Claims
- 1. In an electrical musical instrument having means for generating tone signals corresponding to note codes applied thereto, the improvement comprising:
- note means for developing a note code representative of a number value corresponding to a selected note;
- interval means for developing an interval code representative of a number value corresponding to the distance between notes with the number value increasing as an arithmetic progression over a range of notes as the distance between notes increases; and
- an adder for arithmetically adding the number values of the note code and the interval code to generate a new number value corresponding to a new note code for a new note which is spaced from the selected note by the distance between the notes.
- 2. The electrical musical instrument of claim 1 wherein the interval means develops an interval code having a fixed number value each time the new note is to be spaced from the selected note by the same interval.
- 3. The electrical musical instrument of claim 1 wherein the number values of the note code and the interval code are represented by binary numbers having a plurality of bit locations which in sum represent the number value.
- 4. The electrical musical instrument of claim 3 wherein some of the plurality of bit locations represent a number value corresponding to a note location within an octave, and at least another of the plurality of bit locations represents a number value corresponding to an octave within which the note is located.
- 5. The electrical musical instrument of claim 1 wherein the adder comprises a modulo 12 adder which generates a five-bit code with the fifth most significant bit having a number value of 12 to thereby correspond to a different octave, and the tone signal generating means includes an octave circuit responsive to the fifth bit for selecting the octave for the selected note.
- 6. The electrical musical instrument of claim 1 wherein the interval code has a number value corresponding to the number of half steps between two notes so that consecutive number values represent adjacent notes on a twelve note scale.
- 7. The electrical musical instrument of claim 1 wherein the interval means includes an interval signal encoder having a plurality of output lines carrying fixed interval signals thereon which are respectively associated with different ones of the interval lines to represent different fixed intervals, and a half step encoder responsive to the plurality of output lines for generating the interval code representative of the number of half steps in the interval associated with the selected output.
- 8. The electrical musical instrument of claim 7 wherein said note means includes means for detecting the selection of a plurality of notes comprising a minor chord, said minor chord detecting means being connected to the interval means for selectively providing an interval signal on one of two outputs thereof respectively associated with the third interval and the flatted third interval.
- 9. The electrical musical instrument of claim 8 wherein the interval means includes first means for generating an interval signal on a third interval output in response to a particular input signal, second means for generating an interval signal on a flatted third interval output in response to the same particular input signal, and means responsive to detection of a minor chord for disabling the first means.
- 10. The electrical musical instrument of claim 7 wherein said interval means is responsive to signals on two sets of inputs to generate the interval code, and means manually operable for effectively disabling one of the sets of inputs to disable response to signals thereon.
- 11. The electrical musical instrument of claim 1 including a first note selection means for selecting notes and a separate second note selection means for selecting notes, the note means includes storage means for storing the note code, and means responsive to establishment of one mode of operation for entering into the storage means note codes representing notes selected on the first note selection means and responsive to another mode of operation for entering into the storage means note codes representing notes selected on the second note selection means.
- 12. The electrical musical instrument of claim 11 wherein said first note selection means corresponds to a manually actuable keyboard manual and the second note selection means corresponds to a manually actuable pedal clavier.
- 13. The electrical musical instrument of claim 1 wherein the interval means generates an interval code representative of a chordal interval to cause the new note code from the adder to have a preselected chordal relationship to a selected note, and means for applying both the new note code and the selected note code to the tone signal generating means, whereby plural tone signals corresponding to both the selected note and the chordally related note are simultaneously generated thereby.
- 14. In an electrical musical instrument having input means for selecting notes and means for generating tone signals in accordance with note codes corresponding to the selected notes, the improvement comprising:
- a detector for detecting when two selected notes are related to one another as a pair comprising a root and a fixed interval therefrom,
- note means responsive to the detector for producing a note code representative of the selected pair of notes,
- interval means for developing an integral code representative of an interval between two notes, and
- an adder for arithmetically adding the note code and the interval code to generate a new note code for a note which is spaced from one of the selected pair of notes by the interval.
- 15. The electrical musical instrument of claim 14 wherein the detector detects when the two selected notes are related to one another as a pair comprising a root and a fifth interval.
- 16. The electrical musical instrument of claim 15 wherein the detector includes a priority circuit for establishing an order of priority for the twelve root-fifth pairs of notes around the circle of fifths, said priority circuit includes means responsive to detection of two root-fifth pairs for preventing the note means for producing a note code for the selected lowest priority root-fifth pair.
- 17. The electrical musical instrument of claim 16 wherein said detector has twelve outputs respectively associated with the twelve root-fifth pairs of the circle of fifths, means responsive to a selected one of the twelve outputs for generating a code associated therewith, and said preventing means includes means for preventing generation of an output on more than one of the twelve outputs at a time.
- 18. The electrical musical instrument of claim 14 wherein the note means in response to the detector develops a note code representative of the root note.
- 19. The electrical musical instrument of claim 14 wherein the note means includes storage means for storing the note code.
- 20. A method for generating notes in an electrical musical instrument, comprising the steps of: selecting a root note,
- developing a first number value representative of the root note,
- selecting a musical chord interval representing a fixed spacing between notes of a twelve note scale,
- developing a second number value representative of the chord interval,
- adding the first and second number values to produce a third number value equal to the sum thereof, and
- assigning a note to said third number value.
- 21. The method of claim 20 wherein each of the number values are represented by binary codes equal to the number value.
CROSS-REFERENCE
This application is a continuation of my copending application Ser. No. 624,416, filed Oct. 21, 1975, entitled "Digital Chord Generator for Electronic Musical Instruments" now abandoned, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Ser. No. 603,859 filed Aug. 11, 1975, entitled "Note Selection Circuit for Electronic Musical Instrument" now U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,047, both assigned to the assignee of this application.
US Referenced Citations (17)
Continuations (1)
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624416 |
Oct 1975 |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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603859 |
Aug 1975 |
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