discoDSP OPL emulates the Yamaha OPL2 (1985), the FM chip behind AdLib and Sound Blaster game soundtracks of the late 80s and early 90s. Two-operator FM with eight waveforms per operator, OPL2 percussion mode, and partial OPL3 features. 16x oversampling, 2000+ presets, SBI import.
Overview
Emulates the OPL2 in full, with the OPL3 waveform set and a subset of its other features. Imports SBI presets (Creative Labs' instrument format for Sound Blaster cards) by drag-and-drop into the plugin.
Each channel is two operators (carrier + modulator) using phase modulation (FM-equivalent). Eight per-operator waveforms: sine, half sine, absolute sine, quarter sine, alternating sine, camel sine, square, logarithmic sawtooth. ADSR per operator. The waveform set is what makes OPL sound like OPL, since sine alone won't get you there.
Percussion mode adds bass drum, snare, tom, cymbal, and hi-hat, each tied to specific operator slots and waveforms.
The emulation runs on a rewritten engine with quality work of our own. The chip itself is oversampled up to 16x, which cuts the aliasing that FM synthesis produces at high modulation settings, while pitch, envelope timing and key scaling are corrected so patches sound the same at every setting. Offline bounces switch to a linear-phase filter with reported latency, so a render matches what you monitored.
Supported Formats
Universal Binary 2: Native Intel and Apple Silicon.
Standalone Application: No additional software required.
ProTools AAX. Apple Audio Unit. Steinberg VST. Steinberg VST3.
System Requirements
Windows 10+. IntelIntel processors with AVX2 support:
10.14+. Apple Silicon or IntelMacBook Pro: Late 2013+
Debian 10+. IntelIntel processors with AVX2 support:
iOS 14 or later.
Credit and Licensing
FM synthesis is powered by ymfm, the Yamaha sound chip emulation library by Aaron Giles, used under the BSD 3-Clause License. Yamaha, YM3812 and YMF262 are trademarks of Yamaha Corporation, used here only to describe the hardware this product emulates.
