of Microprocessors

as a homework assignment.
So much of what passes for innovation nowadays is just obvious applications of available
technology. Ten or 20 years ago, before the enabling technology was common and cost-effective,
those same ideas might have been innovative and worthy of a patent but not now. Remember, a
patent grants one the right to prevent anyone else from arriving at the same solution and using it in
their own work without permission or payment for 20 years. I think that a piece of work needs to
be held to very high standards to enjoy such a degree of protection. Hopefully standards can be
tightened in the future, but it would have to be a gradual process to be acceptable to those
accustomed to routine granting of patents for routine work.
Probably more important than the book you mention (which I began writing in 1977 and was
published in early 1980) was my Master's thesis at North Carolina State University. It was titled
"Design and Simulation of a Digital Sound Synthesizer" and was placed in the NCSU library in
the Spring of 1973.
It basically described how a modular analog emulation synthesizer of 16 oscillators/filters/
amplifiers, effects, and routing array using memory IC's could be put together with existing
technology in quite a bit of detail. I had planned to build the device but my thesis advisor
suggested simulating it instead on the campus Ambilog-200 computer. Later, as the deadline
approached and I was pulling all-nighters just getting the simulation working, I was thankful for
the advice. I even got some actual music out of the thing; a reasonably listenable Bach "Toccata
and Fugue in D-Minor" which now exists only as an analog recording and a roll of punched paper
tape source code.
Anyway, that thesis, in conjunction with a lot of other materials, was instrumental in settling a
recent patent suit against Kurzweil (which I cannot discuss) that might have spread to the entire
sampler and wavetable sound card industry had it been lost.
SONIK : Does the patent examiner's decision reflect a knowledge of prior art, and a good
judgement of what is non-obvious to a skilled expert in the field, in your view?
HAL : In my experience, the examiners are pretty good in going through existing patents and
finding most if not all of the prior _patented_ inventions or solutions (called "art" in patentese).
They are generally poor at finding, or even searching for prior art in books, magazine articles,
theses, conference proceedings, and so forth. This may be improving with the Internet making it
easier to search such materials but there is still great reluctance to disallow a patent claim unless it
is exactly the same as something done or published previously.
SONIK : What advice would you pass onto Engineers looking to start a career in the music
manufacturing industry?
HAL : I guess you mean electronic musical instrument industry. One should probably start by
obtaining a thorough background in musical acoustics - pitch, amplitude, timbre, waves, etc. then
supplement that with some study of high fidelity sound - frequency response, distortion, hum &
noise, something about loudspeakers, etc., and finally cap that with at least a course or two in
music theory.
Some ear training and minimal skill in playing an instrument or two will be very helpful if your
work will involve judgement of sound quality or instrument performance. I think these are
fundamental for any "musical engineer".
Beyond that, if one is interested in synthesis engines, solid coursework in mathematics, linear
systems theory, and of course computer architecture and some programming is a must. If the focus