametric world in a random / chaos sound and be flashed by it, till you take the control back.. The world of random noise... Thanks..
Lovely video! It strikes me that so much electronic composition is largely focused on randomization and unpredictability, whereas composition for live musicians is often focused on trying to get a very precise and predictable result. Which is ironic, since that's totally playing to each paradigm's weaknesses, rather than their strengths...
Thanks so much. I've been lokking for this paradigm and doing algorithnic stuff in MAx in this way for years, but this seems better than Stochas, with which i had MIDI problems for too long ! Thanks again. Martin Leduc
Great video Cameron. I've used these features (apart from the output Routing) months ago but slightly unconsciously, so I'd forgotten about the brilliance of it. This video will help me to remember. Thanks :)
interesting bit about the polyrhythm feature is once it's enabled it allows you to scale each line, octave, velocity etc individually....just drag from the side and choose different lengths for each one..... not really necessary if you'r going full random but definitely a useful feature if you want to be a bit more in control
Thanks so much for this. Absolutely eye-opening. I really enjoy using generative players - they are idea starters. Reason's 'Players' are very similar and just as inspirational.
you can do this in Logic without pigments, just use MIDI environment, and the various MIDI processing features of Logic. I have done this a number of times using Noise Engineering sync vereor x 8. The routing all those oscs to a filter plugin like Arturia's Moog or Korg emulations.
I had to pause this video halfway through, to go and make a retro synth track based on Pigments arp (+ Oddity, impOSCar, PO32). thanks for setting me off in this direction
Pigments has replaced every one of my soft synths, bar Operator for simple FM needs. Outstanding tone, texture and modulation. Thanks for sharing this neat feature!
I overlooked Operator for years (mostly due to the bland, unintuitive UI) but recently discovered how great it can sound. That one and Wavetable are two big gems in Ableton Live's toolkit. Would be great to see them overhaul Operator's interface to integrate with Push 2 as well as Wavetable does.
These sounds reminded me of Hologram's Microcosm (I use two most often). I'm gonna have to try swapping one out, to then use one with this method. I feel the same, the Microcosm has always felt like having another musician in the room with me who's improving some odd phrases.
Wow! Thank you for this video Cameron 😁 I've been in a creative black hole for a while, but this has really inspired me to try something new. I'm going to route it out to my hardware synth and see what happens. Thanks again 😊
That is really cool. I used to use reasons players for this (the only thing I use from Reason these days to be fair) but def need to give this a go. Great vid as always mate!
Nice! I didn’t realize you could use the sequencer inside a VST synth as output to another instrument. I recently looked at Bitwigs “the grid” and it looks super interesting but what holds me back is that it doesn’t seem to output midi(?) so once you start using it you are also obliged to do your sounds in the grid. This does do midi! And even though it is a lot simpler than the grid, it still has tons of expressive power.
While it's not a super common feature there are a few other plugins that do this! Really cool to experiment with and can bring up some interesting results. Agree on The Grid - I really hope they add 'MIDI Grid' at some point! In the meantime though, check out Cherry Audio Voltage Modular Core - it's by far my favorite MIDI Processing environment and is extremely powerful. You can even create MPE MIDI Sequencers in it!
Evolving Goodness , this is awesome, Much thanks ....gonna try a few instances with monotonic percussive sounds with melodic tones to interplay one another.
Just discovered your channel through this video. Thanks for this video. Basing off this video alone, your content looks amazing! Subbed and will be paying attention. - Dowden
pretty cool trick (well I could use my other sequencers) but adding pigments sounds makes it even more interesting...or adding more synths to the pipeline
That's what I wanted to know as an "arpeggiatorist", thank you very much! Computers made an instrument named "arpeggiator" possible, like the trees made wooden flutes possible...:-) At the moment I am playing Arturia's Analog Lab with an AKAI advanced pro 49 (putting Lab's sequences into AKAI's big built in arpeggiator), but wait until I am adding Pigments and the MKII 88...:-)
And when using Bitwig, you could probably use Pigments as a MidiFX and put it in front of Dune on one track. Not sure if you can group three instances of Pigments as one MidiFX on a track though...
I really liked the idea in this video. However I tried to set it up in Ableton and I did not get it to work. If I hold the tone C on my keyboard Pigment on Track1 will create the sequence, but the second track will not receive the midi output from Pigment. Track2 is set up to receive MIDI from track1 but it receives the same static MIDI note C going into Track1. Can this technique be used in Ableton? If yes any suggestions on how one can route the MIDI output from Pigment to track 2 in Ableton?
in ableton you just take the lane of the instrument you want tu play with the pigments sequencer and you change the input from All Ins to e.g. Pigments. Then the midi information from pigments go to your other vst instrument. also be sure to choose Pigments as the Input (not Pre FX or Post FX) for your second instrument. hope this helps!
@@thenamelessastronaut thanks for the advise. I might be missing something here but I guess Ableton is not designed to be used in this way. Since one have to specify on the receving track that midi should come from the "Pigment" track, it will not be possible to configure midi from several Pigment tracks, as far as I am aware. Unless there is a workaround (?)
Wow, this is some insanely cool tech. I'm tempted to pick up Pigments now but it seems like it can go on sale for as much as 50% off, which is such a good deal you almost have to wait for a sale. Last year their summer sale was in July - fingers crossed it is this year too!
I knew the pigments sequencer was really in depth but I had no idea it could out put midi. This would be a fun way to sequence in VCV rack. Ive wished the sequencer had like a accent mode where you could control a parameter like filter cutoff. Because the slide feature you could get close to 303 type stuff.
Thanks you, great video. question: i have been diving in the Pigments manual and looking on forums and youtube how to get the arp/seq notes into another soft synth in Logic X. Cant seem to find the right way. Any tips or video that explains how to so this in Logic?
Hope this gives you all some inspiration to go make some new tunes this weekend! 🤠
Let me know the results! 🥳
🎨 Get Pigments ► bit.ly/3JTdLel
If you own Hive 2 you can record Pigment's Seq output into Hive 2's Arp/Sequencer.
your story of your father playing exciting things on his guitar and your reaction brings back my earliest memory of music, which may even be one reason for becoming a musician at all (and not a behavioral scientist as was also in my wishlist later on): i must have been four or five years old, when our parents stayed with us in a youth hostel and there was this group of young students - one of them had a guitar and liked to sit in the yard and play a little - i remember that i was utterly fascinated by those sounds coming directly out of this wooden box, unbelievable for me - so when i kept staring, he played some chords extra for me and they had exactly the same effect like you describe here, haha...
later songs like "venus" by shocking blue or "my sweet lord" by george harrison became faves just because of their guitar intros!
thanx for your little story, much appreciated - cheers from a german coffee junkie 🙋♂️
I have everything Arturia. I've had Pigments for I think 4 years. I never knew I could do this. Looks fun. I'm gonna try it today.
UVI Digital Synsations also have a great ARP but I cant get it to send MIDI data to other instruments. Do you happen to know if that's possible? (EDIT: found an old KVR thread which says it's not poasible, UVI Workstation is not sending out any Midi data. Too bad)
already got it and prepared for the weekend :)
Love this stuff!
Glad to be of service ☕
Virtual riot vs virtual Activision
Once again you are the man! I thought pigments was already in a class of its own but you just unlocked a new realm for me to run free on. Thank you, your a scholar and a gentleman!! 💪🏼👍🏻👊🏻🎸🎹🎼💻🔊
Nice to see you here Mr. Riot.
@@VenusTheory hey brother, do I really need Output's Portal Plugin if I already have Pigments? Seems like the granular engine can get me relatively similar results as Portal.
Pigments is brilliant. Arturia knocked it out of the park. Thanks for this video. Hadn't thought about running the arp into another synth.
Glad to be of service!
Yea they did
So I talked to a great customer support agent at Arturia named Baptiste and he helped me figure out how to do this in Ableton:
1. Insert a Midi track with Pigments on it and enable the sequencer. "Midi from" All ins, All channels.
2. Insert another empty midi track with the "Midi from" set to Pigments (in both the first and second slot) and the "Midi to" set to whichever instrument you want to trigger and track in (two slots).
3. The instrument you want to triggers midi settings should be "Midi from" All ins, All channels (two slots)
4. Set "monitor" to Auto on all 3 tracks. Arm all 3 tracks.
5. If you do not want any sound from the Pigments instrument you can either 1. turn off the sound engines in pigments (saves some CPU), or 2. deactivate the track in Live (but make sure its still armed)
Nope. Tried it. Not sure what I’m doing wrong but can’t have 2 different instances of pigments seq routed into a single different synth using your method.
Could you put " "Midi from" All ins, All channels" into a complete sentence so I can understand what you mean? I do not yet see a way to generate and send MIDI from the Pigments sequencer. What am I missing?
I finally got this working in Ableton - to have 3 instances of Pigments Sequencer / Arp feeding 1 other Instrument you need 6 midi tracks - 3 with Pigments and 3 to route the Midi from Pigments to your Instruments (Using the Midi From and Midi To slots) as set out above. The trick to getting it to work was I had to arm all 6 Midi Tracks.
👌🏾👌🏾Thanks !!
Pigments has also random sample playback in its sampler engine, which can be used in with all other random generating stuff, so it even can create randomly modulated percussions. Pigments has lots of things that can inspire you in exciting ways.
Nice idea!
It's called a granulizer
Arturia is one of those companies that inspire with their hard- and software. Would love to see how they brainstorm for finding and developing new ideas.
That was GREAT! I love Pigments even more now - Thanks for this!
Genius. The arpeggiator is my favourite feature of Pigments, now I can use it on external hardware. Total game changer
Imagine if Arturia released just that part of Pigments, the arp/sequencer with the LFOs and random generators and such. That would be the ultimate arp/sequencer plugin and would actually be super cool to have.
Stepic is pretty similar the Pigments sequencer, and is insane. I actually use that with pigments instead of the built in now, just gives me more control and allows me to switch between presets while keeping the same sequence.
@@cobraofearth use the little locks icons to lock the sequencer while browsing presets
@@rynoufle I wow that's cool didn't know you could do that!
I do agree, that the sequencer in Pigments can absolutely be a product on it's own!
I’ve had Pigments since it was first released and never knew it could do anything like this. Then again, I was using Reason as my DAW, which doesn’t support MIDI routing between VSTs. I use Cubase Pro 11 now, so I’m guessing (hoping) that these techniques will work in Cubase. I love Dune 3 as well, but I can see this being used on other instruments, too, such as pianos and other top layers that can add a touch of sparkle to a piece.
Great tutorial, Cameron, as always, and we appreciate the hard work and time you invest in creating these videos, thank you 😊
I also moved from Reason to Cubase a few years ago. This type of stuff is super easy in Cubase, you can send the MIDI receive right on the instrument panel. I use this to sequence my hardware, receive MIDI from Reason Rack players, etc.
It works perfectly in Cubase.
Haha well hey glad it showed you something new at least! This will work in Cubase as you can route MIDI stuff there to drive other instruments. Lots of fun to experiment with and add some spicy sauce to a track or get some ideas cooking!
Is there a tutorial on how this setup works in Cubase? I have researched but have not found anything similar for Cubase. Maybe I just searched the wrong way. What is the name of this technique? I would be very happy about a hint.
@@dyka890 here is how u do it in Cubase:
Pigements is the Midi Generator ( like he showed all its possibilities) and for the simplicity i used the Steinberg Synth Retrologue to receive these Midi informations. Just tell this track to receive from Pigments. I made a screenshot for you, how to set this up.
What a great sequencer - and by accident I just bought Pigments today - then RUclips suggested your video. Thanks by the why for your gorgeous toy Noctua!
Ive had Pigments since release and never even looked at the sequencer, I feel so stupid now! Thanks for this fantastic video!
Happy to help!
Great video. I'm loving Pigments and using it for so many components in my music. Great ideas here on the sequencer, which I'm just starting to learn more about. Incredible powerful and complex.
Ableton users: Ableton won't let you send midi out of track with an instrument (Pigments) loaded. You need to set up an empty midi track for each instance of Pigments then select "Pigments" under "Midi From" and "Your synth" under "Midi Out". Make sure the empty midi tracks are armed.
This works fine with the sequencers. I can't figure it out with the appreciator as the track with the triggered synth needs to be armed. Let me know if you find a workaround.
I'm still unable to get it to work in Ableton. Tried both your method, as well as selecting the "MIDI from" on the synth I want to receive the MIDI info from Pigments, as Pigments and setting the monitor to In. All I get is the first MIDI note that I play with Pigments in the second Synth. It doesn't actually play the sequence. Any tips or workarounds on that? @venustheory?
There are two dropdown menus, make sure you select your Pigments channel for both of them.
I have pigments midi from all channels, did what op said to do (turn the sound engines off pigments) then my audio to is set to my audio interface
Then on my other track next to it, I have another vst // the midi comes from pigments (monitor is set to off in both) then on that track the audio is set to the same track on the audio interface
Learned how to do it myself without any help :) but this video and your guys comments // thanks now I'm learning how to daisy chain properly
Ohhh another useful tip I found elsewhere don't use AUv2 to daisy chain command, you need to use regular vst
Super cool! I didn't realize you could use the sequencer of one synth to power another. The idea of stringing 3 together for polyphony is such a great idea. Thanks, Cameron!
Glad it was helpful - let me know if you end up using the technique in something!
The sequencer in Pigments is crazy! Almost worthy of being a plugin on it's own. Thanks for a great and easy to understand video about it.
I agree…was thinking they should extract the arp/seq as a MIDI effect plugin. Ideally it would still have all the modulation sources and routing as well.
The free HY-MPS2 plugin does pretty much all of that and more. However I don"t know if it can re-randomize every time.
Glad I found this after buying pigments, this is a _nice_ feature. Thank you for your videos!
this is the kind of content I love. Thoughtful, passionate and well presented.
Awesome video that I happened to find EXACTLY when I needed to see it.
VERY interesting & inspiring! I have Arturia's V Collection 8 & a ton of other VSTs that are retro-focused, so I have never felt the need to consider Pigments. However, the more I learn about Pigments, the more tempted I have become. Thanks for sharing a vid that highlights the sequencer/arp & export data functions in Pigments!
I don't even like using a DAW and I love Pigments. I highly recommend it
It's actually a really ridiculous synth - I slept on it at first, but once I started really exploring it (and with all the new updates) it's always surprised me how deep it is!
@@VenusTheory a while ago i discovered, what the granulator can do and love that feature!
Wow Derek, small world.... hope you're well
I have never checked out Pigments before, but it looks great, and this video inspired me to have a clother look to Pigments. Great Video 😉
i was searching madly for a sequencer w probability, and found out now that Pigments does it all, thank you
Thx a lot! Just bought that synth a few days ago and had no idea that it does so much stuff! Bought it only because it is a wavetable synth but as soon as I started diving deeper I was surprised very positively! Thx for your videos! Very inspiring!
Pigments is the gift that keeps giving! Had no idea about this, thanks for sharing! You made me love Pigments even more which i didnt think was possible :)
Glad it was helpful!
It was already very powerful in version 1, but Arturia's (very generous) free v2 and v3 updates also made it even better.
11:35 yeah that was super. I've always focused on my hardware sequencers, but this does have some really nice features that they don't. I'm definitely going to try this as a controller for some hardware synths this weekend! Thank you so much for the little tutorial.
Thanks mate this is absolutely great when I'm lacking for ideas! and on top of this you can then laod what you've got as a smple back into pigments to play around with even more.
This is one of my favorite channel. Super talent.
The more i use PIGMENTS the more i love it. Thank you for these inspirational tricks.
Awesome deep dive into some very useful features for being creative with Pigments.
Cubase Retrologue, Padshop and Halion has such a "Step Arp Sequence-Mode" too ! Pure fun... ♥️
One of my favorite things to do with the pigments Arp it to make a really chaotic sequence then use the function generators and combinator to make a trance gate to pull it back into a regular pulse
I'm using FL Studio and I think routing inputs and outputs is done using a plugin called Patcher, where you can model very complex routing schemes.
Pigments is my main synth, it's so powerful and fun to use.
Thanks for the video, nice as always!
You can do it without Patcher. Wrapper MIDI I/O settings.
It's easier in patcher, tho
It can be done even in even more simple way in FL Studio - just add as many Pigments instances as You want into the Channel rack. Then (in the plugin window in the Detailed settings->VST wrapper settings) set the midi Output port to, lets say, number 2 on all of them. Now insert the target instrument to the Channel rack and in the plugin window set the midi Input port to the same number. Voila, You got it.
I knew that you could use Pigments as a sequencer for other VST instruments; but I didn't know that you could run multiple sequencers with a single instrument instance. That is definitely something to have some fun with; as running them through different instruments/instances to add different layers of sound.
If you set each instance of Pigments to a different rhythm but only using the arpeggiator and route them to a string library, you'll get instant system-style string textures. You could add the sequencer too, but that could be a bit much. You could use woodwinds, or several Moog emulations, or whatever you want, up to the limits your computer can handle. Getting that wall of seething, pulsing sound under your fingers can be quite inspiring. I often do this with three or four instruments, then edit the midi to increase the variety between them, or to tidy up any areas where it feels like a little more synchonisation is needed. It needs a fair amount of editing plus mixing to avoid just having too dense a wall of sound; space needs to be created with panning, automating volume levels, EQ, and so on, to give each instrument its due. But it is quick, inspiring, and rather satisfying.
1, 2, 3. 1 Your video reminds me on using one plug for this but feed another plug as the source of sound (the modular way). 2 Kept me to have a deeper look at the Pigments sequencer. 3. The same root of interest, let the parametric world in a random / chaos sound and be flashed by it, till you take the control back.. The world of random noise... Thanks..
so cool, I have Pigments and never would I have thought of doing this. thanks for sharing!!
Glad it was helpful!
Nicely done Venus Theory - love it - awesome - thanks
I’ve just picked up on this. This is so much better than Logic’s inbuilt sequencer. Thank you Cameron.
Superb video Cameron! "Chance" & "Probability" in plugins / DAWs is really great tools! 🌞
The sequencer+arp trick REALLY reminds me of the type of random sequencers you can get in VCV Rack, this is an absolute gamechanger, thank you!
Lovely video! It strikes me that so much electronic composition is largely focused on randomization and unpredictability, whereas composition for live musicians is often focused on trying to get a very precise and predictable result. Which is ironic, since that's totally playing to each paradigm's weaknesses, rather than their strengths...
Hadn't thought of it that way, but YES! (i will scratch my head and ponder....)
I have not got Pigments as of yet. This is the kind of fun Idea making reason to own it. Thanks so much.
Thanks so much. I've been lokking for this paradigm and doing algorithnic stuff in MAx in this way for years, but this seems better than Stochas, with which i had MIDI problems for too long ! Thanks again. Martin Leduc
Bro, the sequencer looks amazing! I haven't even touched it yet. Can't wait to use it!
Great video Cameron. I've used these features (apart from the output Routing) months ago but slightly unconsciously, so I'd forgotten about the brilliance of it. This video will help me to remember. Thanks :)
interesting bit about the polyrhythm feature is once it's enabled it allows you to scale each line, octave, velocity etc individually....just drag from the side and choose different lengths for each one..... not really necessary if you'r going full random but definitely a useful feature if you want to be a bit more in control
Probably one of the best arpeggiators out there - great video - will need to wait for a Pigments sale
Great vid as usual and yet another feature nudging Pigments ever further high on my all time favourite synths list :)
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for this. Absolutely eye-opening. I really enjoy using generative players - they are idea starters. Reason's 'Players' are very similar and just as inspirational.
The conclusion is very well articulated.
I've only ever done similar with Retrologue or Serum, but this is otherworldly. Thanks, VT!
you can do this in Logic without pigments, just use MIDI environment, and the various MIDI processing features of Logic.
I have done this a number of times using Noise Engineering sync vereor x 8.
The routing all those oscs to a filter plugin like Arturia's Moog or Korg emulations.
One the best things about pigments. The arp seq is dope
Thank you! That's a cool feature! Especially for creating some nice atmospheres
Great video - more Pigments coverage please!
These easter egg vids are awesome, man! Keep up the great work!😊
Your videos are so legit man 🤌 Respect! 🙏
I had to pause this video halfway through, to go and make a retro synth track based on Pigments arp (+ Oddity, impOSCar, PO32). thanks for setting me off in this direction
Pigments has replaced every one of my soft synths, bar Operator for simple FM needs. Outstanding tone, texture and modulation. Thanks for sharing this neat feature!
I overlooked Operator for years (mostly due to the bland, unintuitive UI) but recently discovered how great it can sound. That one and Wavetable are two big gems in Ableton Live's toolkit. Would be great to see them overhaul Operator's interface to integrate with Push 2 as well as Wavetable does.
What a great technique! Thanks man!
Nice idea. Thank You very much. I tested this with Ableton live and it works
Glad it was helpful!
bought pigments last year , kewl stuff , i didn't know it could do , Thanks
Dude wat the heck this is so cool I needed this level of complex midi generation 😭😭
Incredible video. Just watched this after watching a video about the new Waldorf M, which looks and sounds amazing. I think you just saved me $2500.
Haha well hey glad to be of service! The new M looks/sounds amazing, very tempted myself!
i use the sequencer a lot on piggies but i always find myself inside of a hot mess but you are right it does force you to HAVE FUN
Just for this alone is worth it to get pigment. For me, arpeggiator and sequencer I'm a fan of what they can do are just awesome.
These sounds reminded me of Hologram's Microcosm (I use two most often). I'm gonna have to try swapping one out, to then use one with this method.
I feel the same, the Microcosm has always felt like having another musician in the room with me who's improving some odd phrases.
Wow! Thank you for this video Cameron 😁 I've been in a creative black hole for a while, but this has really inspired me to try something new. I'm going to route it out to my hardware synth and see what happens. Thanks again 😊
What is the purpose of piping into dune is it using the sound engine in dune?
That is really cool. I used to use reasons players for this (the only thing I use from Reason these days to be fair) but def need to give this a go.
Great vid as always mate!
Really enjoyed this. Thanks so much!
Thank you for this creative tip! Going to try this...
Super great video, VT! Thank you!
Nice! I didn’t realize you could use the sequencer inside a VST synth as output to another instrument. I recently looked at Bitwigs “the grid” and it looks super interesting but what holds me back is that it doesn’t seem to output midi(?) so once you start using it you are also obliged to do your sounds in the grid. This does do midi! And even though it is a lot simpler than the grid, it still has tons of expressive power.
While it's not a super common feature there are a few other plugins that do this! Really cool to experiment with and can bring up some interesting results.
Agree on The Grid - I really hope they add 'MIDI Grid' at some point! In the meantime though, check out Cherry Audio Voltage Modular Core - it's by far my favorite MIDI Processing environment and is extremely powerful. You can even create MPE MIDI Sequencers in it!
It never occurred to me to run the arpeggiator into another synth. Great idea. Great video. Thanks!
Absolutely loved this. More like this please! Thanks!
Brilliant idea to use Pigments' powerful Arp!
Brilliant video. You do a great job of explaining things, thanks for sharing.
Evolving Goodness , this is awesome, Much thanks ....gonna try a few instances with monotonic percussive sounds with melodic tones to interplay one another.
great video, dude. I finally bought Pigments and I'm on a big deep dive.
Just discovered your channel through this video. Thanks for this video. Basing off this video alone, your content looks amazing! Subbed and will be paying attention.
- Dowden
I just upgraded to V4 and I'm glad.
I never knew any of this. Thank you for the information.
Super cool!! This is very similar to the functionality you with with the Quad Note Generator player in Reason.
Pigments is an awesome synth!
pretty cool trick (well I could use my other sequencers) but adding pigments sounds makes it even more interesting...or adding more synths to the pipeline
So freaking dope!!! Nice shirt too. 👌🏻
Haha always have to represent where I can!
Howdy doody fresh and fruity! Def one of my favorites!
Thanks for making this! Very inspiring!
Super fun. Thanks for the insight.
That's what I wanted to know as an "arpeggiatorist", thank you very much! Computers made an instrument named "arpeggiator" possible, like the trees made wooden flutes possible...:-)
At the moment I am playing Arturia's Analog Lab with an AKAI advanced pro 49 (putting Lab's sequences into AKAI's big built in arpeggiator), but wait until I am adding Pigments and the MKII 88...:-)
Very interesting video, thanks a lot !
Oh man... It's my Birthday on Saturday and I'm getting a Minilab v2. I now know what I'll be doing most of the day!
".. what are you doing with three instances open.,?' lol , thnx good points, there are few that can be assets
And when using Bitwig, you could probably use Pigments as a MidiFX and put it in front of Dune on one track.
Not sure if you can group three instances of Pigments as one MidiFX on a track though...
I really liked the idea in this video. However I tried to set it up in Ableton and I did not get it to work. If I hold the tone C on my keyboard Pigment on Track1 will create the sequence, but the second track will not receive the midi output from Pigment. Track2 is set up to receive MIDI from track1 but it receives the same static MIDI note C going into Track1. Can this technique be used in Ableton? If yes any suggestions on how one can route the MIDI output from Pigment to track 2 in Ableton?
in ableton you just take the lane of the instrument you want tu play with the pigments sequencer and you change the input from All Ins to e.g. Pigments. Then the midi information from pigments go to your other vst instrument. also be sure to choose Pigments as the Input (not Pre FX or Post FX) for your second instrument. hope this helps!
@@thenamelessastronaut thanks for the advise. I might be missing something here but I guess Ableton is not designed to be used in this way. Since one have to specify on the receving track that midi should come from the "Pigment" track, it will not be possible to configure midi from several Pigment tracks, as far as I am aware. Unless there is a workaround (?)
@@zoundart sorry for the delay here. did it work for you now? also I have to admit, I only tested it with vst3 which at least worked for me.
Hello sir ,I really love you videos.i feel inspired and I wanna be like you.thanks very much
Wow, this is some insanely cool tech. I'm tempted to pick up Pigments now but it seems like it can go on sale for as much as 50% off, which is such a good deal you almost have to wait for a sale. Last year their summer sale was in July - fingers crossed it is this year too!
Good news…
Wow! Never thought on doing that
I knew the pigments sequencer was really in depth but I had no idea it could out put midi. This would be a fun way to sequence in VCV rack. Ive wished the sequencer had like a accent mode where you could control a parameter like filter cutoff. Because the slide feature you could get close to 303 type stuff.
Thanks you, great video. question: i have been diving in the Pigments manual and looking on forums and youtube how to get the arp/seq notes into another soft synth in Logic X. Cant seem to find the right way. Any tips or video that explains how to so this in Logic?
Can’t be done, already looked everywhere
@@Noiretranquility okay. Thanks. That’s a bummer.