A history of the first computer sound spatialization system: John Chowning’s investigations at Stanford University (1962-1972)

Atmos? Spatial Audio? Immersive sound? Where did it all begin?
Digital sound spatialisation systems for music, cinema, videogames, VR or portable systems, would not exist without John Chowning’s algorithm.
François-Xavier Féron and I are delighted to have reconstructed the “History of the first computer sound spatialisation system: John Chowning’s investigations at Stanford University (1962-1972)” published in the important book edited by Roberto Illiano: SOUND, MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE.
This is our third article (a trilogy!) dedicated to John Chowning, one of the many outcomes of the RAMHO research project (Musical Research and Acoustics in France – An Oral History).

Our three articles:
1) Laura Zattra, François-Xavier Féron, “A history of the first computer sound spatialization system: John Chowning’s investigations at Stanford University (1962-1972)”, in “Sound, Music and Architecture”, Roberto Illiano ed., series “Music, Science and Technology”, Brepols (https://www.brepols.net/series/MSCTE), pp. 357-380, 2024.
2) François-Xavier Féron, Laura Zattra. L’empreinte de John Chowning dans la construction de l’Ircam : de sa rencontre avec Pierre Boulez en 1973 à la création de Stria en 1977. Les journées d’Informatique Musicale, pp.123-132, 2023. https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04140906v2
3) François-Xavier Féron, Laura Zattra. John Chowning à l’Ircam: de la création de Stria en 1977 à ses recherches dans le studio MIDI en 1985. Les journées d’Informatique Musicale, pp.165-179, 2024. https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04622447v1
4) And about the RAMHO project: https://www.ircam.fr/article/boulez-et-la-fondation-de-lircam-temoignages-de-quelques-compagnons-de-route-1

The second picture shows the main computer room of the AI Lab, beginning 1972. From the left is David Jaffe, John Gordon (a PhD student who worked with Andy Moorer on the four-channel DAC), John Chowning, and Bill Schottstaedt (Courtesy John Chowning personal archive) — From our article: The picture shows some members of the SCMP team in the early months of 1972 in the main computer room of the AI Lab, placed in the D.C. Power Laboratory. It helps appreciate the infrastructure needed to do their research at this time. One can see the computer terminal with all the tape drives and those tapes storage. Normally, the system programmer would be sitting there. As Chowning recalled, the picture was taken “off hours, maybe weekend or evening. The audio was in a room to the side […] where they had the audio equipment and a terminal”