> John Chowning actually first licensed his FM synthesis patent to Yamaha

Did he? Wasn't there New England Digital (NED) with the Synclavier which had FM on the market before Yamaha? Are you sure Chowning gave licenses? I would rather expect that this was the Standford administration's business, not Chowning's.

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earthnail 4 hours ago | parent [-]

They offered the patent to all the American synth companies, and they all declined. Multiplying sounds just sounded too ridiculous.

Then came Yamaha, who saw its potential, and made a fortune with it. So did Stanford. That patent became the second most successful patent Stanford ever had until it expired in 1996 (by now obv the university has had way more financially successful patents).

It secured Chowning his tenure; the university probably wouldn’t have prolonged it otherwise. Quite an incredible story the whole thing.

	▲	dreamcompiler 16 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		FM is not multiplication. FM is driving one Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) with another. As Chowning points out it's fast vibrato. AM (amplitude modulation) is multiplication. When you do it fast, you get what's commonly called a ring modulator.
	▲	Rochus 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> Quite an incredible story the whole thing. Even more with Chowning's background as a musician, not an engineer. > Multiplying sounds just sounded too ridiculous Is this really the "official" reason, or your interpretation?