Gameboy Genius

Plastik - Reaktor FM synth

Plastik is an FM synth (or more accurately phase modulation synth) inspired by the Yamaha OPL chips found in Ad Lib and Sound Blaster soundcards in the 80’s and 90’s, renowned for its plastic sound. It should be noted, however, that even though Plastik was made to produce the same overall qualities as the OPL chips, and even has some of its unique features (the waveforms, the fixed vibrato and tremolo frequencies) it makes no claim whatsoever to be a complete or accurate OPL emulator.

Plastik is still work in progress, so if you find something that’s wrong with it, or you have a feature request, feel free to contact me. (Leave a comment or fetch my e-mail address from the bottom of the page.)

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(Not yet) frequently asked questions

Q: .ism?
A: .ism is the file extension for Reaktor instruments. You need Native Instruments Reaktor in order to try Plastik.

Q: How does the signal routing work?
A: There are four FM operators connected in cascade. Operator 1 can modulate operator 2 can modulate operator 3 can modulate operator 4. This is controlled by the PhM->x switch. Apart from that, each operator can also be broken out to the summing bus.

Q: Why doesn’t it sound like an OPL chip?
A: Because it isn’t an OPL chip. (And doesn’t aim to sound exactly like one. It’s an OPL inspired synth, not an OPL emulator)

Q: Dude, where are the filters??
A: There are no filters, use FM to shape the sound. (Or add a filter of your choice, this is Reaktor after all.)

Q: Why is it so ugly?
A: I will add a fancy schmancy skin for 1.1.

Q: Why an instrument (.ism) instead of ensemble? (.ens)
A: If everything needed to run the synth is already in the instrument why distribute an ensemble which is basically just another container in that case…?