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Hey everybody,

To me, the history of FM stuff is as complex as the way it makes music.
It doesn't seem as simple as NES -> 2a03 or even the Amiga -> PAULA, for example.
I wanted to make this thread because I think it might be helpful to grasp this and I also feel a lil guilty bothering Carl all the time lol

So this is what I gathered so far and I'm prepared for it to be horribly wrong so hmu!
This is specifically talking about desktops, because most laptops just had very compatible clone alternatives I think


ok so...


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>AdLib 1.0
Very popular add-on sound card early on
The AdLib sound card had a chip on it that uses FM, the Yamaha YM3812. This chip is also called "OPL-2."
The AdLib card could not do digital audio/PCM, instead it synthesized things like SFX using the FM from the YM3812/OPL-2.


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>Sound Blaster 1.0
So Creative comes along and makes their first Sound Blaster card to compete with AdLib. The Sound Blaster sported the same Yamaha YM3812/OPL-2 FM chip too, but could now also do mono sampled sound in addition. Sound Blaster now becomes more popular than AdLib


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>Sound Blaster Pro series introduced
Pro series has two YM3812/OPL-2s, one for each channel to create stereo images
Sound Blaster Pros evolved to use a single upgraded FM chip: the YMF262 (or OPL-3)
The YMF262/OPL-3 had twice the channels, extra waveforms, and simple LCR stereo so you didn't need two of them anymore

(*Apparently around here AdLib tried to compete with an YMF262/OPL-3 chip based card called AdLib Gold but it failed or something...? idk)


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>Sound Blaster 16 series introduced
Still had the YMF262/OPL-3 chip from the Sound Blaster Pro days
Higher quality audio sampling
Had the ability to be connected to the Wave Blaster, a wavetable sample-based General MIDI compatible synth


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>Sound Blaster AWE32 series introduced
Combines the previous Sound Blaster 16 specs plus a "MIDI Synthesizer" section from E-mu
The "MIDI Synth" includes an E-mu sampler and effects processor directly (making the Wave Blaster obsolete? I think???)
Still got dat YMF262/OPL-3 chip but combined with everything else this thing seems like a beast


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After this generation of Sound Blaster 32, the sound cards ditched the actual OPL-3 hardware in favor of software emulation for FM synthesis instead and for the context of this thread, I don't think people here would be as interested anymore lolol. These cards include Sound Blaster Live! and Ensoniq AudioPCI cards -> These cards are actually the first tools I used to compose music seriously in high school, using General MIDI software sequencers to play the wavetable samples. It's actually funny because while growing up I noticed that my General MIDI songs would sound a lot lamer on newer computers and it's taken me over a decade to realize that it probably was because Ensoniq's wavetable synthesis got thrown out.

s/o to the two guys who might kinda read this

Last edited by an0va (Jul 2, 2014 8:28 pm)

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neat thread thanks
there should be a thread somewhere that catalogues all the good threads and this one should be in it

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Planet Zaxxon

Hey! You can bother me all you want! FM IS MY FAVORITE LIFESTYLE CHOICE.

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lol thanks guys, and shoutout to you guys in fact being the exact two people in mind wink

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so, what's the difference between say, a soundblaster or adlib, and a synth like the FB-01? or the FM chip in a sega?
is it the same sort of thing, or something different altogether..

I know a little bit of FM synthesis, but i was wondering if those cards had any advantage.

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Gosford, Australia

neat! it'd be cool to see where the various genesis/mega drive chipsets come in on this timeline. also, is there a .dls for the E-mu MIDI synth patches? (assuming it was GM/GS compatible)

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Adelaide, Australia
Timbob wrote:

what's the difference between say, a soundblaster or adlib, and a synth like the FB-01? or the FM chip in a sega?

Adlib: YM3812 | 2-OP | percussion mode | 4 waveforms | 9 voice polyphony
SoundBlaster 16: YMF262 | 4-OP | percussion mode | 8 waveforms | 18 voice polyphony
FB-01: YM2164 | 4-OP | noise gen, LFO | 1 waveform | 8 voice polyphony
Sega: YM2612 | 4-OP | built-in DAC | 1 waveform | 6 voice polyphony

Perhaps someone could try to make a graphical "family tree" of FM synth chips?


Also, you didn't mention the SoundBlaster 2.0 (CT1350B), but I guess it's pretty similar to the SoundBlaster 1.0 - it has a YM3812 and I think does 8-bit stereo playback/sampling at 22kHz.
http://www.dearhoney.idv.tw/Museum/soundcard-01.php

Last edited by freezedream (Jul 8, 2014 8:56 am)

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Tokyo, Japan

For all your fm needs.

http://www.vorc.org/text/column/hally/ymxxxx.html

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Lazerbeat wrote:

For all your fm needs.

http://www.vorc.org/text/column/hally/ymxxxx.html

that's a lot of info big_smile

I might one day make a more graphical tree if people want, and if i have nothing better to do wink

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Brunswick, GA USA

The comment about adlib gold is correct, I don't know anybody who had one. The wave blaster comment is mostly correct, the expansions remained available for a bit for people who could use them but it wasn't long before you could get AWE 64 cheaper than you could get SB 16 expanded. (Because of this, I never heard SB 16 + Wave in person.) Once the generation of sample-only cards took over, Gravis Ultrasound became the best at that sort of thing, I wanted one but never got around to it.

You may imagine, FM doesn't really have a straight family tree, if you take all the synthesizers, arcade cabinets, and home computers into account.

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Tokyo, Japan

Well, if by tree you mean "european monarchy" then it kinda does!

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USA

I had Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 2 starting out. Great card! They did integrate opl3 circuits into later chips and some ESS ones are mostly compatible, but don't have proper DOS support.

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Philadelphia, PA

Looks like a job for http://wiki.chipmusic.org to compile a reference list for FM sound cards. wink