US3524365A - Electronic musical instruments played by means of a stylus - Google Patents

Electronic musical instruments played by means of a stylus Download PDF

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Publication number
US3524365A
US3524365A US718883A US3524365DA US3524365A US 3524365 A US3524365 A US 3524365A US 718883 A US718883 A US 718883A US 3524365D A US3524365D A US 3524365DA US 3524365 A US3524365 A US 3524365A
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US
United States
Prior art keywords
oscillator
instrument
stylus
electronic
contacts
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
US718883A
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English (en)
Inventor
Brian C Jarvis
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
MOVIECOL ENTERPRISES Ltd
Original Assignee
MOVIECOL ENTERPRISES Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by MOVIECOL ENTERPRISES Ltd filed Critical MOVIECOL ENTERPRISES Ltd
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of US3524365A publication Critical patent/US3524365A/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
    • G10H—ELECTROPHONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS IN WHICH THE TONES ARE GENERATED BY ELECTROMECHANICAL MEANS OR ELECTRONIC GENERATORS, OR IN WHICH THE TONES ARE SYNTHESISED FROM A DATA STORE
    • G10H1/00—Details of electrophonic musical instruments
    • G10H1/02—Means for controlling the tone frequencies, e.g. attack or decay; Means for producing special musical effects, e.g. vibratos or glissandos
    • G10H1/04—Means for controlling the tone frequencies, e.g. attack or decay; Means for producing special musical effects, e.g. vibratos or glissandos by additional modulation
    • G10H1/043—Continuous modulation
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
    • G10H—ELECTROPHONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS IN WHICH THE TONES ARE GENERATED BY ELECTROMECHANICAL MEANS OR ELECTRONIC GENERATORS, OR IN WHICH THE TONES ARE SYNTHESISED FROM A DATA STORE
    • G10H1/00—Details of electrophonic musical instruments
    • G10H1/32—Constructional details
    • G10H1/34—Switch arrangements, e.g. keyboards or mechanical switches specially adapted for electrophonic musical instruments
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
    • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10S84/00—Music
    • Y10S84/07—Electric key switch structure

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to electronic musical instruments and more particularly to an electronic organ.
  • an electronic musical instrument comprises a plurality of contacts representing different musical notes and at least one note selecting contact member electrically connected to an electronic circuit of the instrument by a flexible lead and adapted to be movable in or by the hand of a person playing the instrument so as to be brought into engagement with any of the contacts, in order to cause the instrument audibly to reproduce the note represented by any contact which is so engaged by the contact member.
  • the contacts are arranged in one or more rows or banks after the fashion of the keys of a keyboard.
  • the electronic circuitry of the instrument is enclosed in a casing which may have an aperture through which the contacts are accessible.
  • the contacts are formed as conducting areas on a printed circuit board which carries at least some of the components of the electronic circuits of the instrument.
  • the note selecting contact member comprises a stylus having an electrically conducting tip which is electrically connected to a circuit of the instrument by the flexible lead.
  • the instrument is battery operated and the electronic circuitry employs semiconductor devices such as transistors.
  • the electronic circuitry comprises an audio frequency oscillator having a plurality of resistors or resistor networks respectively connected to the contacts and arranged so that the oscillator reproduces a note through a loudspeaker when a contact is engaged by the note selecting contact member to form a connection in the oscillator effective to cause the oscillator to oscillate.
  • One or more amplifier stages may be provided between the oscillator and the loudspeaker.
  • the instrument may also include a further circuit, such as a phase shift oscillator, which can be selectively switched into operation to give a vibrato or tremulous effect to any of the notes being reproduced by the instrument.
  • a further circuit such as a phase shift oscillator, which can be selectively switched into operation to give a vibrato or tremulous effect to any of the notes being reproduced by the instrument.
  • FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of electronic organ according to this invention.
  • FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram.
  • the instrument comprises a casing 1 having an aperture 2 providing access to two rows of fixed contacts 3 and 4, forming the keyboard of the instrument.
  • These contacts are formed as conducting areas on a printed circuit board which also carries at least some of the components of the electronic circuits of the instrument.
  • the lower row of contacts 3 may represent notes covering about 1 /2 octaves whilst the upper row of contacts 4 may represent sharps or flats.
  • a note selecting contact member is provided in the form of a stylus 5 having an electrically conducting tip 6 which is electrically connected to the oscillator circuit of the instrument by the flexible lead 7.
  • a loudspeaker is arranged behind a grille 8 in the easing 1, which also carries an on/ofi switch 9 for the instrument as well as a switch 10 for controlling the operation of a vibrato circuit for producing a tremulous effect upon any of the notes played.
  • the batteries 26 of FIG- URE 2 for the instrument are contained within the casing 1.
  • An external connection such as a jack socket 11 is provided to enable the output of the instrument to be fed to a separate amplifier.
  • a preset or manual control which may be an edge-operated control (not visible), is provided for adjusting the tuning of the oscillator in order to bring it into tune with another musical instrument or sound reproduction.
  • the section 20 comprises the note producing oscillator and includes transistors TR1 and TR2, the section 21 is the output stage comprising transistor TR3 and the section 22 is the vibrato stage formed by a phase shift oscillator which includes the transistor TR4.
  • the note selecting stylus is shown diagrammatically at 5, 6 and 7 together with some of the resistor networks 23 connected to the contacts 3 and 4.
  • the tuning control is shown as a variable resistor 24.
  • the loudspeaker is shown at 25 with the jack socket 11 connected across it.
  • the on/off switch is shown at 9; and the switch 10 controls the energisation of the phase shift oscillator forming the vibrato stage 22.
  • the audio oscillator section 20 and output amplifier section 21 are energized.
  • the oscillator oscillates and its output signal is fed through capacitor 27 to the base of the amplifier transistor TR3.
  • the amplified output signal is reproduced as a note by the loudspeaker 25 connected to the collector of transistor TR3. The note reproduced will of course depend on which of the contacts 3 or 4 is contacted by the stylus tip 6.
  • phase shift oscillator comprising the vibrato stage 22 is energized and its output signal is fed through capacitor 28 and resistor 29 to the base of the transistor TR3 where it modulates the signals produced by the oscillator section 20 in such a manner as to give a vibrato or tremulous effect to the notes as reproduced by the loudspeaker 25.
  • the instrument is simple and cheap to produce and may be constructed as a toy instrument for use by a child.
  • the movable contact may consist of a group of contact members 'which are electrically connected together and which can be fitted to the fingers of a person playing the instrument.
  • An electronic musical instrument comprising:
  • At least one note selecting contact member adapted to be manually manipulated and including an electrical contact portion
  • a musical instrument as claimed in claim 1 including a note selecting the contact member in the form of a stylus having an electrically conducting tip which is electrically connected to the flexible lead.
  • a musical instrument as claimed in claim 1 comprising an audio frequency oscillator and a loudspeaker, said oscillator having a plurality of resistors or resistor networks respectively connected to the exposed fixed contacts and arranged so that the oscillator reproduces a note through the loudspeaker when a contact is engaged by the note selecting contact member to form a connection in the oscillator effective to cause the oscillator to oscillate.
  • a musical instrument as claimed in claim 1 including a circuit which can be selectively switched into operation to give a vibrato effect to any of the notes being reproduced by the instrument.
  • a portable battery'operated electronic musical instrument comprising:
  • a casing housing electronic circuits including an electronic oscillator for producing different musical frequencies and means for audibly reproducing said frequencies as musical notes,
  • a manually manipulatable stylus having an electrically conducting tip which is electrically connected to the electronic oscillator of the instrument by a flexible lead,
  • said electronic oscillator is activated so as to effect audible reproduction of the note represented by the contact which is so engaged by the electrically conducting tip of the stylus.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Electrophonic Musical Instruments (AREA)
US718883A 1967-04-11 1968-04-04 Electronic musical instruments played by means of a stylus Expired - Lifetime US3524365A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB16619/67A GB1160839A (en) 1967-04-11 1967-04-11 Improvements in Electronic Musical Instruments

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US3524365A true US3524365A (en) 1970-08-18

Family

ID=10080576

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US718883A Expired - Lifetime US3524365A (en) 1967-04-11 1968-04-04 Electronic musical instruments played by means of a stylus

Country Status (4)

Country Link
US (1) US3524365A (de)
AT (1) AT292431B (de)
FR (1) FR1569874A (de)
GB (1) GB1160839A (de)

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3622681A (en) * 1969-05-02 1971-11-23 Alvin S Hopping Electronic musical instrument employing free-beam electromechanical resonators and a hand-held baton
US3671658A (en) * 1969-07-01 1972-06-20 Nippon Musical Instruments Mfg Key switch assembly for electronic musical instruments
US3735012A (en) * 1970-02-25 1973-05-22 Nippon Musical Instruments Mfg Integrated circuit frequency dividers in electronic musical instrument

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2153579A (en) * 1984-01-31 1985-08-21 Timothy Langford Improvements in or relating to electronic musical instruments

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2756330A (en) * 1950-10-07 1956-07-24 Conn Ltd C G Electrical tone source for musical instruments
US2811887A (en) * 1954-10-12 1957-11-05 Chicago Musical Instr Company Electrical musical instrument
US2888849A (en) * 1955-09-14 1959-06-02 Humphrey Electronic musical instruments

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2756330A (en) * 1950-10-07 1956-07-24 Conn Ltd C G Electrical tone source for musical instruments
US2811887A (en) * 1954-10-12 1957-11-05 Chicago Musical Instr Company Electrical musical instrument
US2888849A (en) * 1955-09-14 1959-06-02 Humphrey Electronic musical instruments

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3622681A (en) * 1969-05-02 1971-11-23 Alvin S Hopping Electronic musical instrument employing free-beam electromechanical resonators and a hand-held baton
US3671658A (en) * 1969-07-01 1972-06-20 Nippon Musical Instruments Mfg Key switch assembly for electronic musical instruments
US3735012A (en) * 1970-02-25 1973-05-22 Nippon Musical Instruments Mfg Integrated circuit frequency dividers in electronic musical instrument

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
AT292431B (de) 1971-08-25
FR1569874A (de) 1969-06-06
GB1160839A (en) 1969-08-06

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