First post, by boomlinde
I've been trying out the rhythm mode for OPL2 and OPL3 (the mode where the operators of the last three channels are used to generate percussion sounds), but I can't seem to work it out. The only drum I can get to make a sound at all is the hi-hat (bit 1 in register 0xBD). Yesterday I got to a point where I was just filling the OPL registers with random data (except the gate bits were unset) and playing through the drum sounds, but still I only get the hi-hat to work. Thinking it must have been a bug in DOSBox, I tried it with a real OPL (on a toshiba libretto) with the same results.
There is very little documentation on this mode; was it ever used by anyone at all? Is there any source code I can read on the subject, or any easily parseable register dumps of a typical rhythm mode setup? I'm sorry if this isn't the most appropriate sub-forum, but this is the only place I can think of where I can ask a question like this and get a knowledgable answer. I used the rhythm mode on OPLL chips before, which had its hassles, but was a no-brainer compared to figuring out how to do it on the OPL2 or OPL3.