Reply 80 of 241, by mills26
wrote:No those are not comparable as per the raw chip. […]
No those are not comparable as per the raw chip.
Yamaha DX-7 has 16 channels (voices), 6 operators per channel, only sine wave operator waveform, and 32 algorithms how the operators are combined together.
Yamaha YM3812 (OPL2) chip has 9 channels (voices), 2 operators per channel, four operator waveforms (sine and three modified out of that sine), and only 2 algorithms (modulator->carrier arrangement for FM, or just sum of both operators).
So when you turn on a sound on DX-7 channel, it can be very complex sound produced in hardware by the chip.
Sounds produced by OPL2 hardware only are much simpler, but the Loudness system software might constantly update the sound parameters when it plays, so it sounds better than native OPL2 instruments. So yes, this is what you called "simple software synthesis". I think it can never reach the level of real DX-7 instruments in terms of waveform complexity, but it can still sound better as a whole. Just like cheap violin played by skilled person might sound better than expensive violin played by unskilled person.
Some MOD players were even capable of playing sampled sounds on a OPL2 chip, although quality was relatively poor.
I understand, I just tried to recreate some loudness instruments with reality adlib tracker and.. no way, loudness produces much more realistic drums, some really cool saw waves and even "voices"... so the software is important.
I didn't knew the opl could play sampled sounds, I have to test that 😀.
Thanks