Fors Opal users thread

marcomueller · 2025-05-18T20:29:16.087Z

The Max developers confirmed the bug and are working on a fix, says on the Cycling74 forum.
Hopefully they fix it before the Ableton 12.2 release.

Kammo · 2025-05-19T10:49:38.952Z

If this bug goes live with 12.2 release I won’t update immediately.

mcetilia · 2025-05-19T11:49:17.516Z

For what it’s worth, I was able to get Opal working in 12.2.b17 by installing Max 9.0.4 (but strangely not 9.0.5) and making it the Max Application in Settings > File & Folder. Not an ideal solution but at least it gets the job done and you can always switch back over to 9.0.6 in projects where you aren’t using Opal…

Ess · 2025-05-19T12:15:34.808Z

This is a bug in Max 9.0.6, the plugsync~ object is broken which handles all the transpose/sync stuff for Dyad, Opal etc… A very unfortunate bug that somehow made it through to the public release. I saw that Cycling74 is working on a hotfix that’s supposed to be released asap.

Ess · 2025-05-20T19:03:10.525Z

FYI Max 9.0.7 is now available and fixes the transport issues.

Kammo · 2025-05-20T19:49:33.515Z

Will Ableton 12.2 come with bundled version 9.0.7 or do I need to download the latest standalone Max version from Cycling74?

Ess · 2025-05-20T19:52:16.421Z

I would assume it’ll ship with 9.0.7! This bug is pretty severe and affects a vast amount of Max for Live devices, so I would think it’s in their interest to make sure it ships with the stable version of Live.

Peter118 · 2025-05-20T20:16:40.271Z

I think Ableton had the intention to release 12.2 final this week, but the Max 9.0.6 bug has delayed it. But the release is not far away, next week maybe?

Kammo · 2025-05-20T20:35:32.155Z

Peter118:

But the release is not far away, next week maybe?

Idk, bought Live few days ago and using it again after 10 years so dunno when they gonna release it, hopefully soon but prevention is better than cure.

Ess · 2025-06-16T12:48:43.797Z

PSA there was an issue with Opal in Live 12.2 where creating new patterns did not work correctly. I just uploaded a fix (v1.3b) to address this.

pseudophysics · 2025-07-03T12:29:53.646Z

will this work well on my MacBook Pro late 2013?

LyingDalai · 2025-07-03T21:59:09.541Z

A post was merged into an existing topic: What’s next for Ess / Fors?

tlvid · 2025-07-08T17:41:00.531Z

Is Opal-Ctl designed to be two octaves out? E.g. the starting note says C5 but it actually plays C3?

pseudophysics · 2025-07-08T20:46:46.250Z

this works well on my MacBook Pro late 2013

dfb · 2025-08-13T16:47:51.114Z

I’m bumping this thread instead of starting a new one

I love the sounds coming out of Opal Ctl when I load up a ton of my one shot samples in a Ableton Drum Rack and just mess around with the Randomizer

BUT I would like a way to control everything a bit more since there’s no MIDI clip feature and relying on recording the audio doesn’t really work the way I’d like since theres a bunch of random sounds that overlap and it’s difficult to extract single sounds

Has anybody ran into this and figured something out?

One thought was to import Slate into each individual pad then import each sample into each containing Slate, that way I’d be able to edit each one shot… but again the randomness isn’t there

Thoughts? Ideas?

josephhh · 2025-08-29T09:38:35.232Z

Just looking at this beast again …!

What an integrated system – do not miss the Syntakt…

Just jumping into learning Max again and slowly grasping the immense effort that would have been required to get it up and running …

Anyway here is a Jam I had fun doing last night in bed!

jw · 2025-09-17T16:39:17.971Z

Anyone else having issues with Opal 1.3b on Ableton Live 12.2.5? Anytime I click in a trig square it doesn’t fill it. When I load presets from the Opal.als file, I am able to remove trigs but not add them. All you have to do to add a trig is click in the square and drag up right?

Ess · 2025-09-17T16:59:50.818Z

Could be that your Max version is one of the older 9.x releases that had a few bugs that affected Opal. I’d recommend to take a peek at your Live settings and make sure that the Max version used is set to Bundled in the File & Folders tab.

This is working as intended on Live 12.2.5 when I tried just now, so it’s probably either that or you could be using an older version of Opal (double check on the settings page)

pandanaut · 2025-09-17T17:45:11.568Z

Yeah, Opal started working again for me once I moved to the official 12.2 release.

Landobe · 2025-09-17T18:21:36.734Z

Hey guys, I created a preset bank with 30 patterns for Opal in JSON Format - available on Gumroad, in case you are interested

Gumroad

30 Patterns for Fors Opal

This Preset-Bank contains 30 patterns to use with Opal by Fors.fm.The patterns highlight different techniques and approaches within Opal, hopefully giving you inspiration, new ideas, and ways to explore the device’s creative potential. The patterns...

Price: EUR 4.0