In_tags

Simulated musical rainmaker
2010-03-30 00:00:00
AbstractA lightweight, disposable musical toy for school-age children with a long brush-like baffle inserted into the casing that creates the sound of rain as particulate material flows through the baffle. Visual and aural enhancements include a brightly colored coveting, a molded covering of plants and animals from the rainforest, a clear casing through which the viewer sees the particulate material flowing through the baffle, and one or more sound circuits that broadcasts the sound of rain, animal calls, or musical instruments which is activated when the casing is tipped.ClaimsWhat I claim is:<br /><br />1. A simulated musical rainmaker comprising:<br /><br />a hollow paper casing having an inside wall and closed first and second opposing ends,<br /><br />a colorful elongated-core-baffle means comprising a plurality of strips folded to form tabs that extend outward from said elongated-core-baffle means, said elongated-core-baffle means is loosely disposed in an interior of said hollow casing along the entire length of said casing, said tabs thereby break the fall of particulate material disposed within said rainmaker,<br /><br />first and second end closing means mounted on said first and second opposed ends,<br /><br />a thin decorative covering secured on an outside wall of said casing.<br /><br /...

Musical tone synthesizing apparatus utilizing an all-pass filter having a variable fractional delay
2010-03-29 00:00:00
which is produced from an percussion instrument) is picked up from the closed loop. Incidentally, the whole configuration of the closed loop can be embodied by a digital signal processor (DSP).Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A musical tone synthesizing apparatus comprising:

first delay means for delaying an input signal by a first delay time corresponding to an integral number of a sampling period;

second delay means for delaying an output of said first delay means by a second delay time corresponding to a decimal fraction of said sampling period, said first delay means and said second delay means being connected together in a closed loop so that an output of said second delay means is fed back to said first delay means;

delay calculating means for calculating a total delay amount applied to said closed loop, said total delay amount comprising an integral-part delay time and a decimal-part delay time, said integral-part delay time corresponding to said first delay time and said decimal-part delay time corresponding to said second delay time; and

control means for controlling said integral-part delay time and said decimal-part delay time in an interrelated manner to minimize discontinuity in an output of said second delay means, whereby a musical tone signal representing a synthesized musical tone is output from said closed loop.

2. A musical tone synthesizing apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said second delay means is a all-pass filter which acts upon a filter coefficient supplied thereto, while said control means produces and supplies said filter coefficient to said all-pass filter such that a delay operation corresponding to said second delay time can be carried out by said all-pass filter.

3. A musical tone synthesizing apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said control means controls said decimal-part delay time to be approximately equal to zero when said control means controls said integral-part delay time to be increased, while said control means controls said decimal-part delay time to correspond to one sampling period when said control means controls said integral-part delay time to be decreased.

4. A musical tone synthesizing apparatus comprising:

delay means for delaying an input signal by a first delay time corresponding to a certain integral number of sampling periods;

an all-pass filter for receiving an output of said delay means and for delaying said output by a second delay time corresponding to a decimal fraction of said sampling period in response to a filter coefficient supplied thereto, said delay means and said all-pass filter being connected together in a closed loop so that an output of said all-pass filter is fed back to said delay means;

delay calculating means for calculating a whole delay amount applied to said closed loop, said whole delay amount consisting of an integral-part delay time and a decimal-part delay time, said integral-part delay time corresponding to said first delay time, while said decimal-part delay time corresponds to said second delay time;

control means for controlling said integral-part delay time which is applied to said delay means as said first delay time and said filter coefficient such that said first and second delay times are controlled in an interrelated manner to minimize a discontinuity in an output of said all-pass filter; and

an interpolation means for performing an interpolation operation on said filter coefficient in response to a variation of said integral-part delay time controlled by said control means, whereby a musical tone signal representing a synthesized musical tone is obtained from said closed loop.

5. A musical tone synthesizing apparatus comprising:

excitation wave producing means for producing an excitation wave signal;

an adder for receiving said excitation wave signal;

delay means for receiving an output of said adder so as to delay it by a first delay time which corresponds to an integral number of sampling periods;

an all-pass filter, responsive to a filter coefficient supplied thereto so as to at least delay an output of said delay means by a second delay time which corresponds to a decimal fraction of said sampling period;

a low-pass filter for performing a low-pass filtering operation on an output of said all-pass filter;

a multiplier for multiplying an output of said low-pass filter by a loop gain supplied thereto, wherein said adder, said delay means, said all-pass filter, said low-pass filter and said multiplier are connected together to form a closed loop so that an output of said multiplier is fed back to said adder in which it is added to said excitation wave signal; and

a delay control means for controlling said first delay time and said second delay time, respectively, in an interrelated manner to minimize discontinuity in said output of said all-pass filter, whereby a musical tone signal representing a synthesized musical tone is obtained from said output of said adder, while a tone pitch of said musical tone is continuously controlled by said control means.

6. A musical tone synthesizing apparatus comprising:

a signal producing portion for producing a signal;

a loop-circuit portion connected with said signal producing portion, said loop-circuit portion receiving said signal outputted from said signal producing portion so as to circulate it therethrough, resulting that said signal is modified in accordance with a characteristic of said loop-circuit portion while circulating through said loop-circuit portion,

said loop-circuit portion further including an integral-stage delay means having an integral delay amount and a decimal-stage delay means having a decimal delay amount, said integral-stage delay means providing at least one delay means of which delay amount corresponds to an integral "1" while said decimal delay amount of said decimal-stage delay means is smaller than said delay amount of said delay means,

wher...

Method and apparatus for representing musical information
2010-03-26 00:00:00
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identifying a plurality of entries that represent rhythmic, melodic, and interpretive aspects of the musical information, each entry comprising one unit of music data selectively representing a rest, a note or a chord and a set of details associated with the entry;

linking successive entries for a given instrument together;

designating the musical information to be associated with the given instrument and measure by;

assigning a first pointer to the successive entries for the given instrument to designate the first entry to be included in the measure; and

assigning a last pointer to the successive entries for the given instrument to designate the last entry to be included in the measure.DescriptionTECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to the field of music processing devices and methods and apparatus for musical transcription and notation. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for representing within a common data structure in the memory means of a computer data processing system musical information that includes both the graphic or visual attributes of the musical information and the related acoustic or sound attributes of the musical information.

BACKGROUND ART

Like human language, musical information is comprised of both aural and written components. The written language of music or musical notation has existed for more than eight centuries, but until the advent of the printing press musicians and composers were required to perform the time consuming task of manual notation in order to memoralize their compositions. Even with the printing press, music notation processing has always been a post composition process usually performed by someone other than the composer or musician. With the introduction of computers, special programming languages have been developed to handle the entry and printing of musical notation. These languages generally use a textually-based user interface that requires the user to enter lengthy sets of computer codes in order to generate a single page of musical notation.

In recent years, music transcription systems have been developed for personal computers in an effort to aid the musician and composer in using musical notation. Some of these transcriptions systems have even attempted to take acoustic musical information recorded as electronic messages and turn this information into standard musical notation or sheet music. Unfortunately, the transcription process of these systems is generally a one-way path and there are no provisions for capturing interpretive musical information, or for recreating the musical information as sound based on the stored music data that are transcribed from the original musical information.

While the music processing devices presently available allow a user to print musical information more efficiently than traditional hand engraving of printing plates, they are far from an ideal music processing apparatus. An ideal music processing apparatus should be able to receive the musical information from its native environment (musical sound), represent the musical information in such a way that it may be automatically converted into its written language equivalent (musical notation), present the musical notation to the user so that it may be manipulated or edited, and then output the musical information, either as musical notation or as musical sound, exactly as it has been composed.

Present music processing apparatus cannot simulate an ideal music processing apparatus in large part because of the limitations imposed by the present methods and systems for internally representing musical information in these systems. The internal representation of musical information for a music processing apparatus is a problem that has challenged musicologists for more than twenty-five years with no single or satisfactory solution. Most music processing apparatus use a code-type representation that stores only the specific musical information needed to achieve the limited objectives of the system, i.e., information about pitch alone, about rhythm alone, or about pitch and rhythm without reference to dynamics or articulation. A few music processing apparatus have attempted to develop language-type representations that would enable the user to encode any element of musical information that is present in common musical notation. For example, the DARMS and MUSTRAN encoding languages were developed for mainframe computers. While flexible and more complete than the code-type representations, current music encoding languages are limited to textual-based entry of musical information and are not structured enough to provide a workable method and apparatus for representing musical information that could be used to create a device approaching the ideal music processing apparatus.

The Directory of Computer Assisted Research in Musicology, Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities, 1987, pp. 1-22, identifies five broad classifications that encompass the current methods and systems for representing musical information: music/machine-readable code; music/logic; music/parametric; music/graphic; and music/acoustic. These classifications provide a background for thinking about the various stages of music data representation as the music data move from the input process to the various output processes of display, printing, analysis and sound in a music processing apparatus.

The first classification, music/machine-readable code, covers music processing apparatus that use a code-type representation, usually in the form of an unstructured character string, wherein each character represents, for example, the pitch or duration of the next role to be played in the sequence. The music/logical classification covers those representations that attempt to organize the musical information into logical records and, in this form, more closely represent the logical meaning or structure of the musical information itself. This is the general type of representation that is necessary for developing an ideal music processing apparatus. The next classification, music/parametric, includes all the information of the music/logical representation but presents this data as a list of ...

Music search by interactive graphical specification with audio feedback
2010-03-25 00:00:00
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20. The computer-based system of claim 15, wherein the musical query is in a MIDI format.

21. The computer-based system of claim 15, wherein the musical query is in an audio format.

22. The computer-based system of claim 15, wherein the logic for graphically generating the musical segment is implemented in a software program accessible by a graphical interface for graphically generating the musical segment via a web browser over a network.

23. The computer-based system of claim 22, wherein the computer-based system is a local client, the network is the internet, and the desired piece of music resides on a server connected to the local client via the Internet.

24. The computer-based system of claim 15, comprising:

logic that modifies the generated musical segment in response to user inputs to change characteristics of the musical segment.

25. The computer-based system of claim 15, comprising:

logic that replaces the generated musical segment with the created graphical representation of the selected music portion;

logic that graphically adjusts the replaced generated musical segment; and

logic that provides audio feedback to a user by playing at least a portion of the adjusted generated musical segment.

26. The computer-based system of claim 25, comprising:

logic that allows the user to repeat graphically adjusting the replaced generated musical segment and providing audio feedback from the adjusted generated musical segment, until the adjusted generated musical segment has been acknowledged as acceptable; and

wherein the logic that generates the second musical query is activated after the adjusted generated musical segment has been acknowledged as acceptable.

27. The computer-based system of claim 26, comprising:

logic that graphically adjusts the replaced generated musical segment in response to user inputs to change characteristics of the musical segment.Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to multimedia asset management systems, and in particular to the location and retrieval of multimedia files based on a graphically entered music search.

2. Background Information

Audio searching of large multimedia databases has many important applications. Large multimedia databases or collections can contain both audio and video files. Conventional systems store and retrieve specific information from a database using, for example, descriptive information regarding the image file, such as file creation date, file name, file extension and the like. This form of data search and retrieval is not significantly different from the any other digital information.

By relying on the file information, only cursory information can be obtained about the file and nothing at all specifically related to the audio content of the file. For example, an audio file could have a name that has no relation to the features or content of the file, such as a file containing samples of barking dogs could have the file name "cats". Other systems can provide additional information based on the content of the file. However, this is usually done by keyword annotation, which is a laborious task.

Multimedia databases containing music files can have a variety of formats. However the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) format, which has been used since 1983, is the most prevalent. The MIDI format has many advantages for representing music in a digital form. One of the most relevant features of the MIDI format for musical searching is the standardization of the musical scale into a range of integers, from 0 to 127. For example, middle C is assigned integer value of 60, corresponding notes above and below middle C are represented by corresponding integers (i.e., the C# above middle C is MIDI note 61). Additionally, the MIDI format allows for multiple tracks containing musical notes, percussion,...

Method and apparatus for generating musical tone waveforms by user input of sample waveform frequency
2010-03-24 00:00:00
which is executed on a computer and comprises:

a first receiving step of receiving performance information;

a second receiving step of receiving instruction information for instructing a digital filter to switch on or off;

a generating step of carrying out, at predetermined time intervals longer than a sampling cycle, a musical tone waveform calculation in response to the received performance information, for generating a plurality of musical tone waveform samples, and storing the generated plurality of musical tone waveform samples in a memory, wherein said musical tone waveform calculation includes a digital filtering step of filtering said generated plurality of musical tone waveform samples to control a tone color of said musical tone waveform samples, only when said instruction information for instructing the digital filter to switch on is received by said second receiving step; and

a reproducing step of outputting said plurality of musical tone waveform samples, sample by sample, every sampling cycle.

31. A machine-readable storage medium storing instructions to cause a machine to perform a method of generating musical tones which is executed on a computer and comprises:

a first receiving step of receiving performance information;

a second receiving step of receiving instruction information for instructing a low frequency oscillator to switch on or off;

a generating step of carrying out, at predetermined time intervals longer than a sampling cycle, a musical tone waveform calculation in response to the received performance information, for generating a plurality of musical tone waveform samples, and storing the generated plurality of musical tone waveform samples in a memory, wherein said musical tone waveform calculation includes a low frequency oscillator step of imparting vibrato to said generated plurality of musical tone waveform samples, only when said instruction information for instructing the low frequency oscillator to switch on is received by said second receiving step; and

a reproducing step of outputting said plurality of musical tone waveform samples, sample by sample, every sampling cycle.

32. A machine-readable storage medium storing instructions to cause a machine to perform a method of generating musical tones which is executed on a computer and comprises:

a first receiving step of receiving performance information;

a second receiving step of receiving selection information;

a generating step of carrying out, at predetermined time intervals longer than a sampling cycle, a musical tone waveform calculation in response to the received performance information, for generating a plurality of musical tone waveform samples for each of a plurality of channels, mixing the generated plurality of musical tone waveform samples for each of the plurality of channels, and storing the mixed plurality of musical tone waveform samples in a memory, wherein said musical tone waveform calculation includes

a characteristic control processing step of controlling a characteristic of the mixed plurality of musical tone waveform samples in a manner selected by said selection information; and

a reproducing step of outputting said plurality of musical tone waveform samples generated by said generating step, sample by sample, every sampling cycle.Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a musical tone-generating method which generates musical tone waveforms by executing a musical tone-generating program by means of a programmable processing unit such as a CPU or a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), and also relates to a musical tone-generating apparatus which generates musical tone waveforms by executing a musical tone-generating program.

2. Prior Art

In a conventional tone generator or a conventional musical tone-generating program which generates musical tone waveforms, through computation, the sampling frequency, the maximum number of musical tones that can be generated at the same time, and the contents of processing of each musical tone are set beforehand, irrespective of the types of musical tones to be generated and conditions under which other processings such as background processing are executed.

In the conventional tone generator and the musical tone-generating program, however, the following inconveniences have been encountered:

(1) Musical tone-generating operations employed are fixed, and therefore in some cases, processings which are not necessary are executed, and in other cases, essential processings are not executed.

For example, in a tone generator or a musical tone-generating program which can generate musical tones simultaneously through a plurality of tone-generating channels, musical tones are generated through each tone-generating channel independently of those generated through the other channels, and the number of waveform samples to be generated per unit time is constant for all the tone-generating channels. Therefore, although musical tones generated through each channel have different characteristics from those generated through the other channels and have different qualities required according to the kinds of the musical tones, the same number of waveform samples are generated for all the tone-generating channels. As a result, the conventional tone generator or the musical tone-generating program performs wasteful operations for generating musical tones.

For example, to generate musical tones with frequency components over a broad frequency band, i.e. with a high quality, the operation for generating musical tone waveforms has to be carried out at a high sampling frequency (i.e. with a large number of samples), while to generate musical tones with frequency components only in a low frequency band, it suffices to perform the operation for generating musical tone waveforms at a low sampling frequency (i.e. with a small number of samples). Further, some music pieces require a large number of musical tones to be generat...

Graphic/tactile musical keyboard and nomographic music notation
2010-03-23 00:00:00
music notation. In a first embodiment of the keyboard, an upper row of keys produces the notes C.sup.# /Db, D.sup.# /Eb, F, G, A and B, with the C.sup.# /Db and D.sup.# /Eb keys being extended forward. The upper row keys are narrower in the highest octaves. The middle row produces the notes C, D, E, F.sup.# /Gb, G.sup.# /Ab and A.sup.# /Bb, with the F.sup.# /Gb, G.sup.# /Ab, and A.sup.# /Bb keys extended forward. The lower row keys are aligned with and play the same notes as the upper row keys. In a second embodiment of the keyboard, the upper row keys are narrower in the upper octaves. The F and G upper row keys have raised top surfaces, extended and beveled front ends, and darkened surfaces. The middle row C keys have extended and beveled front ends, raised top surfaces, and darkened surfaces. The lower row F and G keys are raised and darkened.The nomographic notation is correlated to the keyboard by nomographically marking the lines and spaces of the stave adjacent the key signature and similarly graphically marking the notes played on the upper or lower row with a diagonal slant " ".ClaimsI claim:

1. A graphic/tactile musical instruction system, comprising:

tone producing means for producing a musical note in response to the actuation of a selected key of a keyboard;

a graphic/tactile keyboard wherein actuation of any two adjacent keys within a single row causes the tone producing means to produce two musical notes separated by a whole tone, and actuation of any two adjoining keys in adjacent rows produces two musical notes separated by a half-tone, the keyboard having:

an upper row of keys positioned relatively farther away from the player, the upper row keys producing the notes C鈾?/D鈾? D鈾?/E鈾? F, G, A and B, wherein adjacent upper row keys are separated by a gap, and wherein selected upper row keys are graphically and tactilely differentiated from the remaining upper row keys, the upper row keys in a predetermined one or more highest octaval groupings being narrower than the upper row keys in octaval groupings below said narrower keys;

a middle row of keys positioned lower and relatively closer to the player than the upper row, the middle row keys producing the notes C, D, E, F鈾?/G鈾? G鈾?/A鈾?and A鈾?/B鈾? wherein a longitudinal centerline of each middle row key is parallel to and laterally offset from the longitudinal centerline of an adjacent upper row key, and wherein the middle row keys have a uniform width approximately equal to the width of any selected one of the upper row keys plus the width of the gap separating the upper row key from an adjacent upper row key, and wherein selected middle row keys are graphically and tactilely differentiated from the remaining middle row keys; and

a lower row of keys positioned lower and relatively closer to the player than the middle row, wherein the longitudinal centerline of each of said lower row keys is aligned with the longitudinal centerline of a corresponding upper row key which produces the same note as said lower row key, wherein said lower row keys have a uniform width equal to the uniform width of the middle row keys, and wherein the frontmost ends of all said lower row keys are coplanar; and

a nomographic music notation system comprising musical notation wherein notes to be played on one row of the keyboard are graphically marked while notes to be played on another row of the keyboard are unmarked, said notation system, in addition to conventional key signature symbols, including in the key signature area nomographic symbols indicating the lines and spaces on which said graphically marked notes occur.

2. A musical instruction system according to claim 1, wherein the graphic markings on certain notes and the nomographic markings in the key signature are alike.

3. The musical instruction system of claim 1, wherein notes are marked with a diagonal slant " " through the body of the note.

4. The musical instruction system of claim 1, wherein the upper row C鈾?/D鈾?and D鈾?/E鈾?keys are graphically and tactilely differentiated from the remaining upper row keys by lengthening the upper row C鈾?/D鈾?and D鈾?/E鈾?keys so that from ends thereof are relatively closer to the pl...

Suspension of musical instruments
2010-03-20 00:00:00
to said main strap and said second end of said secondary strap attached to said instrument; and said main strap is comprised of a ring and two minor straps, each having a first end and a second end, with said first ends of said minor straps attached to said ring and said first end of said secondary strap attached to said ring.

20. A harness as defined in claim 1 wherein one of said means for attaching said suspension means to said one of said attachment means or said means for attaching said suspension means to said another of said attachment means has an intermediate position and said means for attaching said suspension means to said still another attachment point of said instrument extends from said intermediate position.Description

Large stringed instruments, such as guitars, which are commonly suspended about the shoulder of the musician, are held by a harness, which often has both of its ends attached to the main body of the instrument.

In many modern stringed instruments, such as guitars, there is an elongated neck that extends from the body of the instrument and terminates in a head pad with laterally protruding keys or knobs by which the strings can be adjusted. Because the head pad tends to be enlarged for aesthetic and utilitarian reasons, it applies a substantial amount of torque to the main body of the instrument through the elongated neck, when both ends of the harness are attached to the main body, resulting in an imbalance. Thus, the guitar player generally has to apply pressure with his arm to the base of the guitar near where the harness is attached, in order to balance the instrument.

In another common method of suspending large instruments, such as guitars, by a shoulder harness, one end of the harness is attached to the main body of the instrument, and the other end of the harness is attached to part of the instrument removed from the main body. For example, guitars are sometimes suspended by means of a strap with one end attached to the main body of the guitar and with the other end attached to the head pad, which is attached to the main body by an elongated neck. With such suspension, the instrument tends to rest with its center of gravity directly below the region where the harness contacts the shoulder of the musician. With instruments having very long necks, such suspension causes the active playing area of the instrument to lie out of convenient reach of the musician. The musician must then apply a force to the instrument in order to swing the active playing area of the instrument to a convenient position. A further disadvantage of such suspension for relatively large instruments is the length the harness must traverse, and the necessarily small angle the harness makes with the neck of the instrument. There results a loose and insecure positioning of the instrument with respect to the musician. The harness tends to slip fro...

Hand-held percussion musical instrument comprising elongate tube shaped as a ring, incorporating dividers, and incoporating contained sound-generating elements
2010-03-18 00:00:00
is shaken by said one hand.Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to hand-held percussion musical instruments for use by a performer to lend percussion sound emphasis to music, singing and/or dancing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Examples of percussion musical instruments designed to be held in one hand by a performer for lending motion and percussion sound emphasis to music, singing and/or dancing include the tambourine and the maraca. Typically the tambourine is a shallow one-headed drum with loose metallic discs at the sides and which is played by shaking, striking with the hand, or striking the instrument against other portions of the body. The typical maraca is a dried gourd or the like, as on a handle, the gourd being hollow and containing dried seeds or pebbles. In either case, such conventional instruments may be held in one hand and are used to lend emphasis to the body and arm movements of a singer or dancer, as well as to lend percussion sound emphasis to music whether or not accompanied by visual body movements of a singer or dancer.

The instrument of the present invention, albeit different in material respects, falls within this same general class of percussion instruments.

Accordingly, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a new and unique hand-held musical percussion instrument, also suitable as an attractive prop for a singer or dancer, and which is convenient to manipulate and capable of producing unique percussion sounds and sound combinations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The percussion musical instrument comprises a hard elongate tube that is, in effect, bent upon itself so as to form a closed figure. The tube contains masses of relatively hard substance, such as steel, that impact against the tube wall and generates percussive sounds. Interior walls divide the tube into chambers, and the walls act as soundboards for the hard masses.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a hand-held percussion musical instrument is formed as a rigid tubular ring having an external diameter within a range of about 7 to about 12 inches. The ring includes a plurality of at least 5 or more elongate hollow tubes connected end-to-end, with each tube having a rigid tubular wall and rigid opposite end walls defining a closed hollow tube interior. Loosely contained within the hollow interior of a plurality of said tubes are the plurality of relatively small hard solid masses, whereby the instrument may be hand-held and manipulated so as to cause the solid masses to impact the tubular walls, end walls and each other to create audible percussion sounds, and whereby the instrument may be used to accompany and lend emphasis to singing and/or dancing.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the elongate tubes are approximately straight and connected end-to-end as a polygon configured ring, with the tubular walls being sufficiently thin, hard and rigid to act as soundboards for acoustically coupling induced vibrations from said solid masses audibly to the external surrounding atmosphere. The most favorable construction utilizes at least six similar hollow tubes connected together to form a regular hexagon.

Also in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the rigid tubular ring is formed primarily of injection molded hard and rigid pl...

Method and apparatus for achieving timbre modulation in an electronic musical instrument
2010-03-15 00:00:00
AbstractIn a digital musical instrument, timbre modulation is effected through the use of a digital magnitude comparator and associated digital logic. Selected note frequency signals and selected scale factors are compared in the digital magnitude comparator. Selected comparator outputs are applied to the associated digital logic in conjunction with a sample gating signal. This modulation results in a segmentation of the audio waveshape in accordance with the frequency signals selected for use in the comparator. Hence, choice of lower pitched frequency signals will result in a wider segmentation period, while choice of higher pitched frequency signals will narrow the segmentation period. Timbre modulation may be employed during note attack and/or decay.ClaimsI claim:

1. Apparatus for achieving timbre modulation in an electronic musical instrument including an audio wave shape generator responsive to octavely related note frequency signals,comprising:

means for generating a variable magnitude digital signal,

means connected to the audio wave shape generator for generating octavely related note frequency signals,

digital magnitude comparator means for comparing said variable digital signal with said octavely related note frequency signals and for producing an output signal based on predetermined comparisons,

means for generating a sample gating signal indicative of the desired state of the audio wave shape generator, and

digital logic means connected to the audio wave shape generator for accepting said sample gating signal and said digital magnitude comparator output signal and for producing a timbre modulated sample gating signal for controlling the audio waveshape generator.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said means for generating said octavely related note frequency signals includes a multiplexed accumulator.