WHY does FastDoom FM music sound so much better than the original DOOM?

[vanfanel]

That's about it.
I have been trying FastDoom on the TinyLlama and the Pixel 86 PCs, based around ICOP SOMs and CRYSTAL audio, and the game sounds incredible!
None of the many sourceports I have on GNU/Linux, including CrispyDoom or GZDoom, using FM music emulation, come anywhere near the "full" FM music that FastDoom seems to have.

But how? Why? These sourceports use the Nuked OPL3 emulator, which should be equally good, but FastDoom produces a different audio, definitely more... organic, full, I don't know how to describe it.

[viti95]

FastDoom uses the Apogee Sound System for its sound / music engine instead of DMX due to legal reasons, as the DMX source code has never been officially released. The Apogee Sound System, used in ROTT, Duke Nukem 3D, and other Apogee games, sounds slightly different from DMX and natively supports dual OPL2 and OPL3 configurations.

[viti95]

Also Crystal sound cards use a different OPL3 implementation, ESFM sounds slightly different

[vanfanel]

Thanks @viti95

So, is Apogee Sound System stereo while DMX music was mono?
Do you know if the CRYSTAL OPL 3 audio is emulated somewhere?

[viti95]

So, is Apogee Sound System stereo while DMX music was mono?

Yes, the Apogee Sound System is stereo and supports dual OPL2 and OPL3 cards.

Do you know if the CRYSTAL OPL 3 audio is emulated somewhere?

I’ve been looking into it, but Crystal sound cards are not yet emulated (neither DOSBox, 86Box or MAME)

BTW I made an error in my previous message; ESFM is the OPL3 implementation used in ESS sound cards. What I meant to say was CrystalFM, which is the implementation used in Crystal sound cards.

[vanfanel]

Have you heard the CrystalFM implementation?
What's so different with regards to SB's original OPL? Seems way richer to me, more "organic", it's hard to describe.