FORS - Pivot (Paid & Free version)

[Korg Supporter]

Might sound a bit silly at first, but this one finally replaced Operator.

Care to elaborate? And you don't miss custom waveforms or other filters?

[stoopicus]

Just chose this one in a comparison between it and Halogen. Nice work.

Both wonderful!

Yeah that was not meant as a negative comment on Halogen, it looks cool too.

[El°HYM]

Might sound a bit silly at first, but this one finally replaced Operator.

Care to elaborate? And you don't miss custom waveforms or other filters?

Always found Operator to have a kind of harsh and pretty overall unpleasant sound.

[pekbro]

This is great fun with the new Big Swarma voice multiplier from Audiority imo

[ess_m]

Really nice reading this! (Guess it was a while ago but I missed the posts from August)

I'm just about to finish up version 1.2 which adds full MPE (+ MIDI note, mod wheel) mapping in the mod matrix along some neat filter additions among other things. Looking forward to sharing the update. ;–)

[blakecasimir]

At the bottom of their website:

"There is no license authorization, online requirement or other forms of DRM measures taken in Pivot. We believe that users should be treated with respect and trust."

Just awesome!

I don't need another synth at all. Really. But this attitude puts FORS on the map for me. Seriously considering their products now.

The interface is a fascinating design, they've carved out their niche for sure. It looks and feels like what would happen if a UI designer took the central black info area of Operator and embiggened it, making it the whole synth.

I really like this synth, it's just very immediate. This will be perhaps a stupid comparison but it's kind of like an fm minimoog in its immediacy. Neither are the most "powerful" synth but both sound good and you can dial in a sound very quickly. I made a bunch of tracks with mostly pivot in the past couple of weeks but I didn't use the filter yet too much.

Not a stupid comparison IMHO this is exactly why this synth deserves to be popular. For production and compositional workflow this is a BIG selling point.

[kraster]

Big update for Pivot, more filters, MPE support, a new modulator, more modulation possibilities and more.

"This update brings full MIDI and MPE support in the modulation matrix. Now you can use external MIDI sources such as Mod Wheel or MPE Slide to modulate all the parameters in Pivot. As a bonus, there's a new random source modulator and you can now also modulate the modulators.

Alongside this, we've added two new filter types: Acid and Comb filter. The Acid filter is an analog-inspired 2-pole lowpass with adjustable drive and howling resonance, perfect for bringing some dirt into your patch. The Comb filter is a bipolar feedback Comb filter with adjustable dampening which can take your sounds to a whole other dimension.

We've also added a fidelity control for the FM oscillators called Crush. This is not your regular bit crusher or lofi effect, it changes the resolution of the oscillators and envelopes themselves which somewhat accurately simulates the inaccuracy of older FM sound chips with continuous control.

... And you can now generate an entirely new random preset from the preset menu."

[hey212]

Weird, I downloaded the new installer from the website called "Pivot-1.2-macOS.zip", but after running it, the installed VST3 file is still version 1.11

[nominil]

Weird, I downloaded the new installer from the website called "Pivot-1.2-macOS.zip", but after running it, the installed VST3 file is still version 1.11

I have the same problem with the AU.

EDIT: Just manually deleted the installed AU and reinstalled only the AU. I now see Pivot 1.2 with all the cool new features in Logic. Somehow the old version is not being replaced in the installation process.

[kraster]

Weird, I downloaded the new installer from the website called "Pivot-1.2-macOS.zip", but after running it, the installed VST3 file is still version 1.11

I had a failed download when I first tried to download it but I tried again after a minute or two and downloaded and installed it.

It's definitely 1.2 VST3.

Very cool update. Love the graphic for the Acid filter.

[mcbpete]

We've also added a fidelity control for the FM oscillators called Crush. This is not your regular bit crusher or lofi effect, it changes the resolution of the oscillators and envelopes themselves which somewhat accurately simulates the inaccuracy of older FM sound chips with continuous control.

... And you can now generate an entirely new random preset from the preset menu."

Just these two additions have sold it to me as a lazy composer who loves the sound hiccups of early digital devices

[hey212]

Weird, I downloaded the new installer from the website called "Pivot-1.2-macOS.zip", but after running it, the installed VST3 file is still version 1.11

I have the same problem with the AU.

EDIT: Just manually deleted the installed AU and reinstalled only the AU. I now see Pivot 1.2 with all the cool new features in Logic. Somehow the old version is not being replaced in the installation process.

Good call, manually deleting v1.11 before running the new installer worked. The installer must be lacking permissions to overwrite the existing file.

[kraster]

We've also added a fidelity control for the FM oscillators called Crush. This is not your regular bit crusher or lofi effect, it changes the resolution of the oscillators and envelopes themselves which somewhat accurately simulates the inaccuracy of older FM sound chips with continuous control.

... And you can now generate an entirely new random preset from the preset menu."

Just these two additions have sold it to me as a lazy composer who loves the sound hiccups of early digital devices

Being the geek that I am. I decided to have a look at the differences in fidelity.

Clean Oscillator:

MST_artwork 2025-10-08 at 17.14.54.png

A little amount of the fidelity control:

MST_artwork 2025-10-08 at 17.15.16.png

Fidelity control at max (minimum fidelity)

MST_artwork 2025-10-08 at 17.15.29.png

These also appear to have some slight movement and glitchiness.

Sound definitely has a much more gritty character.

[ess_m]

Sorry about the installer issues – it was a versioning snafu on my end causing the installer to not replace the existing files.
Unfortunately I cannot procure a new installer at the moment because Apple's notary services are down.

[hey212]

No worries! That fix nominil pointed out is super easy, and the update itself is awesome, cheers for that.