Plugin comparison

Arturia Pigments Play vs Vital

Specs, price and the Dubspot Score, side by side — with our verdict on which synth to buy.

Independent score / workflow fit / buying signal

Contenders

The side-by-side

Synth / Arturia

Free

8.6Great

Arturia Pigments Play is a free player edition of Pigments with all six synthesis engines, 68 filters, 20 effects, and 100 curated presets.

Synth / Matt Tytel

$25

9.0Essential

Vital is a spectral warping wavetable synthesizer by Matt Tytel for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Score verdict

On the Dubspot Score, Vital comes out ahead (9.0). That said, the right pick depends on your workflow and budget — read both reviews before deciding.

Technical matrix

Signal	Arturia Pigments Play	Vital
Price	Free	$25
Dubspot Score	8.6	9.0
Formats	Standalone, VST, VST3, AU (Audio Units), AAX, NKS	VST, VST3, AU (Audio Units), LV2, Standalone
Type	Free multi-engine software synthesizer (player edition)	—
Engines	Virtual analog, sample, wavetable, granular, modal, harmonic (all six)	—
Filters	68 filter modes	—
Effects	20 effect algorithms	—
Editing	4 macros (brightness, timbre, time, movement) plus 4 effects	—
Presets	100 curated presets	—
Operating systems	macOS 11+ (Intel or Apple Silicon), Windows 10+ (64-bit), OpenGL 2.0 GPU	Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+ (Intel or Apple Silicon), Ubuntu Linux 18.04+; 64-bit only, OpenGL 3+
Formats	Standalone, VST, VST3, AU, AAX, NKS	—
Synthesis type	—	Spectral warping wavetable synthesis
Wavetable tools	—	Pitch-splice and vocode wavetable converters, plus text-to-wavetable generation
Modulation	—	LFOs, envelopes and randomized sources with stereo modulation, remappable curves, audio-rate modulation, and keytracked LFOs
Tuning and MPE	—	Microtonal support (.tun, .scl, .kbd files) and full MPE support
Included content	—	Basic: 75 presets / 25 wavetables; Plus: 250 / 70; Pro: 400+ / 150

See the full plugin database for more comparisons.