Kimball International, Inc.

Stephen L Howell

John W Robinson

Ralph N Dietrich

Gary R Fritz

James Patrick Osburn

Robert A Weil, Jr

Thomas C Crosby

Donald Kube

A system for automatically generating an accompaniment note pattern and a bass pattern programmed therein by the player. The system includes a programmable microprocessor wherein two patterns, one sounding in the frequency range of the solo and accompaniment manuals and the other in the frequency range of the pedals, can be programmed into a programmable and reprogrammable memory by the player by means of a separate keypad or one or two octaves of keys on the regular keyboards. The patterns are programmed in without regard to key, and on playback, the microprocessor is responsive to the chord being played at that time on the accompaniment manual to transpose the read out patterns to a compatible key. Means are provided for phase locking simultaneously occurring notes of the two patterns if they are of the same or octavely related frequencies. This is accomplished by causing both notes to be taken off the same divider string if a match of pitch occurs.

Electronic organ having microprocessor controlled rhythmic note pattern

A percussion generator for an electronic musical instrument, such as an electronic organ, wherein the percussion generator is responsive to a time division multiplexed serial data stream produced by scanning the keys of the keyboard. A control pulse is produced each time that a new key on the keyboard is depressed, and this pulse, which has a duration equal to or greater than a plurality of scans of the keyboard, is employed to produce a burst of keydown pulses in the data stream. The percussion generator is responsive to the serial data stream and each of the aforementioned control pulses to produce keydown pulses in the appropriate time slots of the data stream in a plurality of successive sequences thereof and then terminate the keydown pulses even though the associated keys remain depressed. A recirculating register dynamically stores those keydown pulses which have been blocked from the demultiplexer as long as the associated keys remain depressed, so that as new keys are depressed and new control pulses generated, the tones associated with the previously depressed keys will not again sound. A snub control is provided so that, in the event a number of keys are pressed in rapid succession as in a glissando, their sustains will not overlap to the point that a blurring of the sound occurs. Snubbing is accomplished by causing the keyers to convert from a long to a short decay state during the occurrence of the aforementioned control pulses.

Percussion generator having snub control

An electronic keyboard musical instrument comprising a multiplexed keyboard and a programmable microcomputer interfaced between the keyboard and a system of capture tone generators, and including means for causing phase locking between the tone generators. The loading circuitry for the microcomputer monitors the serial data stream and transmits only key change information to the microcomputer. The microcomputer controls the assignment and the assignment of tone generators for the accompaniment, solo and pedal manuals based on the key change information transmitted to it. In order to avoid cancellation between tones which are in octave or multiples thereof apart, the tone generators for each manual are phase locked with the other tone generators for that manual. Not only are the top octave synthesizers for each tone generator phase locked, but the divider strings are uniformly loaded so that they operate in identical states. The microcomputer phase locks one tone generator to another in accordance with a sequence dictated by its programming, and phase locking is accomplished regardless of whether the tones are initiated simultaneously or not.

Phase locking system for an electronic organ

An envelope generator for use in an electronic musical instrument, such as an electronic organ, employing a dual charge pump to form the attack and decay portions of the envelope. The envelope generator is adapted to be connected to the envelope control input of the keyer and the other input of the keyer is connected to a tone source. When the appropriate key of the keyboard is depressed, a source of input voltage is connected to the input of the envelope generator and a first charge pump incrementally transfers the input voltage to a capacitor over a first sequence of discrete time frames. The first charge pump circuit comprises a pair of electronic switches clocked 180.degree. out of phase and a capacitor connected between the juncture of the two switches and ground potential. The second mentioned capacitor is much larger than the first mentioned capacitor so that the charge transfer from one to the other takes place in a plurality of discrete steps. A second charge pump connected serially between the first charge pump and the envelope input of the keyer incrementally transfers the voltage on the first mentioned capacitor to another capacitor over a second sequence of discrete time frames. The second charge pump also comprises a pair of electronic switches having a capacitor connected between their juncture and ground potential, and a clock which clocks the electronic switches 180.degree. out of phase at a second frequency higher than the frequency at which the first two electronic switches are clocked. This arrangement has the effect of reducing the magnitude of the discrete steps thereby avoiding the audible distortion associated with prior envelope generators of this type. If desired, the second charge pump can be dual phase so that the effective frequency ratio between the second and first charge pumps is effectively doubled.

Envelope generator employing dual charge pump

An electronic organ, particularly of the institutional type employing classical voicing, having Swell and Great manuals as well as a full pedalboard wherein the manuals and pedalboard are multiplexed simultaneously to produce a plurality of synchronized serial data streams. Intermanual coupling is accomplished by connecting the data stream from one manual to the footage generation circuit of another manual, and tab footages are generated for each manual by utilizing tapped shift registers introducing controlled amounts of delay of the keyboard data before demultiplexing thereof. There is a bank of demultiplexer-keyers for each voice, such as flutes, principals, complex and percussion, which receive the serial data streams from one or more of the footage generators. The demultiplexer-keyers are supplied with tones and function to demultiplex the serial data streams and provide tones selected in accordance with the keydown pulses in the serial data streams to the voicing circuitry. Transposition is accomplished by transposing the demultiplex latch command ahead or behind in time so that the data stream is latched either early or late by one or more time slots depending on the amount of transposition selected. An automatic bass feature permits monophonic bass notes to be played without having to play the pedals, and this is accomplished by coupling into the pedal data stream the lowest data bit originating from the Great manual. Because the footages are generated by selectively delaying the data streams, each manual is scanned twice and the data is gated off on alternate scans to permit the data streams to be supplemented with the lower frequency footage data.

Multiplexing system for organ having plural manuals

An electronic organ, particularly of the institutional type employing classical voicing, having Swell and Great manuals as well as a full pedalboard wherein the manuals and pedalboard are multiplexed simultaneously to produce a plurality of synchronized serial data streams. Intermanual coupling is accomplished by connecting the data stream from one manual to the footage generation circuit of another manual, and footages are generated for each manual by utilizing tapped shift registers introducing controlled amounts of delay of the keyboard data before demultiplexing thereof. There is a bank of demultiplexer-keyers for each voice, such as flutes, principals, complex and percussion, which receive the serial data streams from one or more of the footage generators. The demultiplexer-keyers are supplied with tones and function to demultiplex the serial data streams and provide tones to the voicing circuitry selected in accordance with the keydown pulses in the serial data streams. Transposition is accomplished by transposing the demultiplex latch command ahead or behind in time so that the data stream is latched either early or late by one or more time slots depending on the amount of transposition selected. An automatic bass feature permits monophonic bass notes to be played without having to play the pedals, and this is accomplished by coupling into the pedal data stream the lowest data bit originating from the Great manual. Mixtures are generated by selectively delaying the serial data bits both by octave and sub-octave amounts and then combining the delayed data before demultiplexing thereof. The mixture content, which is either unison-mutation-unison or mutation-unison-mutation, is selected depending on the octave of the keyboard in which the key or keys are depressed.

Mixture generator for electronic organ

An electronic organ, particularly of the institutional type employing classical voicing, having Swell and Great manuals as well as a full pedalboard wherein the manuals and pedalboard are multiplexed simultaneously to produce a plurality of synchronized serial data streams. Intermanual coupling is accomplished by connecting the data stream from one manual to the footage generation cirlcuit of another manual, and footages are generated for each manual by utilizing tapped shift registers introducing controlled amounts of delay of the keyboard data before demultiplexing thereof. There is a bank of demultiplexer-keyers for each voice, such as flutes, principals, complex and percussion, which receive the serial data streams from one or more of the footage generators. The demultiplexer-keyers are supplied with tones and function to demultiplex the serial data streams and provide to the voicing circuitry tones selected in accordance with the keydown pulses in the serial data streams. Transposition is accomplished by transposing the demultiplex latch command ahead or behind in time so that the data stream is latched either early or late by one or more time slots depending on the amount of transposition selected. Because the footages are generated by selectively delaying the data streams, each manual is scanned twice and the data is gated off on alternate scans to permit the data streams to be supplemented with the lower frequency footage data. The invention relates to an automatic bass feature, which permits monophonic bass notes to be played without having to play the pedals themselves. This is accomplished by coupling into the pedal data stream the lowest data bit originating from the Great manual.

Automatic bass generator for electronic organ

An electronic organ, particularly of the institutional type employing classical voicing, having Swell and Great manuals as well as a full pedalboard wherein the manuals and pedalboard are multiplexed simultaneously to produce a plurality of synchronized serial data streams. Intermanual coupling is accomplished by connecting the data stream from one manual to the footage generation circuit of another manual, and footages are generated for each manual by utilizing tapped shift registers introducing controlled amounts of delay of the keyboard data before demultiplexing thereof. There is a bank of multiplexers for each voice, such as flutes, principals, complex and percussion, which receive the serial data streams from one or more of the footage generators. The demultiplexer-keyers are supplied with tones and function to demultiplex the serial data streams and provide tones selected in accordance with the keydown pulses in the serial data streams to the voicing circuitry. Because the footages are generated by selectively delaying the data streams, each manual is scanned twice and the data is gated off on alternate scans to permit the data streams to be supplemented with the lower frequency footage data. An automatic bass feature permits monophonic bass tones to be played without having to play the pedals, and this is accomplished by coupling into the pedal data stream the lowest data bit originating from the Great manual. Transposition is accomplished by transposing the demultiplex latch command ahead or behind in time so that the data stream is latched either early or late by one or more time slots depending on the amount of transposition selected. A fold circuit injects keydown pulses into the data stream in octavely related time slots ahead of those time slots which are transposed outside the available stages of the demultiplexer when the serial to parallel conversion occurs.

Plural manual organ having transposer

A high note data generator for use in electronic musical instruments such as electronic organs, pianos, and the like, wherein the time division multiplexed serial data stream is received, and a single data pulse is generated in the time slot of the first occurring pulse in the data stream. In organs wherein the manual is scanned from high to low, this will be the highest note played, which is convenient from the standpoint of converting polyphonic data to monophonic data for certain organ voicing or for use in solo manual fill note generation. Alternatively, the system can be utilized for converting a pulse spanning more than one time slot into a pulse occupying only a single time slot, which is coincident with the leading edge of the first-mentioned pulse. The system comprises a first latch having its clocking input connected to the serial data stream and one of its outputs connected to an input of an AND gate. The other input of the AND gate is connected to the clock train, and the output of the AND gate is connected to the clocking input of a second latch, which has its output connected to a set input of the first latch. The first latch initiates the pulse at its output when the leading edge of the first occurring data pulse appears at the clocking input, and this first latch changes state when the output of the AND gate changes state, which is a function of the clock train rather than a function of the trailing edge of the data pulse. The high note data pulse appearing at the output of the first latch is, therefore, synchronized with the main data stream and occupies only a single time slot, regardless of the pulse width of the first occurring pulse.

High note data generator

An electronic rhythm generator which comprises a large read only memory having a plurality of rhythm patterns and rhythm break patterns programmed therein, player operated selector switches for selecting a rhythm pattern and a break pattern, scanning circuitry for sequentially addressing the memory to read out the stored rhythm pattern, and, when the break circuitry is activated, reading out the break pattern in place of or in addition to the rhythm pattern. The rhythm generator is contained on a single monolithic integrated circuit chip with the pattern selection being accomplished by an external multiplexer driven by an internally generated scan word. The break activation circuitry automatically corrects for improper matching of a rhythmically incompatible rhythm pattern and break pattern by either ignoring the break command or substituting a compatible break pattern in place of the selected break pattern. Channel inhibit circuitry at the input and output of the memory permits selective playing of certain ones of the instrument channels during a rhythm break regardless of whether the break is generated internally of the chip or externally by means of a separate break generator.

Electronic rhythm generator

A fill note generator for use in electronic musical instruments such as electronic organs which include a keyboard having a solo portion customarily played by the right hand and an accompaniment portion customarily played by the left hand, and wherein the respective solo and accompaniment portions may be on separate manuals or on a single manual. A multiplexer scans the keys of the solo portion of the keyboard and generates a time division multiplexed solo data stream having keydown signals in discrete time slots for each actuated key of the solo portion of the keyboard. The keys of the accompaniment portion of the keyboard are interconnected so as to form twelve sets corresponding to the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale wherein the keys in each set are connected to a common output. A multistage shift register, which is synchronized with the multiplexer for the solo manual, has its load inputs connected to the outputs of the interconnected sets of accompaniment keys and produces on its output a fill note time division multiplexed data stream comprising keydown signals in time slots corresponding to the keydown signals loaded into its inputs from the outputs of the sets of accompaniment keys. The inputs, which are loaded once each scan of the solo portion of the keyboard, are recirculated in the shift register so that the pattern repeats itself once each octave of the scan of the solo portion of the keyboard.

Fill note generator for electronic organ

An electronic music synthesizer capable of simulating a wide variety of musical effects, wherein the settings which create the various effects are hard wired on a plurality of selectable circuit boards so that programming of the instrument can be accomplished by the player with minimum effort. The synthesizer encodes a plurality of keys on the keyboard and selects a tone from the tone generator corresponding to the depressed key. This tone is fed through a chain of dividers to create the needed footages, which are then fed to voicing cards that create the different tone sources for the synthesizer. These tone sources are fed into a state variable active filter which modifies the timbre of the tone sources in order to achieve the desired frequency-related effects. The output of the filter is fed to a gain module wherein the amplitude envelope has a controlled attach and decay as well as several different modes of operation such as steady state and percussive, which are selected by means of multiple bit binary words produced at the preprogrammed circuit board. The operating frequency of the filter is controlled by an envelope generator preset in a percussive mode to have a predetermined envelope. All controls for the synthesizer are preset from the voice boards, which are individually connected in the circuit either by tab switch operation or by physically inserting the voice board in a player accessible connector.

Electronic music synthesizer

A brass pulse keyer for electronic instruments such as electronic organs wherein the tone during attack is both amplitude modulated and pulse width modulated. The keyer is adapted for large scale integration and comprises a timing capacitor, an electronic switch connected between a source of charging potential and a capacitor and having a control terminal which is connected to the tone input, and a second electronic switch connected in series with the charge voltage, the first switch, and the capacitor and having a control terminal connected to receive the keying envelope. A comparator compares the potential on the capacitor with a reference potential and disables a gating circuit when a compare condition is reached such that the duty cycle may be controlled. As the keying envelope continues towards its maximum, the duty cycle decreases so that a more brilliant tone is achieved. This signal is connected to the input of an analog keyer, which is also controlled by the keying envelope such that amplitude modulation of the tone may also be achieved.

Organ brass pulse keyer

A multiple pitch generator, in particular a chime generator, incorporated in an electronic organ of the multiplexed variety wherein the keyboard is scanned and a cyclically recurring serial data stream produced wherein keydown pulses appear in time slots corresponding to depressed keys of the keyboard. The chime generator produces a plurality of tones in response to the actuation of a single key of the solo keyboard, for example, wherein the tones are those necessary to closely simulate a chime sound. This is accomplished by sequentially passing the serial data stream containing the keydown pulse through a series of shift registers which insert in the data stream pulses in subsequent time slots corresponding to the next three lowest tones making up the chime. Since a true chime tone also includes a note five notes above the note played, the partial chime data stream is delayed five time slots and this data stream is summed with the initial data stream carrying the original keydown pulse in the time slot for the note played so as to position the additional pulse in its proper location ahead of the pulse for the actuated key. In order to then transpose the pulses in the data stream back to their proper positions for the key played, the latching pulse for the demultiplexer is delayed five time slots.

Multiplex chime generator

A circuit for an electronic organ for producing rhythmic patterns of notes in accordance with the selection of a chord in the accompaniment manual. The organ includes an accompaniment manual and a solo manual, either or both of which may be electronically scanned to develop a multiplexed data stream, and a chord generation circuit controlled by the accompaniment manual for sounding groups of notes in the accompaniment voices in response to the depression of one of the selected group of keys on the accompaniment manual. The circuit according to the present invention automatically sounds notes of the solo manual in a rhythmic pattern in response to the depression of one of the group of accompaniment manual keys by developing a logic pulse at the beginning of the top octave scan which is delayed in time to correspond to the time slot of the chord root note and subsequent notes of the chord. The amount of delay is controlled by pre-programmed patterns preselected by the musician.

Growing community of inventors

Jasper, IN, United States of America

Stephen L Howell