Abstract: A musical device for generating music using a tape loop having a plurality of holes a mechanism, which includes a plurality of guide rollers for defining a tape path, for transporting the tape loop along the tape path. A unit for generating music using the plurality of holes in the tape loop is disposed in the tape path. The musical device also includes a device for hindering movement of the tape loop to fold the tape loop.

Abstract: A keyboard operated electronic musical instrument is disclosed which has a number of tone generators each of which is assigned to an actuated keyswitch. Musical waveshapes are generated by a computation using a set of harmonic coefficients. Apparatus is described for generating the set of harmonic coefficients in response to a preselected set of increment number values wherein this set is less in number than the number of harmonic coefficients in a set. The generation of harmonic coefficients is accomplished by computing linear slope variations of groups of coefficients.

Abstract: A parameter setting system for an electronic musical instrument has a predetermined number of panel switches to which desired parameters can be selectively assigned by the player. The system comprises a RAM having a parameter area in which a group of parameters determining characteristics of a tone are stored, the number of parameters being greater than the number of the panel switches. The RAM also has an identification-number area for storing identification numbers of those parameters which are assigned respectively to the panel switches. When a reassignment switch is depressed with an entry switch, the system is brought into a reassignment mode. In this condition, the player selects a desired one of the parameters using up and down switches for changing the identification number and a display unit for displaying the identification number.

Abstract: A whistle synthesizer comprises a microphone, a housing, system electronics within the housing, and controls outside the housing. The player whistles into the microphone, the signals from which are processed to provide an instrument output signal suitable for communication to an external amplifier. The controls are located within easy reach of the player so that they may be manipulated all the while the player is whistling.

Abstract: A step signal of which the period varies according to random data is derived from a step pulse generator, and is supplied to an address counter. By the output data from the address counter, an address of a waveform ROM is specified. From a waveform ROM, the waveform based on the random data is output in the form of a distorted waveform signal. Using this output signal of the distorted waveform, a cymbal sound, for example, is generated in a musical tone generator.

Abstract: An electronic musical instrument is provided with a temporal variation circuit of SCF parameters for temporally varying the filter characteristic of a switched capacitor filter circuit, a control circuit for digitally controlling the temporal variation circuit and a touch response circuit for detecting, by scanning, touch response data in performance, whereby temporal variations of a musical waveform signal are digitally controlled.

Abstract: In an electronic musical instrument which generates a musical waveform by calculating the waveform amplitude value at each sample point through Fourier synthesis, note-range variations of the musical waveform and its timbre variations in accordance with a touch response are controlled with respect to readout addresses for reading out a set of harmonic coefficient data for the Fourier synthesis from a memory having stored therein a plurality of sets of such harmonic coefficient data, thereby changing the component ratio of a harmonic coefficient which will ultimately be used as a Fourier coefficient.

Abstract: In an electronic musical instrument which generates a musical waveform by calculating the waveform amplitude value at each sample point through Fourier synthesis, temporal variations of the musical waveform and its timbre variations in accordance with a touch response are controlled with respect to readout addresses for reading out a set of harmonic coefficient data for the Fourier synthesis from a memory having stored therein a plurality of sets of such harmonic coefficient data, thereby changing the component ratio of a harmonic coefficient which will ultimately be used as a Fourier coefficient.

Abstract: In a speech analysis and synthesis (composing) method, a phoneme transition waveform is generated to smoothly couple phoneme PHA to PHB having different pitch periods. The method involves obtaining the differential value (difference phoneme .DELTA.PH or difference phoneme .DELTA.PHI and difference clock or pitch period), and in composition merely adding phoneme PHA and difference phoneme .DELTA.PHI and clock period and difference clock period.

Abstract: Electronic equipment having a tone generating function of the invention has a timbre waveform memory for providing timbre to a frequency signal corresponding to each note. The timbre waveform memory is constituted by n bits for each timbre, each bit storing a binary coded signal of level "1" or "0" in accordance with the type of timbre. The timbre waveform stored in the timbre waveform memory corresponds to each numeric code and is specified by a key-in operation of numeric keys.

Abstract: In an electronic musical instrument which produces a musical sound through calculating means of a discrete Fourier algorithm by controlling harmonic coefficients, the value of a harmonic number, more than one temporally changing effect function values and a constant value are added together in a predetermined ratio; the added value is divided into a plurality of blocks; the blocks are subjected to data conversion using plural kinds of functions arbitrarily designated corresponding to the respective blocks and outputted in combination; and the outputs are each multiplied by each harmonic coefficient, thereby controlling the harmonic coefficients with time.

Abstract: An electronic musical instrument using FM tone synthesis technology produces a musical tone signal e(t) expressed ase(t)=A.multidot.sin[.omega.ct+I.multidot.sin .omega.mt],where A I, .omega.ct and .omega.mt represent an amplitude information, a modulation index information, a carrier frequency information and a modulation frequency information, respectively. The carrier frequency information .omega.ct and the modulation frequency information .omega.mt are related to a pitch of a depressed key of the electronic musical instrument. A modulation ratio controller is further provided in the instrument. The modulation ratio controller varies the modulation ratio .omega.c:.omega.m of the carrier frequency information .omega.ct to the modulation frequency information .omega.mt in accordance with the pitch of the depressed key. Such a musical tone having different harmonic constructions according to the tone pitches as that of a pipe organ is implemented by this variation of the modulation ratio.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for interpolating between the harmonic structures of a waveform stored in memory during portions or the entire transient periods of said waveform. In an electronic musical instrument having a greater number of selectively actuable switches than note generators to cause the production of sounds corresponding to the respective notes of a musical scale, the present invention interpolates between the harmonic structures of a waveform stored in memory during portions or the entire transient periods of said waveform. This is accomplished through the use of memory units having a number of locations or zones within each memory where the number of zones is equivalent to the number of discrete harmonic structures.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for producing a musical tone of the so-called partial tone synthesizing type are disclosed, in which the sampling frequencies are established with respect to the respective partial tone components to satisfy the sampling theorem, and the highest frequency among the sampling frequencies is used as a reference frequency. Ratios of sampling frequencies of respective partial tone components to the reference frequency are determined. A partial tone component having a ratio of one is calculated with one channel at a period corresponding to the reference frequency whereas a plurality of partial tone components each having a ratio of less than one are combined into a set wherein the sum of the ratios of the combined partial tone components does not exceed one and the plurality of partial tone components are calculated on the time division basis with one channel at periods corresponding to the respective sampling frequencies.

Abstract: A buzz wave comprising n harmonic components having a flat spectrum envelope is generated according to a relatively simple algebraic expression which can be digitally computed by an arithmetic operation. Modifying harmonic components corresponding to the harmonic components to be emphasized or suppressed are also generated. The buzz wave and the modifying components are added or subtracted to form a desired musical tone signal.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for interpolating between the harmonic structures of a waveform stored in memory during the transient periods of said waveform. In an electronic musical instrument having a greater number of selectively actuable switches than generators to cause the production of sound corresponding to the respective notes of the musical scale the present invention interpolates between the harmonic structures of a waveform stored in memory during the transient period of that waveform. This is accomplished through the use of memory units having a number of locations or zones within each memory where the number of zones is equivalent to the number of discrete harmonic structures. The first of the memory units contains a discrete fixed harmonic structure in each of its zones, and a second of the memory units contains a difference value in each of its zones where the difference value is equal to the difference between the discrete fixed harmonic structure in adjacent zones of the first memory.

Abstract: A tone generation system intended primarily for use in electronic musical instruments wherein a digital representation of a harmonically rich waveform is sampled, and a musical tone is produced therefrom. The stored waveform could be the four term Blackman-Harris window function, which has negligible side lobes and thus greatly attenuated higher harmonics. The stored function is read out at a fixed rate, but the time periods between successive readings of the waveform are varied to thereby vary the frequency of the output signal.

Abstract: The output section of a musical instrument performance amplifier comprises a pair of high impedance power field effect transistors connected to an output transformer to provide a relatively low push-pull drain load that effectively presents a high impedance constant current source to a loudspeaker. The amplifier, having such high impedance constant current source output, amplifies and sustains instrument sound, provides large amounts of power to the speaker over a wide range of speaker impedances, and enables production of high power harmonics.

Abstract: An electronic musical instrument is of a type wherein a tone is synthesized by combining partials and of a type which utilizes a tone production assignment technology including a small number of tone generating circuits for a large number of playing keys. When a key is depressed to designate a tone to be produced in a certain tone color, generations of the partials for constituting that tone are respectively assigned to time slots of time division multiplexing channels. Upon depression of keys, frequencies and envelopes are designated partial by partial and each of such designations is separately assigned to an available one of the time slots.Thus the time slots are efficiently used for production of a large number of tones.

Abstract: A keyboard operated electronic musical instrument having a number of keyboards in which the loudness balance of the accompaniment keyboards are adaptively maintained at a preselected loudness ratio with respect to the solo keyboard. The loudness balance is automatically maintained as the tone switches are altered and as the number of actuated notes varies on the keyboards. The balance ratio is accomplished by adaptively scaling the harmonic coefficients used in a discrete Fourier transform to generate the tones for the accompaniment keyboards.

Abstract: Each harmonic of the ten provided is represented by a pair of binary-valued signals; one having the form A .sym. B .sym. C, where A, B and C are octavely related square waves, and the other being a square wave like C. Each pair of signals is coupled to a resistive divider by coupling elements in an additive relation under control of an individual adjustable voltage source. The coupling elements are weighted so as to minimize distortion in the signal resulting from the mixture. The resistive divider preemphasizes the signals representing each harmonic to compensate for a voltage controlled filter in the audio output used to eliminate high order distortion components. In one embodiment a .div.3 counter followed by a binary counter provides the binary-valued signals for harmonics of order 0.5.times.2.sup.n, where n is an integer, and a binary counter driven in parallel with the .div.3 counter provides the binary-valued signals for harmonics of order 1.5.times.2.sup.n.

Abstract: A programmable electronic musical synthesizer includes a memory controlling a plurality of parameter circuits according to a selected group of stored parameter signals for producing a desired timbre of sound. A memory override system is responsive to manual operation of each of a plurality of control knobs for overriding a corresponding stored parameter signal and coupling an externally derived input signal to the associated parameter circuit. The memory override system thereby conveniently enables one or more selected parameter circuits of the synthesizer to be manually controlled by a performer while the other parameter circuits are simultaneously controlled from memory.

Abstract: An electronic sound system especially effective with bell sounds synthesizes the approximate sound of each bell in a set of 49 switch operated bell sounds. The synthesizing is accomplished by utilizig an envelope generator for each partial of a group of 7 partials for each of the 49 sounds, in association with a single 73 note wave generator. The envelope generators for low partials of each group of 7 are slow attack, slow decay relatively long envelopes. The envelope generators for the high partials of the same group of 7 are fast attack, fast decay relatively short envelopes, and envelopes for certain intermediate partials are fast attack with combined short and long decay envelopes of intermediate length. There is a single wave generator for each of 73 tones, the wave generators having circuits interconnecting them with partials of common frequency of the various groups of 7 partials for the respective keys.

Abstract: More than one sub-intervals or time-windows are provided in a one-cycle period of a musical tone selected at a keyboard of an electronic musical instrument. Each time-window passes a sine wave having a frequency predetermined for the time-window. The envelope of the spectrum of a time-window is determined by the shape and the width of the time-window, and the envelope of the spectrum of a sine wave passed from the time-window will become the convolution of the spectrum of the time-window and the frequency of the sine wave. The total area of the frequency spectrum included as frequency components of a musical tone can be covered by several time-windows, each having a different length and passing a sine wave of a different frequency. An amplitude control means controls the amplitude of each sine wave independently. The controlled amplitude level determines the spectrum intensity of the frequency region influenced by the corresponding sine wave.

Abstract: A tone synthesizer for generating a musical tone where harmonic content can be varied with time to produce unique sound effects. This is accomplished by generating waveform data in time sequence, delaying the waveform data by a time interval that is variable, and subtracting the delayed data from the waveform data to provide a modified sequence of waveform data which is then converted to an audio wave.

Abstract: An electronic keyboard instrument generates signals of frequencies respectively corresponding to keys by depressing the keys of a keyboard from a signal source, and reproduces a musical note corresponding to the generated signal. The frequency spectrum of an external signal is detected and used to control the frequency spectrum of the generated signal to cause the frequency spectrum of the generated signal to approximate that of the external signal.

Abstract: An electronic musical instrument is of a harmonic synthesis type and is provided with an order number memory device which stores a plurality of order numbers of the harmonic components necessary to form respective tone colors, an amplitude coefficient memory device which stores a plurality of sets of amplitude coefficients for the respective harmonic components corresponding to the respective order of numbers stored in the order number memory device, and a tone color selector which controls the order number memory device and the amplitude coefficient memory device, when a certain tone color is selected, for causing the respective memory devices to produce the order numbers and the amplitude coefficients of a set corresponding to the selected tone color.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein a music synthesizer which responds to a music note played by a music instrument. The synthesizer has an envelope generator which generates a control signal in relation to the output signal to control the loudness of the synthesized note. Also, the synthesizer has a pair of voltage controlled oscillators, one of which provides a signal having a frequency related to the frequency of the input note, and the other of which provides a signal having a frequency related to the frequency of the input signal offset by the ratio of the difference between a programmed note and a referenced note, such as A440. The programmed note is that note following the operation of a control switch. The synthesizer further includes a series of footpads which control various functions of the synthesizer, such as programming the programmed note, to allow the user to control the synthesized sound while playing an instrument.

Abstract: An electronic organ tone generating technique produces a harmonic equivalent of a sawtooth wave. In one embodiment square waves generated by a conventional tone generator are applied to a one shot multivibrator, the output of which is a series of narrow rectangular pulses having a flat harmonic spectrum with both even and odd harmonics present. The narrow rectangular pulses are applied to a 3db per octave filter to produce a waveform, the harmonic content of which is equivalent to that of a sawtooth wave. In this embodiment, the pulse width remains constant regardless of the frequency of the pulse train. In a second embodiment, the duty cycle at each octave when moving up the keyboard is doubled to compensate for amplitude falloff which may occur in the filtered signal.

Abstract: This is an electronic organ drawbar circuit in which selection of the footage volumes is accomplished by means of a switch matrix; and sets of footage/volume correlations so chosen are stored in a memory. Another group of switches is used to select among several different memory fields, so that various sets of footage/volume data can be stored while another set of data is in use, and each stored set can be recalled for subsequent re-use.

Abstract: A musical tone varying in tone color with the lapse of time is produced in an electronic musical instrument by retrieving a plurality of different waveshapes from a plurality of memories and then by mixing these retrieved waveshapes at a variable ratio according to a plurality of time-dependent parameters. In order to ensure a simpler arrangement of the instrument while maintaining richness in tone color variation characteristics of the produced musical tone, the mixing is adapted to be performed by carrying out multiplications individually on the respective retrieved waveshapes with the associated time-dependent parameters and then by adding up the resultant values to obtain the aimed musical tone. Some of the time-dependent parameters may be derived from other time-dependent parameter in the mixing procedure of several different waveshapes.

Abstract: A polyphonic tone synthesizer in which two or more distinct voices are sounded by operation of a single key. While the voices have the same fundamental frequency, they are made audibly distinct by differing in harmonic content and differing in the shape of the envelope of the voice signal. The two or more voices are synthesized by alternately calculating master data lists of the amplitude values representative of points on the waveforms of the two voices, adding the two master data lists and converting the resulting values to an analog waveform by feeding the data to a digital-to-analog converter at a rate determined by the fundamental frequency of the note. The master data list for each voice is calculated repetitively during the time the key is operated by multiplying a set of coefficients with a set of sinusoid values and continuously scaling the resultant product by an envelope scale factor which changes with time to correspond to the desired envelope waveform.

Abstract: A fixed formant filter for a digital tone generator uses a set of scale factors generated by storing in memory a set of words corresponding to the relative amplitude of points on a single resonance curve. The words are addressed and read out of the memory in sequence in response to a counter. For each output state of the counter a group of words is read out of the memory, added, and stored as one scale factor of said set of scale factors. The number of words in the group read out corresponds to the number of resonant peaks in the fixed formant filter. The respective words in the group are addressed by modifying the output of the counter respectively by four constants corresponding to the relative position in the musical scale at which the resonant peaks of the formant filter occur.

Abstract: A keyboard type electronic musical instrument which is provided with a keyboard having an arrangement of keys corresponding to an arrangement of letter names based on the scale of the equal temperament of 12 degrees, a sound signal generator for generating sound signals of frequencies defined for the letter names, first and second gate circuit means having gate circuits respectively supplied with the sound signals from the sound signal generator, a first mixer for mixing the outputs from the gate circuits of the first gate circuit means, a frequency multiplier circuit for frequency multiplying the output from the gate circuits of the second gate circuit means, and a second mixer for mixing the outputs from the frequency multiplier circuit and the first mixer. The sound signals supplied to the gate circuits of the second gate circuit means have higher or lower frequencies than the sound signals supplied to the corresponding gate circuits of the first gate circuit means.

Abstract: A polyphonic electronic musical instrument in which the complex signal delivered by the instrument is made up of successive samples.Each sample in the complex signal is the sum of the samples of the different harmonics of the various notes played, at the corresponding amplitudes. A device for scanning the keys and pedals comprises two or three counters which operate in association with one another to detect the number (i) of each played note out of the 12 or 13 notes in an octave, and also detect the number of the corresponding octave (n) and successively calculate the various samples of the harmonics of the note (i, n). The set of operations is performed in a sufficiently short time to produce notes of 6- 10 kHz.

Abstract: A sustained repeat control in a digital polyphonic synthesizer for gradually decreasing the amplitude of one or more notes generated repetitively in response to operation of a single key. The sustained repeat control includes a digital register storing a plurality of control words in digitally coded form, there being one control word assigned to each note being generated at any one time. Each word includes bits coded to indicate the current relative amplitude of the associated note. When a key is depressd, the control word or words for the note or notes assigned to that key have bits initialized to a predetermined value. When the key is released the amplitude values represented by the bits are counted down periodically. The bits in turn control the amplitude of the repetitively generated notes, a zero detector terminating the operation when the bits are decremented to zero.

Abstract: An electronic musical instrument wherein instantaneous amplitude values of respective harmonics of a musical tone waveform are individually provided in accordance with a numerical value corresponding to the frequency of the depressed key for the musical tone, each of harmonic amplitude coefficients setting relative amplitudes of the respective harmonics is multiplied with corresponding one of the instantaneous amplitude values and the multiplication products are aligned with respect to time thereby to obtain a musical tone of a desired tone color, i.e. of a desired frequency spectrum construction. The harmonic amplitude coefficients are given as values corresponding to a multipeak spectrum construction.The harmonic amplitude coefficients are provided by a filter having a multipeak characteristic.

Abstract: In an electronic musical instrument, such as an electronic organ, the speech characteristics of reed organ pipes are simulated by applying pulses produced by key-actuated tone generators, which pulses are preferably narrow as compared to their repetition frequency, to a low-pass filter, the pass characteristic of which has a relatively sharp knee and a very rapid rate of rolloff, thereby to sharply attenuate the harmonics contained in the pulse which have frequencies above the cutoff frequency. The resultant tone passed by the filter is surprisingly reed-like in character, and by changing the cutoff frequency, reed-like voices of differing properties, imitative for example, of an organ Oboe tone, an orchestral Oboe tone, a Clarinet, a Kinura or a Trompette are obtained.

Abstract: Apparatus for automatically detecting the pitch of individual notes of music represented in analog form by an electrical signal. The apparatus includes an arrangement of band-pass filters, connected in parallel, for receiving the electrical signal and passing selected portions thereof which contain the frequencies of the well-tempered scale. According to the invention, means are provided for varying the sensitivity of the pitch detecting apparatus in dependence upon the loudness of the notes to be detected to thereby inhibit the detection of harmonics.

Abstract: This invention relates to a key system for electronic musical instruments, comprising a key circuit for forming control signals and control circuits for transmitting sound signals in response to the control signals. The key circuit produces the control signals in dependence on the position of a key and/or on elapsed time after depression of the key. Coupling means forming part of each control circuit modifies transient characteristics of the control signals whereby each control circuit can transmit notes in such a way that they each have a different build-up time. This enables the instrument to make a sound similar to that produced by a conventional non-electronic instrument.

Abstract: This invention relates to a circuit for use in an electronic musical instrument such as an organ, the instrument having two separate sources of bass signals and transducing elements for converting the bass signals into a sound output. The circuit is operative to prevent signals from one of the sources from being applied to the transducing elements when signals from the other source are present. For a preferred embodiment, a predetermined signal, such as a keying signal, is generated when signals from the other source are present and this predetermined signal is utilized to shunt signals from the other source to ground or to otherwise inhibit the application of these signals to the transducing elements.

Abstract: This invention provides an electronic musical instrument comprising a keyboard circuit for producing a pitch determining voltage signal representing the note of an operated key, a voltage controlled oscillator for producing a tone signal having a tone pitch determined by the pitch determining voltage signal, and a voltage controlled lowpass filter for imparting a desired tone color to the tone signal. The voltage controlled lowpass filter is responsive to the pitch determining voltage signal from the keyboard circuit to control the cutoff frequency of the voltage controlled lowpass filter in such a manner that the harmonic content of a higher tone signal is decreased from that of a lower tone signal.

Abstract: A selective distortion control circuit for an electrical musical instrument employs a cathode or emitter follower valve having a load resistance that is selectively changed to provide either a clean or distorted output signal. The mutually in-phase clean input and distorted output of the valve are connected to opposite sides of a potentiometer of which the wiper provides a selectively proportioned mixture of clean and distorted signals. The relative amount of distortion may be selected, and once selected, the operator may readily choose between clean and distorted sound by changing the load resistance.

Abstract: Disclosed is an electronic piano circuit arrangement which combines a multitude of different frequencies within a resistordiode matrix array. The resistor-diode coupling elements provide a different value impedance for various signals to be combined and the amplitude of the signals are predetermined to electronically produce a piano sound which substantially corresponds to the sound of an actual piano tone.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: An electronic musical instrument is of a harmonic synthesis type and is provided with an order number memory device which stores a plurality of order numbers of the harmonic components necessary to form respective tone colors, an amplitude coefficient memory device which stores a plurality of sets of amplitude coefficients for the respective harmonic components corresponding to the respective order of numbers stored in the order number memory device, and a tone color selector which controls the order number memory device and the amplitude coefficient memory device, when a certain tone color is selected, for causing the respective memory devices to produce the order numbers and the amplitude coefficients of a set corresponding to the selected tone color.

Abstract: More than one sub-intervals or time-windows are provided in a one-cycle period of a musical tone selected at a keyboard of an electronic musical instrument. Each time-window passes a sine wave having a frequency predetermined for the time-window. The envelope of the spectrum of a time-window is determined by the shape and the width of the time-window, and the envelope of the spectrum of a sine wave passed from the time-window will become the convolution of the spectrum of the time-window and the frequency of the sine wave. The total area of the frequency spectrum included as frequency components of a musical tone can be covered by several time-windows, each having a different length and passing a sine wave of a different frequency. An amplitude control means controls the amplitude of each sine wave independently. The controlled amplitude level determines the spectrum intensity of the frequency region influenced by the corresponding sine wave.