Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha

Sigeki Isii

Akira Nakada

Shigeru Yamada

Teruo Hiyoshi

Kiyoshi Ichikawa

Toshio Takeda

Takehisa Amano

Seiya Hamada

In an automatic accompaniment apparatus for electronic musical instrument capable of automatically generating accompaniment tones such as base tones, chord tones and arpeggio tones, arrangement is provided so that, at each time of depressing keys on an accompaniment keyboard, accompaniment key data for accompaniment tones which may possibly be sounded, are previously formed and secured, and the selected ones of the key data for the selected accompaniment are outputted at accompaniment tone generating timings synchronous with the rhythm. Thus bass tone, chord tones, arpeggio tones etc. may be generated in sufficient synchronous relation with a selected rhythm even by adopting a time-divisional processing using a low-speed compact computer such as a micro-computer.

Automatic accompaniment apparatus for electronic musical instrument

A three-keyboard electronic musical instrument of the type generating binary-coded primary key data representative of notes played on the keyboards, and secondary key data representative of unplayed notes that are correlated with the played notes in some musically favorable way. Prior to introduction into a multi-channel tone generator circuit, part of the primary key data and all of the secondary key data are directed into a key data memory having storage channels corresponding in number to the sounding channels in the tone generator circuit available for such data. A discrimination data memory has a plurality of storage locations, corresponding to the storage channels of the key data memory, for storing binary-coded data representing the discrimination between the primary and the secondary key data stored on the corresponding storage channels of the key data memory. In response in part to the output from the discrimination data memory a memory control circuit causes the key data memory to store the primary key data in preference to the secondary key data when the key data memory has no empty channel for each incoming data, by invalidating a secondary key data already in storage.

Electronic musical instrument generating supplementary notes

A polyphonic, keyboard-type electronic musical instrument capable of automatic production, in response to key depressions on upper and lower keyboards, of 'fill notes' which bear the same note names as the depressed lower keys but which, preferably, fall within an octave below the lowest pressed upper key at every moment. The instrument is of the type wherein each depressed key is coded into key data in accordance with a binary 'key code' composed of a note code and an octave code. The note code identifies the note name of each key, whereas the octave code identifies the octave to which the key belongs. Upon depression of a key on each of the upper and lower keyboards, the note-coded data derived from the key date representative of the depressed lower key are combined with the octave-coded data derived from the key data representative of the depressed upper key if the note name of the depressed lower key is below that of the depressed upper key. If the depressed lower key is of a note name above that of the depressed upper key, on the other hand, then the note-coded data of the depressed lower key are combined with octave-coded data indicative of an octave just below that of the depressed upper key. The key-coded fill-note data thus formed are fed into a multichannel tone generator circuit, along with the key data representative of the depressed upper and lower keys.

Electronic musical instrument capable of fill-note generation

An electronic musical instrument is of a type wherein musical tone waveforms are stored in a memory as their sampled amplitudes and sequentially and repetitively read out to constitute tone waveforms. A key depression brings forth key code in a digital representation. This key code is used for reading out frequency information from a frequency information memory. The frequency information is accumulated to make an address signal for reading out the waveform memory. When a key is depressed, a counter starts counting and opens a gate for a predetermined period of time. The gate passes a code representative of an interval of a grace note with respect to the note of the depressed key (i.e. principal note) to an addition and subtraction circuit for addition or subtraction between the key code and the code representative of the interval for the grace note. Accordingly, the key code is modified and the desired grace tone is produced. Upon completion of the operation of the counter, this modification of the key code is stopped and the key code is restored to the original key code resulting in production of the principal tone. In the foregoing manner, a grace tone preceding the principal tone can be played simply by depressing a single key. The counter is also arranged to start the counting operation upon release of the depressed key with a result that a grace tone following the principal tone can be played. Further, ornamentation called 'trill' can also be produced by alternately and repetitively opening and closing the gate by means of the output of the counter.

Electronic musical instrument

An electronic musical instrument is of a type wherein musical tone waveforms are stored in a memory as their sampled amplitudes and sequentially and repetitively read out to constitute tone waveforms. A key depression brings forth key code in a digital representation. This key code is used for reading out frequency information from a frequency information memory. The frequency informaton is accumulated to make an address signal for reading out the waveform memory. The read out waveform is reproduced as a musical tone through a tone-color and volume control circuit. This tone-color and volume control circuit is controlled keyboard by keyboard. The key code produced upon depression of the key contains a signal representing the kind of the keyboard to which the depressed key belongs. This signal is applied to a conversion circuit and converted to a signal representative of a different kind of keyboard. The output signal of the conversion circuit operates the tone-color and volume control circuit in a manner corresponding to the keyboard designated by the converted signal while the original signal representing the kind of the keyboard of the depressed key is applied directly to the tone-color and volume control circuit to operate it in a manner corresponding to the keybord of the depressed key. The manner of conversion of the signal representing the keyboard can be selected as desired. There is disclosed an example of a coupler effect between the upper and lower keyboard which can be produced by converting a signal for the upper keyboard to a signal for the lower keyboard while directly using the upper keyboard signal. Also disclosed is an example of a coupler effect between the lower keyboard and the pedal keyboard produced by converting a signal for the lower keyboard to a signal for the pedal keyboard while directly using the lower keyboard signal.

Electronic musical instrument having a coupler effect

An electronic musical instrument is of a type wherein musical tone waveforms are stored in a memory as their sampled amplitudes and sequentially and repetitively read out to constitute tone waveforms. A key depression brings forth frequency information in a digital representation. The frequency information is accumulated to make an address signal for reading out the waveform memory. When a depressed key is moved laterally, a touch detection circuit produces an analog detection signal representing the amount of displacement of the key. In the meanwhile, a clock pulse is counted by an up-down counter and the counting output is converted by a D-A converter to an analog signal to obtain a triangular wave function signal. When the analog detection signal coincides, in amplitude, with the triangular wave function signal, the digital signal from the up-down counter is sampled and held by a sample and hold circuit. Thus a digital signal representing the key displacement is obtained. This digital signal is multiplied with a frequency information in a multiplier and, accordingly, the musical tone frequency is modulated in response to the lateral movement of the key. Thus, the touch vibrato effect is obtained.

Electronic musical instrument having a touch vibrato effect

An electronic musical instrument is of a type wherein an envelope to be imparted to a musical tone is stored in a memory as its sampled values and sequentially read out to constitute an envelope shape. A key depression causes the read-out of the memory. The instrument is improved to provide a rich sound effect of legato performance by successively and smoothly shifting the tone of the former key to that of the latter key while maintaining a predetermined constant tone volume. This legato effect can be carried out by successively maintaining the sustain level of the musical tone envelope from the tone of the former key shifted to the latter key. The musical tone envelope is read from the envelope memory by an address which is shifted by a clock pulse. After the key has been depressed, the address continues to be shifted by the clock pulse until it has reached a predetermined value, whereupon the supply of the clock pulse is prohibited to cause the envelope memory to produce a sustain level corresponding to the address. Thereafter, this address is held to maintain the sustain level of tones of subsequently depressed keys regardless of whether the initially depressed key ash been released or not, or whether the subsequently depressed keys are being depressed or have been released. An embodiment in which the legato effect is produced with respect to a pedal keyboard is described.

Electronic musical instrument having legato effect

An electronic musical instrument of a type wherein a plurality of systems are provided each system comprising memories storing respective harmonic component waveshapes which are read at the same reading rate and the read out harmonic waveshapes are suitably mixed to obtain a desired musical tone. Each system also comprises a circuit for controlling the envelope of the waveshapes read from the memories. In the first system, the envelope control is made in such a manner that the envelope will rise upon depression of a key, thereafter maintain a constant level as long as the key is kept depressed and decay upon release of the depressed key. In the second system, the envelope is controlled so that the envelope will rise in a short time and immediately decay thereafter. The respective harmonic waveshapes thus controlled in envelope in the respective systems are then suitably selected and mixed together. As an example of the envelope control in the second system is shown a structure for producing a so-called 'chiff' effect by providing the fractional period during which the envelope rises and subsequently falls at the attack portion of the musical tone. Desired waveshape or waveshapes are selected from among the harmonic waveshapes controlled in the envelope in the second system for mixing with the harmonic waveshapes read from the first system. By this arrangement, amplitudes of the frequency components of the selected harmonic waveshapes are emphasized during the fractional period.

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Hamamatsu, Japan

Sigeki Isii