Maybe just because of the similar architecture these sound chips were built on, the OPL chips give some kind of an upgraded SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis feeling.
@@NightSprinter True, but the advantage comes with operators, OPL Chips have 2 Operators Per Channels, OPN Have 4 of those in One Channel, But OPL Has the Advantage of having many Channels, Many Waveforms, Cheap, etc.
+Headset Guy ESFM is actually compatible with OPL3 patches. You're listening to the ESS driver, which uses different patches that use the ESFM's extra features IIRC.
+Headset Guy That is ESFM. The reason it sounds so off is because the MIDI patches are playing the song. ESFM is great, but the ESS MIDI patches are not.
I used to have the ES1868 from a NewCom kit and always wondered why my games and MIDI files sounded so different than my friend's computers. It was because I had the ESFM Emulation while they all had OPL synthesizers.
Most dos and Windows 9x computers I grew up surrounded by had some kind of opl3 sound card like this. I had a Sound Blaster AWE32 in mine back in the day
Extreme sadness that they killed annotations.
Maybe just because of the similar architecture these sound chips were built on, the OPL chips give some kind of an upgraded SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis feeling.
That's because the Sega Genesis uses the YM2612 also from Yamaha
@@pokegeaks2 plus the OPL2 and OPL3 had numerous more waveforms to select from, over what the Sega console had.
@@NightSprinter True, but the advantage comes with operators, OPL Chips have 2 Operators Per Channels, OPN Have 4 of those in One Channel, But OPL Has the Advantage of having many Channels, Many Waveforms, Cheap, etc.
From my memorys ess fm sounded absolutely amazing while playing stalker.mid from dn3d game in windows 98se.
I have a soft spot for FM synthesis!
"the comments have been annotated"
:(
Yeahhhh.....ironically I never actually got around to annotating this video, but it's a moot point now anyway. :/
0:00 Sound Blaster 16 CT2290
1:18 AdLib
2:38 Crystal sound card, CS4236-KQ FM Chip
3:56 Sound Blaster Pro 2 CT1600
5:15 Sound Blaster 16 CT2230 (Modified)
6:34 Sound Blaster 16 CT2830 (Modified)
7:53 Sound Blaster 16 CT2900 (Modified)
9:11 Sound Blaster 16 CT4180
10:30 ESS Audio Drive, ES1868F Chip
Times are just wrong ;)
0:00 Sound Blaster 16 CT2290
1:18 AdLib
2:38 Crystal sound card, CS4236-KQ FM Chip
3:56 Sound Blaster Pro 2 CT1600
5:15 Sound Blaster 16 CT2230 (Modified)
6:34 Sound Blaster 16 CT2830 (Modified)
7:53 Sound Blaster 16 CT2900 (Modified)
9:11 Sound Blaster 16 CT4180
10:30 ESS Audio Drive, ES1868F Chip
I'm 2 years late, but I fixed it. :)
Sound Blaster 16 2290 Best! Adlib Best!
OW. OW. OW. God, that ESS Audio Drive chip hurt. Shame, that, because another type of FM synthesis from ESS, called ESFM, sounds absolutely amazing.
+Headset Guy ESFM is actually compatible with OPL3 patches. You're listening to the ESS driver, which uses different patches that use the ESFM's extra features IIRC.
+thejapanscout *for general MIDI, that is
+Headset Guy That is ESFM. The reason it sounds so off is because the MIDI patches are playing the song. ESFM is great, but the ESS MIDI patches are not.
Ah-ha.
The Audiodrive has a great FM clone, but isn't so good at MIDI by itself. Probably better to get a daughterboard for the Waveblaster header it has.
LGR will be impressed.
I agree
I hope so! I'm glad he's a fan of this, so hopefully I don't disappoint.
My favorite CT1740 is not played here, they all sound good tho!
Funny that SB Pro 2 has OPL3 but its not stereo. Is this by design of the card?
I used to have the ES1868 from a NewCom kit and always wondered why my games and MIDI files sounded so different than my friend's computers. It was because I had the ESFM Emulation while they all had OPL synthesizers.
Why does the SoundBlaster Vibra16 have so many capacitors?
+Alex Kruzicki Which one, the CT4180? No idea. Creative was weird like that.
RIP to the ess card, can't find a driver for it at all that doesn't have broken pitch sliding
It's not just your ESS card, it's all of them. All SB16s and compatibles break on pitch slides greater than one full step when using MIDI.
ad lib almost sounds like sega genesis
with 2 operators that don't exist.
Escape Fun Obby?
Just curious but did most ms dos computers have this type of sound driver?
I'm not really sure if most computers had them, but most of the computers I remember from my younger days had them. So it's quite probable.
Most dos and Windows 9x computers I grew up surrounded by had some kind of opl3 sound card like this. I had a Sound Blaster AWE32 in mine back in the day