Patents by Inventor William V. Machanian
William V. Machanian 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).
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Patent number: 4417496Abstract: A touch responsive envelope control system is provided for use in an electronic musical instrument having a multiplexed keyboard, a plurality of assignable tone generators, each being assignable to producing a single note of one or more notes corresponding to one or more actuated keys of the keyboard and a keyer associated with each tone generating means for keying the generated tone with controlled attack time and decay rate and a controllable peak amplitude. The touch responsive system comprises a peak amplitude control system responsive to the actuation of each key for keying the associated tone with a peak amplitude corresponding to the intensity of actuation thereof. The peak amplitude control system includes an encoding circuit responsive to the actuation of each actuated key for producing an encoded intensity signal corresponding to the intensity of actuation thereof and a decoding circuit responsive to each encoded intensity signal for producing a corresponding peak amplitude control signal.Type: GrantFiled: June 15, 1981Date of Patent: November 29, 1983Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventor: William V. Machanian
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Patent number: 4319509Abstract: A sequence generator system is disclosed for use in an electronic musical instrument wherein scanning circuits scan the instrument and produce a serial data stream corresponding to notes played on the instrument. The sequence generator system comprises sequence generating circuits responsive to the serial data stream for generating a further, predetermined data sequence and data steering circuits for receiving the serial data stream and for normally steering said serial data stream to a data output. Actuation of the system causes the data steering circuits to substitute the predetermined data sequence produced by the sequence generating circuits for the serial data stream at the data output.Type: GrantFiled: June 3, 1980Date of Patent: March 16, 1982Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventor: William V. Machanian
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Patent number: 4282575Abstract: A control system for a vending machine which accepts coins or bills of different denominations assigns a given amount of credit to each such monetary unit (i.e., a coin or a bill) accepted. The novel structure of the invention allows operation with monetary units in different monetary systems and alterations of the amount of credit assigned to each monetary unit accepted to be effected easily and simply. The control system responds in the same fashion to either a request for refund or change or a selection of an article to be vended: by comparing the accumulated credit from monetary units accepted with the price of each selected article and the request for a refund or change and allowing or inhibiting the dispensing of an article and/or dispensing of a refund or change accordingly. The pricing of articles may also be readily altered to accommodate different articles or changed prices.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 1979Date of Patent: August 4, 1981Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventors: William R. Hoskinson, William V. Machanian
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Patent number: 4271741Abstract: An accompaniment system for an electronic musical instrument is selectively actuatable for producing accompaniment effects such as arpeggio in accordance with selectable notes or chords and with selectable rhythm patterns. The electronic musical instrument includes one or more conventional keyboards, a set of chord switches for selecting one of a plurality of predetermined chords and a set of rhythm switches for selecting one of a plurality of predetermined rhythm patterns, respectively. The accompaniment system includes a ROM containing note position signals arranged in a plurality of groups, each group corresponding to one of the selectable rhythm patterns. An electronic circuit selects one of the groups in response to activation of one of the rhythm pattern selector switches and sequentially combines each note position signal in the group with a chord displacement signal developed in response to actuation of one of the keyboard notes or chord selection switches.Type: GrantFiled: March 15, 1978Date of Patent: June 9, 1981Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventors: William R. Hoskinson, Peter E. Solender, William V. Machanian
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Patent number: 4254682Abstract: The notes of an accompaniment manual of an electronic keyboard musical instrument such as an electronic organ are multiplexed. The key switches are sequentially scanned and the serial information produced is fed into a shift register. Digital circuitry reads the position of data in the shift register to determine whether a recognized chord has been played. After recognition of a recognized chord a counter operating in conjunction with the shift register clock input operates in connection with comparators and frequency generators to produce the necessary notes for the chord played.An automatic mode of operation also is provided in which only the key corresponding to the root partial of a chord need be played. By utilizing the mathematic relationships in a chord, the simple note played by depression of one key is extrapolated into a chord.Type: GrantFiled: June 20, 1978Date of Patent: March 10, 1981Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventors: William V. Machanian, William R. Hoskinson
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Patent number: 4216693Abstract: In accordance with the present invention, twelve different partials for a bass rhythm pattern are stored in only four columns of a ROM (Read Only Memory). The first three columns comprise a straight binary encoding of six different partials including the bass root, as well as no bass, while the fourth column is used for determining which of two octaves is to be played.Type: GrantFiled: June 20, 1978Date of Patent: August 12, 1980Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventors: William V. Machanian, Anthony C. Ippolito, William R. Hoskinson
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Patent number: 4055103Abstract: The embodiment of the invention disclosed herein is directed to an electronic musical instrument of the keyboard type wherein the audio frequency signal information is derived from a multi-frequency generator formed by an electronic oscillator and a plurality of divider circuits, and wherein programmable divider circuits are associated with the various keys of the keyboard to generate associated tone signal information. The programmable divider circuits are formed on a large scale integrated circuit chip and enable alteration of the numerical divisor so that different tone signals can be obtained from the same electronic circuitry thereby enabling the same type of LSI chip to be used for many different circuit configurations. The LSI chip also provides a scanning circuit that scans an X-Y matrix switching arrangement to determine which one of a plurality of key switches is closed.Type: GrantFiled: July 26, 1976Date of Patent: October 25, 1977Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventor: William V. Machanian
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Patent number: 4024786Abstract: The embodiment of the invention disclosed herein is directed to an electronic keyboard musical instrument wherein all the audio frequency signal information is derived from an oscillator multi-frequency generator and frequency divider circuits formed by large scale integrated circuits. The divider circuits associated with various keys of the keyboard generate tone signal information for each of the particular notes of the various octaves. The integrated circuit unit has a plurality of frequency input terminals arranged for connection to the multi-frequency generator and a plurality of second input terminals arranged for connection to its associated key switch on the keyboard of the musical instrument. Actuation of the key switch on the keyboard will enable gate circuits to transfer output signal information from the associated divider into the audio-amplifier stages of the electronic musical instrument.Type: GrantFiled: July 25, 1975Date of Patent: May 24, 1977Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventor: William V. Machanian
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Patent number: 4016495Abstract: The embodiment of the invention disclosed herein is directed to an electronic musical instrument of the keyboard type wherein the audio frequency signal information is derived from a multi-frequency generator formed by an electronic oscillator and a plurality of divider circuits, and wherein programmable divider circuits are associated with the various keys of the keyboard to generate associated tone signal information. The programmable divider circuits are formed on a large scale integrated circuit chip and enable alteration of the numerical divisor so that different tone signals can be obtained from the same electronic circuitry thereby enabling the same type of LSI chip to be used for many different circuit configurations. The LSI chip also provides a scanning circuit that scans an X--Y matrix switching arrangement to determine which one of a plurality of key switches is closed.Type: GrantFiled: July 10, 1975Date of Patent: April 5, 1977Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventor: William V. Machanian
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Patent number: 3935783Abstract: The embodiment of the invention disclosed herein is directed to an electronic musical instrument of the keyboard type used to electronically reproduce piano sounds. The circuit has means to vary the amplitude of the piano voice in response to the velocity of the downward movement of the key. Means are provided for producing a fundamental square wave frequency and the second and fourth harmonics thereof, in response to the actuation of a given key on the keyboard. One circuit arrangement includes means for combining the fundamental frequency and the second and fourth harmonics in a predetermined time relation to produce the zero, attack, peak, and decay characteristics of a piano voice as actually produced by a piano string.Type: GrantFiled: July 8, 1974Date of Patent: February 3, 1976Assignee: The Wurlitzer CompanyInventors: William V. Machanian, Robert R. Williams