Gear Of The Year: Best soft synth of 2021
Virtualized classics compete against new originals – but which soft synth takes the cake this year?
WINNER: Arturia Pigments 3
Price: £85.00
Contact: Arturia
Arturia’s Pigments 3 doesn’t try to emulate any one particular synth from the history books, nor does it try to look like one. Instead, its goal is to leverage modern systems and offer producers more in a single synth plug-in – “every shade of synthesis” in fact.
It’s a sound designer’s paradise, with four fully realised engines – analogue, wavetable, sample and harmonic – available to dream up any sound you can imagine. And you get to merge any two of these together to come up with surprising new tones entirely.
All this power would be a little unwieldy if it wasn’t for Pigments 3’s masterful user experience, which keeps you aware of what’s going on with animated windows. There are integrated tutorials and a built-in hint system to hold your hand through the process when you need it.
Also nominated:
- Cherry Audio Mercury-4
- Softube Model 84
- Reason Studios Algoritm
- GForce OB-E
- UVI 8-Bit Synth
- ROLI Equator2
- Expressive E Noisy
- Softube Model 72 Synthesizer System
- Rob Papen Blade 2
To check out other GOTY categories, click here.
