US3223770A

US3223770A - Legato percussion apparatus for electrical musical instruments

Info

Publication number: US3223770A
Application number: US59640A
Authority: US
Inventors: John M Hanert
Original assignee: Hammond Organ Co
Current assignee: Hammond Organ Co
Priority date: 1960-09-30
Filing date: 1960-09-30
Publication date: 1965-12-14
Anticipated expiration: 1982-12-14

Description

J. M. HANERT Dec. 14, 1965 LEGATO PERCUSSION APPARATUS FOR ELECTRICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Filed Sept. 50. 1960 IN V EN TOR.'

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United States Patent Office 3,223,770 Patented Dec. 14, 1965 3,223,770 LEGATO PERCUSSION APPARATUS FOR ELEC- TRICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS John M. Hanert, Des Plaines, Ill., assignor to Hammond Organ Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 30, 1960, Ser. No. 59,640 4 Claims. (Cl. 84--1.26)

The invention relates generally to electrical musical instruments and more particularly to means whereby tones in the accompaniment register of the instrument may be sounded percussively at will, by the operation of the keys in the treble register and vice versa, or in which operated keys in either section will cause percussion tones to be sounded in both sections.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved percussion control apparatus and circuitry whereby percussion tones may be produced by tone signal generators in the treble or accompaniment sections upon playing keys legatowise in either or both sections.

A further object is to provide an electrical musical instrument in which the playing of the left hand rhythm or accompaniment portion of a selection is rendered more easily discernible and thus produces highly desirable musical effects.

Other objects will appear from the following description, reference being had to the accomp-anying drawings in which:

The single figure of the drawing is a schematic and block diagram of representative portions of the complete instrument.

Referring to the drawing, the instrument comprises a plurality of oscillators which are preferably of the construction shown in my prior Patent No. 2,645,968, there being such an oscillator for each semitone (or two or three adjacent semitones) throughout 4the gamut of the instrument. As in the aforesaid patent, the oscillators are rendered operativeby depression of keys 12 which through switches 14 yoperated thereby, supply B-lor plate current to the oscillators respectively. The switches 14 of the accompaniment section have a common bus bar contact 16 while those of the treble section have a similar common bus bar contact 17. Each of the oscillators includes a parallel resonant circuit 18 the upper (grid) terminal 20 thereof being connected to tone control switches 22 and 23 to supply flute type signals to either a sustained tone collector conductor 26 by closure of switch 22, or signals to a percussion collector conductor 28 upon closure of switch 23. Similarly, switches 30 and 31 may be closed selectively to supply string type signals from the other (cathode) terminal 21 of the resonant circuit 18 through a resistor R34 to the sustained tone collector conductor 26, or to the percussion tone collector conductor 28, or to both collector conductors.

Reed type tones may be supplied to the

conductors

26 and 28 by operating the sustained tone switch 32 or the percussion tone switch 33, both of these switches being connected to the terminal 21 through a suitable series resistor R34 and capacitors C46 and C47. Similar tone control switches for the treble section or register bear corresponding reference characters followed by a. Plate current is supplied from a suitable B+ terminal of the power supply to the

bus bars

16 and 17 through resistors R48 and R49 respectively.

The

bus bars

16 and 17 are adapted to be operatively connected with a percussion control circuitry 50 by closing manually operated

switches

52 and 53. Each time one of the switches 14 is closed a transient negative pulse is generated in a conductor 54 which, through a capacitor C56, is connected to the control grid of an amplifying triode 57. The control grid of the triode 57 is connected to a B-lterminal by a high value resistor R58. The

plate of the triode 57 is also connected to the B+ terminal through a load resistor R60 and the amplified pulse signal is impressed upon the grid of a rectifying triode 62 through a capacitor C64. The'grid of triode 62 is connected to ground by a resistor R66 while the cathodes of both triodes are connected to ground through a resistor R68. Plate current is supplied to the plate of the triode 62 through the winding 70 of a relay 72, the switch 74 thereof being adapted to operate the percussion control means. The plate of triode 62 is connected to the grid of triode 57 through a positive feed-back capacitor C76 in series with a resistor R78. This portion of the circuit constitutes a one-shot multivibrator with positive grid return. This percussion control is essentially of the type disclosed and claimed in my copending application Serial No. 720,887, filed March 12, 1958.

The oscillators for the treble section of the instrument have their outputs similarly connected to a sustained tone collector conductor 80, while the percussion tone signals are supplied to a percussion tone signal collector 82. All of the oscillators are adapted to have a vibrato signal applied to their control grids, optionally receiving the signals from a vibrato apparatus and control device 84.

The percussive signals from the

collector conductors

82 and 28 are impressed across the primary winding 86 of a transformer 88. The secondary Winding of the transformer has its end terminals connected to the control grids of triodes and 91. The triodes 90 and 91 are biased to negative cut-off by the potential on the arm of potentiometer 92, but upon energization of relay and consequent brief closure of switch 74 to ground potential the bias is reduced to an operating level by discharging capacitor C97 to a value determined by the ratio of R92 and R94. The rate of discharge of the capacitor C97 through the grid resistor R94 determines the attack rate of the percussive signal, and the rate of charge of the capacitor C97 through the potentiometer R92 determines the percussive decay time of the signal. The plates of triodes 90, 91 are connected to the terminals of a primary winding of a transformer 98, the center tap 99,of this primary being connected to a source of B-fpotential.

The secondary winding of the transformer 98 is connected across a voltage divider 100 and the sliding contact of the latter is connected by resistance R102 to one end of a coupling resistor R104 and also to an input terminal 106 of a preamplifier and volume control apparatus 108. The other terminal of the resistance R104 is connected to ground. The collector conductor 26 is connected through resistors R and R112 to the input terminal 106, and the conductor 80 is connected through resistors R114 and R112 to said terminal 106. Resistors R110 and R114 are preferably adjustable. The preamplifier 108 is coupled to a power amplifier 116 which supplies a speaker 118.

From the foregoing it will be understood that the instrument may be played in a number of different ways to produce `interesting and novel musical effects. When switch 52 is closed and switch 53 is open, then whenever one of the switches 14 of the accompanient register is closed to connect the bus 16 to the plate of its associated oscillator triode Ia negative pulse is produced on this bus bar. T-his pulse is transmitted through capacitor C56 to the input of the one-shot multivibrator comprising the triodes S7 and 62, and associated circuitry, with the result that relay 72 is momentarily energized to cause rapid attack of the tone signals transmitted through the transformer 88 and following circuitry. Thus any tone signals from the generators which have associated keys depressed will be sounded with a percussive tone intensity envelope of tone quality depending upon the setting of the switches 23, 31, and 33 of the accompaniment section and the setting of the corresponding switches for the treble section. At the same time sustained tone signals may be produced from the oscillators of either or both sections depending upon the setting of the tone control switches. For instance, if a number of keys corresponding to a chord in the treble section are held depressed, the depression of a key in the accompaniment section will cause the chord to be sounded with a percussive envelope providing such result is desired and the proper

tone control switches

23a, 31a and/ or 33a are closed.

If only switch 53 is closed the opposite result will be obtained, namely, that the key or keys which :are held depressed in the accompaniment section will cause the sounding of percussive tones upon depression of a key in the treble section. Or, if both

switches

52 and 53 are closed, depression of any key will result in the sounding of tones controlled by all depressed keys with a percussion envelope, provided of course that the control switches-such as 22, 23, etc.-are properly set.

When both

switches

52 and 53 are open, music produced will be sustained and the musician may play the instrument in the customary manner that an organ is played. Because of the separate tone controls for the two sections of the instrument, musical effects may be obtained similiar to those of a two manual organ.

The musician thus has at his command a novel means for emphasizing at will either the tones in the accompaniment or in the treble section of the instrument, and by varying the tone quality by means of the switches, such as 22, etc., may have the tone quality of both the percussive and sustained tones in either register sound with a flute-like quality, string quality, or reed quality, together with any desired combination of these qualities. The instrument is thus very versatile in its capability of distinctive performance.

While I have shown and described a particular embodiment of my invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous modifications and variations may be made in the form and construction thereof, without departing from the more fundamental principles of the invention. I therefore desire, by the following claims, to include within the scope of my invention all such similar and modilied forms of the apparatus disclosed, by which substantially the results of the invention may be obtained by substantially the same or equivalent means.

I claim:

1. In an electrical musical instrument having an output system, a manual comprising a plurality of playing keys extending throughout the accompaniment and treble ranges, a plurality of sources of electrical musical tone signals of corresponding pitch ranges, a plurality of switches respectively operated by the keys to render the associated sources eiective to transmit tone signals to the output system, one of the poles of each of the switches operated by keys in the accompaniment section being connected to a common conductor, one of the poles of each of the switches associated with the keys in the treble register being connected to a second common conductor, a one shot multivibrator, means optionally operable to connect the input of said multivibrator to either or both of said common conductors, means responsive to a pulse produced upon closure of one of the key operated switches to trigger said multivibrator, a percussive tone intensity envelope control means, means operated upon triggering of said multivibrator to trigger the operation of said percussive tone intensity envelope control means, tone control means for seelctively transmitting tone signals from said sources to the output system, :and additional tone control means selectively operable to transmit signals from the sources through said percussive Vintensity envelope control means to the output system.

2. In an electrical musical instrument having an output system, a manual comprising a plunality of playing keys extending throughout the accompaniment and treble ranges, a plurality of sources of electrical musical tone signals of corresponding pitch ranges, a plurality of switches respectively operated by the keys to Arender the associated sources eiective to transmit tone signals to the output sytsem, one of the poles of each of the switches operated by keys in the accompaniment section being connected to a common conductor, one of the poles of each of the switches associated with the keys in the treble register being connected to a second common conductor, a one shot multivibrator with positive grid return, means optionally operable to connect the input of said multivibrator to either or both of said common conductors, means responsive to la pulse produced upon closure of one of the key operated switches to trigger said multivibrator, a percussive tone intensity envelope control means, means operated upon triggering of said multivibrator to trigger the operation of said percussive tone intensity envelope control means, an amplier and volume control means forming part of the said output system, tone control means for selectively transmitting tone signals from said sources to the amplier, additional tone control means selectively operable to transmit signals from the sources through said percussive intensity envelope control means to said amplifier, and electroacoustic translating means coupled to the output of the amplifier.

3. In an electrical music instrument having an output system including an amplifier and speaker coupled thereto, a manual comprising a plurality of playing keys eX- tending throughout the accompaniment and treble ranges, a plurality of generators of electrical musical tone signals of corresponding pitch ranges, a plurality of switches respectively operated by the keys to render the associated generators effective to transmit tone signals to the output system, one of the poles of each of the switches operated by keys in the accompaniment section being connected to a common conductor, one of the poles of each of the switches associated with the keys in the treble register being connected to a second common conductor, a one shot multivibrator, circuit means including switches optionally operable to connect the input of said multivibrator to either or both of said common conductors producing a multivibrator triggering pulse upon its initial completion by actuation of a key associated with a connected common conductor, a percussive tone intensity envelope control means operated by each pulse, tone control means for selectively transmitting tone signals from said generators to the amplifier, and additional tone control means selectively operable to transmit signals from the generators through said percussive intensity envelope control means to said amplifier.

4. In an electrical musical instrument, an output system, means for generating tone signals of different frequencies for transmission to said output system, a group of treble keys and a separate group of accompaniment keys for selecting respective tone signals to be transmitted to the output system, means for providing a percussive tone envelope for any generated tone, and means individually connected with one of said groups of keys and operable only in response to the operation of the keys in said one group for rendering said percussive means effective to provide a percussive tone envelope for tones selected by already operated keys in the other of said groups.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,783,672 3/1957 Hanert 84-126 2,905,040 9/1959 Hanert 84-l.24 2,916,957 12/1959 Hanert 84--126 2,916,958 12/1959 Hanert 84--1.26 2,937,556 5/1960 Hanert 84-l.26 2,953,056 9/1960 Hanert u 84-1.26 3,038,365 6/1962 Peterson 84-126 GEORGE N. WESTBY, Primary Examiner.

LAWRENCE V. EFNER, ARTHUR GAUSS,

Examiners.

Claims

1. IN AN ELECTRICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT HAVING AN OUTPUT SYSTEM, A MANUAL COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF PLAYING KEYS EXTENDING THROUGHOUT THE ACCOMPANIMENT AND TREBLE RANGES, A PLURALITY OF SOURCES OF ELECTRICAL MUSICAL TONE SIGNALS OF CORRESPONDING PITCH RANGES, A PLURALITY OF SWITCHES RESPECTIVELY OPERATED BY THE KEYS TO RENDER THE ASSOCIATED SOURCES EFFECTIVE TO TRANSMIT TONE SIGNALS TO THE OUTPUT SYSTEM, ONE OF THE POLES OF EACH OF THE SWITCHES OPERATED BY KEYS IN THE ACCOMPANIMENT SECTION BEING CONNECTED TO A COMMON CONDUCTOR, ONE OF THE POLES OF EACH OF THE SWITCHES ASSOCIASTED WITH THE KEYS IN THE TREBLE REGISTER BEING CONNECTED TO A SECOND COMMON CONDUCTOR, A ONE SHOT MULTIVIBRATOR, MEANS OPTIONALLY OPERABLE TO CONNECT THE INPUT OF SAID MULTIVIBRATOR TO EITHER OR BOTH OF SAID COMMON CONDUCTORS, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO AS PULSE PRODUCED UPON CLOSURE OF ONE OF THE KEY OPERATED SWITCHES TO TRIGGER SAID MULTIVIBRATOR, A PERCUSSIVE TONE INTENSITY ENVELOPE CONTROL MEANS, MEANS OPERATED UPON TRIGGERINGN OF SAID MULTIVIBRATOR TO TRIGGER THE OPERATION OF SAID PERCUSSIVE TONE INTENSITY ENVELOPE CONTROL MEANS, TONE CONTROL MEANS FOR SELECTIVELY TRANSMITTING TONE SIGNALS FROM SAID SOURCES TO THE OUTPUT SYSTEM, AND ADDITIONAL TONE CONTROL MEANS SELECTIVELY OPERABLE TO TRANSMIT SIGNALS FROM THE SOURCES THROUGH SAID PERCUSSIVE INTENSITY ENVELOPE CONTROL MEANS TO THE OUTPUT SYSTEM.