History of FM synthesis and digital synths

KBD_TRACKER · Post by **KBD_TRACKER** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 5:07 pm

Interesting article about the seminal work of FM's inventor John Chowning, and its importance for the development of digital synths later:

http://priceonomics.com/the-father-of-t ... nthesizer/

John Chowning from Standford U, inventor of FM synthesis:

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 5:14 pm

Wow, this is fascinating. Thank you.

Bitexion · Post by **Bitexion** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 6:56 pm

I have a DX7 programming book written by Chowning himself. It's a great read to learn the DX7 ins and outs.

RetroSynthAds · Post by **RetroSynthAds** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 11:15 pm

Yes! Thank you for finding this. Love it!

antilles · Post by **antilles** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 4:07 am

Very interesting article. They should make a documentary about him.

max badwan · Post by **max badwan** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 6:11 am

A great read. Thanks, Dr Chowning - love your work!

Dr. Phibes · Post by **Dr. Phibes** » Sat Mar 28, 2015 11:29 pm

That was really interesting. I had obviously heard about John Chowning but I had assumed he was the life-long lab type. It's cool to hear how someone who came from a decidedly non-technological background could go on to have such impact in the world of science, even if composition remained his first and foremost priority.

Walter Ego · Post by **Walter Ego** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:23 pm

That was a really fascinating read. Thanks for posting that! It was inspirational. I love that he was convinced his discovery would change music forever when everyone around him was nonplussed. He seems like a very unique individual and I feel a deep kinship with him about the way he thinks about sound and music. It's also inspiring to see that an iconoclast like Chowning actually succeeded.

pflosi · Post by **pflosi** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:43 am

His book is mandatory reading if you're into Yamaha DX

Post by **madtheory** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:47 am

Yes, great story. Amazing achievement. Of course like most things there were parallel developments. Hal Alles digital oscillator at Bell labs, the Alles machine, the Crumar GDS etc. And of course Bell Labs helped out Chowning as well. Such an amazing institution! And Yamaha as well, I love how he talks about the engineers there. All heroes

joeboy · Post by **joeboy** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:57 pm

I was surprised to read that he only learned advanced math as an adult. It gives me hope. I read through his book and had no problem understanding the role Bessel functions play in FM synthesis, but I couldn't really wrap my mind around what one actually is. I never even made it as far as calculus in my own education, but would like to understand it eventually. I'm having trouble finding a good textbook though.

Also I had no idea who Max Mathews was a few months ago, but now he keeps popping up in everything I read!

commodorejohn · Post by **commodorejohn** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 3:03 pm

joeboy wrote:I was surprised to read that he only learned advanced math as an adult. It gives me hope.

Yup. (Me, I'm just finally beginning to wrap my head around vector math...)

History of FM synthesis and digital synths

History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths

Re: History of FM synthesis and digital synths