Editing Karplus–Strong string synthesis (section)

== Musical applications ==
The first musical use of the algorithm was in the work ''May All Your Children Be Acrobats'' written in 1981 by [[David A. Jaffe]], and scored for eight guitars, mezzo-soprano and computer-generated stereo tape, with a text based on [[Carl Sandburg]]'s ''The People, Yes''. Jaffe continued to explore the musical and technical possibilities of the algorithm in ''Silicon Valley Breakdown'', for computer-generated plucked strings (1982), as well as in later works such as ''Telegram to the President, 1984'' for string quartet and tape, and ''Grass'' for female chorus and tape (1987).

The patent was licensed first to Mattel Electronics, which failed as a company before any product using the algorithm was developed, then to a startup company founded by some of the laid-off Mattel executives.  They never got sufficient funding to finish development, and so never brought a product to market either.  Eventually Yamaha licensed the patent, as part of the Sondius package of patents from Stanford.  It is unknown whether any hardware using the algorithm was ever sold, though many software implementations (which did not pay any license fees to the inventors) have been released.

While they may not adhere strictly to the algorithm, many hardware components for modular systems have been commercially produced that invoke the basic principles of Karplus-Strong Synthesis: using an inverted, scaled control system for very small time values in a filtered delay line to create playable notes in the Western Tempered tuning system, controlled with volt per octave tracking or MIDI data. The Inventors were not specifically credited, though the term "Karplus-Strong Synthesis" is referenced in some of the manuals. 

Hardware components capable of Karplus-Strong style synthesis include the Moog Clusterflux 108M, Mutable Instruments Elements and Rings, 4ms Company Dual Looping Delay, 2HP Pluck, Make Noise Mimeophon, [[Arturia MicroFreak]], Non Linear Circuits Is Carp Lust Wrong?, and the Strymon Starlab.