[sdiy] FM Synth Designs

[Tim Parkhurst]

Hey Duane,

Now that you mention it, I do remember that. I could have sworn that Korg
and Yamaha had a licensing agreement worked out where Korg would get FM, and
Yamaha would get some PCM sampling tricks that had made Korg workstations so
popular at the time. I could be seriously wrong on this, but vaguely seem to
recall reading it in Keyboard. At any rate, I can easily believe Korg would
get their butts sued off if they tried to market the 707 and the DS-8
without talking to Yamaha first.

Tim Servo

*********************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Duane R Balvage [mailto:dbalvage at ptdcs2.ra.intel.com] 
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 2:57 PM
To: Tim Parkhurst; Synth-DIY List
Subject: Re: [sdiy] FM Synth Designs

Hiya Tim -

> Yamaha owns the patent on FM synthesis (bought it from Stanford University
> where it was originally developed by John Chowning), and they defend the
> patent with a VERY heavy hand. At one point, they even tried to sue an
> analog synth manufacturer (Moog, I believe) because the owner's manual for
a
> VCO module stated that the linear CV input on the VCO allowed FM
synthesis.
> 
> If anyone tried to make a commercial FM synth, I'm sure Yamaha would be
> happy to send a team of lawyers in their direction.

Um.. This already happened! Remember the ill fated Korg 707 and DS-8? Both
FM, both
kinda sucked, and both got Korg into MUCHAS hot water with Yamaha... that's
why they are
kind of a "rare" synth,each being produced for only about a year before they
got their
hand slapped with a "cease and desist" order from Yamaha...!

			-Duane





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