Claims
- 1. A polyponic electronic musical instrument of a type wherein notes to be played are selected by depression of keys, and wherein a tone is produced by separately calculating the amplitude contribution of each partial of the tone and accumulating the partials, comprising:
- tone generator means for calculating partials individually at a specific number of time slots, each time slot being available for assignment to any partial of any selected note;
- partial tone assignment means for assigning, responsive to depression of a key designating a selected note, each partial to be produced individually for that note to any available one of the time slots;
- said tone generator means calculating the partials having been assigned to available time slots, and accumulating said calculated partials to produce said tone, assigned partials for different, concurrently selected notes being assigned to separate arbitrary time slots.
- 2. An electronic musical instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said partial tone assignment means comprises:
- a circuit for generating data of the depressed key in response to depression of the key;
- first means for providing a set of partial tone data required for synthesizing said tone and for delivering out, in accordance with the data of the depressed key, each partial tone data one by one from among said set of partial tone data; and
- second means for assigning each of the delivered out partial tone data to an available one of the time slots, and for thereupon causing partial tone data for another partial to be delivered out of said first means,
- the set of partial tone data being sequentially assigned by the cooperation between said first means and said second means,
- and wherein said tone generator means is a circuit which calculates partial tone signals in accordance with partial tone data assigned to the respective time slots.
- 3. An electronic musical instrument as defined in claim 2 wherein said partial tone data includes at least data representing the tone pitch of the selected note and data representing the order of the partial, said order being a ratio of frequency of the partial to said tone pitch,
- said tone generator means calculating the data representing the tone pitch and the order of the partial to establish the frequency of said partial tone signal.
- 4. An electronic musical instrument as defined in claim 2 wherein said partial tone data includes at least data representing the tone pitch of the selected note and data representing the order of the partial tone, said first means is a means from which the partial tone data is delivered from the data of the lowest order upwardly and said second means includes logic which judges the frequency of the partial to be assigned from the tone pitch of the selected note and the order of the partial and, if the frequency is in excess of a predetermined value, stops assignment of said partial and remaining partials of the selected note, all still unassigned time slots thereafter being available for assignment to the partials of other concurrently selected notes.
- 5. An electronic musical instrument as defined in claim 2 wherein said first means has plural sets of the partial tone data, the number and the order of the partials of each set being different from those of other sets, the partial tone data of one of the sets being sequentially delivered out in accordance with the data of a depressed key and wherein said second means does not effect the assignment of the partial tone data associated with another depressed key, after assigning last partial tone data of said one of the sets, until generation of the data for that other depressed key.
- 6. An electronic musical instrument as defined in claim 2 wherein said data of the depressed key includes at least data for identifying the key and data correspondng to key touch, and wherein said partial tone data includes at least amplitude scale data corresponding to the tone pitch of said partial and amplitude scale data corresponding to the key touch, and wherein said second means includes logic which stops the assignment of said partials if the amplitude of said partial is below a predetermined value judging from said amplitude data of the partial to be assigned and said amplitude scale data.
- 7. An electronic musical instrument of a type wherein a tone is produced by generating partial tones of the tone and combining the generated partial tones, and wherein tones to be produced are selected by depression of corresponding keys on a keyborad, comprising:
- tone generator means for generating desired partial tone signals individually at a specific number of time slots to each of which a partial tone signal of any order is arbitrarily assignable; and
- partial tone assignment means for ascertaining, in the event that all of said time slots contain previously assigned partial tone signals, the one time slot containing the partial tone signal of smallest amplitude level, and for assigning, responsive to depression of a key, one at a time each of the partial tones constituting a tone to be produced in accordance with the key depression individually to the single time slot which is ascertained at the time of assignment of that one partial tone to contain the partial tone signal of smallest amplitude level.
- 8. In a polyphonic electronic musical instrument of the type in which a tone generator synthesizes a tone by individually calculating on a time shared basis, during repetitive time share cycles, the sample point amplitude contributions of each individual partial for each depressed key, the improvement wherein in said tone generator there is separately established for each sample point an envelope scale factor for each partial in accordance with a selected envelope type, said improvement comprising:
- first means for supplying for each partial, during each time share cycle, a set of data comprising a peak level value, attach and decay time values, and a decay level setting value,
- envelope calculator means, operative during each time share cycle, for providing an unscaled envelope amplitude data by combining with the envelope amplitude data that was provided for the same individual partial during the previous time share cycle an envelope change value established in response to the attach and decay time values and said decay level setting value concurrently supplied by said first means, and
- peak level scaler means for scaling said provided unscaled envelope amplitude data in accordance with said supplied peak level value, thereby establishing said envelope scale factor for said each partial, said tone generator utilizing said envelope scale factor in said tone synthesis, and wherein;
- said envelope calculator means includes a comparator for comparing said previously calculated envelope amplitude data with a level established by said supplied decay level setting value, and for controlling selection of which envelope change value is utilized by said envelope calculator means from a set of such change values respectively established by different ones of said attack and decay values.
- 9. The improvement of claim 8 wherein said tone generator calculates the sample point amplitude contributions of each partial on a time shared basis, said first means supplying said set of data for each partial during the time shared time slot during which the associated partial amplitude contribution is calculated, said improvement further comprising:
- shift register means having a storage position associated with each time slot and shifted in unison with the time sharing operation of said tone generator, each position storing the previously calculated envelope amplitude data for the partial assigned to the corresponding time slot, said envelope calculator means receiving envelope amplitude data from said shift register means and supplying the new provided envelope amplitude data back to said shift register means to replace the previous value.
- 10. The improvement of claim 8 wherein said instrument has a note selection keyboard and further includes:
- means for scaling said peak level value and said attack and decay time values in accordance with the fundamental frequency of a selected note.
- 11. The improvement of claim 8 including a memory storing on attack waveform and wherein, during the attack portion of said selected envelope type, said provided envelope amplitude data is used to selectively access said memory, the resultantly read out waveform data being supplied to and scaled by said peak level scaler means in place of the provided envelope amplitude data itself.
- 12. The improvement of claim 8 wherein said instrument has a note selection keyboard and further includes:
- means for scaling said peak level vlaue and said attack and decay time values in response to keyboard touch.
- 13. In a polyphonic keyboard electronic musical instrument of the type in which musical tones are generated by separately evaluating the sample point amplitude contributions of each individual partial for each selected key, the improvement comprising:
- time shared tone generator interface means for storing and providing sequentially and repetitively, in time slots which are arbitrarily assigned to partials independently of partial order or selected key, partial generation information including a key code indicative of the selected key, the order n of the partial, an inharmonicity degree information, and partial amplitude information, and
- a time shared frequency data generator, operative during each of said assigned time slots, comprising:
- first conversion means, responsive to the key code information provided during a given time slot, for providing a first signal indicative of the logarithm of the frequency of the note designated by the selected key and a signal indicative of the octave of said selected key,
- second conversion means, responsive to said partial order n information provided during said given time slot and receiving said octave indicative signal, for providing a second signal indicative of the logarithm of the product of said partial order multiplied by said octave,
- means for combining said first and second signals to provide a third signal indicative of the logarithm of the partial tone frequency of the partial of order n, and
- scaler means, responsive to said inharmonicity degree information and to said third signal, for providing a resultant signal indicative of the frequency of said partial of order n as scaled by said inharmonicity degree,
- said tone generator means utilizing said resultant signal to evaluate the amplitude contribution of said individual partial.
- 14. A polyphonic keyboard electronic musical instrument including a time-shared generator, said instrument comprising:
- key logic unit means, responsive to the depression of any key in said keyboard, for initiating an assignment request signal and for providing a key code identifying the depressed key,
- a partial assignment unit, receiving said request signal and said key code and including:
- data processing and logic unit for producing frequency and envelope information for each partial of a tone identified by the depressed key,
- a tone parameter logic unit storing for each of several selectable tone colors a corresponding set of parameter data for each individual partial of a tone to be generated with that selected tone color,
- an output latch unit for storing frequency and envelope information produced by said data processing and logic unit, and
- program unit means for directing said processing and logic units to produce and to enter into said output latch unit frequency and envelope information for each partial to be included in the synthesis of the tone identified by the received key code, utilizing data from said tone parameter logic unit, said program unit means also assigning each such partial to an arbitrary one of a plurality of time-shared time slots, and
- tone generator interface means, connected to said output latch and controlled by said program unit means, for separately storing the frequency and envelope information for each partial to be included in the synthesis of the tones for each of plural depressed keys, and for supplying this information repetitively and successively to said tone generator in the respective time-shared time slots that were arbitrarily assigned to said partials by said program unit means.
- 15. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 14 further comprising:
- minimum amplitude detection means, cooperating with said tone generator, for detecting the lowest envelope amplitude contribution of any group of partials that are being synthesized by said tone generator unit, and
- truncation means, cooperating with said tone generator interface unit means and operative when all of said time slots have been assigned to partials to be produced, for causing each partial of a newly depressed key to be stored and assigned to a time slot formerly assigned to that partial for a released key which has the lowest amplitude of any such assigned partials for released keys, as detected by said minimum amplitude detection means.
- 16. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 14 wherein said toner generator interface unit comprises:
- a plurality of shift registers each having a number of storage locations corresponding to the total number of time slots for which partials can be produced by said tone generator in time shared fashion,
- means for shifting in unison all of said shift registers so that the data from corresponding locations in said registers are supplied in unison to said tone generator unit,
- said partial assignment unit gating said frequency and envelope information for each newly assigned partial into corresponding locations in said shift registers,
- one of said shift registers storing in each location a key code identifying, for the partial information in each corresponding location in the other registers, the depressed key with which that partial is associated,
- comparator means for comparing the key code of a newly released key with the key code of every location of said one shift register as the data from corresponding locations in the other registers are supplied to said tone generator, and
- envelope mode control means, associated with a separate one of said shift registers which stores envelope mode data for each partial, for modifying the contents of said separate one shift register locations each time said comparator indicates equality, said separate shift register thereby supplying to said tone generator unit a revised envelope mode signal for each partial associated said newly released key.
- 17. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 14 wherein said program unit means in said partial assignment unit assigns to an arbitrary available time slot associated storage position in said tone generator interface unit means the frequency and envelope information for each partial of each key code that is detected, said program unit means further inhibiting the initiation by said key logic unit means of further assignment request signals during the assignment operation, and enabling said key logic unit means to scan for additional newly depressed keys upon completion of the assignment operation.
- 18. In a polyphonic electronic musical instrument of the type in which a tone generator synthesizes a tone by separately calculating the sample point amplitude contributions of each individual partial of each selected note, and having means for producing a keyboard touch response indicative signal, the improvement comprising:
- a scale factor memory storing a set of preestablished touch response scale factors and note scale factors,
- a tone parameter memory storing a set of information for each partial, said information including the order n of said partial, the peak amplitude of said partial, a note scale data for scaling said peak amplitude with regard to the fundamental frequency of a selected note, and at least one touch sensitivity scale data for scaling the attack and/or decay times of said partial in accordance with said touch response indicative signal, and
- note latch means for ascertaining and storing, upon the depression of a key, a signal indicative of the pitch of each corresponding partial, said pitch being ascertained from the fundamental frequency of the note associated with the depressed key and the order n of the corresponding partial, and for storing the note scale data obtained from the tone parameter memory for the corresponding partial,
- touch sensitivity latch means for storing a touch sensitivity scale data obtained from said tone parameter memory for the corresponding partial, and for storing a signal indicative of the touch response with which the corresponding key is depressed,
- memory access means for selectively (a) utilizing the contents of said note latch means as an access address for said scale factor memory, thereby to read out the corresponding stored note scale factor, and (b) utilizing the contents of said touch sensitivity latch means as an access address for said scale factor memory thereby to read out the corresponding touch response scale factor, and
- amplitude determining means for utilizing each scale factor read out from said scale factor memory in determining the amplitude contribution of each partial in the resultant synthesis by said tone generator.
- 19. The improvement of claim 18 wherein said amplitude determining means includes:
- calculation circuitry, operative in the event that said memory access means selectively utilizes both the contents of said note latch means and the contents of said touch sensitivity latch means, for utilizing both said read out touch responsive scale factor and said read out note scale factor separately to scale the partial peak amplitude and touch sensitivity data read from said tone parameter memory to establish scaled values thereof for utilization by said tone generator.
- 20. The improvement according to claim 18 further including:
- first conversion means for providing a first signal representing the logarithm of the note frequency identified by a key code specifying the depressed key,
- second conversion means for providing a second signal representing the logarithm of the partial order n, and
- combining means for computing from said first and second signals a third signal representing the logarithm of the effective frequency of the partial of order n, said third signal being stored in said note latch means as said pitch indicative signal.
- 21. A polyphonic keyboard electronic musical instrument in which a tone generator is time shared to synthesize a musical tone in response to the selection of one or more notes designated by respective note codes, comprising:
- a tone parameter logic unit storing at least one set of data defining parameters of individual partials to be included in a tone synthesis,
- a tone generator interface unit having:
- first means, cooperating with said tone parameter logic unit, for deriving from data accessed from said tone parameter logic unit amplitude and frequency designating information for each partial of each musical tone to be synthesized,
- second means for separately storing said information derived by said first means, and
- third means for sequentially, repetitively providing said stored information to said tone generator in respective, arbitrarily assigned time slots, and
- computation means, in said tone generator, for individually computing from the information supplied by said tone generator interface means in each respective time slot, the frequency and relative amplitude of each individual partial, said tone generator utilizing said computed frequency and partial amplitude information in the synthesis of said musical tone.
- 22. A musical instrument according to claim 21 wherein said tone parameter logic unit stores, for each partial of order n, data selected from the group consisting of peak amplitude level, sustain level, touch sensitivity amplitude scaler, note dependent amplitude scaler, attack time, initial decay time, final decay time, touch sensitivity envelope time scaler and note dependent envelope time scaler, all of said data being utilized by said tone generator interface unit to derive said separately stored information,
- said computation means including envelope calculator means responsive to said stored information and to information indicative of key depression and release, note code and touch response, for sequentially, repetitively and individually calculating an envelope amplitude scale factor for each individual partial, said envelope scale factors being utilized by said tone generator in said synthesis.
- 23. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 21 wherein said tone parameter logic unit also stores data indicating the degree of inharmonicity of each partial, the inharmonicity degree data for each assigned partial also being stored by said tone generator interface unit together with the order value n for repetitive and sequential provision to said tone generator, said computation means including a frequency data generation circuit, responsive to said inharmonicity degree data, said order value n and a note code designating a depressed key, for producing in each respective time slot frequency data representing the effective frequency of the partial being computed in the corresponding time slot, said tone generator using said frequency data in said synthesis.
- 24. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 21 wherein said tone parameter logic unit stores a plurality of sets of parameter defining data, each set associated with a separate tone color, together with:
- a tone color selector, and
- program control means, responsive to the selection of each note, for interrogating said tone color selector and for providing to said tone generator interface unit the parameter defining data from the set associated with the selected tone color.
- 25. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 21 further comprising:
- touch responsive means for detecting the transit time of key depression, and wherein said tone parameter logic unit stores data defining a touch sensitivity scaler, and further comprising:
- touch response calculation means, responsive to said detected key depression transit time and to the touch sensitivity scaler for each individual partial, for computing for each individual partial separate touch scaled envelope amplitude and/or time duration defining information and for supplying said information to said tone generator interface unit for use by said computation means.
- 26. A polyphonic keyboard electronic musical instrument in which a time shared tone generator synthesizes a tone by separate evaluation of each partial associated with each note selected by key depression, the improvement comprising:
- tone parameter storage means for storing, for every tone partial, separate amplitude and/or envelope duration touch sensitivity scale factors for scaling the amplitude and/or envelope duration of the respective partial,
- touch responsive means for determining the elapsed transit time of each key during the depression thereof, said time being indicative of keyboard touch,
- touch calculation means, responsive to the elapsed transit time determined by said touch responsive means and operative prior to tone production, for computing amplitude and/or envelope duration scale values for each partial in response to the contents of said touch responsive means and the scale factors for said each partial accessed from said tone parameter storage means, and
- tone generator interface unit means for providing said computed scale values independently to said tone generator in the respective time-shared time slots associated with corresponding individual partials for use in said evaluation.
- 27. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 26 wherein said touch responsive means comprises:
- a first matrix of key switches mounted so as to be actuated as the depression of each key is begun,
- a second matrix of key switches mounted so as to be actuated when depression of each respective key is substantially completed,
- key switch matrix scanning means for initially detecting the contents of a clock-advanced counter upon detection of closure of a switch in said first matrix, and for subsequently detecting the contents of said same counter in response to detection of closure of a switch in said second matrix for the same corresponding key, and for forming the difference therebetween, said difference signal being indicative of the depression trans time of said key.
- 28. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 27 further comprising:
- first means, operative in response to detection of actuation of a switch in said first matrix, for effectuating storage of the contents of said touch counter in a memory, and concurrently storing in the same memory the key code identifying said depressed key,
- second means, responsive to the initial actuation of a switch in said second matrix, for determining the contents of said touch counter at the time of said second matrix switch actuation, and for forming said difference indicative of key depression transit time.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
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Kind |
53/42431 |
Apr 1978 |
JPX |
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Parent Case Info
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 27,244, filed 4/5/79, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (6)
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
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Parent |
27244 |
Apr 1979 |
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