Yamaha OPL vs OPL2 vs OPL3 comparison 

I never get to know the difference between OPL2 and OPL3, mostly because I find Dosbox' OPL atrocious sounding :( What are good examples of soundtracks for me to compare OPL2 vs OPL3 in terms of sounds and capabilities? Is Xcom UFO Defense opl2 or 3?

any examples of songs actually composed for OPL3 so we can hear what it's capable of?

@@FeelingShred I don't know of that many. There are OPL3 demo tunes that I've heard on YT that are pretty impressive. In terms of games, back in the day, there weren't many that actually used the OPL3. Of the few that did, some of them just used it as a stereo OPL2. Most of them targeted a whole range of music synths, from a PC speaker to AdLib to Roland Sound Canvas, and the OPL2 was toward the bottom in capability. Priority was usually given to making MIDI patches that didn't use too many voices rather than trying to sound nice specifically on that chip. Two that stand out as the only two I can even remember that actually bothered to leave OPL2 compatibility mode were Wacky Wheels and Hocus Pocus. I thought both sounded a cut above everything else just for having used interesting patches. Hocus Pocus also uses dual OPL2 cards like the Pro Audio Spectrum, which also sounds really nice.

@@nickwallette6201 Yeah Wacky Wheels sounded amazing. So I'm starting to understand a bit how it works: OPL sounding good or not will depend on using custom instrument patches, not merely relying on the stock ones. Got it.

@@FeelingShred There aren’t really any stock ones. You had to program the chip to make sounds, and there were ways to either combine resources for more expressive sounds, or have more simultaneous notes playing but with simpler sounds. Most music engines chose simpler patches with higher polyphony. Enabling drums took a few voices away from melodic sounds as well. I had an OPL3 MIDI driver for Windows 3.1 called SuperSAPI that used nicer sounds, but the polyphony was so dreadfully limited that just about any song you played was riddled with note-stealing. It sounded snazzy, but broken. So, because of both backward compatibility concerns (to OPL2) and the limited polyphony with drum sounds and 4-operator sounds enabled, not many people composed music specifically tuned to the OPL3.

because that chip is kind of similar, but it's used as an opl2 with 18 channels...

absolutely man

The Genesis used the OPN2, a related chip to the OPL family

The Genesis had a Yamaha FM chip in it, but it was a different model than the famous OPL2 and OPL3 for DOS gaming.

@@pip5528 it used OPN family not OPL. OPL: 2 operators, OPN: 4 operators + SSEG

@@boiii3productions945 Don't forget it had the PSG based sound chip from the Master System. Something most remixes claiming to imitate Genesis sound seem to omit. The system used a combination of PSG and FM Synth not FM Synth on its own.

@@xXRenaxChanXx that is the absolute worse... a bunch of youtube channels releasing these videos supposed to demonstrate how games looked or sounded originally, and you notice they don't know shit... worse than that, they give people a wrong representation of what it sounded like on real hardware in a real TV connected with composite cables

There's no OPL1 for PC compatible computers, but OPL2 is fully compatible with it. OPL3 is compatible enough for... basically everything, as the only feature absent in the newer chip (composite sine modelling or CSM) was not used in PC games, so you're good to go with your 724. It's a great chip.

Adlib Tracker 2, the Windows version can emulate a OPL, the DOS version is native but does support things like 1024 resolutions.

so now I know why selecting AWE32 for most my games make them sound awful LOL

@@FeelingShred depends on what wavetable you have flashed into the card, modern ones are far better, also those cards need ram in literal sockets

Link's in the description, open it with the Adlib Tracker II.

Thanks!

this!

welp, no, it's way more complicated

Basically it's an entirely different type of synthesizer. While OPL uses the FM synthesis, the MT32 uses something called linear arithmetic synthesis that works by mixing together 2 to 4 digital sounds (often one for an attack/transient sound, one for a "body" of the sound). LA synthesis uses digital premade waveforms, whereas FM synthesis creates sound from scratch modulating signal from sinewave (or in case of OPL2&3 additional waveforms) generators. There are lots and lots of technical differences, anyway OPL and MT32 are totally different synths. But the OPL series was made with thought of being cheap, whilst the MT32 is not that far away from the full Roland D50 synth, so even the MT32 was expensive and very capable at launch and is even today. So, the MT32, while it can't replace or imitate the OPL, has more potential and more natural, lifelike sounds.

The sad, sad, so sad thing is that people use OPL as a cheapo MIDI synth, when it is capable of so much more when programmed directly. Could you imagine if SID was controlled via MIDI? What? Only 3 voices? Comparing OPL to Roland and a bunch is completely missing the point.

+Tomasz Sterna - Thanks for your input.

And ironically OPL's legacy comes directly from Yamaha DX line of synths... which themselves forced Roland to come up with D50 to compete - which in turn got us MT32

opl chips don`t generate waveforms from scratch, they store samples in on-chip rom.

After a bit of research: MSX-Audio or Y8950 had built-in OPL1 (YM3526), released in 1986. MSX-Music (YM2413) was OPLL a cutdown version of OPL2 (YM3812), released in 1987. MSX-OPL3 was YMF262/YMF289, released in 1990. MSX-OPL4 was YMF278B, released in 1994.

A dzięki, dzięki. Chodzi o to, że OPL3 to potężny chip, zresztą poprzednie odsłony też niczego sobie, ale przez to jak je traktowano w dużej części gier (konwersje plików MIDI z domyślnymi syfiastymi brzmieniami) u wielu osób słowa "OPL" oraz "MegaDrive" stoją bardzo daleko siebie. Adlib Tracker potrafi ingerować bezpośrednio w rejestry OPL i wycisnąć z niego dużo więcej soku, a że synteza jest ta sama co w konsoli Segi (FM), brzmienie może mieć podobny charakter. Pozdro!

Correction: The Master System used OPLL. A budget chip based off the OPL2. OPL1 is used in the C64 sound expansion card.

Garrett Potvin A recording from the true Adlib MSC? Always. If you can, drop a link.

Sure thing. I just need to record it. I'll upload in a bit.

cyberholix I've uploaded the file here. OPL2.A2M straight out of the AdLib output. It's raw 48k PCM so feel free to do what you want with it. pixeldra.in/u/n1vWFz Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to record on the OPL2.

Fantastic. Thanks.

cyberholix That website deletes stuff after a while of nobody accessing the file, so please give it a more permanent home if you can. I can edit the comment with your new link as a mirror in case the original file does get deleted. You have my permission to upload it to whatever platform you share your music on.