Q:How hard would it be to make a synth based on (insert name of chip)?
A:Generally, if you can’t answer this one yourself - too hard for you.
Anyway, this is a whole ISA soundcard on one chip. TK mentioned the 100 pins package. Even if it would be possible to access the OPL part seperately, do you think all the effort of making a custom PCB etc. is worth the 2 Euros another soundcard would cost on the fleamarket?
Accessing the other (mixer) functions is also not very interesting because the audio specs of a 10 year old 16 bit sound card are probably worse than anything that is sold today.
Still, if you wanna build a project based around that thing, go ahead! No, it won’t be easy, but if you can support all the features (the mixer particularly), woohoo!