9661162 Prater Electronic sound synthesis has become a very large market, with applications in PC sound cards and electronic musical instruments. Significant opportunities exist at the low end of these markets for synthesis methods (implemented in chip form) with higher sound quality and low cost. High end systems, implemented either in VLSI or as software running on a DSP chip, also present opportunities for synthesis solutions which give the user better dynamic sound quality. This will provide significant improvements in musical dynamics. Commercial applications include sound synthesis chips for PC sound cards and PC motherboard audio systems, and synthesis chips and DSP code for keyboard synthesizers. Extensions of these algorithms may have applications in music post-processing, especially for guitar signal processors. Improved sound synthesis technology based on novel filtering and synthesis methods to address both low end and high end market opportunities is envisioned. For high end applications, an improved synthesis technique using time varying parameters in a wavetable may be possible. For low end applications, postprocessing methods to remove the "electronic character" of FM sound synthesis, at minimal cost is feasible.
