> This kind of musical chips sits at the slim frontier between the analog era and the CPU/DSP-based digital era...

Part of what made FM synthesis such a brilliant discovery was that it was actually possible to implement on contemporary computers. The kind of FM synthesis produced by Yamaha's early chips had such an impact on how modern music evolved. I can't help wonder if it would have been considered at all if contemporary DSP technology had allowed any kind of serious analog modeling. It's absolutely amazing that within the space of just over a decade we went from synths being built entirely out of discrete analog components, to FM synthesis on LSI chips, to DSP based synths.