In my opinion, FM synthesizers in sound cards are undeservedly forgotten and therefore I decided to share my thoughts on this matter.
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 3r366. Now, some kind of excitement has gone on ISA sound cards - they just buy up wildly everywhere, on ebay prices are just space Perhaps collectors are buying, or perhaps the fact is that only FM synths were used on ISA sound cards (OPL2 /OPL3). Now, FM synthesizers have been completely supplanted by the software of WaveTable technologies, and in games, after switching from DOS to Windows, music on FM /WaveTable synthesizers ceased to be used in favor of mp3 via DAC.
 3r366. Adlib Tracker 2 for modern PCs under Windows - 458 tracks are attached with the player. This is a tracker player /editor developed by Adlib, but unlike MOD /S3M, it does not use digital soundtracks, but plays directly through an FM synthesizer. Program interface Dosovsky, press F3 to open the explorer to load the track from the MODULES catalog, F5 - play, F7 - stop. The quality of emulation is very good, but not as tube-like as on a live microcircuit.
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 3r366. Secondly, in my opinion, AdLib has not chosen the best chip for its sound card, the Yamaha YM381? as a trendsetter. For the history of DOS games, I can remember a few games with amazing FM music - this is what X-COM already called X-COM: UFO Defense, Tyrian, Cybersphere. In DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D, WaveTable already sounds better (well, the main thing is not music). But on the SEGA gaming console on the Yamaha YM2203 chip, I can already name a lot more games with amazing “space” music - these are Skeleton Krew, Alien Soldier, Exo Squad, B.O.B. and many others. That's just on the SEGA chip Yamaha YM2203 was not used in full force. On Szeg, only 1 block of a three-channel FM synthesizer was used for music, and the 2nd block, a full analogue of the General Instruments AY-3-8910 chip, was not. A chip AY-3-8910 - this is a huge world of chiptune music on the ZX-Spectrum with a huge library of music under this chip.
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 3r366. And here I had a thought - but not whether to revive the FM-synthesizers on the sound cards for the PC? There is no competition! Nobody makes new, old ISA sound cards in any way insert into modern PCs. There is only one manufacturer Arstech manufactures adapter ISA to USB , but its price is just space - $ 149. There is another manufacturer makes OPL2 /3 sound cards for LPT-port. But they do not have a DAC and therefore cannot be called full-fledged sound cards.
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 3r366. It makes no sense to make a modern PCI-e sound card with an FM synthesizer only on the OPL2 /3 chip, because there is little good music in the format, but for the sake of 2-3 DOS it's also not interesting. But on the YM2203 will be of interest to all music lovers with SEGA, ZX-Spectrum, as well as amateur musicians and have a reserve for Chiptune. By the way, on this YM2203 chip, Russian developers make a sound card Turbo Sound FM , but only for the ZX-Spectrum. As DSP, you can put C-Media MI8786 - for most gamers will be enough. But even if you make a sound only with a simple DSP and a sound synthesizer on 2x AY-3-8910 chips for listening to music AY, YM, PT2 on a PC, such a card is already waiting for sale.
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 3r366. Similar projects for the PC have already happened - until the 2000s, ISA sound cards “CatWeasel” were manufactured that were not compatible with AdLib on SID 6581 chips for listening to SID music. Such a sound card would be very relevant today - it would be bought up like hot burgers (thousands and thousands of people listen to SID music), but 6581/8580 chips are not made and there are no analogues, on ebay they are sold only at astronomical prices.
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 3r366. You probably ask - why am I throwing an idea for a Startup to others? Because I myself will not do it, but I really want to have such a sound card, let the other one at least get rich! If a potential producer reads this, but you have doubts that it will pay off, you can do it very simply - start the project on Kickstarter. I am sure that this project will interest at least tens of thousands of people around the world, and maybe more, because there are no analogues on the PC market at all!
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 3r366. I know a lot of people who became programmers because in their youth they fell in love with 8-bit games only because of Chiptune music. I don't know of any DOS games that would hook the music on WaveTable! WaveTable is an evil that has deprived the entire computer community of beautiful “cosmic” chip music; As the history of WaveTable has shown, it turned out to be a dead-end branch of sound card development. At first I supplanted the chic FM synthesizers, and then she left the stage herself. Many hit games of the past had just chiptune music. By the way, mp3 is also evil. Because music even with a 320 kbps bit rate sounds worse than a CD! Mp3 is just for your reference, constantly listening to mp3 is to deprive yourself of great pleasure. Microsoft also cut the sound card hardware capabilities (EAX) after Windows XP starting with Windows Vista and later. In general, the deterioration of sound quality on all fronts and it is time to correct the situation
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