diff --git a/src/engine/platform/sound/ymfm/ymfm_opm.cpp b/src/engine/platform/sound/ymfm/ymfm_opm.cpp
index 544bbe89..31d0a746 100644
--- a/src/engine/platform/sound/ymfm/ymfm_opm.cpp
+++ b/src/engine/platform/sound/ymfm/ymfm_opm.cpp
@@ -87,6 +87,8 @@ void opm_registers::reset()
 {
 	std::fill_n(&m_regdata[0], REGISTERS, 0);
 
+  m_lfo_counter = 0;
+
 	// enable output on both channels by default
 	m_regdata[0x20] = m_regdata[0x21] = m_regdata[0x22] = m_regdata[0x23] = 0xc0;
 	m_regdata[0x24] = m_regdata[0x25] = m_regdata[0x26] = m_regdata[0x27] = 0xc0;
@@ -195,8 +197,13 @@ int32_t opm_registers::clock_noise_and_lfo()
 	// treat the rate as a 4.4 floating-point step value with implied
 	// leading 1; this matches exactly the frequencies in the application
 	// manual, though it might not be implemented exactly this way on chip
+  // note from tildearrow:
+  // - in fact it doesn't. the strings in Scherzo Di Notte totally go out
+  //   tune after a bit (and this doesn't happen in Nuked-OPM).
 	uint32_t rate = lfo_rate();
-	m_lfo_counter += (0x10 | bitfield(rate, 0, 4)) << bitfield(rate, 4, 4);
+  if (rate != 0) {
+	  m_lfo_counter += (0x10 | bitfield(rate, 0, 4)) << bitfield(rate, 4, 4);
+  }
 
 	// bit 1 of the test register is officially undocumented but has been
 	// discovered to hold the LFO in reset while active