knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) (09/27/85)
That Stanford FM patent sounds a little bogus, or at least it would apply only to Hardware realizations (they don't really expect everyone who runs FM programs on a computer to pay a nickel per song, do they?). Reminds me of the good old Allen Digital Organ, ca. 1970. It used the most basic of synthesis techniques -- scanning a prestored waveform. I read their patent, which, as one post-er would expect, dealt mostly with the ingenious details by which their hybrid chip set did the job very cheaply. However, as the individual patent claims rolled on, they got progressively broader and broader, till the last one "claimed any means of storing a waveform and reading it out sample by sample to a D-A" or words to that effect. Now, this technique had been published years before in "The Technology of Computer Music" by Max Matthews of Bell Labs, back when Bell usually let such trivia slip into public domain. So Matthews had no patent, -- anyway, the patent was by Allen Organ Co., not by Matthews or Bell Labs and assigned/sold to Allen. Here was clearly a case of claiming a patent on a concept and algortihm that was "well-known to those skilled in the art" of computer music. The chip hardware claims are valid, but that last claim is a joke. I believe it is possible for individual claims within a patent to be challenged and overthrown. Anyway, Allen has never tried to sue Apple or Commodore (whose Mac* and Amiga chips scan RAM waveforms), let alone the vendors of software packages that play 4-part harmony on TRS-80s. And I play FM (one voice) on my Color Computer. I'd pay Yamaha a nickel per nite royalty if I thought they could build instruments that sound half as good as their dirt bikes. mike k (Their acoustic pianos are pretty good) *Oops, the Mac scans by firmware, not a chip, but I think the default waveforms are in ROM.
hedger@ada-uts.UUCP (10/01/85)
I like this note, but I have one question: At the beginning of the article, you say 'That FM patent.....'--my question is WHAT FM PATENT????? Is there an article to which you are referring that I missed? or a book???please let me know...the idea of someone owning the patent to 'FM synthesis' sounds a bit much to me, I'd like to read any information on this topic. thanx in advance. keith hedger intermetrics ihnp4!inmet!ada-uts!hedger