That could be with a 2.3 GHz i5 CPU.
I’m very interested in what Arturia has to say. They might be able to suggests some set-up options, or something else to help.
Which brings a question up for me, i’m wondering if Arturia takes advantage of multicore CPUs?
Report on Pigment CPU usage:
Summary – Not a problem for me.
I tested CPU demand for Pigments. Definitely could push up CPU demand by making both engines wavetable, with plenty of effects and tons of notes. I got the meter on the front of Pigments all the way up to almost 25%. (Too bad there’s not a numeric percentage displayed there.) But this only shows a 9.3% usage for the Pigment application with the Windows System Manager. I doubt this is even enough to be pushing the CPU to speed up it’s clock, it’s barely above idle. And this is an extreme, in typical use, demand is at less than half this. (I’ve got a i7 3.4 GHz, with 4 cores and max memory. Good but not a top-line system.)
I do see a dramatic difference between making both engines analog versus making them both wavetable. From this i’ve concluded that very little of the CPU usage on my system is due to display routines. It’s mainly in sound generation. I do have a fairly good GPU, with its OpenGL, which may be part of the explanation for this.
Given that the CPU clock speed increases with demand means that the correspondence here will not be linear. (You can think of it like an audio compressor, which means you have further to go before you get to hard clipping.) The processor just works harder to compensate to the increased demand. My system has lots of performance headroom over top of what i’ve seen already.
I suppose more tests could be to compare Pigment head to head with another software synth also running standalone, like UVI Falcon, or Steinberg Halion 6 – comparing apples to apples.
Another possible test would be to run Pigments as a VST over top of a DAW like Live or something. But already knowing i have room there makes this less interesting to me at the moment. (Unless there’s a bug in Pigments that makes it run much more inefficiently as a Plugin. Highly doubt it.)
I don’t see much reason for me to do either test.
I used OpenGL Extension Viewer. For the moment only i’m a few versions back with my driver, but this doesn’t seem a problem with Pigments. The Viewer also shows the GPU you are using and other data. The viewer also can help with the update process.
Watching Nick Batt’s new preview video of Pigments, it showed CPU usage on Batt’s laptop, being slightly above the measurements i saw on my desktop system. They were still very much in a usable range. And in fact Batt said something to the effect that he saw the CPU usage on Pigments to being equivalent to most other software synths.
So i think this puts a wrap to the question of CPU usage of Pigments – It’s average.
I really enjoyed the read, thanks for sharing 
Plus some other stuff.
No MPE yet.
They mention new plug-ins done by Andrew Huang. He did a good video on tricks using Pigments.
Great tip on how to make your own wavetables with Pigments using wav files.
I had been digging away at this, but Flux nails it, though i still think there is more you can do with this. Actually i know there is.
So i worked out some detail on doing good wavetable files for Pigments and now am making them. I’ve attached five examples below. You can follow the directions in the Flux video above to get these into your Pigments environment. This works with the free Pigments software used in demo mode too.
Hard for me to be objective with these, but i’d appreciate your comparison of these to the factory wavetables that come with Pigments.
Thanks @Ryan for getting me started in this direction. I wrote the code to make these.
By the way the method Flux uses to just pull any old WAV file into Pigments really doesn’t work very well.
NOTE: I’ve only tested these on a PC but i think they should work with Macs as well – let me know if not.
ADDED: I’ve not tested these with Serum but i have reason to believe the files i am generating will work with it as well. If anyone tests this, i’d love to hear your results.
I think the reverse may be true too, you could use Serum Wavetable files with Pigments – i am about to test this myself. ADDED: The wavetable WAV files that come with the free Serum download work really well with Pigments.
My wavetable WAV files may also work directly with Ableton Live 10.1 and above as “User Wavetables”, though they would be downsampled.
Free to demo until July 4 too. Arturia is French why not July 14? Haha. Also on sale 149 until July 4.
New features
Sound Store
Find new preset sound banks from within Pigments. New themed banks will be added regularly, giving users a whole new range of sounds to explore.
SUPER mode
A new unison detune voice mode lets you beef up your oscillator up with the style of the famous “JP” supersaw
Sequencer revamp
A new visual layout, with the added ability to set different clock divisions for each lane in the sequencer or arpeggiator.
NKS Compatible
Pigments is now fully compliant with Native Instruments NKS control format, instantly smart-mapping key parameters.
Extra Combinator
Now with a third combinator, giving you more sound-shaping potential. Also introduced is a new “Remap” type that lets you remap any incoming modulation source.
Updated envelope
Now reduced the minimum value for the attack times, letting you achieve even sharper envelope modulation for super-nasty sounds.
Microtuning
Now you can select alternative keyboard scales, as well as import your own .scl and .tun files.
50 new presets
Dozens more factory preset sounds that make use of the new capabilities of the Pigments audio engine updates in version 1.2.
The little things
On top of all the big new features, Arturia have made lots of small enhancements too. New Aftertouch curves, Mod source hovering displays, integrated Filter tutorials, and bug fixes.
Version 2 just released. Added a sampling engine, granular synth, MPE, etc. Also on sale for $99. This is a pretty major update and a cheap price. How are folks like the pigments so far?
Yup just recently heard the news also.
I’ve been keeping the Pigments in my purchase radar since it’s release and I think with this update it’s finally go time.
With Pigments having a sequencer and now with version 2, updating it with non-destructive “randomness” really makes it a worthy purchase for me.
(sort of like the “chance” feature with model:samples but with the sequencer)
Not to mention all the other new updated features in v2.
And furthermore, it’s only 50 usd for me.
(think it’s because I own the V-Collection)
Pigments is like a better version of Serum in every way.
Special promotion pricing is running until Jan 7th btw.
Thanks for the update. Now I can import my adventure kidd waveforms in pigments. It’s my go to wavetable synth since it is so colorful. I also bought some Arturia soundpacks for pigments when they had the sale for sound packs.
the synth is amazing, iv had it since v1 release, its literally a Swiss army knife in my production and so much more
You wouldn’t happen to be referring to the Genesis video game: Adventure Kidd, would you?
If so are they shareable? lol
Anything retro gaming I’m all 
Alex Kidd*
Oops one D not two. Get that wave pack. It’s Free! And I used to play Alex Kidd on the master system II. That’s how old I am.
Agreed. Even if you don’t know what you are doing you can just mess with the visual matrix and get crazy. In my maschine session it’s usually group A is drumkit. Group B pigments. You can get melodic with the presets really quick.
The update is free for me…because I paid full price for v1. I’m looking forward to someday using Pigments’ new MPE capability with the Expressive E Osmose.
The update to v2 is free for all Pigments v1 owners.
Just open the Arturia Software Center (ASC) and your v2 licence is waiting for you.
What a great update and nice xmas present from Arturia 
new owner here. 69 buckerinos woohoo! 3pm I am so leaving work to go play this thing!
I have the buchla MPE overlay for the sensel morph and someone said this is now MPE?
Anyone tried it?
Think this could be my Christmas present to myself 
Just curious of what controller you use with Pigments to get the most out of it without having to use the mouse?