Claims
- 1. Tone generating means for an electronic musical instrument comprising a keyboard having a plurality of keys each having a musical name note and a like plurality of keyswitches respectively moved from inactive to active position by selective manual operation of said keys, multiplexing means interconnected with said keyswitches to scan from bottom to top thereof for generating a primary serial data stream having one or more time encoded pulses corresponding to active keyswitches, each pulse in said serial data stream corresponding to a predetermined musical note, means for shifting the time position of at least one of said pulses to produce a second data stream in which at least one of said pulses corresponds to a note other than said predetermined notes, said shifting means including a twelve stage shift register having twelve delayed outputs and an undelayed output corresponding to the input, a common buss and manually controllable switch means for selectively connecting one or a plurality of said delayed and undelayed outputs to said common buss, said primary data stream remaining unchanged, and means for producing musical notes corresponding to the pulses in both said unchanged primary and said second data streams.
- 2. Tone generating means as set forth in claim 1 and further including means for combining said primary data stream and said second data stream to produce a composite data stream, said composite data stream being fed to said musical note producing means.
- 3. Tone generating means as set forth in claim 1 wherein a single pulse in said primary data stream is shifted to a plurality of different positions in said second data stream.
- 4. Tone generating means as set forth in claim 3 in which the single pulse is delayed by different counts to provide said plurality of positions to produce a musical chord.
- 5. Tone generating means as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means for producing musical notes comprise note producing means receiving the primary date stream and separate note producing means receiving the second data stream.
- 6. Tone generating means as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pulse time position shifting means comprises a shift register.
- 7. Tone generating means for an electronic musical instrument comprising a keyboard having a plurality of keys each having a musical name note and a like plurality of keyswitches respectively moved from inactive to active position by selective manual operation of said keys, multiplexing means interconnected with said keyswitches to scan from bottom to top thereof for generating a primary serial data stream having one or more encoded pulses corresponding to active keyswitches, each pulse in said serial data stream corresponding to a predetermined musical name note, means for shifting the time position of at least one of said pulses both forwardly and rearwardly to produce a second data stream in which at least one of said pulses corresponds to a note other than said predetermined notes, and means for producing musical notes corresponding to the pulses in both said unchanged primary and said second data streams, thereby producing a chimes effect, said means for shifting a pulse rearwardly comprising a 1 of 16 multiplexer having inputs 0 through 15 for serial data wired together in pairs in a repeatable cycle of 8, a 1 of 8 multiplexer supplying serial data to said inputs, and an input control for utilizing either inputs 0 through 7 or 8 through 15.
Parent Case Info
This information is a continuation of 165,773, filed July 3, l980, and now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (6)
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
165773 |
Jul 1980 |
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