Plogue has announced the full availability of its chipsynth OPMZ software emulator of some of Yamaha’s vintage chips, found in early arcade game hardware, home computers and Yamaha synths.
Four of Yamaha’s OP* chips have been meticulously emulated, meaning you get as close to the hardware reproduction as possible without actually having those (now rare) chips or compatible hardware.
Recreated is the OPM (YM2151), OPP (YM2164), OPZ (YM2414) and OPZ2 (YM2424). Many of the features in these chips were poorly documented (at least in the public domain) — particularly that of the OPZ used in the TX81Z — so Plague has done a lot of investigative reverse-engineering work to find out exactly what the chips were capable of, how they worked, and how Yamaha used them in certain classic synths such as the DX100, DX27, DX21, TX81Z and DX11.
What it means is you can easily get virtually indistinguishably close to the authentic ‘chiptune’ 1980s feel which is so popular again now. Retro grooves at the ready.
Various arcade games relied on these chips, including some from Sega, Capcom, Konami and Atari. The Sharp X68000 and MSX music expansion units used them, some of the DX line (as mentioned above) and electric pianos.
chipsynth OPMZ offers easier editing, deep modulation inducing key-synchronised audio-rate LFOs, effects, and 8-way stacking.
It can be run standalone or as VST3, AUv3, CLAP or AAX plugin.
