A “Hidden” Pigments Trick: Using the Granular Engine for Crazy Polyphonic Modulation

I stumbled across a pretty cool idea during a morning sound design session and had to hit record. It’s a pretty sweet little trick in Arturia Pigments that I wanted to share.

I honestly didn’t know this was possible, but it turns out you can use the granular engine as a modulation source. Plus, the best part is that it does all of this poliphonically, which gives you some really, really detailed and organic modulation.

Got my coffee, let’s get stuck in.

Method 1: Using Grains as a Trigger Source

So the first way to do this is to use the grains as a trigger source.

I’m starting with a blank patch, just a simple saw wave and a filter. The magic happens when you go over to a Function generator. Normally, this is set to re-trigger on ‘Poly KB’ (which means every time you hit a note).

But… you can change that restart source to the Granular Engine! This is awesome. It’s not sending an audio signal; it’s a control signal. Every time the granular engine generates a new grain, it sends a trigger to the function generator. You can see it going crazy as soon as you hold down a note.

Now for the fun part. You can just assign that function generator to whatever you want… like the filter cutoff. And because this is Pigments, it’s all polyphonic. Each note you play gets its own independent modulation.

You can then mess with the granular controls, like Density, to change the speed of the triggers. You can even randomize the density for some really cool, unpredictable movement.

Method 2: Get More Control with the Envelope Follower

That first method is already pretty cool, but there’s another way that gives you even more control. This one is a bit more hidden.

This time, we’re not using the triggers. We’re going to convert the actual audio from the granular engine into control data.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Grab a Combinator.

2. In one of its slots, set the input to Engine 2 (or wherever your granular engine is).

3. You’ll see the audio signal coming in. Just use the built-in Envelope Follower to turn that signal into a smooth modulation source.

4. Assign that Combinator to your filter cutoff (or anything else!).

The best part? Because you’re now using the audio signal, all the granular controls will affect the shape of the modulation. You can change the grain shape (like reverse, forward, etc.) and it will totally change the vibe of the modulation.

I tried assigning the Voice Modulator to the grain shape and density, and you get these incredibly randomized, organic vibes. Very happy with the result.

Bonus Trick: Raw Audio Modulation (and freeing up your Combinator)

Last little thing I found… if you’re running out of Combinators, there’s another way to do this. Again, it’s not obvious.

Some of the filters… specifically the analog models like the Cluster or the Jupyter 8 sim… can actually take an audio signal as a mod source directly. You’ll see a ‘Mod’ input pop up. You can just assign Engine 2 (your grains) straight to that.

Be warned, this is raw audio, so it’s not smoothed out by an envelope follower. You end up getting some really interesting, almost distorted tones, which is a pretty cool sound in itself. Just bear in mind, it’s not the same as the smooth envelope follower method.

What I really love is that you can use a sample in the granular engine to modulate a different synth engine, and it creates this amazing cohesion… like they are living and breathing in the same space. Works really nicely.