FM Synthesis

Frequency modulation synthesis (aka FM Synthesis, OPL-Synth) is a form of audio synthesis where the timbre of a simple waveform (such as a square, triangle, or sawtooth) is changed by modulating its frequency with a modulator frequency that is also in the audio range. In simple words, it's a generation of audio stream from scratch by formulas (while Wave-Table based synthesis is based on pre-recorded samples (aka Sound Fonts)).

Examples of musics, synthesized on libADLMIDI
ADLMIDI Flags:
 * DT - Deep Tremolo
 * DV - Deep Vibrato
 * SM - Scalable modulation

Note: Loop points in some MIDI-Files are markers "loopStart" and "loopEnd" which are was introduced in MIDI files from Final Fantasy VII. There are tells where is a looping music part. Most of MIDI sequencers are has no support of them. ADLMIDI synthesizer has implementation of correct playing support of MIDI files with a loop points.

Links

 * A collection of emulated OPL-Synth MIDI drivers for Windows - allows playing all MIDI-files as there are played on original FM sound card. (Originally found on VOGONS discussion)
 * OPL Bank Editor - a tool which allows making own banks for FM synthesizer, has built-in emulator to test configured instruments
 * More detail description about FM Synthesis at Wikipedia
 * Yamaha YMF262 (OPL3) - most popular FM Chip on PC Audio cards like Sound Blaster
 * Yamaha YM2612 (OPN2) - a chip used in the Sega Genesis game console