Howard Allen Chamberlin, Jr. is an American
audio engineer and writer from
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...
, most widely known as the author of the book ''Musical Applications of Microprocessors''.
Biography
In the 1970s while still at school he built an
analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analo ...
electronic music synthesizer and then a
16 bit computer from surplus
IBM 1620
The IBM 1620 was announced by IBM on October 21, 1959, and marketed as an inexpensive scientific computer. After a total production of about two thousand machines, it was withdrawn on November 19, 1970. Modified versions of the 1620 were used as ...
core memories
Magnetic-core memory was the predominant form of random-access computer memory for 20 years between about 1955 and 1975.
Such memory is often just called core memory, or, informally, core.
Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magnetic ...
to control it.
Hal Chamberlin's Computer
' ACS Newsletter, Volume III, Number 2, September 1972
He was awarded an
MSc
MSC may refer to:
Computers
* Message Sequence Chart
* Microelectronics Support Centre of UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
* MIDI Show Control
* MSC Malaysia (formerly known as Multimedia Super Corridor)
* USB mass storage device class (USB MSC ...
in
Communication Engineering
Telecommunications Engineering is a subfield of electrical engineering which seeks to design and devise systems of communication at a distance. The work ranges from basic circuit design to strategic mass developments. A telecommunication engin ...
from
NCSU in 1973. The subject of his
thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144 ...
was the design of a
digital music synthesizer utilising an
organ keyboard and a
Tektronix
Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment.
Originally an independent ...
453
oscilloscope for a
graphics display.
In November 1974 together with others began ''The Computer Hobbyist'' magazine.
In 1977 he first published
wavetable synthesis in
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
's September 1977 issue and together with David B. Cox started Micro Technology Unlimited.
[MTU Founders in Digital Audio Workstations](_blank)
/ref> At Micro Technology Unlimited, in 1981, he designed the 6502-based MTU-130/140 microcomputer and the Digisound-16 an early digital to analog converter.
His seminal book ''Musical Applications of Microprocessors'' was first published in 1979.
The Kurzweil Music story: It all started with Ray
', Kurzweil Music Systems, 25 January 2012Kurzweil Music Systems
Kurzweil Music Systems is an American company that produces electronic musical instruments. It was founded in 1982 by Stevie Wonder (musician), Ray Kurzweil (innovator) and Bruce Cichowlas (software developer).
Kurzweil was a developer of re ...
where he remained in one engineering role or another until retirement in 2014.Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
.Meet the Members of the Tour
KRWG, 2004
See also
*
Homebrew Computer Club
*
AIM-65
References
Further reading
* ''Musical Applications of Microprocessors'' by Hal Chamberlin, Hayden Book Co., 1980,
* ''Musical Applications of Microprocessor'' by Hal Chamberlin, 2nd ed., Sams, 1985,
External links
Interviewby Brian Cowell, ''Sonikmatter'', January 2002. (archived)
"Hal Chamberlin"search at Archive.org
''The Computer Hobbyist''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberlin, Hal
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American audio engineers
20th-century American inventors
American engineering writers