
VOICE compared to previous OPL2, the OPL3 IC doubles polyphony from 9 to 18 voices that now can be also hard-panned to extreme left / right.
The OPL3 is based on FM SYNTHESIS (check out Yamaha DX7 for more information) and generates 36 Operators or digital oscillators that can be allocated into 4 ways (voice mode) to create sounds and musics:
Voice mode |
Basic melody
(a voice is composed by 2OP) |
Advanced melody
(a voice is composed by 4OP) |
Special
Drum mode |
1 |
18 |
- |
- |
2 |
15 |
- |
5 |
3 |
6 |
6 |
- |
4 |
3 |
6 |
5 |
ALGORITHMS operators organized as algorithms assigned as carrier or modulator linked between them on different pathways interacting on their harmonic contents depending on the variable feedback strength. The
OPL3 offers 2 X algorithms in 2OP mode + 4 X in 4OP mode.
Algorithm list
WAVEFORMS
unlike traditional 6 OP structure from Yamaha DX7 which is based on a single sinewave operators (pic1, the OPL3 operators is able to generate also 7 extra sinewave harmonic variations waveforms (reading the loopkup tables with different speeds) like budget 4 OP module Yamaha TX81Z but some shapes are different.

PERCUSSION MODE special 6 OP drum mode generates 5 percussion sounds sharing the operators resources in the following mode:
-
kick (1 OP)
-
snare (1 OP)
- Tom (1O P)
- Cymbal (1 OP) cannot be tuned
- hihat ( 1OP)
cannot be tuned.
LFO up to 2 modulators for each OP:
- LFO amplitude frequency fixed at 3,7 Hz
-
LFO pitch frequency fixed at 6,1 Hz.
A kind of master LFO can be set for whole voices, in this case it features a Depth adjustment.

ENVELOPE 4 EGs: each OP features 1 amplitude EG (4-segments), in addition each OP has individual Mix volume. Very simple Key tracking with 3 fixed levels.
OPL UTILITY and GAMES many games from the nineties include soundtracks made with ADLIB OPL soundcards: the sound was typical from the post-sid era and some true gems were composed like Origin Ultima 6 / 7 soundtrack or Dune by Exxos which I even prefer compared to external wavetable Midi module like Roland MT32.
OK there's not only OPL gaming but also some very professional and outstanding software developed: trackers, synthesizers, sound editors and much more! some are very interesting materials for musical purpose. Most of these applications run only on pure MS-DOS, consequently an ISA soundcard is far the best choice unless you want to get crazy with drivers - also remember that ISA is no longer supported from Windows XP on.
Ultima 6 (ORIGIN) OPL3
DUNE (EXXOS) OPL3
Adlib tracker popcorn

