John chowning biography
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By adapting laboratory equipment such as signal generators, he was able to demonstrate a simple and effective way to synthesize complex tones. In addition to influencing “synth” design, FM synthesis also gave the personal computer a voice, when Chowning’s techniques became the basis of “sound cards” for sound input and output. Inspired by the perceptual research of Jean-Claude Risset, he worked toward turning this discovery into a system of musical importance, using it extensively in his compositions. In 1973 Stanford University licensed the FM synthesis patent to Yamaha in Japan, leading to the most successful synthesis engine in the history of electronic musical instruments.
Beginning the same year he began the research that led to the first generalized surround sound localization algorithm. These cards were originally popular for playing computer games, because they allowed the software to synthesize nearly any type of sound and feed it to the computer’s loudspeakers.
John Chowning is known throughout the world for his discovery of FM sound synthesis, which, when used in the context of electronic musical instruments, provided an alternative to the way synthesized music was being created. and Laureate of the Giga-Hertz-Award in 2013.
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After serving in the military in the early 1950s, where he studied music at the Navy School of Music, he returned to school to earn a bachelor’s degree at Wittenberg University in Ohio in 1959.Interview about FM synthesis Jun 17, 2015, Barcelona, https://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia/sonia-212-john-chowning
He taught computer-sound synthesis and composition at Stanford University's Department of Music. In 1974, with John Grey, James (Andy) Moorer, Loren Rush and Leland Smith, he founded the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), which remains one of the leading centers for computer music and related research.
The technology was first used with great success in the Yamaha DX7, which not only sold extremely well and was a success in the marketplace, but it changed the way the world thought of and used electronic keyboards.
John Chowning
- Birthdate
- 1934/08/22
- Associated organizations
- Bell Labs
- Fields of study
- Music
Biography
John Chowning, one of the “fathers” of digital music, was instrumental in making digital music synthesis in “real time” possible.
This breakthrough in the synthesis of timbres allowed a very simple yet elegant way of creating and controlling time-varying spectra. Still a musician at heart, he not only studied the way that the brain perceives sound in space, but also composed and performed musical pieces to demonstrate his studies.
Dr.
Stanford University officials, eager to commercialize Chowning’s discoveries, attempted to attract electronic home and church organ manufacturers. Made famous by the popular “SoundBlaster,” the sound card has virtually become standard equipment on all computers. His research on the spatial aspects of acoustics was influential in later years in the creation of “surround sound” and other advanced, multi-channel sound recording and reproducing systems.
Pursuing his interest in music, he obtained masters and doctoral degrees at Stanford University. In trying to comprehend the distance cue, Chowning discovered the frequency modulation synthesis (FM) algorithm in 1967. In 1964, while still a graduate student, he became intensely interested in computer music, then still in its infancy. As a professor at Stanford University, Dr.
Chowning also designed a number of other applications for FM sound synthesis and similar electronic musical concepts.