Oh no... I've opened a big can of worms here! 🤣

We're getting way off topic. But that's okay, I'll give my opinion on this:

I'm a major audiophile. Which means that I can tell the difference between a pair of normal living room speakers, a pair of homebuilt custom speakers, and a pair of Klipsch KG-4's in about half a second and without a side-by-side comparison 😉 And I have the settings on my stereo set just right for the optimum sound.

I haven't done any side-by-side comparison tests with the CQM and the OPL3, but judging by what I've heard from my AWE64 (playing songs on Adlib Tracker, for instance, that I've heard before in YouTube recordings on OPL3) it has the following differences from OPL3 (these are only the ones I've noticed, there may be more or I may be wrong)
- Slightly "harsher" sound
- Tends not to sustain notes as much
- Has an overall more "muted" sound than OPL3

In other words, it's almost like the difference between a real OPL3 and DOSBox emulation. But here's the thing: CQM isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you want or care about real OPL3 then it's not for you, but if you don't care about those differences then it doesn't matter. It all comes down to personal preference. For me, I'm not using the FM sound for anything that those differences are really going to matter a lot for, such as music composition. But my preference for OPL3 also has something to do with the fact that it's the "real deal", a true Yamaha device, and not a "cheap knockoff" from those "upstart know-it-alls" at Creative 😁 Basically, a form of "snob appeal".

Haha yes the real OPL3 vs CQM thing always gets this forums motor running. I personally prefer a real OPL3 but only because that's what I grew up with. But the ESS clone is great, and you can send the CQM output via the effects engine on an AWE card which is pretty cool too.

I had a 486 and a AWE64 at around 2002, and I didn't even know about OPL3 and all of that. I just played a few DOS games and I was happy 😁

I really like the AWE64, it has a lot of things going for it. I really dig the how the CQM sounds with Chorus and Reverb applied. The bug free MPU401 is also nice, it's quiet, super compatible and I know the drivers inside out because I used it on so many machines.

Now if Creative had hooked up their synth somehow differently, in a way that it was hooked up to hardware MPU401, now that would have been an awesome card.

I also really like the Audician 32 Plus, such a great little card.

When it comes to MIDI, pretty much all the games I like support MIDI, be it LA or GM. So these days I hardly listen to any FM to be honest.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Now if Creative had hooked up their synth somehow differently, in a way that it was hooked up to hardware MPU401, now that would have been an awesome card.

This (via parallel connection on the MIDI bus and a dedicated mixer channel, for instance) along with an ability to push soundfonts to RAM within DOS would have been awesome!

If wishes were horses...

I echo Phil's comments.

Speaking from my own personal experience, my first sound card was a Sound Blaster Pro compatible Sound Galaxy sound card with a real OPL3 chip (which I bought in late 1994).
When I upgraded to an AWE64 in late 1996, I almost immediately noticed the FM synthesis difference when playing back old games (like Space Quest 3), since I didn't have a Roland MT-32 (or compatible module) back then. On a side note, not knowing much back then about the different MIDI standards (and just reading what was on the box), I was hoping for full MT-32 compatiblity so that I could play my old Sierra & Lucasarts games with MIDI sound.

However, as Phil has stated, you can add chorus and reverb effects to CQM synthesis playback, which to me was much more pleasing to the ear than the standard "metallic" sound of the CQM synthesis.
I also agree that the approach that Creative followed with their MIDI synthesis on their AWE line of cards was probably not the best implementation. Many other sound card manufacturers followed different approaches with much better compatibility and overhead in DOS.

These days, I hardly listen to any FM synthesis playback, since I now own both the Roland MT-32 & the SC-55 compatible modules. Most games from that era that I play supports either of the two standards (this is now before CD audio became commonplace).