COMPO RULES, DEADLINES, ETC: https://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?topic=5981.msg45224#msg45224Those of you who are following OpenMPT development may already know it: OpenMPT 1.28 will finally gain support for OPL2/3 instruments in S3M files, a rarely used (and rarely supported) feature. OPL2 and OPL3 are sound chips by Yamaha that are based on phase modulation (typically known as Frequency Modulation - FM). This is the same technique as used by the famous Yamaha DX7, except that these chips are cut down in cost and features (e.g. they have less operators).
Most OPL-based music you have heard is probably based exclusively on this chip, as it was popularized by the AdLib soundcards on which it was the only means of sound generation. However, on the Creative SoundBlaster cards, it was possible to use both this chip and play some samples at the same time. The combination of these two techniques represents a pinnacle of game and demo music in the early 90s for me personally.
To cut a long story short: I think OpenMPT deserves some example songs to show off the beautiful combination of small PCM samples combined with great OPL instruments. Currently this is only possible by using the S3M format. There is no specific rule set at the time of writing, and no compo deadline either because it isn't even clear yet when OpenMPT 1.28 is going to be released. Since there is no possibility to share samples between S3M files, it probably does not make much sense to demand the compo entries to use a specific sample set, but of course I can provide some nice samples to get your inspiration going. There are plenty of OPL2 instruments floating around (e.g.
JuceOPLVSTi comes with hundreds of them), but many of them have been heard over and over again (also because editing FM patches is a very cumbersome task in many AdLib trackers), so I suggest you go wild and work on some custom instruments as well.
I'm open to any further ideas concerning compo rules.
