Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha

Yamaha Corporation

Mitsumi Kato

Tsuyoshi Futamase

Masatada Wachi

Koji Niimi

Kazuo Masaki

Yasuhiro Kawano

Mitsuru Fukui

Hideo Miyamori

A signal processor stores at least one microprogram having m steps in total smaller in number than n steps which are to be executed within one sampling repetition period. A count corresponding to each of the n steps are generated. M steps of the at least one microprogram stored is executed a plurality of times within the one sampling repetition period to thereby execute the n steps.

Signal processor capable of executing microprograms with different step

A digital signal processor (i.e., DSP) is employed by an electronic musical instrument. The contents of operational processes to be executed by the DSP can be arbitrarily set in accordance with filtering operations of the filters to be realized. A processing device to be embodied by the DSP at least contains a microprogram memory, a coefficient register, a delay memory and a processing portion. A desired set of coefficients are read from the coefficient register in accordance with a first address signal, while a desired program is read from the microprogram memory in accordance with a second address signal. Each program contains at least one operational command or one instruction. The value of each of the first and second address signals is periodically changed in each sampling period. During a writing operation of the delay memory, results of the operational processes effected by the processing portion are written into the delay memory, while the processing portion effects the operational processes on the musical tone signals, sequentially inputted thereto, in accordance with the desired program to be repeatedly executed for the desired set of coefficients. When a reading operation of the delay memory is designated, the processing portion effects the operational processes on data read from the delay memory. Thus, the processing device can perform the pipeline processing effectively on plural series of musical tone signals with a reduced storage capacity of the microprogram memory.

Processing device performing plural operations for plural tones in

An envelope shape generation device includes an envelope shape memory storing envelope shape data, a touch information generation circuit for generating touch information, an envelope shape data reading circuit for reading out the envelope shape data prestored in the envelope shape memory in response to the touch information to form an envelope shape signal. The envelope shape reading circuit includes a first envelope reading circuit for reading out a waveform section from an attack portion to a portion immediately before starting of a release envelope shape in response to key-on information and a second envelope shape reading circuit for reading out a release envelope shape following the waveform section read by a first envelope reading circuit in response to key-off information, and a release envelope correction circuit for correcting a head value of the read out release envelope shape to agree with the read out envelope shape value of the first envelope shape section so that the second envelope shape section is connected smoothly to the first envelope shape section.

Touch responsive envelope shape generation device

An electronic musical instrument effects the slur on several continuous notes when the slur is selected. The slur performance is detected based on performance information which is generated when performing the keyboard. Then, states of musical tones to be generated are varied from the first note to the last note in the slurred notes in accordance with a line or a curve corresponding to the predetermined musical factor to be detected. Preferably, this musical factor may be the tone color, key-depression intensity, pitch difference between the first note and last note in the slurred notes. Further, it is possible to select desirable one of the preset lines or curves whose data are stored in a memory.

Electronic musical instrument having slur effect

A musical tone signal generating apparatus provides at least a waveform memory which stores a plurality of fundamental waveform data based on three-dimensional coordinate address system having three coordinate axes to which respective musical tone control parameters are assigned respectively. The desirable fundamental waveform data is read out at an address corresponding to a coordinate position determined by selecting desirable musical tone control parameters. Then, an interpolation operation is carried out on the fundamental waveform data which are sequentially read out so that an interpolated musical tone waveform signal is formed. The waveform of the interpolated musical tone waveform signal is similar to and intermediate to the waveforms of the fundamental waveform data to be synthesized. Thus, the interpolated musical tone waveform signal is converted into a musical tone signal, by which corresponding musical tone is to be sounded.

Musical tone signal generating apparatus having waveform memory with

A modulation effect device is implemented by utilizing a fact that a phase or frequency of an output signal from a digital filter can be varied by varying a filter-coefficient according to a lapse of time. A musical tone signal inputted into the digital filter is phase-or frequency-modulated in accordance with the variation of the filter coefficient, thereby imparting such modulation effect as vibrato, chorus or ensemble (symphonic chorus) to the musical tone signal.

Modulation effect device

Address memories storing address data, individually, for respective parameter determining factors (e.g., tone color kind, tone pitch, key touch or other factors) are provided for the respective parameter determining factors. Address data stored in at least one of these address memories is read out in accordance with a combination of the parameter determining factor corresponding to the address memory and data corresponding to at least another parameter determining factor. In other words, plural address memories corresponding to parameter determining factors (designated as first parameter determining factors) are provided with an address memory corresponding to another parameter determining factor (designated as a second parameter determining factor). One address memory is designated by data corresponding to a first parameter determining factor and address data is read out from this address memory in correspondence to the second parameter determining factor. Address data read out from respective address memories are operated by an operation circuit and an address signal corresponding to a combination of plural parameter determining factors is thereby formed. A set of parameters is read out from a parameter memory in response to this address signal.

Parameter supply device in an electronic musical instrument

In a reverberation tone generating apparatus a digital memory device is used as a delay element. Amplitude data obtained by sampling an input musical tone at a predetermined period are sequentially stored in the digital memory device. The readout of the amplitude data stored before a desired delay time is equal to the readout of the data regarding the input musical tone delayed the desired delay time. By imparting the desired reverberation characteristics to the delayed amplitude data, reverberation tone of the input musical tone is produced. In a modified embodiment, an input musical tone is divided into a plurality of frequency bands and different reverberation characteristics are added to the divided input musical tones respectively. This utilization of the digital memory as the delay element prevents degrading S/N ratio even if the delay time or the reverberation time is elongated and makes it possible to easily change the reverberation time, thereby enabling to generate a reverberation tone having the same quality as a natural reverberation tone.

Reverberation tone generating apparatus

An automatic rhythm performing apparatus capable of producing a rhythmic tone of a plural-tone-source rhythmic musical instrument such as a snare drum comprises a plurality of signal producing devices which produce a plurality of rhythmic tone signals corresponding to the respective tone sources of the single instrument. A control device controls respective signal levels of the rhythmic tone signals and a combining device combined the rhythmic tone signals at signal levels controlled by the control device to provide a combined signal corresponding to the rhythmic tone of the instrument, thereby providing a desired volume relationship of the respective component tones constituting the whole rhythmic tone of the instrument.

Automatic rhythm performing apparatus

In an electronic musical instrument, a reverberation tone most suitable for a selected tone color is applied to a musical tone with the selected tone color. In a modification, the electronic musical instrument is provided with a plurality of keyboards and to musical tones to be produced corresponding to the keyboards reverberation tones are applied independently. In another modification, one of the reverberation tones has a reverberation characteristic different from the other reverberation tone.

Electronic musical instruments provided with reverberation tone

The reverberation tone generating apparatus is constituted by a combination of apparatus which generates a reverberation tone having irregular delay time and level and apparatus provided with a feedback loop for an output delayed signal and produces a reverberation tone having regular delay time and level. The combination makes it possible to produce a reverberation tone rich in naturality with circuits of a small size and economical construction.

A modulation effect device for use in an electronic musical instrument which utilizes, as a digital modulation circuit, a digital memory device for storing digitized musical tone signals. The digital memory device is accessed by modulation coefficient generating means which supplies a modulated address information to the digital memory device to read out from the memory device a musical tone signal modulated in accordance with the modulated address.

Modulation effect device for use in electronic musical instrument

A musical tone forming system includes a waveform storage device for storing data representative of an attack portion of a musical tone waveform and data representative of part of the other portion of the musical tone waveform following the attack portion. An address device addresses the waveform storage device to first read the data representative of the attack portion and to then repeatedly read the part of the waveform from the waveform storage device to thereby form a musical tone signal. There is provided a device for generating data varying with time. The address device feeds an address data to the waveform storage device in accordance with the time-varying data to randomly designate as a starting address one of those addresses of the waveform storage device storing the data of the part of the waveform, thereby realizing a noisy nature characteristic of a percussion instrument.

Musical tone forming system

A sound effect imparting device for an electronic musical instrument is capable of imparting a plurality of desired sound effect such as vibrato and reverberation effects to a digital musical tone generated from the electronic musical instrument. The device comprises a digital arithmetic operation unit constructed with a combination of adders, multipliers, delay circuits, etc., a control unit, a parameter memory and a read-out unit. By control data and parameter data which are respectively read out from the control unit and the parameter memory by means of the read-out unit, switching of the operation mode of the digital arithmetic operation unit is controlled in a time-sharing manner, whereby a plurality of sound effects are imparted to a musical tone through digital arithmetic operations.

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Hamamatsu, Japan

Mitsumi Kato