OPL Studio is an all-in-one MIDI controller and synthesizer controller with touch screen for the OPL3 Duo. It gives you ultimate control over all features the OPL3 has to offer. You can use it as a MIDI player that gives a nostalgic Adlib or Sound Blaster sound using the built-in instruments. Besides playing MIDI, OPL Studio is a fully featured synthesizer controller with patch editor, drum and melody sequencers, mixer and composer.

OPL Studio has a 240x320 touch screen LCD and a cool retro looking Windows 3.1 / 95 style user interface. Besides the touch screen many of the controls can be changed using the two rotary controls on the front or from external control voltages and triggers.

The OPL Studio software runs on the powerful Teensy 4.1 (or 3.6) and is already very feature complete, but also still in development to bring more you features in the future.

This is the kit version of OPL Studio that requires a separate OPL3 Duo synthesizer to produce the audio. It's ideal if you want to customize your build or if you already own an OPL3 Duo! or OPL2 Audio Board. If you're looking for a fully integrated OPL Studio then please check out the all-in-one version of OPL Studio. Note that the OPL Studio software and capabilities are the same for both versions.

More information about the project can be found on the Hackaday project page or my website.

What can you do with it?

• Play MIDI music with a nostalgic OPL2 / OPL3 sound
• Creature up to 32 drum sequences of 16, 32, 48 or 64 steps and 8 tracks that all have different drum patches, volume and panning settings.
• Create up to 32 polyphonic melody sequences of 16, 32, 48 or 64 steps. Melody sequences record all incoming MIDI events on their assigned channel, i.e. note on / off, velocity, volume and panning changes, pitch bend, modulation / channel aftertouch.
• Create your own instrument banks, edit the built-in instrument bank or load and save instruments from popular bank files such as .SB, .O3, *.BNK, etc.
• There is a mixer that gives you an overview of the activity on all MIDI channels and lets you control the volume, panning, mute and solo.
• A four track sequencer lets you play 4 of the sequences you created
• Sequences can be arranged into full length songs in the composer module
• Instrument patches can be layered up to 4 layers deep to make more complex sounds and effects. Each layer can be assigned a patch, volume, panning, delay and transpose
• Connect up to 6 external controls to trigger events such as drum sounds, or control voltages to change instrument patch parameters
• Save and load your creations to SD card and have easy access to all parts of your OPL Studio session from the session manager module
• Synchronize with other MIDI devices where OPL Studio and take an external MIDI clock or be the clock source for other MIDI equipment

How do you use it?

The OPL Studio kit does not have a built-in synthesizer. It requires an OPL3 Duo synthesizer to produce the audio. An OPL2 Audio Board is also supported, but I recommend using the OPL3 Duo because it has up to 36 audio channels, supports better sounding 4-OP instruments and allows panning. If you don’t have an OPL3 Duo yet then you can include it with your order. If you're looking for an integrated unit that includes the OPL3 Duo synthesizer then check out the all-in-one OPL Studio.

For MIDI input you can connect OPL Studio with USB to your computer and it will show up as a MIDI device or you can use the MIDI in and out DIN connectors on the back.

What do you get?

You can either get OPL Studio as a kit that you build yourself or as an already assembled and tested unit. In the kit you get all parts (PCBs, components, LCD, Teensy, front panel, 3D printed enclosure) needed to build the kit. If you have a Teensy 3.6 or 4.1 already then you have the option to use your own.

The kit does not come with a micro USB cable. I assume that these days people have enough of these laying around…

Build instructions for the kit and the user manual for OPL Studio can be found here. These documents also contain instructions on how to connect an OPL2 Audio Board, how to update the software and how to recover from faults.