Abstract: A pressure point detector has a simple structure and is capable of detecting which location of a two-dimensional surface such as a circle a pressure is applied can be detected. The pressure point detector includes a flexible insulation member in a predetermined shape, a resistance film formed on one side of the flexible insulation member, a conductive member made of conductive material and established to face the insulation member with a with a predetermined gap therebetween, and a pair of electrodes established on the resistance film in a parallel fashion to produce voltage distribution. The pressure point detector produces an output voltage from the conductive member indicative of a location of the pressure applied to the insulation member.

Abstract: A method dynamically allocating voices to processor resources in a music synthesizer or other audio processor includes utilizing processor resources to execute vector-based voice generation algorithm for sounding voices, such as executed using SIMD architecture processors or other vector processor architectures. The dynamic voice allocation process identifies a new voice to be executed in response to an event. The combined processor resources needed to be allocated for the new voice and for the currently sounding voices are determined. If the processor resources are available to meet the combined need, then processor resources are allocated to a voice generation algorithm for the new voice, and if the processor resources are not available, then voices are stolen. To steal voices, processor resources are de-allocated from at least one sounding voice or sounding voice cluster.

Abstract: A method for generating a bandlimited digital signal, includes generating a sequence of digital samples of a waveform, such as a sawtooth, square, or pulse waveform. The waveform has a discontinuity with a phase within a particular sampling interval. The digital samples in the sequence of digital samples of the waveform around the discontinuity are summed with a set of digital samples of an alias reducing pulse, which is based on the phase and magnitude of the discontinuity. The alias reducing pulse has essentially no DC bias, such as a pulse that is substantially odd symmetric relative to the phase of the discontinuity. The process is used in synthesis of analog synthesizer waveforms, hard sync and other waveform synthesis procedures.

Abstract: A vacuum tube amplifier is formed of a vacuum tube having a cathode, a plate, a grid, and a heater to radiate electrons from the cathode. An input signal is supplied to the plate, an output signal is obtained at the grid, and a predetermined low voltage is supplied to the heater. The voltage supplied to the heater can be low, thereby significantly decreasing an overall consumption of electric power for the vacuum tube amplifier.

Abstract: A music tuner having both a contact sensing device and a non-contact sensing device to pick up the sound from a music instrument is so designed that it can automatically or manually select one of the sensing devices that is most suitable to the situation where the music tuner is used. The display screen of the music tuner is freely rotatable and pivotable, thereby allowing optimum view angle wherever the music tuner is placed. The display screen is configured to graphically represent the tune of the music instrument so that the user can easily and intuitively grasp the pitch of the sound as compared with a standard pitch. The music tuner is able to display the result by a normal display mode, a mirror display mode, or a combination of both modes.

Abstract: Provides a one-terminal effector having an input terminal and an output terminal structured as one terminal by providing a circuit that makes input and output of the effector common. The one-terminal effector can avoid complex cable wiring, and can prevent degradation of sound quality. The one-terminal effector includes one input/output terminal, and an effector circuit that executes a predetermined processing on an analog audio signal that is input from the input/output terminal, and outputs the processed analog audio signal from the input/output terminal. The one-terminal effector further includes an input/output signal conversion circuit that converts the input signal and the output signal into mutually different signal forms of voltage signals or current signals.

Abstract: An electric instrument amplifier emulates an audio characteristics of a traditional vacuum-tube type amplifier. The electric instrument amplifier is formed in a single housing for amplifying an audio signal from an electric instrument. The electric instrument amplifier includes an A/D (analog-to-digital) converter for converting a first analog signal from the electric instrument to a digital signal, a digital signal processing circuit for processing the digital signal to add an intended effect to the digital signal, a D/A (digital-to-analog) converter for converting the digital signal processed by the digital signal processing circuit to a second analog signal, a tube amplifier having at least one vacuum-tube for amplifying the second analog signal, and a virtual power circuit formed with semiconductor devices for amplifying or attenuating an audio signal produced by the tube amplifier.

Abstract: The output signal converter for a tube amplifier includes semiconductor devices for amplifying or attenuating an output signal of the tube amplifier while maintaining the output properties of the tube amplifier. The output signal converter according to one embodiment has an output transformer (TR) having an input terminal (TRa); a first circuit branch (C1) connected between the input terminal (TRa) and an output terminal of the tube amplifier and a second circuit branch (C2) connected to the input terminal (TRa) of the output transformer (TR) and in parallel to the first circuit branch and including components that produce an electric current proportional to a current level in the first circuit branch. The first and second circuit branches are located between the tube amplifier and the output transformer (TR) and include semiconductor devices so that the output signal from the tube amplifier is amplified while maintaining the output properties of the tube amplifier.

Abstract: The output signal converter for a tube amplifier includes semiconductor devices for amplifying or attenuating an output signal of the tube amplifier while maintaining output properties of the tube amplifier. The output signal converter in preferred embodiments has an output transformer (1) connected to the tube amplifier, a current amplifier and a voltage amplifier serially connected with each other via a node, and a speaker (4). The current amplification factor (Ac) of the current amplifier (2) and the voltage amplification factor (Av) of the voltage amplifier (3) are related according to the following equation: Ac*Av=−k, wherein k is a constant.

Abstract: A sequence of instructions for a processor executing a plurality of real time programs is supplied from a memory having a set of memory locations. A controller is coupled to the memory for replacing a program with a replacement program. The controller disables writes in response to instructions in the sequence from a particular group of memory locations with idle or no-operation instructions in response to a command. A memory interface is coupled to the memory and to the controller through which new instructions for the replacement program are written to the particular group of locations. The technique is applied especially for audio signal processors with a need for dynamic replacement of active voice programs.

Abstract: A musical sound generating system not requiring a memory unit or interpolation device for generating a tone having a tone color including a large number of harmonic components. The tone is generated with few operations and ready predictability of tone color. The musical sound generating system includes an adder for phase modulating a carrier wave by adding modulating wave data to carrier wave phase angle data; a pseudo-sinusoidal wave operator for outputting a pseudo-sinusoidal wave in response to phase-modulated carrier wave phase angle data from the adder; and a multiplier for generating a tone signal by multiplying the pseudo-sinusoidal wave by amplitude coefficient data. The pseudo-sinusoidal wave operator controls modulation of the pseudo-sinusoidal wave in accordance with a function modulation coefficient that is supplied to the operator as an external parameter.

Abstract: A processing system includes delay line management logic that automatically clears the delay lines without actually filling the delay line memory with zeroes. The processing system comprises a signal processor that executes programs using delay lines. A memory, coupled to the signal processor, includes a set of memory locations to store the delay lines. Delay line management logic is responsive to a command to automatically clear for the programs being executed by the signal processor a subset of the set of memory locations allocated to a particular delay line without writing to the subset of memory locations. The delay line management logic includes a register file to store parameters for the delay lines. The parameters for particular delay lines include an offset within the set of memory locations pointing to the subset of memory locations allocated to the particular delay line, and a count indicating the number of valid memory locations in the subset.

Abstract: A touchscreen interface for a sound processing system, such as music synthesizers, which has a display panel and a touch sensitive panel overlying the display panel, includes an icon which represents an adjustable parameter used by the processing system. The processing resources supply a variable adjustment display to the display panel in response to a touch on the position of the icon, using pop-up slider or pop-up knob motif. The variable adjustment display overlies the interface display and has a size on the touch sensitive panel larger than the size of the icon to facilitate manipulation of the variable using a finger over a significant range of values. The variable adjustment display pops up when touched to obscure a portion of the graphical display used for the interface. When the variable is adjusted using the touch sequence, the variable adjustment display is removed, and the interface display is left unobscured.

Abstract: An architecture for a synthesizer of music or other sounds which comprises an input device which supplies real time input signals indicating selected voices, a voice program memory which stores voice programs for respective voices, and a sound processing module including an array of digital signal processors, which is coupled to the input device and the voice program memory, and responsive to real time input signals to execute a group of voice programs in the voice program memory to generate selective voices in real time. Resources coupled to the input device and the voice program memory dynamically assign voice programs for selected voices to the group of voice programs in response to the real time input signals. Further, resources are available for replacing a particular voice program in the group with a voice program for a selected voice in response to the real time input signals.

Abstract: An apparatus for generating sound includes a user input and a graphical programming engine which the user manipulates to generate and connect graphic symbols into a graphical model representative of a sound generating program on a display. A translation mechanism coupled with the graphical programming engine translates the graphical model into a sound generating program, and a digital signal processor executes the sound generating program in response to user input to generate output data in real time representative of sound. This output data may then be coupled to a converter, amplifier and speaker to produce sounds in real time in response to modifications of the graphical model or in response to real time input data from a MIDI standard instrument.