Blind capture system including crescendo control

Abstract

A blind capture system for organs and other electronically actuated musical instruments enabling the setting of control switches, such as voicing tabs or keys of the keyboard, to be stored for reactivation upon command. The system includes a programmable, random access memory capable of storing data representative of the composite states of the switches and includes a plurality of storage frames in which data corresponding to a plurality of separate combinations of actuated switches can be stored. The switches are scanned by a multiplexer to produce a time division multiplexed serial data stream, which is then loaded into the memory during the store mode in such a manner that the data will be entered into the proper storage frame. The data is read out of the memory as a serial data stream, which is demultiplexed to produce a parallel format signal which is connected to the control inputs for the system controlled by the switches over a bidirectional data bus. This same bus is utilized for entering data from the switches when the instrument is in the store mode. When the blind capture system is in use, the switches are electrically isolated from the inputs of the system controlled thereby, such as the organ voicing system, and all control is maintained from the blind capture system over the bidirectional data bus. A manually actuated crescendo control enables the player-programmed tab settings to be cumulatively called forth thereby resulting in a gradual buildup of voices.