The most powerful drum synth I've ever used // In-depth look at Opal by Fors 

I was gonna say something about this feels, and even sounds a lot like the Digitone. That explains it.

Fors, please make a VST/AU! Or, version for Bitwig! Ableton CPU use is garbage on PC since v11, so i switched to Bitwig and i love it.

good to know

Imagine how the Elektron sequencer could've been update if they implemented his changes.

@@sub-jec-tiv It' just Winbloat that is garbage

The GUI is 👌 Thanks for watching!! ☺️

Completely agree! Glad you enjoyed the video.

Thanks, amigo!! 🙏

I totally agree!

What is there so special, that old Microtonic can not do?

@@PATISHAH can microtonic’s sequencer be used to control all the other plugins and VSTs in ableton? Because this can. And the sequencer on this thing is super powerful, very much like the elektron devices. That alone is enough to make me love it. Plus this is about half the cost of microtonic.

@@shannonpalmer Im in Cubase, there you can do it. There is also option to export your sequence in midi file from it.

Thanks for watching! 🕺

My pleasure! 😊

Exactly!

I too am starting to lean more into M4L and Ableton devices/racks. There's just so much to explore and everything runs so smooth!

Since it has multiple outputs you could work with it in Live (assuming you have Suite or the Max For Live add on) then record/export the stems for each output into Bitwig for further crafting if that’s where you prefer to work 🕺

​@@GourlieRecords If you have used Bitwig, you would know that adding stuff as a Stem leaves about 80% of the power on the table. The modulation is so one of the main reasons to use Bitwig. It breathes life into any Vst you can think of, making simple demo Vst into a fully fledged vst.

@@GourlieRecords the max4live community is the thing that holds me back from moving to bitwig.

It might be incredible, but Fors is a small team, and developing a VST may or may not be commercially viable. VST would likely be a complete rewrite of the GUI, DSP algorithms and would require testing everything. So more development time, which is expensive, they may need to hire more people just for that. But does VST have a bigger market? Will they sell enough VST copies to recover development costs? I suppose that most of the people interested in experimental electronic music may already have Max for Live. It costs less than many plugins. So the VST market for such a niche product is not necessarily much larger than M4L market.

Thanks! 🙌

Dont forget Ruismaker NOIR for the DFAMish goodness. 👍

Nothing officially launched yet, but hopefully soon! 😉

Definitely! 🕺

yes. We are leaveing the "preset era", entering the "machines era". I think it will be a positive transition

You’d either have to just map a gradual change in the locks per step or use the LFO in the mod matrix to make it smooth.

Also reminds me a lot of Nanoloop

Exactly right!

The brilliant mind behind this worked at Elektron and was behind the Digitone, amongst other releases. He also co-developed some Modbap modules.

@@WildAnalog Well that settles that! 😉

I think the creator of Opal worked on Model Cycles.

Potato tomato 🙃

Not a VST :(

I have both. Drumcomputer is a very good drum synth but Opal has more sound design and sequencing options. At $50 each you can get both and use each for different approaches.

No doubt... but not for $50 😉

@@GourlieRecords yess of course! but i mean, it's pretty standard thing for hardware machines

Having the standalone sequencer is amazing! Plus you can create a great pattern knowing that it can be used on any MIDI device should you decide to switch your 404 for a softsynth or something else.

Exactly! ☺️

For each instance of Opal/Slate you can only have one sample loaded, however you can load up multiple instances of Slate on different MIDI tracks and also use the standalone sequencer if you want to use more than one sample.

Yes each engine can have different loop lengths from 1 to 128 steps. You can also adjust the speed for each loop. So you can get super wild with polyrhythms!

@@GourlieRecords wow that’s incredible. What a brilliant design. Great video man thank you. Subscribed!

The rack folder actually just contains a version of Opal which instead of opening as a pop-up window is only editable in the effect rack section similar to other native Ableton devices. I find it's a little tiny but if you don't like the pop-up window it's just another way to use the plugin. As for output routing using racks I'm not really sure of a smooth way to do that vs using grouped audio tracks. Plus in any rack it won't be quite as easy to mix or add effects as it would be if everything was a separate audio track. The easiest way to share with Opal is to use the Export Bank feature to create a preset file which can be imported into other sessions.

Not all Max For Live devices can have all parameters automated and unfortunately Opal is one where I don't think a single one of the parameters can be automated outside of the step sequencer. One of the few limitations of Max. I suppose from a creative standpoint though this keeps it more true to emulating an external piece of hardware 🤔

Good question. You’ll definitely need Max For Live to be up to date but you’ll have to reach out to Fors for a definite answer.

One of the developers worked at Elektron for a while so you're spot on 😉

You betcha! The sequencer has a standalone device. Checkout minute 25:00

Just got to it in the vid. Thanks for an excellent rundown and for getting back to me! Really like the look of this thing. 👍🏻

Agreed! 😎

Also having the sequencer just for controlling something else is incredible good. Damn. I really want this as a VST. Please! You read that guys at Fors? :D

Well you'll be getting WAY more than the ability to use Opal when you upgrade, but I hear ya. There's a few other suggestions in the other comments on this video. (side note, the upgrade to suite is probably the best bang for you buck for anything you spend money on in your studio. You'll also get access to free Max For Live devices made by the community, there are thousands!)

Yeah I mean that's a larger philosophical difference between software vs hardware. I too have though about touch screens but nothing ultimately replaces the feel of real knobs. You could always check out the Elektron Digitakt but of course it's much more expensive. The tradeoff to using a mouse vs knobs is price. For example it's $900 for a Digitakt vs $50 for Opal. Big compromise but big savings. Just depends what gets you inspired to make music!

It is not Push compatible. A lot of Max For Live devices are however this one is far too complex to work.

You can export to separate channels by routing the audio to separate audio tracks and recording the audio from the MIDI device. See 21:08

There's a reason it is calling you! 😝

Not into the full instance of Opal however it does come with all of the engines as standalone synths so you can use each of the sound engines as a standard synth device which you can feed whatever MIDI you want.

Opal was designed in Max For Live which is a visual device builder only for Ableton, unfortunately.

opal.fors.fm/

Thanks, I’ll check that out too!

I love the DFAM and slept on NOIR for months… definitely the closest, if not better version of the DFAM in an iOS app… Use Noir all the time now…

@@GourlieRecords i always enjoy twisting knobs and pushing buttons in real life over apps and digital but i feel in 2023 the apps are super impressive... Noir is no joke... but i felt i didnt understand it fully until i used the DFAM... I wouldn't even be surprised if Bram Bos based it loosely on the DFAM then made improvements... Pricewise $10 over $600 also helps too haha... or whatever the prices are currently...

Bram Bos is definitely one of my fav devs on iPad, next to Beepstreet. (Drambo). .. Noire is def a Bram classic. His new synth, Hilda, is also great for percussive sounds. It’s like a Make Noise 0-Coast and Strega

@@AdamsBrew78 drambo too i always assumed was more of a groove box until i did more research on it... I have it on my wish list now... It has a lot more features than i thought

🕺

hahaha

moreover, it's unavailable unless you have max4live or the Ableton suite version(

It is not MIDI mappable or Push 2 compatible. The manual states that it's due to the complex structure of the device.

@@GourlieRecords the truth is that's the show stopper for me...otherwise I'd be short of adjectives to say how great opal is...

It unfortunately does not work with Push due to the complex nature of the device. Max For Live integrates with Push in a somewhat rudimentary way and the features of this device far exceed the integration's capabilities.

😝😝

Noted! I’ll see what I can do about the cursor in the future 😉

It truly doesn’t take long to see it’s full potential! 🙌

Correct

Essentially it's a drum synth with a feature-rich sequencer attached to it, yes.

@@GourlieRecords Thanks🙂

Perhaps one day it’ll transform. There’s a Max For Live add-on that allows certain Max For Live modules to be exported as VSTs but its in its very early stages. Hopefully one day!

I was just real-time making noise with it. In hindsight I instead wished that I had shared previously made sequences with it rather than this style of demo because the end result sounded better, but once you upload you're sorta stuck with what you got. Lessons for next time! 😝

@@GourlieRecords No worries, I said that because I liked the video : ) It was a bit like having a good meal and at the end the coffee was cold 😁

😝😝

I'd actually make the argument that Max For Live actually gives legs to software that would otherwise never exist. The appeal for developers to work with Max For Live is it utilizes a visual programming architecture which makes creating devices in that ecosystem far easier and more accessible to non-software developers. There's a lot of software that exists only because M4L is a really easy way to create devices. Replicating the same device as a VST isn't a simple conversion but rather requires a completely different architecture/protocol and skill set to be used. It's like trying to take a wood sculpture and turn it into stone. I do agree with you and hope that one day there is a seamless way to convert devices made in M4L to VSTs though because I too would like my devices to be available more widely, but currently there is no solution. There is a company that makes a product that does this in a very rudimentary way but it isn't fully-featured. At the very least it would be nice if there was a way to load Max as a VST in any DAW which then allows you to load any M4L device. Hopefully one day! 🤞

Exactly! Not a bad deal 😋

I have not used it but one of the developers at Fors actually used to work for Elektron so it's no surprise you'd be reminded of it.

Well you're not wrong about not being as robust with sound design, but that's not the point of Opal. The engines are intentionally designed to be simplistic and aren't meant to be as robust as a Serum or Vital but they aren't really comparable products. It's a rhythm machine so a significant build element and selling point is the robust sequencer which the whole device is built around. Opal is designed to replicate more what you would see with a rhythm box like Elektron Digitakt to do a very specific thing rather than offer the capabilities of a fully-featured synth. It's like trying to compare an 808 with a Prophet. That said Opal isn't for everyone as no synth is. Every device has it's own specialty and appeal we're just lucky to live in a time where we have an insane amount of options to express our creativity!

That's all the Elektron philosophy. I have the Syntakt and taken like this, the engines are great but could sound a bit limited. But, parameter lock and fine tuning parameters are what makes it powerful. Having constraints shows the real sound design skills. Having all the options in a synth doesn't make you a sound designer.

I'd actually vehemently disagree. Ableton has 3 price tiers to get access and at the highest tier of Suite you get access to an insane amount of tools. Plus there is a huge community making free racks (many of which can work on any edition of Live) and Max For Live devices so you get access to thousands of additional tools and instruments. I can't think of a better bang for your buck from any software bundle.

Well no one informed me!