Stanford University is joining with Yamaha to create a joint licensing program for a new sound technology dubbed Sondius-XG. The two believe that the new method, made up of more than 400 patents in the areas of computer tone generation and sound synthesis, is poised to seize the lion's share of the growing sound-technology market.
Instead of relying on recorded samplings of actual sounds, Sondius-XG generates artificial sounds based on mathematical formulas. The technique is based on physical modeling, a computationally intensive process that simulates the acoustic characteristics of each instrument, resulting in recreations that have the same vibrant sound of the actual instrument.
Yamaha officials on Wednesday demonstrated their first product based on the technology, a music-synthesizer software program, which they plan to release later this year.
Interestingly, the Sondius-XG agreement has historical echoes for both parties. "We might not have done this with another company, but with Yamaha we have a solid relationship," said Mary Watanabe, senior associate at Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing. Yamaha and Stanford first joined forces 20 years ago, when the university granted Yamaha a license for Frequency Modulation Synthesis, developed by Stanford professor John Chowning.
That agreement set the stage for the world's first fully digital synthesizer, the DX-7. And says Yamaha, it was the FM synthesis partnership with Stanford that established the company's preeminence in the field of sound synthesis.
