> Somewhere in this lull, a tiny Vermont-based synthesizer company aptly named the New England Digital Corporation beat Yamaha to the punch by producing the world’s first digital synthesizer, the “Synclavier.” Though only 20 units were sold at $41,685 each, and they were all reserved for top-notch musicians, Stanford took no chances, and swiftly sued the company for infringing on its FM synthesis patent. From that point forward, the university received a sum of $43 every time a Synclavier was sold.
Yamaha had been working on FM synthesis for a few years already at that point.
Also, technology for digital synthesis was already there, the big game was to avoid patent infringement from other companies.
For example, Casio invented the "Vowel–consonant synthesis" used in their 80s Casiotone keyboards mostly to prevent conflicts with an existing patent from Allen Organs[0]. And later, they came out with the "Phase Distortion Synthesis" as an *alternative* FM synthesis[1].
[0]: See the bottom of this page: http://weltenschule.de/TableHooters/Casio_CT-410V.html
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