opl4 = opl3 + 24voice sample based synth, so it has 2 synth engines.
the sample based synth engine needs another sample rom chip to function, either a ymf801 chip which has 2mb sample, or a ymf704=opl4 + 1mb sample integrated.
in general, it needs additional configuration to specify which engine to run, the fm synth or sample based synth, and thus not widely supported.
on what card do you see a ymf278 chip?

I have found an YMF 704B-S daughter board ive hooked up to my Turtle Beach Pinnacle.

The MIDI samples are quite horrible, but still pretty OK. I'm yet to test OPL function.

Yes, it's quite lackluster.

Still, it performs pretty OK with some MIDI files.

I tried to run Adlib Tracker 2 from DOS, even though i know TBP is not compatible with Sound Blaster in any way. And as predicted it wont start 😁

Does anybody have/know of an Windows OPL3 player that utilizes hardware OPL chip?

As a daughterboard uses the MPU-401 interface there is some chip that maps the MIDI messages for the OPL4. The same chip has probably a table to access the OPL3 functions via SYSEX. This is a rather unusual config and proprietary. Only the manual can help you there.

Found this:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54462712/ … y/ymf704c-s.pdf

I remember reading somewhere that the OPL4 doesnt have the music slowdowns in Descent, while playing Stereo FM

I think the setup/installers in games are often misleading because even OPL4 is present as an option the actual music playback will not utilize any extra feature. Hmm. Some of the Stars Wars games support OPL4 but I have never tested it. Any experiment should be done in Windows, of course. Btw I do not have such a daughterboard but a miro PCM12 will do, I think.

I will remember to give Descent a try with OPL4 sometime...

Does any one know how to utilize OPL4 on the daughterboard?

Jolaes76 wrote:

Some of the Stars Wars games support OPL4 but I have never tested it.

Was that not "+4OP FM", which is actually just a way of saying OPL3.

I have an OPL4 based daughterboard and a bare Audiotrix Pro soundcard. The daughterboard is a general midi device, no way to make it do anything beyond that.
The Audiotrix Pro can use the OPL4 chip as either an FM or a General Midi Device. But I don't see how it would be any different from placing a separate OPL3 and OPL4 GM chip on the card. This soundcard can be expanded with a RAM board, and it should then allow for custom wavetable samples.

It is not like OPL4 has enhanced OPL3 FM sound, it is a budget GM device with an integrated OPL3 as a bonus.

Yes, gerwin, I checked that, in Xwing it is correctly labelled four operator FM.

But there definitely are some games which claim OPL4 sound and they do not support that. Should look them up some time...

Considering what you said, it seems the virtue of OPL4 devices is not the extended OPL capability but the fact that being later devices, they have better SnR than most earlier OPL cards. From the aspect of gaming, that is.

The OPL4's combination of 24-voice AWM synth engine and OPL3 synth in a single chip could have resulted in some incredibly neat stuff. Sadly, this wasn't to be, but a handful of "44-voice" compositions exist (solely as technology demonstrations for MediaTrix' AudioTriX Pro soundcard) that provide a glimpse of the possibilities.

"Technovox" - Gerard Jones, (44-voice, Wavetable+FM)
"Euroman" - Henri Chalifour, (44-voice, Wavetable+FM)
"Fiddler³" - Gerard Jones, (44-voice, Wavetable+FM)

The significance of the YMF278B's RAM-sample-playback capabilities can't be overstated (think Gravis' GF1 or E-MU's EMU8000). Few hardware implementations include the sample RAM option, however, and so software support is limited to user-created sample banks, and a few MOD players...

"Guitar Slinger" - Jogeir Liljedahl
"Steel Chambers 2 (Pinball Fantasies)" - Olof Gustafsson
"Space Debris" - Captain

Those are in one word, AMAZING!
Really good synthesis.

What was used to make these?

Cloudschatze: With the default driver for the OPL4 in Windows 3.x I can just choose FM or Wavetable playback per channel. But the chip can play both actually at the same time?
So the tech demos for the AudioTrix pro are the only tracks that show this?

About the RAM-sample-playback: Does the OPL4 brings any specific advantages or additional features compared to the GF1/Emu8K/SAM9407 ?
(And I guess this works only up to 24 channel XMs ?)

elianda wrote:

Cloudschatze: With the default driver for the OPL4 in Windows 3.x I can just choose FM or Wavetable playback per channel. But the chip can play both actually at the same time?

Sure, that's what the "44-voice" compositions demonstrate, after all. There's no real magic involved though - you're essentially hearing the effect of having some MIDI channels set to "PCM," and others to "FM." (2-Op and 4-Op General MIDI patchsets are used on the OPL side of things, through use of the Windows driver.)

As nice as these compositions are, and for as much work went into them, I'd still like to hear something involving custom sample-RAM and FM banks...

So the tech demos for the AudioTrix pro are the only tracks that show this?

These are the only such demonstrations that I'm aware of, and, according to the documentation, require the use of Mediatrix' Windows Jukebox for proper playback besides. I imagine the MIDI files have some sort cues that the jukebox translates into driver calls for setting the channel synthesis types, but, having looked at said files, I really have no idea how it's being done.

About the RAM-sample-playback: Does the OPL4 brings any specific advantages or additional features compared to the GF1/Emu8K/SAM9407 ?

I'm not familiar with the SAM chip, but the OPL4 offers a "pseudo-reverb" effect, 24-voices at 44.1kHz (compared to the GF1's 14), and supports sample loop points (lacking in the EMU8000). Beyond that, hardware implemenations that include the OPL4's companion effects chip, the YSS225 (as was leveraged in the MOD recordings above), can result in subjectively nicer-sounding playback than either the GF1 or EMU8000 can offer. 😀

Thanks alot for those samples Cloudschatze! Its indeed fascinating what could have been done with this hardware.
The only OPL4 card i have is a Logitech soundman wave and it has a fault on one of the stereo channel 🙁

Another great use of OPL4 but on the MSX with a Moonsound card can be found in Bombaman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqYOnCd2Kew&i … KtGVgF4OIXiikbb^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf2qFiH4ISo&l … IXiikbb&index=6