Episode 55: Interview with John Chowning, Discoverer of FM Synthesis

In this very special podcast episode, I had the privilege of interviewing a true legend to the synth world: Dr John Chowning! In this video he shares his story of where he started musically, some incredible experiences along the way, a valuable wealth of knowledge, and the path that led to his discovery of FM Synthesis.
I was truly honored to have the opportunity to talk with him, and look forward to hearing all the valuable conversations this interview sparks!
As always, thanks for taking the time to listen! The goal of this podcast is to explore sound, have some fun, and learn some new things along the way! ​
Suggestions for future topics to explore are always welcome!
You can find new episodes here every Saturday.
Don't forget to subscribe to my channel!
Music Intro/Outro Credit
"End 2 End" by SoundPaint
Video Production
Kewlacious Video Productions
www.kewlacious.com
Microphone:
AUDIX CX112B Large Diaphragm Microphone
www.cymbalfusion.com/audix-cx...
Tags: #Music #musiceducation #electronicmusic #musicpodcast #musicschool #JohnChowning #Digitalsynth #Yamaha #DX7 #FMSynthesis

[@martinheath5947]

The democratisation of computer music. What an absolute genius and now anyone can get FM synthesis in free plugins for their computer.

[@littlefishy6316]

Thank you Dr Chowning for taking the time to be interviewed, thank you for your ground breaking research

[@user-we2bk6qb3n]

She's great for this stuff.

[@marcuspatzer2392]

Wow! Very Nice Channel, subscribed. 😊 Great Video! Most warmest Regards & a nice Weekend my Friend. Marcus 🕊️🎹🙋‍♂️🌹

[@GurungyNoHamuster]

There is another great DX7 interview, with Dave Bristow (who programmed the early sound banks), on KZbin. It was a fab time... I sold mine to a keyboard rental company in the 1990s, but still have the excellent TX802 (new OLED panel!). Still sounds great.

[@gregoryzaharias1831]

More please great job felt like it was was to short lol I want more

[@EdgyNumber1]

I was _never_ a fan of Yamaha DX - hearing the presets persistently rinsed on the radio traumatised me as a kid, lol. However, I loved how Korg took FM to another level with MOD7, and with the Opsix, made it so user friendly. This interview was fascinating stuff. Good interview, thanks for sharing.

[@eobet]

I often hear “before and after the internet” and “before and after the mobile phone”, but “before and after music for loudspeakers” was new to me and is currently blowing my mind a little bit… fantastic interview! 👍

[@littlefishy6316]

Great interview, so brave and resourceful to have made contact with Dr Chowning.

[@azazabacheche3973]

Wonderful and super interesting interview, thank you!

[@williamsandoval6120]

Good Morning!

[@littlefishy6316]

Good morning from Scotland

[@MrDejanPesic]

Thank you for this interview.

[@Isuckatoverwatch]

That's really interesting thanks!!

[@Wulfcry]

Golden.

[@CatFish107]

"Thanks for doing your homework" That is a big, big point of recognition. Great job!

[@Seibaunite]

Never before seen someone actually interview the master himself!! Thank you very much Subbed!!

[@crnkmnky]

I know, right?! Excellent!

[@Vincefromsin]

He has written a great book on DX synthesis with David Bristow.

[@rivermintofficial]

Amazing, thank you

[@Metamerist625]

Amazing, what a great idea for an interview and what an interesting man!

[@TheKeyboardChronicles]

Great work getting to speak with a true legend of the field!

[@THR-zf6ti]

Wow wow wow!!! This man has an incredible story to tell and this with a talented and skilled interviewer you get a GREAT DOCUMENTARY!

[@AmbientDawn]

Absolutely fascinating! Thank you for this.

[@poofygoof]

I had the privilege of visiting CCRMA as part of an AES field trip in the mid 00s, and we were treated to (among other things) an 8(?)-track surround playback of one of Dr. Chowning's FM works that demonstrated spatial sounds in spades. I think all the sounds were early 2-op and it was perhaps unsurprising how familiar the sounds were, given that they pre-dated Yamaha's work on FM. Seems like an Atmos release of these early works by Dr. Chowning might have an audience?

[@bonaventura_AKA_ben]

What a pleasure to see that John Chowning is still with us. He influenced my early life in both career choices and personal development in the electronic music field. His work has influenced generations of technical and non-technical folks, musicians and amateurs alike. His really is a lasting legacy. Bravo on the interview.

[@SuperRingoffire1]

Fascinating interview and some valuable info thank you 👌☮

[@Herfinnur]

I've been learning FM synthesis on the Yamaha Reface DX, and it's so intuitive on that device that now I can't understand why people say it's difficult. I've tried the same didn't-read-the-manual approach to "traditional" synthesizers, and I couldn't get a single sound going. I had to go read up on VCO and all before I could get anything to happen

[@torbenanschau6641]

This was really amazing. Can't recall having seen an interview with John Chowning. I will share it in some FB-Groups so more will take notice of your channel and good work.

[@johanboberg]

Great to see an interview with John Chowning. He had some great advice too. What a legend.

[@JuanDale]

Well done!! Very interesting.

[@macronencer]

Well done! This was a great interview. Really cool that you got to speak with John and it was good to hear his words of recollection and wisdom. Oddly enough I've recently been thinking about the physics of spatialisation myself, so it was a nice surprise to see that come up as one of the things that led to his discoveries.

[@Cap10NRGMusic]

You did an awesome job! That was wicked interesting, "meeting John" for the first time here - you are doing some cool stuff with your channel!

[@EchoKraft]

This was amazing. Congratulations. This was absolutely amazing. Great video.

[@braveheartsbeardstudios]

I am trying to understand how to predictably create sounds with FM synthesis, so it was interesting to hear John talk about curiosity and surprise. Perhaps more than other sound design methods, FM synthesis is meant to be surprising!

[@BatteryCoverMissing]

If you just limit it to two operators it is much easier to predict how the the harmonics will increase, but for more complex sounds the surprise is certainly an aspect.

[@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace]

That was wonderful. Thank you.

[@FridenandFriends]

Really cool! Nicely done!

[@andrerussouw2124]

Thank you so much for this. I am so sorry I sold my DX7 I think I was the first to own one in SA. Regards Andre from SA

[@Bthelick]

What a legend. I gave John a shout out in my Synth Guide Video a few months back. Very jealous you got this interview, but ultimately happy to hear from the great man! Well done 👊❤

[@oraz.]

Amazing. This was recommended to me. I have always loved FM. I'm an FM fanatic since I had the YX81z. Whenever I mess with sound programming it's FM. The math is fascinating.

[@dillipphunbar7924]

Lovely and interesting interview.

[@THR-zf6ti]

PS: Thanks so much!

[@nicolapicarella9151]

About only 20 minutes... but, what a great moment in life 😍 !!

[@gumse666]

Fantastic interview. I spent my student loan to buy a DX7 back in the day and I still have it.

[@Vim-Wolf]

Brilliant interview. What an amazing guy, he just radiates intelligence both academically and with respect to the “real world”.

[@glendarceyaudio]

Great interview. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[@cellardoreproductions]

Liked, subbed, shared!

[@djkanyon]

Wow this is surprisingly interesting. Thank you and Dr. John Chowning so much.

[@horizontalblanking]

Way back in 1986-ish. I got a chance to go to CCRMA (I lived in Palo Alto) and got to meet Dr. Chowning. Unfortunately, I was a dumb, opinionated little sh*t and complained to him about the DX, and “why couldn’t they have knobs on it?” I still regret it to this day… what a prick I was. My most sincere apologies Dr. Chowning!

[@joshualengfelder10]

my new favorite show. please keep making them periodically!

[@CatFish107]

That's some amazing perspective. Learn about the wires, and jacks? Nah, I'll learn to code and build novel computer software to do it instead. WOW.

[@vaaalsongs4867]

High quality content!

[@johnthecloud]

What a wonderful video. My first synthesizer was the home keyboard Yamaha PSS480. It was a 2 operator FM synthesizer. So I learnt synthesis by FM rather than the traditional subtractive synthesis. As a result, I 've always found FM synthesis very familiar rather than intimidating.

[@nixonkutz3018]

Fantastic that you conducted this interview with Dr. Chowning, and I have to congratulate you on the quality of your background research and b-roll footage. Fascinating that he describes it as a "discovery," when the mathematics behind the phenomenon was widely known in radio and acoustics. For more homework, look up Bessel functions to see how they all tie together

[@MiltonGrimshaw]

Well done, not sure if I have seen your channel before, but you now have another follower

[@chinossynthesizer705]

They used fm synthesis for sega genesis soundtracks very great sounds. I know many keyboards and drum machines from the 80s and 90s when you mix them it gets spicy.

[@Hellseeker1]

FM has been in modular since the dawn of time, I guess it was impressive for a digital keyboard synth but analog already had it.

[@enginerdy]

It’s not the same though, because analog doesn’t have the stability to produce the kinds of sounds you can get with digital FM

[@Crabby303]

Still have my DX7IID, love that synth, it has such a unique & versatile sound - I've bought & sold many other synths over the years but the DX7 is a keeper. Thanks for the great & informative video, it's important to capture these stories now.

[@bwicklander]

Could you please fix your captioning, it was uploaded incorrectly. and Kudos for including the transcript. Thank you! That was a great interview!

[@dalelaushman8749]

Thank you, both! ❤

[@ERYKJACKNIFE]

this is dope right here.

[@popolony2k]

Excellent content. Greetings from Brazil

[@BuzzaB77]

Legend!

[@NullStaticVoid]

Dr Chowning is wrong about one thing. The FM synths of Yamaha were not democratization of electronic music. Most musicians did not explore the synthesis capabilities of the DX7 and it's siblings at all. They were more than happy to just use them as very futuristic preset organs. Polyphonic keyboards with hundreds of possible sounds. Keyboardists were more likely to keep scrolling until they found a preset that they liked than try and program them. The sound editing interface was as bad as many early samplers. Sampling is also incredibly powerful, but most keyboardists were content to just use the barking dogs and glass harmonica patches than sample their own. As evinced by the rompler popularity of the late 80s early 90s. That said, I'm a huge fan of FM synthesis. Owned a few 4 OP synths that I programmed with some windows application that is abandonware now. Moved to the Digitone. Which is the best FM synth you can buy. It's intuitive, easy to program and sounds great. But lately I like using analog synth emulators to do FM synths. They have inherent pitch stability that real analogs do not. So they can do linear and exp FM very musically, and very precisely (for the most part). But they have baked in warmth and character since they are emulating 'phat' analog synths. So you get interesting results.

[@almckechnie]

Great interview, but the explanation of the Doppler effect is a bit strange… I might be mistaken but… imho…The pitch is higher when it’s approaching because the wave is being compressed. It’s lower when it’s getting further away because the wave is having to travel further to reach you, so is stretched. It’s not about amplitude or knowing how close something is… is it? I’m sure someone will correct me :)

[@argumentchannel]

Synclavier II?

[@lewis1902]

Now we know Hatsune Miku's true identity.