I think all those that I have heard of used either OPL2 or first generation OPL3 chips from Yamaha, not clone FM implementations.
So they should sound pretty much alike, OPL3 providing stereo, new waveforms, more channels and four operator synthesis, if supported by software.

There's only opl2, dual opl2, opl3 and knock offs which sound similar enough with what comparisons I've run across, they were just different, not off so it's a toss up. I default for dual opl2 simply for the stereo feature that's not implemented in opl3 but I can't think where that's taken advantage of in a game, I don't even recall an example of it being pointed out.

its just the IBM Feature card that uses the same chip as the DX100/FB-01... right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_YM2164

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMFMqDlsw0k

im wondering if theres any fm synth that comes close to teh dx100 + TX81Z bass...

I think a lot of PC software of the time under-utilises FM synthesis by limiting support to whatever a single OPL2 can do - just 9 2-op channels with 4 available waveforms. Granted, there are examples of great OPL2 tunes (eg. Princess Maker 2's DOS port and Tyrian 2000), but I can't name a whole lot for OPL3-specific stuff (most iconic one being Dune's Adlib Gold OST).

At least now we have some more software eg. Adlib Tracker 2 that does make use of the OPL3's expanded abilities (4-op FM with 4 operator combinations, 8 total waveforms, stereo support, etc.) 😀 Yet I find it still harder to use than my FB-01 for FM editing.

Anywho, as for those cards in question, I've no experience with any of those specificially; most of my experience comes from Yamaha's YMF7xx cards (which are mostly SBPro 2-compatible, complete with authentic OPL3) and some SB16 way back when. As for programming something similar to TX81Z's LatelyBass or the DX100's bass patch, I think it should be possible on the OPL3 as well, least via Adlib Tracker anyways.

chrisNova777 wrote:

AudioMaster/MediaMaster

This one doesn't have FM synthesis onboard. It allows installing an addon board with Adlib-compatible OPL2 synthesis, but no one ever saw that addon board.

Jepael wrote:

So they should sound pretty much alike, OPL3 providing stereo, new waveforms, more channels and four operator synthesis, if supported by software.

That part is true, but the analog circuitry can make quite a difference. The amplifiers used on these cards could differ greatly in how the card sounded. Both in terms of noise, and in terms of frequency response, dynamic range etc.
Eg, I recall a PAS sounding very crisp and clean, where an SB Pro 2 was rather noisy, but it had a very fat, deep, compressed sound to it.

http://www.oplx.com/

interesting comment re: adlib tracker
does it actually let u edit the FM parameters tho? FM programming is kind of tricky.. ive only got experience with it using the FM7 plugin by native instruments.
i need to do some research into DOS based FM programming... adlib tracker is just a tracker? or is it a programmer/patch librarian aswell?

Adlib Tracker lets you program, load, and save both 2-op and 4-op patches, and uses its own instrument format (but supports importing others as well). It is rather straightforward IMO for 2-op, but 4-op is slightly convoluted.

The programming methodology is definitely not as simple as that of FM7/FM8 (latter of which I use quite often). Cue lots of trial-and-error 😜

Scali wrote:

Jepael wrote:

So they should sound pretty much alike, OPL3 providing stereo, new waveforms, more channels and four operator synthesis, if supported by software.

That part is true, but the analog circuitry can make quite a difference. The amplifiers used on these cards could differ greatly in how the card sounded. Both in terms of noise, and in terms of frequency response, dynamic range etc.
Eg, I recall a PAS sounding very crisp and clean, where an SB Pro 2 was rather noisy, but it had a very fat, deep, compressed sound to it.

A real Adlib has fourth order Butterworth low pass filter, while most generic cards have no filtering at all. I have had Aztech and Creative cards with genuine first-gen Yamaha OPL3, and I can't tell the difference in the FM sounds, they have different background noise levels, but they don't have OPL filters. The Aztech had wrongly designed FM DAC circuitry though, I had to change a capacitor to get better stereo separation.

Oh yeah, OPL3 does not require so long delays between writes, so this is beneficial in many ways. In faster machines software could run too fast to write to OPL2 chip correctly unless wait states are added in BIOS settings, but OPL3 should work fine in faster machines.

Jepael wrote:

The Aztech had wrongly designed FM DAC circuitry though, I had to change a capacitor to get better stereo separation.

Interesting comment. Could you elaborate a bit more?
Which Aztech card(s) are you referring to?
Which capacitor did you replace?

we need more people to do demos of their sound cards on youtube
if only philscomputerlab had like every sound card known to man then we would have videos of them all 😉

jesolo wrote:

Interesting comment. Could you elaborate a bit more? Which Aztech card(s) are you referring to? Which capacitor did you replace? […]
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Jepael wrote:

The Aztech had wrongly designed FM DAC circuitry though, I had to change a capacitor to get better stereo separation.

Interesting comment. Could you elaborate a bit more?
Which Aztech card(s) are you referring to?
Which capacitor did you replace?

I can answer better when I see the card again soon.

Meanwhile, IIRC, if you take a look at OPL3 DAC datasheet here, and scroll down to page 4, the capacitor Ctb on AOUT pin was absurdly too large in value than the suggested 33pF-68pF. Since the one DAC is demultiplexed alternatively into left and right channels, for example when a sine wave was playing on left channel only and right channel was playing silence, the waveform of left channel did not discharge to zero before it was connected to right channel. Obviously, that should not be happening, so I changed the cap into something in the suggested range.

Actually I don't know if this was a manufacturing error, faulty cap, actual design error or just a typo to specify a funny value there.

The thing was, with most games playing only mono OPL2 sounds, you could not hear this, as it would just work as some kind of extra low pass filter there.
But I made some OPL3 debug tool that played sine wave on left channel so I first thought I had done something wrong in the software because it sounded like the sine wave was playing on both channels.

From this era, I invariably prefer the Media Vision cards. They sounded so much cleaner and more bassy than the ones Creative (and most other vendors) had to offer. At least, that's my opinion.

Jepael wrote:

I can answer better when I see the card again soon. […]
Show full quote

jesolo wrote:

Interesting comment. Could you elaborate a bit more? Which Aztech card(s) are you referring to? Which capacitor did you replace? […]
Show full quote

Jepael wrote:

The Aztech had wrongly designed FM DAC circuitry though, I had to change a capacitor to get better stereo separation.

Interesting comment. Could you elaborate a bit more?
Which Aztech card(s) are you referring to?
Which capacitor did you replace?

I can answer better when I see the card again soon.

Meanwhile, IIRC, if you take a look at OPL3 DAC datasheet here, and scroll down to page 4, the capacitor Ctb on AOUT pin was absurdly too large in value than the suggested 33pF-68pF. Since the one DAC is demultiplexed alternatively into left and right channels, for example when a sine wave was playing on left channel only and right channel was playing silence, the waveform of left channel did not discharge to zero before it was connected to right channel. Obviously, that should not be happening, so I changed the cap into something in the suggested range.

Actually I don't know if this was a manufacturing error, faulty cap, actual design error or just a typo to specify a funny value there.

The thing was, with most games playing only mono OPL2 sounds, you could not hear this, as it would just work as some kind of extra low pass filter there.
But I made some OPL3 debug tool that played sine wave on left channel so I first thought I had done something wrong in the software because it sounded like the sine wave was playing on both channels.

I must be honest. My knowledge of capacitors is very limited but, here goes.
I've taken photo's of the two oldest Aztech cards that I own, namely the Sound Galaxy Basic16 (I38-MMSN810) and the Sound Galaxy Pro16 Extra (I38-MMSN812). The latter is also known as the Reveal SC400 rev.2.

I've circled in blue the YMF512-M DAC and in red the capacitor that I think you are referring to. It has a rating of 16v, 47µF (which is microfarad and not picofarad (pf)).
All the other small capacitors around the DAC has a rating of 50v, 2.2 µF.

jesolo wrote:

I've circled in blue the YMF512-M DAC and in red the capacitor that I think you are referring to. It has a rating of 16v, 47µF (which is microfarad and not picofarad (pf)).
All the other small capacitors around the DAC has a rating of 50v, 2.2 µF.

No. If you look at the white silk screen print for component markings, everything starting with a C is a capacitor, not just those big electrolytic capacitors you are referring to. The component in question would be a brownish little surface mount ceramic capacitor, most likely without any markings on it, connected to DAC pin 13.

cant find anything on the "jovian logic SONIA" except this page from 1996 which doesnt show any sound cards just video capture boards
http://web.archive.org/web/19961219083715/htt … ovianlogic.com/

anyone have any info on this "CompuAdd multimedia card" ?

https://books.google.ca/books?id=7j0EAAAAMBAJ … %20card&f=false

heres an article where its mentioned.. according to the voyetra installer this card has FM capabilities, most likely OPL2 due to the date