OPL AUv3 FM Synth

The Yamaha OPL chips, introduced in 1985, shaped the sound of 80s and 90s video game soundtracks. discoDSP OPL emulates their FM and additive synthesis, including the distinctive percussion mode. With up to 16x oversampling for crystal-clear sound and over 2000 included presets, discoDSP OPL is ideal for classic game soundtracks, electronic music, or crafting unique sounds.

Play it with the built-in on-screen keyboard on iPad, a MIDI controller, or your DAW. On iPhone, connect a MIDI keyboard or run it as a plugin.

CORE FEATURES

• YMF262 (OPL3) FM engine with all eight waveforms per operator.
• Percussion mode with bass drum, snare, tom, cymbal, and hi-hat.
• Over 2000 SBI instruments, organised by category.
• Two operators with wave, multiplier, envelope, and attenuation.
• Selectable oversampling from 1x to 16x, with a separate bounce setting.
• Key-tracking stereo panning that places notes across the field by pitch.
• On-screen keyboard with pitch and modulation wheels (iPad, standalone).
• Analog modeled wave shaper on the carrier.
• SBI instrument import and export through the Files app.
• Bluetooth MIDI device discovery.
• AUv3 plugin for GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis, BeatMaker, and Drambo.

THE OPL SOUND

Two-operator FM is the sound of Adlib and Sound Blaster era games. Each voice pairs a modulator and a carrier, each with its own waveform, frequency multiplier, envelope, and attenuation. Route them in FM for the metallic, bell-like timbres the chip is known for, or in additive to stack the two operators as independent tones.

Feedback on the modulator pushes the tone from clean to gritty, and all eight OPL3 waveforms are available on every operator: sine, half sine, absolute sine, quarter sine, alternating sine, camel sine, square, and logarithmic sawtooth. They are the chip's own, not approximations.

PERCUSSION MODE

The rhythm section repurposes the last channels into five dedicated drum voices: bass drum, snare, tom, cymbal, and hi-hat. It is how the chip made drums without samples, and it is included here in full.

INSTRUMENTS

Over 2000 SBI instruments are included, sorted into categories: bass, drum, FX, guitar, keys, and more. Load one from the menu, step through them with the previous and next buttons, or import your own SBI files from the Files app. Anything you edit can be exported back out as SBI.

OVERSAMPLING

The chip is emulated at up to 16 times the host sample rate, which stops the FM sidebands folding back into the audio band as aliasing. Playback and offline bounces have separate settings, so you can run a lighter factor while playing and render at the highest quality.

ON-SCREEN KEYBOARD

The standalone app on iPad includes a keyboard with pitch and modulation wheels, so you can play without any external hardware. The mod wheel drives a vibrato LFO with continuous depth, going well beyond the original chip's fixed two-position vibrato. Hide the keyboard from the settings menu when you would rather give the panel the whole screen.

STANDALONE OR AUV3

Load OPL inside GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis, BeatMaker, Drambo, or any AUv3 host, with settings saved in your project. Or run it standalone with a MIDI controller, over Bluetooth MIDI, or with the on-screen keyboard.

Version 3.0.1 release notes

Fixed instruments missing on new installs. The factory sound banks are now copied into the shared folder on first run, so the app and the AUv3 plugin both see them.