Talk:John Chowning

Timing of the Yamaha deal

Based on the Mattis book, the article says the patent was licensed to Yamaha in 1974. A web page at Stanford says Yamaha took the license in 1973 instead: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/people/john-chowning . But the only patent Chowning holds was filed in 1975 as a continuation-in-part of an earlier application filed in March 26, 1974, which was abandoned. https://www.google.com/patents/US4018121

So this raises a couple of questions: when did Yamaha actually make this deal, and did the company actually take the license based solely on a pending patent application? That happens sometimes, but is unusual especially for such ground-breaking ideas.

Maybe someone has better sources of information. 76.22.118.146 (talk) 00:00, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Also, various sources say Stanford has earned x amount of money on its 1971 patent FM Sound Synthesis. But the work seems to have been completed around 1973-74. So I wonder what is the title of the actually patent making the money, and who is the assignee - possibly of Stanford and not Chowning? Jonpatterns (talk) 14:44, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

From the Frequency modulation synthesis article:

The technique of the digital implementation of frequency modulation, which was developed by John Chowning (Chowning 1973, cited in Dodge & Jerse 1997, p. 115) at Stanford University in 1967–68, was patented in 1975. Prior to that, the FM synthesis algorithm was licensed to Japanese company Yamaha in 1973.[1]

The reference is a book, so the answer may be contained within: Chowning, John; Bristow, David (1986). FM Theory & Applications - By Musicians For Musicians. Tokyo: Yamaha. ISBN 4-636-17482-8.

Jonpatterns (talk) 14:50, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

John Chowning and digital FM synthesis in 1971?

Please comment on Talk:Synthesizer#John Chowning and digital FM synthesis? Andy Dingley (talk) 20:18, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

"discoverer"

John M. Chowning ... is an American composer, musician, discoverer, and professor best known for his work at Stanford University and his development of the digital implementation of FM synthesis while there.

wtf does that even mean? 2601:640:C402:C4A0:9820:8CE6:BF65:DC0C (talk) 05:01, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

You may care to examine the edit history, starting here and going back two edits.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 05:58, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

i mean, is discoverer a proper wikipedia title for people? 2601:640:C402:C4A0:9820:8CE6:BF65:DC0C (talk) 06:38, 20 July 2020 (UTC)