JPS6235119B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to an improvement in means for selecting and switching various effects, etc. in an electronic musical instrument. Generally, electronic musical instruments can add various effects such as vibrato effect, tremolo effect, reverb effect, etc. to the generated musical sound, and there are many effect selection switches and the status of each effect to select these various effects. It has a large number of volumes for setting (for example, the speed or depth of vibrato in a vibrato effect). However, it is very difficult for beginners to set these many switches, volumes, etc. to predetermined conditions, and this has been a major obstacle in making electronic musical instruments easier to operate. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic musical instrument with improved operability by making it possible to perform various selection settings as described above by sequentially pressing one switch (for example, a push button switch). According to this invention, a plurality of states of the effect circuit can be switched by sequentially operating one switch. Here, the plurality of states corresponds to, for example, the speed or depth of modulation. For example, in the case where the effect circuit imparts a vibrato effect, the vibrato speed or depth is set in advance at multiple levels, and the vibrato speed or depth at these multiple levels is adjusted by sequentially operating the switch. are selected in sequence. For example, when the switch is pressed once, the first stage of vibrato speed or depth is selected, and when the switch is pressed further, the second stage is selected, and the selections are changed in the same way. It will be done. Further, according to the present invention, operations of a plurality of types of effect circuits can be sequentially selected and switched by sequential operation of one switch. Here, the plural types of effect circuits correspond to, for example, effect circuits that add vibrato effects, tremolo effects, reverb effects, etc., and the operations of these effect circuits are sequentially selected and switched by sequential operation of one switch. Further, according to the present invention, a musical tone signal to which a predetermined effect is to be applied is selected from among a plurality of series of musical tone signals by sequentially operating one switch. For example, consider the case where a predetermined effect is applied to musical tone signals of the A and B2 series: (1) The effect is applied only to the musical tone signals of the A series. (2) Effects are applied only to B-series musical tone signals. (3) Add effects to both A-series and B-series musical tone signals. (4) No effect is applied to either the A-series or B-series musical tone signals. There are four possible cases. In the present invention, each of these cases is sequentially switched by one switch. Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 1, the state of the effect circuit 3 (modulation speed, modulation depth, etc.) can be changed over a plurality of stages by sequentially operating one effect selection switch 6. The keyboard section 1 includes a plurality of keys, and in response to pressing of each key, generates a signal indicating the pressed key. The tone generator 2 receives a signal indicating a pressed key generated from the keyboard section 1, and forms a musical tone signal corresponding to the pitch of the pressed key. The tone generator 2 includes, for example, a sound source circuit that generates a sound source signal with a frequency corresponding to the pitch of each key, and selects one of the sound source signals corresponding to each key outputted from the sound source circuit that corresponds to the pressed key. Well-known circuits for selectively opening and closing the circuits to form the desired tone signal can be used. A musical tone signal corresponding to the pressed key generated by the tone generator 2 is applied to the effect circuit 3. The effect circuit 3 is for applying a predetermined effect to the applied musical tone signal, and the effect application state can be selectively switched in a plurality of stages.
For example, in the case where the effect circuit 3 is composed of a tremolo effect circuit (amplitude modulation circuit) or a vibrato effect circuit (phase modulation circuit), the effect circuit 3 has a plurality of states corresponding to the speed or depth of modulation. , the plurality of states are configured to be selectively switchable. The sound system 4 receives the musical tone signal to which a desired effect has been applied by the effect circuit 3, and converts this signal into a musical tone. Switching between a plurality of states in the effect circuit 3 is performed by the output of the effect control circuit 5 which is driven in response to the depression of the effect selection switch 6. FIG. 2 shows a specific example of the structure of the effect circuit 3 and effect control circuit 5. In this configuration example, a tremolo effect circuit is shown as the effect circuit 3, and an amplitude modulation circuit 30 is provided. A signal "1" generated in response to the depression of the effect selection switch 6 (FIG. 1) is applied to the ring counter 51. The ring counter 51 consists of four stages, is driven in synchronization with the rise (or fall) of the signal from the effect selection switch 6, and sequentially outputs the signal "1" to the output terminals 0 to 3. For example, if the effect selection switch 6 is pressed while the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 0 of the ring counter 51, the signal "1" generated at the output terminal 0 is transferred to the output terminal 1, and the effect selection switch 6 is pressed in the same manner. In response to the press of 6, the signal "1" appears in output terminals 2 and 3 in sequence,
When the effect selection switch 6 is further pressed, the signal becomes “1”.
returns to output terminal 0. A signal output from output terminal 0 of ring counter 51 is applied to field effect transistor gate (hereinafter simply referred to as gate) 31, and signals output from output terminals 1 to 3 are applied to gates 32 to 34 and 35 to 37, respectively. It will be done. Assuming that a signal "1" is now generated from the output terminal 0 of the ring counter 51, the gate 31 is turned on by this signal "1". As a result, the musical tone signal generated from the tone generator 2 is applied to the sound system 4 as it is (without any tremolo effect), and is produced as a musical tone without any effect. Signals output from output terminals 1 to 3 of ring counter 51 are used to control the modulation speed and depth of amplitude modulation circuit 30. When the signal "1" is generated from the output terminal 1 of the ring counter 51, the gates 32 and 35 are turned on.
Oscillator 38 includes gates 32-34 and resistors _r1 - _r3
The oscillation frequency is controlled by an external circuit consisting of an oscillator 38.
The oscillation frequency of is determined by the resistor _r1 . The output signal of this oscillator 38 is applied to the amplitude modulation circuit 30 via a resistor R ₁ for modulation depth control and a gate 35. That is, the modulation speed of the amplitude modulation circuit 30 corresponds to the resistance _r1 , and the modulation depth corresponds to the resistance _R1 . Similarly, when the signal "1" is generated from the output terminal 2 of the ring counter 51, the gates 33 and 36
is turned on, the speed and depth of modulation are set by the resistors r ₂ and R ₂ , and when the signal "1" is generated from the output terminal 3, the gates 34 and 37 are turned on, and the resistors r ₃ and R 2 are set. ₃ sets the modulation speed and depth. The output signal of the amplitude modulation circuit 30, which is modulated at a speed and depth determined according to the contents of the ring counter 51, is applied to the sound system 4 and generated as a musical tone. Note that signals output from output terminals 0 to 3 of the ring counter 51 are applied to a display 52 to display the contents of the ring counter 51. Therefore, the player can know the status of the effect circuit 3 by looking at the contents of the display 52. In the above configuration example, a case is shown in which a tremolo effect circuit is used as the effect circuit 3, but a similar configuration can be made in a case where a vibrato effect circuit is used. In this case, the amplitude modulation circuit 30 of FIG.
What is necessary is to replace it with a phase modulation circuit. FIG. 3 shows a configuration example in which a reverb effect circuit is used as the effect circuit 3. As is well known, a reverb effect circuit for applying a reverb effect uses a mechanical delay device using a spring or an electrical delay circuit using a BBD (Brigade Device) or the like to input a musical tone signal for a predetermined period of time. It is composed of a circuit that delays the musical tone signal and mixes the delayed musical tone signal and the input musical tone signal. Therefore, in the circuit shown in FIG. 3, the reverb depth in the reverb effect is variably set by varying the mixing ratio using the output of the ring counter 501 driven by the signal from the effect selection switch 6. ing. In FIG. 3, a delay circuit 300 is a mechanical or electrical circuit for delaying the musical tone signal from the tone generator 2 for a predetermined time, and includes resistors _R11 to _R14.
are resistors for setting the mixing ratio, that is, the depth of reverb, and gates 301 to 303 are for selecting circuits including resistors _R12 to _R14 , respectively. That is, when the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 0 of the ring counter 501, the gates 301 to 303 are all off, and no reverb effect is applied to the musical tone signal applied from the tone generator 2;
When a signal "1" is generated at any of the output terminals 1 to 3, one of the gates 301 to 303 is turned on correspondingly, and (1) the resistors R ₁₁ , R ₁₂ , (2) the resistors
A reverberation effect with a depth determined by the combination of R ₁₁ , R ₁₃ and (3) resistors R ₁₁ and R ₁₄ is imparted. FIG. 4 shows a case where a plurality of effect circuits are selected by one effect selection switch. Although FIG. 4 shows only the effect circuit section and the selection control circuit section, the other parts may be similar to those shown in FIG. 1. That is, the musical tone signal from the tone generator 2 (Fig. 1) is added to each effect circuit (tremolo effect circuit 7, reverb effect circuit 8, wah-wah effect circuit 9), and the musical tone signal from the tone generator 2 and each effect are added. The outputs of the gates 13 to 16 that gate the musical tone signals from the circuits 7 to 9 are connected to the sound system 4.
(FIG. 1), a signal from the effect selection switch 6 (FIG. 1) is applied to the ring counter 12. In addition, in FIG. 4, the tremolo effect circuit 7 is composed of, for example, an amplitude modulation circuit, and
The zero output determines the speed and depth of the tremolo effect. Further, the wah-wah effect circuit 9 is composed of, for example, a voltage controlled film (VCF), and the speed and depth of the wah-wah effect are determined by the output of the oscillator 11. In the device shown in FIG.
When the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 0 of 2, only the gate 13 is turned on and no effect is applied. When the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 1, the gate 14 is turned on and a tremolo effect is applied. When a signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 2, the gate 15 is turned on and a musical tone with a reverb effect is obtained, and when a signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 3, the gate 16 is turned on. When turned on, you can get a musical sound with a wah-wah effect. In Fig. 4, the tremolo effect, reverb effect, and wah-wah effect are configured to be switched respectively, but it can also be used to switch other effects such as vibrato effect, brilliance effect, bright effect, etc. It is easy to understand that it is also used for switching between various modes in a function. FIG. 5 shows that when a tone generator generates multiple series of musical tone signals, one or more of the musical tone signals outputted from the tone generator is selected, and a predetermined effect is applied to the selected musical tone signal. This figure shows an embodiment of the present invention in which a single effect selection switch is used to selectively apply the effects. The tone generator 20 receives a signal indicating a pressed key from the keyboard section 1, and generates two series of musical tone signals A and B having different tones. Two series of musical tone signals A and B generated by the tone generator 20 are applied to a selection circuit 17. The selection circuit 17 performs the following four switching operations. (1) Add musical tone signal A to the effect circuit 19 and directly apply musical tone signal B to the sound system 4. (2) Add musical tone signal B to effect circuit 19 and add musical tone signal A
directly to Sound System 4. (3) Add both musical tone signals A and B to the effect circuit 19. (4) Both musical sound signals A and B are applied directly to the sound system 4. The above switching in the selection circuit 17 is performed by the output of the selection control circuit 18 driven by a signal from the effect selection switch 60. The effect circuit 19 is a circuit for imparting a predetermined effect. As this effect circuit 19, various circuits can be used, such as one that provides a tremolo effect and one that provides a vibrato effect. The sound system 4 has a configuration similar to that shown in FIG. 1, and receives a musical tone signal directly applied from the selection circuit 17 and a musical tone signal applied through the effect circuit 19, and generates musical tones in response to the musical tone signal. do. According to such a configuration, one effect selection switch 60 can selectively switch and control the application of effects to the two series of musical tone signals A and B. FIG. 6 shows a specific example of the structure of the embodiment shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, a tremolo unit 190 is used in place of the effect circuit 19 in FIG. 5. This tremolo unit 1
90 is an acoustic reflection plate 190 in front of the speaker 192.
is provided, and this acoustic reflector 190 is connected to the motor 19.
1 to give a tremolo effect. Furthermore, the sound system 4 shown in FIG. 5 corresponds to the amplifiers 40, 41 and speakers 42, 192 in FIG. In FIG. 6, the tone selector 22 has, for example, a plurality of tone color selection switches, and generates a signal indicating the selected tone color in response to turning on of the tone color selection switches. This signal is applied to the parameter generation circuit 21. The parameter generation circuit 21 is comprised of a read-only memory (ROM) that stores various parameters for determining each tone, and generates predetermined parameters in response to signals from the tone selector 22, and transmits them to the tone generator 20. Add to. The tone generator 20 forms and generates two series of musical tone signals A and B based on the signal indicating the pressed key from the keyboard section 1 and the parameter determining the tone generated from the parameter generating circuit 21. Since such a tone generator can be constructed from well-known ones, a detailed explanation of the construction of this part will be omitted. The musical tone signal A generated from the tone generator 20 is sent to the amplifier 4 via the gate G1 and the resistor R21.
0 and gate G3, resistor R22
is applied to the amplifier 41 via the musical tone signal B
is applied to the amplifier 40 via the gate G2 and resistor R23, and is also applied to the amplifier 41 via the gate G4 and resistor R24. The ring counter 180 is the effect selection switch 60
Based on the contents of the ring counter 180, selection and switching is performed as to which of the musical tone signals A and B the tremolo effect will be applied to. Note that the ring counter 180 is initialized in response to the operation of the tone selector 22. That is, when the tone selection switch is operated by the tone selector 22, a reset signal is sent to the ring counter 180, and this signal returns the ring counter to its initial state (for example, a state in which a signal "1" is output from output terminal 0). It will be reset. Signals from output terminals 0 to 3 of the ring counter 180 are sent to an encoder 18 consisting of OR circuits OR1 to OR4.
1 and applied to gates G1-G4. Table 1 shows the relationship between the contents of the ring counter 180 and the signals applied to the gates G1 to G4.

[Table] As is clear from Table 1, ring counter 18
When the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 0 of 0, the gates G ₂ and G ₃ are on, and the gates G ₁ and G ₄ remain off. Therefore, in this case, among the musical tone signals A and B output from the tone generator 20, the signal A is led to the amplifier 41 via the gate G ₃ and the resistor R22, and the signal B is led to the amplifier 41 via the gate G ₂ and the resistor R23. is guided to the amplifier 40, and the musical tone signal A
A tremolo effect is applied only to Similarly, when a signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 1 of the ring counter 180, gates G ₁ and G ₄ are turned on, musical tone signal A is guided to amplifier 40, and musical tone signal B
is guided to an amplifier 41, and a tremolo effect is applied only to the musical tone signal B. Furthermore, when a signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 2 of the ring counter 180, the gates G ₃ and G ₄ are turned on.
Both musical tone signals A and B are guided to an amplifier 41, and a tremolo effect is imparted to both musical tone signals A and B. Further, when a signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 3 of the ring counter 18, the gates G ₁ and G ₂ are turned on.
Both musical tone signals A and B are guided to the amplifier 40, and no tremolo effect is applied to both musical tone signals A and B. Further, the outputs of the OR circuits OR3 and OR4 are applied to the light emitting diodes LED1 and LED2 via the light emitting diode drivers DR1 and DR2, respectively. The light emitting diodes LED1 and LED2 indicate a musical tone signal to which a tremolo effect has been applied.The lighting of the light emitting diode LED1 indicates that a tremolo effect has been imparted to the musical tone signal A, and the light emitting diode
The lighting of LED2 indicates that a tremolo effect has been applied to musical tone signal B. FIG. 7 illustrates the display of the light emitting diodes LED1 and LED2 in relation to the operation of the tone color selection switch of the tone selector 22 and the operation of the effect selection switch 60. In Figure 7,
"Tone color selection" indicates that the tone selection switch in the tone selector 22 is turned on, and "SWON" indicates that the effect selection switch 60 is turned on. First, when the tone color selection switch of the tone selector 22 is turned on, the ring counter 180 is reset, and a signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 0. At this time, the tremolo effect is applied only to the musical tone signal A output from the tone generator 20, and only the light emitting diode LED1 lights up. Next, when the effect selection switch 60 is pressed, the signal "1" is transferred to the output terminal 1 of the ring counter 180.
This brings about a state in which the tremolo effect is applied only to the musical tone signal B, and only the light emitting diode LED2 lights up. When the effect selection switch 60 is further pressed, the tremolo effect is applied to both musical tone signals A and B, and the light emitting diodes LED1,
Both LED2 lights up. Furthermore, the tremolo effect is not applied to both musical tone signals A and B that are pressed on the effect selection switch 60, and both the light emitting diodes LED1 and LED2 are turned off. When the effect selection switch 60 is further pressed, the initial state (signal “1” from the output terminal 0 of the ring counter 180
is output, and the state returns to the state in which the tremolo effect is applied only to the musical tone signal A). FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the circuit portion surrounded by dotted lines in FIG. In this embodiment, a three-stage ring counter 182 is used, and the configuration of the encoder consisting of OR circuits OR1 to OR4 is different. Contents of ring counter 182 and gates G ₁ to _{G 4} in this embodiment (FIG. 6)
The relationship between the signal applied to the signal and the signal applied to the signal is shown in Table 2.

[Table] In other words, when the signal “1” is generated at the output terminal 0 of the ring counter 182, the gates G ₂ and G ₃
(Fig. 6) is turned on and the tone generator 20
Of the musical tone signals A and B outputted from (FIG. 6), only the musical tone signal A is given a tremolo effect. Further, when the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 1 of the ring counter 182, the gates G ₁ and G ₂ are turned on, and no tremolo effect is applied to both the musical tone signals A and B. Further, when the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 2 of the ring counter 182, the gates G ₃ and G ₄ are turned on, and a tremolo effect is applied to both the musical tone signals A and B. Light emitting diode LED1 in this embodiment,
If the display state of the LED 2 (FIG. 6) is shown in the same way as FIG. 7, it will be as shown in FIG. 9. FIG. 10 shows a modification of the embodiment shown in FIG. 8. In this embodiment, the OR circuit OR
The encoder consisting of 1 to OR4 is configured to realize the relationships shown in Table 3.

[Table] That is, in this embodiment, when the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 1 of the ring counter 182, the gates G ₃ and G ₄ are turned on and the musical tone generated from the tone generator 20 (FIG. 6) is generated. Signal A,
The tremolo effect is applied to both musical tone signals A and B, and when the signal "1" is generated at the output terminal 2, the gates _G1 and _G2 are turned on, so that the tremolo effect is not applied to both musical tone signals A and B. It is composed of Note that the other configuration is exactly the same as that shown in FIG. Therefore, the display of the light emitting diodes LED1 and LED2 (FIG. 6) related to the operation of the tone selection switch of the tone selector 22 (FIG. 6) and the operation of the effect selection switch 60 in this embodiment is shown in FIG. It becomes as shown in . In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 5 to 11 above, the effect is selectively applied to two series of musical tone signals, but it is also possible to apply effects to three series of musical tone signals. It will be understood that the same configuration can be applied to the case where multiple series of musical tone signals are targeted. As explained above, according to the present invention, by sequentially operating one switch, a plurality of states of an effect circuit can be switched, a plurality of effect circuits can be switched, and an effect can be added to which series of musical tone signals among a plurality of series of musical tone signals. Since it is possible to perform such switching, etc., selection and setting can be made very easily, and the operation of the electronic musical instrument can be made easier. Furthermore, since the number of operation switches can be greatly reduced, the configuration of the operation switches of the electronic musical instrument can be simplified. Additionally, in general, if the specified tone changes, the effect given to the musical tone often changes, but with this invention,
The state of the effect settings is configured so that it automatically returns to the initial state in conjunction with the operation of the tone change switch, so when changing the tone, the effect to be applied to the musical tone of the new tone is always set from the initial state. This makes it possible to easily perform effect setting work associated with tone color switching without making mistakes.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an example of a configuration in which the state of an effect circuit is changed by one effect selection switch, FIG. 2 is a detailed circuit diagram showing the main part of the configuration example shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. Figure 4 is a circuit diagram showing a modified example of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a circuit diagram showing the same and another example of the configuration;
The figure is a schematic block diagram showing one embodiment of an electronic musical instrument according to the present invention, FIG. 6 is a detailed circuit diagram showing one configuration example of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is the circuit shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the part surrounded by the dotted line in FIG. 6, FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of the operation in the configuration of FIG. 8, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the circuit of FIG. 8, and FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the operation in the configuration of FIG. 10. 1... Keyboard section, 2, 20... Tone generator, 3, 19... Effect circuit, 4... Sound system, 5... Effect control circuit, 6, 60... Effect selection switch, 17... Selection circuit , 18... selection control circuit, 12, 51, 180, 182, 501...
...Ring counter, 22...Tone selector, 1
81... Encoder.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A musical tone signal generation circuit that generates a plurality of series of musical tone signals, a timbre selection switch that specifies the tone of the musical tone signal generated from this musical tone signal generation circuit, and a tone selection switch that specifies the tone of the musical tone signal generated from this musical tone signal generation circuit. an effect circuit that applies a predetermined effect to a musical tone signal; a single effect selection switch; a counter that performs a counting operation in response to repeated operations of the effect selection switch; a control circuit that selectively applies one or more of the series of musical tone signals to the effect circuit; and a reset means that automatically resets the counted value of the counter to an initial value in conjunction with operation of the tone selection switch. An electronic musical instrument equipped with