Patents by Inventor Byron Melcher

Byron Melcher has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 4311076
    Abstract: An electronic organ includes a plurality of buffers for receiving solo keyswitch status information, accompaniment keyswitch status without octave information, and depressed keyswitch status from an arpeggio keyboard. A scan circuit and a microprocessor gate the buffers into an input memory which retains an image of the solo, accompaniment, and arpeggio keyboards. A control program, stored in ROM, is responsive to the input memory, shared registers, and harmony switches actuable in several modes, to produce one or plural harmony notes in either open or closed harmony, and to assign different note names to the actuated keyswitches on the arpeggio keyboard. The resulting harmony and arpeggio notes are stored in an output memory and are transferred to a transistor matrix which activates solo keyers to produce harmony and arpeggio notes with solo voicing. A rhythmic harmony modulator is actuable to modulate the harmony notes in a rhythmic pattern of individual and delayed beats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 1980
    Date of Patent: January 19, 1982
    Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas E. Rucktenwald, William E. Braun, Jr., Louis S. Lazare, Sharming Lin, Byron Melcher
  • Patent number: 3948139
    Abstract: An electronic musical synthesizer generates tone signals coupled to a controllable bandpass filter and a controllable low-pass filter. A plurality of voice switches are individually selectable to couple preset control voltages to the filters, and to enable potentiometers which can be adjusted to generate control voltages to vary the frequency characteristics of the filters, control the octave of the tone signals, and to control a modulation oscillator. When a variable/preset switch is set to a preset state, the potentiometers are disconnected and auxiliary sections of the selected voice switch presets voltages for the oscillator, the octave circuit and the filters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 1974
    Date of Patent: April 6, 1976
    Assignee: Warwick Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Byron Melcher, Alden J. Carlson