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Yamaha Ym3812




The Yamaha YM3812 also known as the '''OPL2''' (OPL is an Acronym for ''FM Operator Type-L'') is a Sound Chip (i.e. Integrated Circuit ) created by Yamaha Corporation and famous for its wide use in IBM PC -based Sound Card s such as the AdLib and Sound Blaster .

It is backwards compatible with the OPL aka YM3526 , to which it is very similar - in fact, it only adds 3 new waveforms. An upgraded version of the OPL2, the OPL3 aka YMF262 , was also popular in later sound cards such as the Soundblaster 16. Another related chip is the YM2413 (OPLL), which is a cut down version.

The circuit has 244 different write-only registers. It can produce 9 channels of sound, each made of two oscillators. Each oscillator can produce Sine Wave s which may also be modified into 3 other waveforms - the negative part of the sine can be muted or inverted, and pseudo sawtooth waves (1/4 sine waves upward only with silent sections in between) can also be produced. This odd way of producing waveforms give the YM3812 a characteristic sound. Each wave generator has its own ADSR envelope generator. Its main method of synthesis is Frequency Modulation Synthesis - where one of the channel's oscillators modulates the other.

Here's the overview of a channel's registers:

For the whole channel:
Main frequency (10 bits)
Octave (3 bits)
Note on/off
Synthesis mode (FM or just additive)
Feedback (0-7, the modulator modulating itself)

For each one of the 2 oscillators:
Frequency multiply (can be set to 1/2, 1 to 10, 12 or 15)
Waveform (Sine, half-sine, absolute-sine, quarter-sine)
Volume (0-63, logarithmic)
Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release (4 bits each, logarithmic)
Tremolo (On or off)
Vibrato (On or off)
Sustain (On or off)
Envelope scaling per key (On or off)
Volume scaling per key (0-3)

There's also a few parameters that can be set for the whole chip:
Vibrato depth
Tremolo depth
Percussion mode (uses 3 channels to provide 5 percussion sounds)
Composite sine mode (never used and doesn't work on the Opl3)


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