US3739071A - Tone color forming circuit in electronic musical instrument - Google Patents

Tone color forming circuit in electronic musical instrument Download PDF

Info

Publication number
US3739071A
US3739071A US00213458A US3739071DA US3739071A US 3739071 A US3739071 A US 3739071A US 00213458 A US00213458 A US 00213458A US 3739071D A US3739071D A US 3739071DA US 3739071 A US3739071 A US 3739071A
Authority
US
United States
Prior art keywords
circuit
tone
output
producing
decaying
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
US00213458A
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
N Niinomi
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.)
Nippon Gakki Co Ltd
Original Assignee
Nippon Gakki Co 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 Nippon Gakki Co Ltd filed Critical Nippon Gakki Co Ltd
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of US3739071A publication Critical patent/US3739071A/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

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
    • G10H1/06—Circuits for establishing the harmonic content of tones, or other arrangements for changing the tone colour
    • G10H1/14—Circuits for establishing the harmonic content of tones, or other arrangements for changing the tone colour during execution

Definitions

  • a musical instrument such as a bass guitar produces a musical tone characterized by double-fold decay accompanied by varying tone-color.
  • a musical tone characterized by double-fold decay accompanied by varying tone-color.
  • a primary object of the present invention is to provide tone-color forming circuit in an electronic musical instrument which can simulate the sound of a bass guitar or the like.
  • Another object of the invention is to provide a tonecolor forming circuit in an electronic musical instrument which can create a tone-color simulating the bass guitar or the like, wherein is included a second harmonic component in addition to the fundamental tone, and the second harmonic component reappears after it has once disappeared during the attenuation of the resultant music tone.
  • a tone-color forming circuit in an electronic musical instrument which circuit comprises a fundamental tone producing circuit, a second harmonic producing circuit producing two signals of the same frequency but of a reversed phase relation, a first switching circuit of a longer decaying time characteristic coupled with the outputs of these fundamental and second harmonic producing circuits, a second switching circuit of a shorter decaying time characteristic coupled with the outputs of these two circuits but in the reversed phase (polarity) for the output of the-second harmonic producing circuit, first and second filters of different tone-color characteristics coupled respectively to the outputs of said first and second switching circuits, and a mixing circuit for mixing the outputs of these filters, whereby a music tone signal of a doublefold decaying envelope can be obtained from the mixing circuit.
  • FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a tone-color forming cir- FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) are characteristic curves representing the characteristics of filters included in the circuit shown in FIG. 1; and
  • FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) are diagrams showing the envelope curves of 8 and 4 tone signals included in the output musical tone signal of this circuit.
  • FIG. 1 showing a tone-color forming circuit constituting an embodiment of the present invention
  • a tone signal is applied to an input terminal T, of the tone-color forming circuit and hence to a flip-flop l of 4-foot register tone.
  • the output of the 4-foot register flip-flop 1 is then applied to an 8-foot register flipflop 2 to be frequency-divided therein into one-half.
  • the 8-foot register tone corresponds to a fundamental tone for the tone-color forming circuit
  • the 4-foot register tone corresponds to a second harmonic tone for the same circuit.
  • a signal applied to an input terminal T does not include only one special frequency.
  • the frequencies so applied are decided by what particular note switching circuits share in. Assuming for instance that the switching circuits share in C -note (fundamental frequency 261.6 Hz), an output frequency from the flip-flop 2 is 261.6 Hz and an output frequency from the flip-flop 1 is 523.3 Hz. Accordingly, an input frequency to the flip-flop 1 becomes 1046.5 H2.
  • four-foot register means a resistor wherein the produced tones have frequencies which are respectively one octave higher than nominal frequencies.
  • the flip-flop Since the flip-flop operates to divide an input frequency by one-half, it is necessary to previously apply to the input terminal a tone signal having a frequency one octave higher than that of 4-foot register tone in order to obtain the 4-foot register tone from the flip-flop 1.
  • the decaying characteristic of the switching circuit 3 is selected to be one which gradually decays within about 1,000 milliseconds as shown in FIG. 2(a).
  • the output signal from the switching circuit 3 is passed through a low-pass filter 5 of a characteristic such that a frequency component lower than about 130 Hz is emphasized as indicated in FIG. 3(a).
  • the output signal from the filter 5 is thereafter supplied to a mixing circuit 7.
  • the decaying characteristic of the switching circuit 4 is of a kind which sharply decays within milliseconds as shown in FIG. 2(b).
  • the output signal from the switching circuit 4 is thereafter passed through a resonance type filter 6 of a characteristic as shown in FIG. 3(b) such that a frequency portion near about 500 Hz is emphasized.
  • the output from the filter 6 is also supplied to the mixing circuit 7.
  • the mixing circuit 7 the output signals from the filters 5 and 6 are mixed, and the output signal of this tone-color forming circuit is obtained from an output terminal T of the mixing circuit 7.
  • the signal level of the output of the switching circuit 4 is selected to be higher than that of the output of the switching circuit 3.
  • the two output signals of the same flip-flop 2 for 8-foot register tone, which are of the same phase areswitched respectively in the switching circuits 3 and 4, which have predetermined decaying characteristics as described above, and are then passed through the lowpass filter 5 and the resonance type filter 6 to the mixing circuit 7.
  • switching circuits 3 and 4 it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that suitable structure may be chosen therefor in a manner that the signal level of the output of switching circuit 4 is higher than the signal level of the switching circuit 3.
  • suitable structure for the switching circuits may be derived from the illustration in U. S. Pat. No. 3,170,020.
  • the envelope of the resultant 8-foot tone signal obtained from the mixing circuit 7 has an envelope curve as shown in FIG. 4(a) rapidly decaying during the initial 100 milliseconds and slowly decaying during the remaining 900 milliseconds.
  • the output signal from the mixing circuit 7 initially contains the 4-foot tone signal obtained from the terminal T (of the opposite phase), whereby the 4-foot tone signal obtained from the terminal T (of the primary phase) is cancelled.
  • the 4-foot tone signal obtained from the terminal T decays more quickly than that obtained from the terminal T depending on the characteristics of the switching circuits 3 and 4, and when the magnitudes of the 4-foot tone signals obtained from the terminals T and T become equal, the 4-foot tone signal component contained in the output of the mixing circuit 7 is nullified.
  • the actual output tone signal obtained from the mixing circuit 7 contains both of these component signals, whereby a variation effect in the tone color wherein the second harmonic component disappears once in the course of the decaying and reappears thereafter can be obtained in the output tone signal delivered from the mixing circuit 7.
  • Such an effect of variation in the tone-color is further accentuated by the disposition of filters of low pass and resonance characteristics at the subsequent stages of the switching circuits 3 and 4, respectively.
  • a musical tone signal having double-fold attenuation characteristics accompanied by a tone-color variation during the attenuation can be obtained, and a musical instrument simulating the guitar and the like with naturalness of auditory sensation can be produced by employing the tone-color forming circuit according to the present invention.
  • a tone-color forming circuit in an electronic musical instrument comprising: a fundamental tone producing circuit; a second harmonic producing circuit producing two signals of the same frequency but of a reversed phase relationship; a first switching circuit having a predetermined decaying time connected with the output of said fundamental tone producing and the output of the second harmonic producing circuit without phase reversal, a second switching circuit having a decaying time shorter than said predetermined time and coupled with the output of said fundamental tone producing circuit and with the output in the reversed phase of the second harmonic producing circuit; a first filter and a second filter having outputs and being of different tone-color characteristics and coupled respectively with the outputs of the first and second switching circuits; and a mixing circuit for mixing the outputs of said filters, whereby a musical tone signal of an envelope having a double-fold decaying characteristic can be obtained from the mixing circuit.

Landscapes

  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Electrophonic Musical Instruments (AREA)
US00213458A 1970-12-29 1971-12-29 Tone color forming circuit in electronic musical instrument Expired - Lifetime US3739071A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP45121658A JPS506777B1 (ja) 1970-12-29 1970-12-29

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US3739071A true US3739071A (en) 1973-06-12

Family

ID=14816683

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US00213458A Expired - Lifetime US3739071A (en) 1970-12-29 1971-12-29 Tone color forming circuit in electronic musical instrument

Country Status (3)

Country Link
US (1) US3739071A (ja)
JP (1) JPS506777B1 (ja)
NL (1) NL155111B (ja)

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3836693A (en) * 1972-06-30 1974-09-17 Nippon Musical Instruments Mfg Piano tone-synthesizing system for electronic musical instruments
US4074605A (en) * 1975-05-16 1978-02-21 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Keyboard operated electronic musical instrument
US4148240A (en) * 1977-08-15 1979-04-10 Norlin Industries, Inc. Percussion simulating techniques
US5424488A (en) * 1993-06-07 1995-06-13 Aphex Systems, Ltd. Transient discriminate harmonics generator

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3836693A (en) * 1972-06-30 1974-09-17 Nippon Musical Instruments Mfg Piano tone-synthesizing system for electronic musical instruments
US4074605A (en) * 1975-05-16 1978-02-21 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Keyboard operated electronic musical instrument
US4148240A (en) * 1977-08-15 1979-04-10 Norlin Industries, Inc. Percussion simulating techniques
US5424488A (en) * 1993-06-07 1995-06-13 Aphex Systems, Ltd. Transient discriminate harmonics generator

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JPS506777B1 (ja) 1975-03-18
DE2164953B2 (de) 1977-03-10
DE2164953A1 (de) 1972-07-20
NL7117913A (ja) 1972-07-03
NL155111B (nl) 1977-11-15

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
KR0160493B1 (ko) 디지탈 오디오 신호 발생 장치 및 데이타 처리 장치
US3866505A (en) Ensemble effect imparting device using a bucket brigade device for an electric musical instrument
US3881387A (en) Electronic musical instrument with effect control dependent on expression and keyboard manipulation
JP2751617B2 (ja) 楽音合成装置
US4104946A (en) Voicing system for electronic organ
JPH027078B2 (ja)
GB1525597A (en) Digital electronic musical instrument
US4677890A (en) Sound interface circuit
US3739071A (en) Tone color forming circuit in electronic musical instrument
US3809791A (en) Electronic musical instrument
US4198891A (en) Circuit for simulating sounds of percussive instruments
US3790693A (en) Tone keying and synthesizing system for electronic musical instrument
JP2754829B2 (ja) 楽音合成装置
JPS59139095A (ja) 電子楽器
JP2940011B2 (ja) 楽音合成装置
US3835236A (en) Apparatus for producing base tones in an electronic musical instrument
US3778525A (en) Electronic musical instrument with phase shift tremulant system
JP3090667B2 (ja) 楽音合成装置
US4319511A (en) Tone source for an electronic musical instrument
JP3433762B2 (ja) 電子楽器の音源装置
JPS58114098A (ja) 電子楽器
JP3223889B2 (ja) 楽音合成装置、楽音合成方法および記憶媒体
JPS638955Y2 (ja)
US3826859A (en) Electronic musical instrument with frequency-deviated pedal tone signal
EP0024108A3 (en) Tone generation system for electronic musical instrument