Julius O. Smith III: Legendary Professor of DSP (CCRMA, NeXT, Shazam, GeoShred) | WolfTalk #034

Professor Julius Orion Smith III needs no introduction. He’s been at the renowned CCRMA at Stanford University since the beginning, first as a PhD student and then as a professor. He worked with Steve Jobs on the NeXT computer. He developed digital waveguide synthesis used in some of Yamaha’s synthesizers. He worked on the Shazam audio fingerprinting algorithm. He’s written four free DSP textbooks. He’s authored or co-authored hundreds of publications. And on, and on, and on.

Needless to say, interviewing him has been my dream since starting this podcast. Listen to the interview to find out how you can profit from my joy 😉

From this episode, you will learn:

• How Julius Smith became one of the world’s most well-known and respected DSP professors
• The story of CCRMA at Stanford University
• Behind-the-scenes of the music features of the NeXT computer
• The story of Yamaha synthesizer development (FM and physical modeling)
• The story of Shazam and GeoShred music apps
• How to learn DSP well
• How to do excellent DSP research
• How Julius uses AI for research, learning & programming

This episode was recorded on September 23, 2026.

Audio post-production, mixing & mastering by Sathira Tennakoon. Video edited by Vadzim Vezhnavets.