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

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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

Пікірлер: 70

  • @martinheath5947
    @martinheath594711 ай бұрын

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

  • @littlefishy6316
    @littlefishy631611 ай бұрын

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

  • @Seibaunite
    @Seibaunite Жыл бұрын

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

  • @crnkmnky

    @crnkmnky

    11 ай бұрын

    I know, right?! Excellent!

  • @user-we2bk6qb3n
    @user-we2bk6qb3n11 ай бұрын

    She's great for this stuff.

  • @littlefishy6316
    @littlefishy631611 ай бұрын

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

  • @marcuspatzer2392
    @marcuspatzer239211 ай бұрын

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

  • @eobet
    @eobet11 ай бұрын

    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! 👍

  • @EdgyNumber1
    @EdgyNumber111 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @Wulfcry
    @Wulfcry11 ай бұрын

    Golden.

  • @gregoryzaharias1831
    @gregoryzaharias183111 ай бұрын

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

  • @CatFish107
    @CatFish10711 ай бұрын

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

  • @Vincefromsin
    @Vincefromsin11 ай бұрын

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

  • @williamsandoval6120
    @williamsandoval6120 Жыл бұрын

    Good Morning!

  • @littlefishy6316

    @littlefishy6316

    11 ай бұрын

    Good morning from Scotland

  • @GurungyNoHamuster
    @GurungyNoHamuster11 ай бұрын

    There is another great DX7 interview, with Dave Bristow (who programmed the early sound banks), on KZread. 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.

  • @MrDejanPesic
    @MrDejanPesic11 ай бұрын

    Thank you for this interview.

  • @azazabacheche3973
    @azazabacheche397311 ай бұрын

    Wonderful and super interesting interview, thank you!

  • @Isuckatoverwatch
    @Isuckatoverwatch Жыл бұрын

    That's really interesting thanks!!

  • @THR-zf6ti
    @THR-zf6ti11 ай бұрын

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

  • @TheKeyboardChronicles
    @TheKeyboardChronicles11 ай бұрын

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

  • @rivermintofficial
    @rivermintofficial11 ай бұрын

    Amazing, thank you

  • @Metamerist625
    @Metamerist62511 ай бұрын

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

  • @torbenanschau6641
    @torbenanschau6641 Жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @bonaventura_AKA_ben
    @bonaventura_AKA_ben11 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @AmbientDawn
    @AmbientDawn11 ай бұрын

    Absolutely fascinating! Thank you for this.

  • @macronencer
    @macronencer11 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @Herfinnur
    @Herfinnur11 ай бұрын

    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

  • @oraz.
    @oraz.11 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @poofygoof
    @poofygoof11 ай бұрын

    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?

  • @SuperRingoffire1
    @SuperRingoffire111 ай бұрын

    Fascinating interview and some valuable info thank you 👌☮

  • @johanboberg
    @johanboberg11 ай бұрын

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

  • @dillipphunbar7924
    @dillipphunbar792411 ай бұрын

    Lovely and interesting interview.

  • @EchoKraft
    @EchoKraft11 ай бұрын

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

  • @Bthelick
    @Bthelick11 ай бұрын

    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 👊❤

  • @JuanDale
    @JuanDale Жыл бұрын

    Well done!! Very interesting.

  • @Cap10NRGMusic
    @Cap10NRGMusic11 ай бұрын

    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!

  • @braveheartsbeardstudios
    @braveheartsbeardstudios11 ай бұрын

    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

    @BatteryCoverMissing

    11 ай бұрын

    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
    @ChrisMills-AmbientSpace11 ай бұрын

    That was wonderful. Thank you.

  • @andrerussouw2124
    @andrerussouw212411 ай бұрын

    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

  • @joshualengfelder10
    @joshualengfelder106 ай бұрын

    my new favorite show. please keep making them periodically!

  • @nicolapicarella9151
    @nicolapicarella91519 ай бұрын

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

  • @FridenandFriends
    @FridenandFriends11 ай бұрын

    Really cool! Nicely done!

  • @Vim-Wolf
    @Vim-Wolf10 ай бұрын

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

  • @THR-zf6ti
    @THR-zf6ti11 ай бұрын

    PS: Thanks so much!

  • @johnthecloud
    @johnthecloud9 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @Crabby303
    @Crabby30311 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @glendarceyaudio
    @glendarceyaudio11 ай бұрын

    Great interview. Thanks for sharing this with us.

  • @gumse666
    @gumse6668 ай бұрын

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

  • @horizontalblanking
    @horizontalblanking11 ай бұрын

    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!

  • @MiltonGrimshaw
    @MiltonGrimshaw11 ай бұрын

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

  • @popolony2k
    @popolony2k11 ай бұрын

    Excellent content. Greetings from Brazil

  • @vaaalsongs4867
    @vaaalsongs486711 ай бұрын

    High quality content!

  • @ERYKJACKNIFE
    @ERYKJACKNIFE11 ай бұрын

    this is dope right here.

  • @nixonkutz3018
    @nixonkutz301811 ай бұрын

    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

  • @CatFish107
    @CatFish10711 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @cellardoreproductions
    @cellardoreproductions11 ай бұрын

    Liked, subbed, shared!

  • @BuzzaB77
    @BuzzaB7711 ай бұрын

    Legend!

  • @chinossynthesizer705
    @chinossynthesizer70527 күн бұрын

    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.

  • @djkanyon
    @djkanyon Жыл бұрын

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

  • @Hellseeker1
    @Hellseeker111 ай бұрын

    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

    @enginerdy

    11 ай бұрын

    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

  • @dalelaushman8749
    @dalelaushman874911 ай бұрын

    Thank you, both! ❤

  • @bwicklander
    @bwicklander11 ай бұрын

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

  • @NullStaticVoid
    @NullStaticVoid11 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @argumentchannel
    @argumentchannel11 ай бұрын

    Synclavier II?

  • @almckechnie
    @almckechnie11 ай бұрын

    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 :)

  • @julianguffogg

    @julianguffogg

    14 сағат бұрын

    Sounds correct!

  • @lewis1902
    @lewis19023 ай бұрын

    Now we know Hatsune Miku's true identity.

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