New podcast: Interview with John Chowning, inventor ofFM synthesis

RWM · August 27, 2015

New podcast:Interview with John Chowning , the inventor ofFM synthesis: the technique that revolutionized the world of synthesizers andthe sound of electronic music in the eighties.

Link: http://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia/john-chowning-/capsula

As a man of many, interconnected facets, John Chowning has played a leading role in several chapters of the history of electronic music. As a composer, his is one of the few essential names in any overview of computer music made in the United States in the early seventies. In 1964, with the help of Max Mathews (from the legendary Bell Labs, where computer music was virtually born) and David Poole from Stanford University, Chowning began using Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence laboratory for his experiments. Years later, in 1975, he founded the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford, which remains one of the key centres in music technology research anywhere in the world. Lastly, in his role as developer, Chowning is the inventor of FM synthesis: the technique that revolutionized the world of synthesizers and the sound of electronic music in the eighties.

In this podcast, John Chowning charts a historical overview of the different branches of his artistic career, focusing on his interest in the human voice, the creation of new sonorities, and being a pioneer in a discipline at a time when using computers to generate music was a leap into the void between creative eccentricity and scientific adventure.

Timeline

02:09 Early interest in sound

09:33Frequency Modulation

13:15 A universe of tones

15:43 The synthesis technique that shook the world

20:28 From artificial intelligence to computer music

22:40 Human voices, computer voices

29:59 Bringing FM to the masses: the Yamaha adventure

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If you liked this podcast, you may also enjoy this podcast with Arthur Sauer about immersive sound, spatial electronic music, and other applications of Wave Field Synthesis. http://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia/wave_field_synthesis/capsula

Enjoy!