Is OPL3 the same synth as Creative Music Synth [220]

MIDIbox FM
21

When asking about the bit-resolution/sample-rate, I was more interested in the bit-resolution/sample-rate of the FM-synth itself and not the ADCs/DACs involved.

well the sample rate and resolution of DAC and synth should better match or very ugly sounds would be the result :wink:

more info, also about polyphony: http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/~arnost/opl/lost+found/ymf262.pdf

Is it likely that Creative Technology made modifications to this OPL3 before soldering it on this card?

No. Very unlikely. And, allow me to get very offtopic for a second - if Creative had made any change to anything, they would’ve only made it cheaper and shittier - the OPL3 is about the only part of a SB16 that was not complete bullshit. I’m very happy that I never owned one because even listening to web radio through a SB16 would be a pain for me… I never had any respect for their products as each generation had similarly priced competitors’ products that were way ahead of anything CL ever built.

Approximately, what is the cost difference of a real OPL3 chip vs. emulation of that chip?

the difference would be around the cost of that chip, plus cost for mounting/soldering etc. Let’s say 2 Euros - but I don’t think the OPL3 is still in production and I doubt you could persuade Yamaha or any sound card manufacturer to change that, so this discussion is quite futile. The future is software, nobody except a few nerdy musicians would use it. Gamers wouldn’t because all games have CD quality sampled soundtracks. Best is just to accept the facts - and if you want more OPL sound, just build an MBFM :smiley:

S

22

You’re right, when referring to CM/S I am referring to the “Creative Music System”, not “Creative Music Synth”. The two are totally different things.

Try to say OPL3 when you mean the FM synth chip.  It will be less confusing. :slight_smile:

When asking about the bit-resolution/sample-rate, I was more interested in the bit-resolution/sample-rate of the FM-synth itself and not the ADCs/DACs involved.

The sample rate is the same 49.716kHz.  I’m not sure of the exact sample rate for the internal calculations, but it will be at least 12 bit mantissa as that’s what the log-sin table in the ROM takes up. See this forum post on OPL Decapsulation for more information on the ROM contents.

I’ve looked at my SB16 ISA card, it has a chip which has “Yamaha” printed on it. The rest is too small and covered in dust for me to read. I’ve tried to remove the dust but I still can’t see what else is printed on it. I’m assuming this is the Creative Music Synth [i.e. OPL3] chip. Is it likely that Creative Technology made modifications to this OPL3 before soldering it on this card?

That sounds like an OPL3 chip.  It’s unlikely that Creative modified the chip as they’d need a custom production run of it and then it would more likely have a Creative logo on it instead.

Approximately, what is the cost difference of a real OPL3 chip vs. emulation of that chip?

Emulation is free once you’ve written it once.  Real chips cost real money, not just buying the chip, but the increased PCB area, soldering and testing it.

How many voices does Creative Music Synth have?

The OPL3 has up to 18 voices.

Also, the website http://www.opensound.com/dmguide/dmfm.html states:

“OPL-3 mode supports 18 channels of 2-operator Stereo FM tones or 6 channels of 4-operator and 6 channels of 2-operator FM tones 5 percussion instrument channels”

What does “channel” mean, in this context?

Channel means voice in this case.  The OPL3 has a total of 36 operators (oscillator + enveloping), so either 18 2-op voices, or 6 4-op voices and 6 2-op voices, or 15 2-op voices and 5 percussion voices, or 6 4-op voices, 3 2-op voices and 5 percussion voices.  MBFM uses the last mode (but doesn’t give you access to the 2-op voices).

23

Does MBFM have polysynth-pads as one of the instruments? I hope so, as it is my favorite OPL3 sound.

24

Does more voices [channels] and operators mean the sound quality will be better?

25

Why?

26

How do I post the wave files? There doesn’t seem to be an “attachment” option on this forum.

right under the comment box, there’s a little plus(+) button with “additional options…” next to it.  click the plus(+) button and away you go.  i would recommend however, converting them to .mp3 or something similar for file size limitations.  anyway, i hope that helps.

27

Here is an attachment of the audio file. It’s compressed in MP3 format, 24 kbps, 24 kHz sample-rate [which I regret]. The song is “The Way It Is” originally sung by “Bruce Hornsby and The Range”.

Please try to ignore the MP3 compression artifacts, I know they are very annoying. If the forum allowed me to attach the WMA format version of this audio [which IMHO is much better], I’d do exactly that.

I was initally planning to post the WMA file which is 20 kbps and 44.1 kHz sample-rate. Sorry for the inconvenience. MP3s are definitely not my choice of compression but I’m left with no option.

For MP3s, a minimum of 32 kbps is required in order to use a 44.1 sample-rate – the file would be too large, though. So I had to settle with a not-so-good 24 kHz sample-rate in order not to exceed the 1,024 KB limit for attachments.

Enjoy! This is my favorite song played through an OPL3 MIDI synth.

[Wayitis.mp3](< base_url >/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=912)

[Wayitis.mp3](< base_url >/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=4054)

28

i would recommend however, converting them to .mp3 or something similar for file size limitations.

They should be small anyway, and you don’t know what the MP3 encoding will do to the sound. Not a good call. Wav files are the go for testing like this. WMA would be worse still. If you must compress, go lossless, FLAC.

You don’t do it with a song, just a patch playing a single note. The very minimum required for repreducing the effect in question. You should also include a recording of a patch from the synth that does not have this effect, and all the details of the patch.

You stil haven’t answered the question: Why?

29

They should be small anyway, and you don’t know what the MP3 encoding will do to the sound. Not a good call. Wav files are the go for testing like this. WMA would be worse still. If you must compress, go lossless, FLAC.

i didn’t even consider artifacting… woops!  my bad.  i was just saving him the frustration of trying to upload files that were too big… just trying to help. ;D

30

Has anyone listened to the songs?

BTW, it would be nice if I could upload the full 44.1 kHz, 16-bit linear PCM wave file. Unfortunately, the size of this file would largely cross the 1,024 kb limit.

31

What? how big is this file? You should only need to record a second or two. I mean, technically you only need one cycle of the waveform although it would be very inconvenient..

No I haven’t listened to the song, I know that one, I just wanna hear this ‘bug’ :slight_smile:

32

The wave file is 25 MB

Anyways, I’ll try to post a proper 5-second sample if I can.

33

Oh no! The forum attachment options won’t let me post wave files no matter how small the size. What should I do?

“Allowed file types: txt, doc, pdf, jpg, gif, mpg, png, asm, inc, h, c, hex, jpeg, mp3, diy, rar, zip, skp”

34

25MB? for a few seconds? I don’t think so…

Uhm…

"Allowed file types: …rar, zip

See if you can figure it out :wink: heheheh

35

The whole song is 25 MB. I’ve got a 9-second Wave-file sample that is below 1,024 kb but the messageboard does not supporting attachment of Wave files. So I don’t know how to post my wave file.

36

you could use a good quality MP3, maybe use 192 or 256 kbps instead of the 24 kbps from last time ;)  MP3 isn’t an unusable format for this, only more than 128 kbps are necessary to be sure no artifacts are clouding the view :slight_smile:

S

37

The whole song is 25 MB.

Like I said, a song is useless, we just need one single held note, of one patch that does this.

I’ve got a 9-second Wave-file sample that is below 1,024 kb but the messageboard does not supporting attachment of Wave files. So I don’t know how to post my wave file.

Are you not familiar with zip files?

you could use a good quality MP3

I wouldn’t trust his encoder not to mess with it… there are already enough unknown variables, like cabling, drivers, etc, which we can’t check… It’s possible to use a wav file, so why not :slight_smile:

38

Just to clear up some confusion :

“Creative Music Synth” is simply the MIDI device name you see in Windows. You can name it whatever you want if you modify the driver’s INF file before installing it.

Creative’s drivers have a fixed “General MIDI” sound bank you can’t change the sounds.

If you decide to make your own sounds with a stock ISA card, you can go on MIDIOX’s website (http://midiox.com/)

Go in MIDI Tools and download “FM Synth”, “SBTimbre” and “IBK”.

SBTimbre allows you to make your own sounds for the OPL3, it saves them as banks in the IBK format.

IBK is a collection of custom sound banks.

FM Synth is a Windows 9x driver that replaces Creative’s driver, and is allowing you to use the sounds you saved in IBK files.

39

Are you not familiar with zip files?

etc, which we can’t check… It’s possible to use a wav file, so why not :slight_smile:

What stryd_one is trying to say here is: Zip the file using an application of your choice (which really should be http://www.7-zip.org/)

40

Ok, I’ll zip the Wave file and then send it.

Does zipping a file decrease it’s file size? If so, then I would be able to post more than just 9 seconds of the song.