JPH0666039B2 - Electronic musical instrument - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument, and is particularly intended to simplify an operation required for setting a musical tone.

Conventionally, in an electronic musical instrument capable of generating a plurality of series of tone signals in parallel in response to a key pressing operation, a tone color selection switch group including a plurality of tone color selection switches is provided to select a tone color of each of the plurality of tone signal groups. In some cases, multiple groups were provided for each series.

However, in the case where a plurality of timbre selection switches are provided for each series, the device becomes large and the operability of the selection operation is poor, so a plurality of switches for selecting a predetermined timbre are provided, In the case where two of the switches are operated at the same time, there is a system in which two series of tones are respectively made to correspond to the two operated switches.

However, in such a conventional electronic musical instrument,
The operability was poor because it was necessary to simultaneously operate a plurality of switches corresponding to the desired tone formation conditions when setting a plurality of series of tones. Further, when it is desired to change a part of a combination of tone colors of a plurality of series, it is necessary to operate a plurality of switches again at the same time, resulting in poor operability.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and in an electronic musical instrument capable of generating a plurality of series of musical tone signals in parallel in response to a key depression operation, setting of a plurality of series of tone colors is simple and simple. It is intended to provide an electric musical instrument that can be performed by various operations.

In order to achieve such an object, in the present invention, a performance operator for generating pitch information according to a performance operation, a tone color designating operator for designating a desired tone color from a plurality of tone colors, and the tone color A plurality of tone color information storage means capable of storing a plurality of tone color information corresponding to the tone color designated by the designated operator, and a plurality of tone color information storage means stored each time the tone color is newly designated by the tone color designation operator. Updating means for automatically updating the oldest tone color information of the tone color information to the tone color information newly designated by the tone color designating operator, and the pitch corresponding to the pitch information output from the performance operator. And a tone signal generating means for generating in parallel a plurality of tone signals of tone colors corresponding to a plurality of tone color information stored in the tone color information storage means.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates the overall appearance of the electronic musical instrument. A keyboard 2 is provided in front of the operation panel surface, and an operation panel 3 is provided behind it. On the operation panel 3, a tone color selection switch group 4 and a tone color display 5 are arranged in parallel on the left half, and an envelope selection switch group 6 and an envelope display 7 are arranged on the right half. A speaker 8 is provided at the right end of the operation panel 3.

As shown in FIG. 2, the tone color selection switch group 4 has a configuration in which, for example, twelve tone color selection switches 11 which are, for example, quick-recovery type push button switches are horizontally arranged in two rows corresponding to 12 types of tone colors. The tone color display 5 has two indicator lamps for displaying the tone color numbers designated by the last two selection operations when the tone color selection switches 4 are sequentially selected.
It consists of 12.

As shown in FIG. 3, the envelope selection switch group 6 has a configuration in which twelve envelope selection switches 13, which are, for example, quick recovery pushbutton switches, are horizontally arranged in two rows. The envelope selection switch group 6 is composed of two indicators 14 for displaying the envelope number designated by the last two operations.

The electronic musical instrument 1 has a circuit configuration as shown in FIG. 4 including switch groups 4 and 6 as operators for setting and inputting these parameters, indicators 5 and 7, and a keyboard 2. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 15 is a tone signal generating circuit, and in this embodiment, two series of tone signal generating sections are built in, and the tone signals generated by the tone signal generating sections of each sequence are mixed to form a sound system 16. It is designed to be given and converted to a musical sound.
The tone signal generation circuit 15 includes tone color data TD given from the tone color data memory 17 as a tone parameter and envelope data ED given from the envelope generation circuit 18.
And the pitch data PD given in correspondence with the key pressed from the keyboard 2.

The tone signal generation circuit 15 is configured to include two series of waveform memories that store twelve types of musical tone waveforms according to the types of tones that can be designated by the tone color selection switch group 4, and the tone color selection circuit for each sequence. When the tone color number data S1 generated in 19 is converted into tone color data TD of a predetermined signal format in the tone color data memory 17 and given to the circuit 15, among the tone waveforms stored in the waveform memory of each series. A tone waveform corresponding to the tone color data TD is read at a speed corresponding to the pitch data PD.

In this way, each tone waveform data read from the waveform memory of each sequence is multiplied by the envelope data ED of each sequence given from the envelope generating circuit 18 and sent to the sound system 16 as the two tone signal TS. It

The envelope generation circuit 18 is composed of two series of waveform memories each storing 12 kinds of envelope waveforms that can be selected by the envelope selection switch group 6, and the envelope number data S2 generated in the envelope selection circuit 20 is converted into envelope data. After being converted into a selection signal S3 having a predetermined signal format in the memory 21, the selection signal S3 is received and the corresponding envelope waveform is read according to the level change of the key-on signal KON given from the keyboard 2 to generate a tone signal as envelope data ED. It is designed to be sent to the circuit 15. Here, the key-on signal KON rises from logic "0" to logic "1" each time a key on the keyboard 2 is pressed, and then falls to logic "0" when the key is released. 18 reads the attack waveform data at its rising edge, then maintains the sustain waveform data, and reads the decay waveform data at its falling edge.

In the case of this embodiment, the tone color selecting circuit 19 is constructed as shown in FIG. That is, both ends of each switch 11 of the tone color selection switch group 4 are connected to logic signal sources of logic "1" and "0", respectively, and when each switch 11 is off, it is at the logic "0" level and when it is on, the logic " The selected output of 1 ”level is given to the priority encoder 31.

The priority encoder 31 outputs 2 tones simultaneously from the tone color selection switch group 4.
When the above selection outputs are given, only the one having the highest priority is selected and the tone color number is coded and sent to the first stage register 32. The first stage register 32 gives the stored data to the second stage register 33. On the other hand, the selection output of the tone color selection switch group 4 is given to the one-shot circuit 35 through the OR circuit 34, and one of the tone color selection switches 11 is selected.
One pulse PL is sent from the one-shot circuit 35 every time one of the selected outputs rises from the logic level "0" of the selected output to "1", and this is given to the registers 32 and 33 as a load signal. Therefore, the selection switch 11 of the tone color selection switch group 4
Every time is pressed, the output PL of the one-shot circuit 35 reads the stored content of the first stage register 32 into the second stage register 33, and immediately after that, the tone color number data output from the priority encoder 31 is the first stage. Read into register 32. In this state, when the tone color selection switch 11 is further pressed to output new tone color number data from the priority encoder 31, the first stage register 32 reads the new tone color number data and the first stage register until then.
The tone color number data stored in 32 is stored in the second stage register 33.
Will be read by. In the same manner, each time any one of the tone color selection switches 11 is pressed, the tone color number data selected last is stored in the first stage register 32, and the tone color selected by the previous operation is selected. The number data will be stored in the second stage register 33. In addition,
The operations of the registers 32 and 33 are performed in the same manner even when the tone color selection switch 11 having the same number is continuously pressed, and in this case, the same tone color data is stored in both the registers 32 and 33. The state will be obtained.

The stored contents of the first-stage and second-stage registers 32 and 33 are given to the tone color data memory 17 (FIG. 4) as the first-series and second-series tone color selection data S1, respectively. Two series of tone signals having the tone color selected by the last switch operation (tone group selection switch group 4 operation) and the tone color selected by the immediately preceding switch operation are formed, and synthesized into the sound system 16. Given.

The outputs of the first-stage and second-stage registers 32 and 33 are applied to the indicator lamp 12 of the timbre indicator 5, and the timbre number thus selected is displayed on the operation panel 3.

The envelope selection circuit 20 has the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 5 and, as shown in FIG. 6, replaces the tone color selection switches 11 of the tone color selection switches 4 of FIG. Select switch 13 of is connected, and the fifth
It has the same configuration as the tone color selection circuit 19 except that the indicator light 14 of the envelope indicator 7 is used in place of the indicator light 12 of the tone color indicator 5 in the figure. Thus the envelope selection circuit 20
The envelope selection data S2 sent from the first and second stage registers 32 and 33 of the
(Fig. 4) is applied to the envelope generating circuit 18, and the two envelope data ED of the envelope waveform thus selected are applied to the tone signal generating circuit 15 for the tone signals of the first and second series, respectively. The amplitude envelope is added by the first and second series of envelope waveforms.

In the above-described structure, the player sequentially operates the tone color selection switches 11 of the tone color selection switch group 4 to select a desired tone color prior to playing. In this case, the tone color selection circuit 19 (fifth
In the figure, the tone color number data selected by the last selection operation is stored in the first stage register 32, and the tone color number data selected by the operation immediately before that is the second tone color data.
The tone data is stored in the stage register 33, and the stored data in the second stage and first stage registers 33 and 32 is displayed on the tone color display 5 and, at the same time, through the tone color data memory 17, the tone signal generation circuit 15
Select and specify the corresponding tone waveform given to. Similarly, prior to the performance, the player selects an envelope to be added to the musical tone by sequentially operating the envelope selection switches 13 of the envelope selection switch group 6. At this time, the first and second stages of the envelope selection circuit 20 (FIG. 6)
The envelope numbers selected by the last operation and the envelope number selected by the previous operation are stored in the stage registers 32 and 33, respectively, and the stored data are displayed on the envelope display 7. At the same time, it is given to the envelope generation circuit 18 via the envelope data memory 21 to select and designate the corresponding envelope waveform.

When the player starts playing on the keyboard 2 in this state, the pitch data PD corresponding to the pressed key is displayed on the keyboard 2.
The tone waveform specified by the tone color selection circuit 19 is read at a speed corresponding to the specified pitch by being supplied to the tone signal generation circuit 11 from the keyboard tone signal KON generated from the keyboard 2. A tone signal is generated by sequentially reading the attack waveform, the sustain waveform and the decay waveform in the envelope generation circuit 18 at the time of rising to the logic "1", and during the subsequent period of the logic "1" and the falling to the logic "0". The tone signal TS obtained by adding the envelopes designated by the envelope selection circuit 20 (FIG. 6) to the two series of tone signals generated in the circuit 15 and then synthesizing them is applied to the sound system 16.

To change the timbre in such a playing state, it is sufficient to newly select the timbre selection switch 11 of the timbre selection switch group 4 at any time, if necessary, and also to change the envelope. The envelope selection switch 13 of the selection switch group 6 may be selected at a timing as necessary. Thus, the tone color selection circuit 19 (Fig. 5) and the envelope selection circuit 20 (6th)
(1) New tone color data and envelope number data are loaded into the first-stage registers 32 in FIG.
The data stored in the first stage register 32 until then is transferred to the second stage register 33, and thus the tone signal generating circuit
Fifteen first series and second series tone waveforms and envelope waveforms are newly selected.

When the same tone color number or the same envelope number is selected during the tone color and envelope selection operation, the tone color selection circuit 19 and the envelope selection circuit 20 are selected.
Since the contents stored in the first-stage and second-stage registers 32 and 33 are the same, the same tone waveform or envelope waveform is designated for the tone signals of the first and second series of the tone signal generating circuit 15. become. Sound system 16
The musical sound generated from will produce the overtone effect,
In this case, the stored waveform of the tone waveform memory in the tone signal generation circuit 15 and the stored waveform of the envelope waveform memory in the envelope generation circuit 18 may be slightly different from each other for the first series and the second series, or the tone color data memory may be used.
17 and the first series and second of the envelope data memory 21
By setting the stored data of the memories corresponding to the series so as to slightly differ from each other, the overtone effect can be made more complicated.

According to the electronic musical instrument having such a configuration, it is possible to generate a plurality of tones (two tones in this case) from the sound system 16 by operating one key of the keyboard 2. In this way, with regard to the tones and envelopes, it is possible to generate a musical tone accompanied by the overtone effect by simply performing a simple selection operation using the tone color selection switch group 4 and the envelope selection switch group 6 on the operation panel 3. It is possible to freely change the tone color and / or the envelope of the generated musical tone by newly selecting and operating the tone color selection switch group 4 or the envelope selection switch group 6 at an arbitrary timing as needed. Therefore, even a beginner who is unfamiliar with the operation of this kind of electronic musical instrument can easily generate a relatively complicated musical sound by a simple operation.

Further, if configured as described above, the tone color selection circuit 19 and the envelope selection circuit 20 will replace the oldest data of the selection data that has been selected so far with the new selection operation. Since it is configured, even if the wrong timbre number and / or envelope number is selected during the timbre selection operation and / or the envelope selection operation, the correct selection data is immediately replaced in place of the erroneous selection data. You can enter.

Although the tone color selection circuit 19 and the envelope selection circuit 20 are separately provided in the above embodiment,
As can be seen from the drawings and FIG. 6, they differ in whether the tone color selection switch 11 of the tone color selection switch group 4 or the envelope selection switch 13 of the envelope selection switch group 6 is connected to the input side. Points, first and second
Other parts except that the outputs of the stage registers 32 and 33 are sent to the tone color display 5 and the tone color data memory 17 or the envelope color display 7 and the envelope data memory 21 are different. Have the same structure. Therefore, a tone color selection mode / envelope selection mode switching switch is provided between the same component portion and a different component portion, and the tone color selection operation is performed while the tone color selection mode is switched to the tone color selection mode. Number data as tone color display 5 and tone color data memory
17 or the switching switch is switched to the envelope selection mode to perform envelope selection operation and the envelope number data generated at this time is sent to the envelope display 7 and the envelope data memory 21. Also, the same effect as the above case can be obtained. Further, in this case, the overall configuration of the tone color selection circuit and the envelope selection circuit can be further simplified.

Also, in the above description, the case has been described in which the tone color selection switch group 4 and the envelope selection switch group 6 are allowed to select two series of tone colors and envelopes, but instead of this, a number of one series or three series or more can be selected. You can

Further, in the above description, the case where the tone signal generating circuit 15 has a waveform memory configuration for storing tone signal waveforms has been described. However, instead of this, a tone forming method by a calculation such as a so-called frequency modulation (FM) method or high frequency synthesis. A system, a filter system, or the like having a configuration of a tone forming system can be used, and various changes can be made. In this case, in the tone color data memory 17, when the tone signal generation circuit 15 is the FM system, data for determining the frequency relationship between the modulated wave and the carrier wave and the modulation index are stored corresponding to each tone color number, and the high frequency synthesis system is also used. In the case of, the data for determining the amplitude of each high frequency component is stored, and in the case of the filter system, the data for determining the filter characteristic is stored. Further, in the envelope data memory 21, data for instructing the shape of the envelope waveform (such as a persistent envelope or a percussive envelope) and data for determining the rise / fall time of the envelope waveform are associated with each envelope number. Remember.

Further, in the case of the above-mentioned embodiment, the timbre selection circuit 19 (FIG. 5) and the envelope selection circuit 20 (FIG. 6) having the configuration of storing the selection data in the registers 32 and 33 are used.
Instead of this, a microcomputer for executing the functions shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 may be used.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the keyboard 2 (FIG. 1) is used for designating the pitch, but the pitch designating means using push buttons, knobs, etc. is not limited to this and may be provided as necessary. You may use it.

As described above, according to the present invention, in an electronic musical instrument capable of generating a plurality of series of tone signals in parallel in response to a key depression operation, a plurality of series of tone colors can be set with a simple configuration and a simple operation. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the external structure of an electronic musical instrument according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of a tone color selection switch group and a tone color display, and FIG. 3 is an envelope selection switch group of FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an electric circuit configuration of the electronic musical instrument shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a tone color selection circuit shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the envelope selection circuit of FIG. 2 ... keyboard, 4 ... tone selection switches, 5 ... tone display, 6 ... envelope selection switches, 7 ... envelope display, 11,13 ... selection switches, 12,14 ... indicator , 15 …… Sound signal generation circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A performance operator for generating pitch information according to a performance operation, a tone color designating operator for designating a desired tone color from a plurality of tone colors, and a tone color designating operator designated by the tone color designating operator. A tone color information storage unit capable of storing a plurality of tone color information corresponding to a tone color, and each time a new tone color is designated by the tone color designation operator, the most of the plurality of tone color information stored in the tone color information storage unit is selected. Update means for automatically updating old tone color information to tone color information newly designated by the tone color designating operator; and a tone pitch corresponding to the tone pitch information output from the performance operator, the tone color information An electronic musical instrument, comprising: a tone signal generating means for generating in parallel a plurality of tone signals of tone colors corresponding to a plurality of tone color information stored in the storage means.