Howard Allen Chamberlin, Jr. is an American audio engineer and writer from North Carolina, most widely known as the author of the book Musical Applications of Microprocessors.

Biography

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In the 1970s while still at school he built an analog electronic music synthesizer and then a 16 bit computer from surplus IBM 1620 core memories to control it.[1][2]

He was awarded an MSc in Communication Engineering from NCSU in 1973. The subject of his thesis was the design of a digital music synthesizer utilising an organ keyboard and a Tektronix 453 oscilloscope for a graphics display.[2]

In November 1974 together with others began The Computer Hobbyist magazine.[3]

In 1977 he first published wavetable synthesis in Byte's September 1977 issue[4] and together with David B. Cox started Micro Technology Unlimited.[5] At Micro Technology Unlimited, in 1981, he designed the 6502-based MTU-130/140 microcomputer[6] and the Digisound-16 an early digital to analog converter.

His seminal book Musical Applications of Microprocessors was first published in 1979.[5][7][8]

In 1986 he left MTU to work for Kurzweil Music Systems where he remained in one engineering role or another until retirement in 2014.[5][8] While there amongst other projects he designed the Kurzweil K150[9]

In 1992 he moved to Boston.[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ The First Ten Years of Amateur Computing by Sol Libes, Byte magazine, July 1978
  2. ^ a b Hal Chamberlin's Computer ACS Newsletter, Volume III, Number 2, September 1972
  3. ^ Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger, Michael Swaine, Pragmatic Bookshelf, 3rd edition, 30 Oct. 2014, ISBN 1937785769
  4. ^ A sampling of techniques for computer performance of music by Hal Chamberlin, Byte, September 1977
  5. ^ a b c MTU Founders in Digital Audio Workstations
  6. ^ Compute!, Issue 19, December 1981, p. 72
  7. ^ Acknowledgements, Music From Outer Space website
  8. ^ a b The Kurzweil Music story: It all started with Ray, Kurzweil Music Systems, 25 January 2012
  9. ^ Product information and history, December 2000
  10. ^ Meet the Members of the Tour, KRWG, 2004


Further reading

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  • Musical Applications of Microprocessors by Hal Chamberlin, Hayden Book Co., 1980, ISBN 0810457539
  • Musical Applications of Microprocessor by Hal Chamberlin, 2nd ed., Sams, 1985, ISBN 0810457687
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