I implemented the Asymmetrical Frequency Modulation (AFM) synthesis using an Apple Macintosh IIci computer with a Digidesign Sound Accelerator Card (DSP56000) in real-time. Also implemented the Double Frequency Modulation (DFM) synthesis method.
Attempted to synthesize the sounds of piano, pipe organ, flute, insect-cries, ocean waves and so on. Also written was an FFT program to analyse the synthesized waveform on a Silicon Graphics Personal Iris workstation.
During this period, I managed to make use of some knowledge of programming I learned when I was still an undergraduate. These are the Motorola 68000 series assembly language and C language. I also learned the DSP56000 assembly language and did a lot of hardware interfacing.
Before we bought the DSP56000, I had to do my work with the PDP-11 and a DMX-1000 DSP (a very huge DSP as compared to the DSP56000). Did mostly PDP-11 assembly language and interfacing. Just before the DXM1000 was abandoned, I wrote a small compiler in the PDP-11 to compile more high level codes to binaries for the DMX-1000 and prepared it for an Honours student to do his mini-project. I also helped my supervisor in supervising the Honours student.
At the end of my Master's project, I also supervised another Honours student and taught her to use the Macintosh, the DSP56000, the necessary programming techniques and the DFM synthesis.
Two papers were published :
I also taught electronics in the second year teahing laboaratory for three years.
Fractals were very popular when I was doing my Master's degree so I also played with it for a while. Instead of just doing graphics with fractals, I converted the fractal generated data into MIDI data and sent them to a Yamaha SY-77 music synthsizer. It was very interesting and just as with fractal graphics, there were also patterns in the generated music. I really had a lot of fun doing that.