We published a piece this morning on the Amiteque FM-01, a new desktop synth built around an original Yamaha YM2164 chip, and argued that the reason to want real silicon is that the chip’s character comes partly from the ways it’s imprecise.
A few hours later, CDM published a review of Plogue’s Chipsynth OPMZ — which emulates that same chip. The timing is accidental and the comparison is genuinely useful, because these two products are the clearest statement of the same argument from opposite sides.
What’s in OPMZ
Four distinct 4-operator Yamaha chip emulations in one plugin, from Canadian developer David Viens (Plogue), whose back catalogue is essentially a museum of meticulously modelled sound chips:
- OPM — the YM2151. Used in the DX21, DX27 and DX100, and in a very large number of arcade machines.
- OPP — the YM2164. The FB-01 and SFG-05, and again the DX21, DX27, DX100.
- OPZ — the YM2414. The most interesting of the four: the chip in the TX81Z and DX11, with eight channels, eight selectable waveforms, a fixed-frequency mode and dual LFOs.
- OPZ2 — the upgraded OPZ from the Yamaha V50 workstation.
CDM’s read is that it’s both an endlessly tweakable emulation and a usable synth on its own terms — you can fire it up to reconstruct a Sega Power Drift soundtrack accurately, or just use it as a good FM synth without ever having touched the originals.
The OPZ is the one to care about
If you only take one thing: the OPZ (YM2414) is the most musically capable 4-operator chip Yamaha made, and it has been the hardest to get.
The TX81Z’s reputation rests on those eight waveforms. Standard 4-operator FM gives you sine waves only; the OPZ lets an operator output half-sines, clipped sines and other variants, which injects harmonics before the FM even starts. That’s why TX81Z basses — the famous “Lately Bass” — sound grittier and more present than anything a DX100 can do. Add fixed-frequency operators for inharmonic metallic content and two LFOs, and you have a chip that escapes the thin, glassy quality people associate with cheap FM.
TX81Z prices have been climbing for years. An accurate OPZ emulation is the more significant part of this release than the OPM everyone knows.
Real chip versus emulation, with an actual test case
The FM-01 and OPMZ both give you a YM2164. So:
What OPMZ gives you that the FM-01 can’t: four chips instead of one, unlimited polyphony, patch recall, a modern editing interface instead of a 16×1 LCD, no 9V wall wart, no hunting for 1980s silicon, and the ability to A/B four generations of Yamaha FM against each other in seconds.
What the FM-01 gives you that OPMZ can’t: the actual part, front-panel controls, an instrument that exists as an object, and independence from a DAW.
And the honest bit: for the YM2164 specifically, a meticulous emulation is likely indistinguishable from the chip in a mix to almost everyone, almost always. Viens’s work has a track record here. The people who buy the FM-01 are not mostly buying audible difference — they’re buying the physical instrument and the relationship with it, which is a legitimate thing to buy and a different thing from fidelity.
The genuinely interesting split, which we noted this morning: software is being used to reach instruments you otherwise couldn’t have — a Tesla coil, a Buchla 200, a TX81Z at 2026 prices. Hardware like the FM-01 is being used to reach an instrument you could emulate but want to touch. Both released in the same week, both correct.