US3865002A - Automatic performance system for electronic instruments - Google Patents

Abstract

The keying patterns for a performance on an electronic instrument are recorded on a magnetic tape from which they can be reproduced to automatically control the instrument and reproduce the performance. The recording density is greatly increased by intermittently driving the recording medium past a recording head through a predetermined distance only when the keying pattern varies.

Description

United States Patent 1191 Shimizu et al.

1 1 AUTOMATIC PERFORMANCE SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS [75] lnventors: Takehiro Shimizu; Tutomu Fukui,

both of Tokyo, Japan [73] Assignee: Pioneer Electronic Corporation,

Tokyo, Japan [22] Filed: Dec. 28, 1973 211 Appl. No.: 429,419

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 29, 1972 Japan 47-2646 [52] U.S. Cl 84/115, 84/462, 84/D1G. 29, 346/20, 346/33 M, 360/52 [51] Int. Cl. Gl0f 5/00, GlOg 3/04 [58] Field of Search 84/1.011.03,

84/128, 464, DIG. 29, 461, 462, 115; 179/1004] R; 346/33 M, 49, 20; 360/52 1 1 Feb. 11, 1975 3,647,929 3/1972 Mi1L1c,Jr 34 1101 3,652,776 3/1972 Milde, Jr .1 84/138 3,657,488 4/1972 Pountney 6! 11 346/20 X 3,683,096 8/1972 Peterson et a1. 84/1 15 3,715,731 2/1973 Kan 346/33 M X 3,771,406 11/1973 Wheelwright 84/464 3,781,452 12/1973 Vauclain 84/128 3,786,201 1/1974 Myers et a1. 346/33 M X 3,789,719 2/1974 Maillct 3,797,030 3/1974 Katagiri et a1. 3,829,597 8/1974 Peterson et 211. 3,831,196 8/1974 Thorpe 360/52 Primary Examiner-Stephen .l. Tomsky Assistant ExaminerStanley J. Witkowski Attorney, Agent, or FirmSughrue, Rothwell, Mion, Zinn & Macpeak [57] ABSTRACT The keying patterns for a performance on an electronic instrument are recorded on a magnetic tape from which they can be reproduced to automatically [56] References Cited control the instrument and reproduce the perform- UN T ST PATENTS ance. The recording density is greatly increased by in- 3,319,237 5/1967 Jones, Jr. 360/52 ermittently driving the recording medium past a re- 3,426,336 2/1969 Gabor 360/52 X cording head through a predetermined distance only 3,548,064 12/1970 Onc1ey.... 84/101 when the keying pattern varies, 3 3,604,299 9/1971 Englund 3,631,427 12/1971 Hein et a1. 360/52 2 Clalms, 7 Drawing Flgllres BIT DELAY fin"- T {fill VOLTAGE RESET 1 LOGICAL CIRCUIT LEVEL PARALLEL-SERIAL SERIAL PARALLEL RESET H TRANS. cmcun TRANS- A" LATCHING CIRCUIT VOLTAGE 0 LEVEL REC. 4 AMP. l

8 RESET STOP'PULSE L PARALLEL-SERIAL GATE TRANS. OIRCUIT TIME BASE CLOCK HRZ 9 REC.3AMP.

MOTOR CONTIROL PATENTETJ E 1 m5 3.865.002

SHEET 1 BF 3 lqH VOLTAGE TT T I T Loe|cAL CIRCUIT LEVEL PARALLEL-SERIAL SERIAL PARALLEL RESET- TRAAsfcmcuTT A TRANS. CIRCTJIT TTTAT- 5 1 LOW VOLTAGE LATCHINGCIRCUIT A l9 0 LT-IVEL RECQAMR 8 6' REsET STOP-PULSE T PARALLEL-SERIAL A GATE" TRANS. CIRCUIT ll HR2 TIME BASE cLo' cA 9 REC.3AMP. REC. IZAMP.

I MOTOR CONTROL HRI HR3 TRACK TRACK 2 TRACK 33 PATENTEDFEBI 1 ms TRACK I TRACK 2 TRACK s,

SHEET 20F 3 ONE SHOT CIRCUIT ONE SHOT MULTIVIBRATOR ONE SHOT I I Q-,- t D ONE SHOT IN D MULTIVIBRATOR I m v mom cmcun s PATENTEDFEBI H915 3.865.002

SHEH 3 OF 3 I DECODERS 21 A I 25 2g l necomzn GATE SERIAL- L 22 w sum REGISTER mus. c1 F L 2 sum PULSE LATCHlNG cmcun I A ATOR .STOP

PULSE 3 2 CLOCK TIME s5 \PHASE COMPARATOR MOTOR CONTROL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic performance system for electronic instruments such as, for example, electronic organs.

2. Description of the Prior Art In order to reproduce a performance of an electronic instrument at any desired time, there has been proposed an automatic performance system in which groups of parallel signals are generated in accordance with the keying patterns of the electronic instrument. These signals are translated into series pulse signals which vary in every predetermined sufficiently short time unit enabling the automatic performance system to respond to the change of the demisemiquaver at least, and the translated series pulse signals are recorded on a magnetic recording medium such as, for example, magnetic tape, and when demanded, these recorded series pulse signals are reproduced from the recording medium and translated back into the original parallel signals which control the operation of the electronic instrument to reproduce the performance. This has been the detailed disclosure of the system in copending application Ser. No. 4l 7,331 filed, on Nov. 19,

1973, by Tutomu Fukui and Tsutomu Suzuqui for Automatic Musical Performance Method and Apparatus for a Keyed Instrument, and assigned to the assignee of the present application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The main object of the present invention is, in the electronic instrument described above, to highly increase the recording density by intermittently driving the recording medium on which the keying patterns are recorded past a magnetic head through a predetermined distance only when the keying pattern varies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a general block diagram of a recording system of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the start pulse detector circuit employed in the recording system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows the relation between the respective tracks of the magnetic tape and the blocks of the recording system in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates the waveforms of the signals recorded in each track of the magnetic tape in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a general block diagram of a read-out system of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the start pulse generator in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the selective gate in FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a general block diagram which illustrates in broad schematic form a recording system for recording keying patterns of an electronic instrument on a recording medium such as the magnetic tape shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 1, a parallel-serial translating circuit 1, which is provided with as many input terminals as the number of keys of the electronic instrument, has the function of translating the groups of parallel signals, which are associated with the keying patterns and supplied to the input terminals, into serial pulse signals that shift in every one clock pulse time unit in accordance with the clock pulses supplied from a clock pulse generator 2. The clock pulses are applied to a magnetic head HR 1 a recording amplifier 3 and are'recorded on a first track of a magnetic tape, whereas the translated serial pulse signals are applied to a magnetic head I-IR2 through a one bit delay and another recording amplifier 4 and re corded on a second track. 1

On the other hand, a start pulse generating circuit 5 is constructed, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, namely it is composed of as manyinput terminals IN as the number of keys, oneshot circuit, which are connected to the corresponding input terminal respectively, composed of an invertor I, a differentiating circuit D, an or" circuit OR and a oneshot multivibrator, and another input terminal IN receiving a signal from the serial parallel translating circuit 6. When a key is depressed or released, the corresponding oneshot circuit in the start pulse generating circuit 5 detects the front edge or the rear edge of the signal which appears when the key is depressed and disappears when the key is released, and generates a start pulse having a predetermined sufficiently narrow pulse-width enabling it to repeatedly respond to the quick change of the keying pattern, or the change of the demisemiquaver at least.

Explaining in further detail, when a key is depressed, the positive signal produced thereby is directly applied to the differentiating circuit D not through the inventer I and differentiating there, and a positive pulse signal obtained by the differentiation actuates the oneshot multivibrator through the or circuit and causes the oneshot multivibrator to generate the start pulse; and when the key is released after that, the inverter I generates a positive signal because the input of the inverter becomes zero, and thus the oneshot multivibrator is actuated, as mentioned above, by the positive pulse signal passing through the differentiating circuit D and the or circuit OR and generates the start pulse again. That is, when a different key is depressed to change the keying pattern, a start pulse is generated and supplied to a seri-' al-parallel translating circuit 6 as a reset signal. This serial-parallel translating circuit 6, comprising a serialin parallel-out shift register, after being reset, will receive sequentially as a time count pulse signal the input information of the l logical circuit level that is supplied to the serial input of the shift register in accordance with time basepulses, which will be described hereinafter, and will shift as many times as the number of time base pulses that occur in the duration of the same keying pattern. In addition, the start pulse generating circuit 5 generates the start pulse by receiving a signal from the end terminal of the serial parallel translating circuit 6 in a case also where no change of the keying pattern happens longer than a predetermined time period, or the time period of the predetermined one block of the clock pulses.

On the other hand, the time base generating circuit 7 counts the clock pulses and will generate a time base pulse every time the generator 7 has counted the number of clock pulses which correspond to one block on the magnetic tape. The time base pulse generating circuit 7 is a conventional pulse counter in which one pulse is sent out as an output when the predetermined number of clock pulses are counted. The time base pulse is supplied to the series-parallel translating circuit 6 as a clock input to shift the time count pulse signal.

The stop pulse generating circuit 8 will generate a stop pulse when it has counted one block of clock pulses passing through a gate 8' which is opened by the start pulse. The stop pulse generating circuit 8, like'timebase generating circuit 7, is a conventional counter in which one pulse is sent out after a predetermined count. The stop pulse is used to block the gate 8' and at the same time is supplied to a tape-drive motor control circuit 9. The tape drive motor control circuit 9 is supplied with the start pulse from the start pulse generating circuit as well as with the stop pulse, so as to actuate a tape-drive motor M when the start pulse is applied and to deenergize it when the stop pulse is applied, whereby the magnetic tape may be driven intermittently. The motor control circuit 9 is well known in data recorders and may be a flip flop which is set by the start pulse and reset by the stop pulse. The motor M preferably has a quick response characteristic so as to be started and stopped as quickly as possible.

The parallel output signals from the series-parallel translating circuit 6, or the time count signal is shifted into a latching circuit 10 when the keying pattern changes, namely when the start pulse adds to the latching circuit 10, and appear at the output terminals of the latching circuit 10 as the output signal thereof. This output signal, or the time count pulse signal associated with the keying pattern signal recorded on the (n)th block shown in FIG. 3 is shifted into the parallel-serials translating circuit 11 when it receives, as a reset pulse, the start pulse delayed for one bit time period of the clock pulse by passing through a bit delay circuit, and at the same time the serials-parallel translating circuit 10 is reset. At this time, the new keying pattern has already been stored as the (n+1 )th keying pattern in the serial-parallel translating circuit 6, and the motor M has already started to revolve. Consequently, the output signals of both the parallel-serial translating circuits 1 and 11 are sent out by the incoming clock pulses respectively, and recorded on the respective tracks of the magnetic tape at the same time. That is the keying pattern signal of the (n+1 )th block is recorded on a second track of the magnetic tape through the one bit delay circuit, the amplifier 4 and the magnetic head HR2; and the time count pulse signal associated with the keying pattern recorded on the (n)th block of the magnetic tape is recorded on a third track through the amplifier 12 and the magnetic head I-IR3.

FIG. 3 illustrates each recording block on the magnetic'tape, and FIG. 4 illustrates an example of the signals recorded in each track of one recording block. According to the above disclosure, it may be readily understood that both the (n+1)th keying pattern signal and the time count signal determining the play time of the keying pattern signal recorded in the previous recording block, or the (n)th recording block are recorded on respective tracks of the magnetic tape in the (n+1 )th recording block. In addition, it should be noted that, when the time base pulses are counted to the number corresponding to the one recording block, namely when the time count pulse signal appears at the end terminal of the series-parallel translating circuit 6, the start pulse signal is generated again by the start pulse generating circuit 5 as mentioned above, and the magnetic tape will be driven as far as the next block even if there is no change in the keying pattern.

Now referring to FIG. 5,there is illustratedaread-out system. Supposing now the (n+1 )th block is to be readout, then a start pulse generating comparison circuit 21 operates to generate a start pulse (having, for example, one bit width) which opens a selective gate 22 so as to supply the clock input terminal of a shift register 23 with the clock pulse decoded by a decoder 24 from the output of a read-out magnetic head HPl.

Examples of the start pulse generating comparison circuit 21 and the selective gate 22 are illustrated in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, respectively.

In the pulse generating comparison circuit shown in FIG. 6, when both signals are simultaneously applied by using a time counting signal sent out from shift register 23 and a time base pulse sent out from time base pulse generator 32, the output of the NAND circuit becomes 0. As a result no output appears at the output of the AND circuit. However, when a time base input exists in the absence of a pulse from shift register 23, the output of the NAND circuit is a 1 and, as a, result, a start pulse is sent out from the AND circuit. In FIG. 7, the two NAND- circuits comprise a flip-flop which is set and reset by the start and stop pulses, respectively. Depending on the state of the flip-flop, either a clock pulse or a time base pulse is provided as an output through the OR circuitafter being gated to the corresponding AND circuit.

Since the start pulse is also applied to the T input of a latching circuit 25, the information stored in a serialparallel translating circuit 26, into which the signal corresponding to the (n)th keying pattern has already been shifted, may be transferred into the latching circuit 25 to be stored therein. In the succeeding step, the keying pattern signal of the (n+1 )th block recorded in the second track of the magnetic tape will be read-out through a magnetic head HP2 and, after being decoded by a decoder 27, will be read into the serial-parallel translating circuit 26 in accordance with the clock pulse from the decoder 24. At the same time, the (n)th time count signal written in the (n+l )th block will be read-out through a magnetic head HP3 and, after being decoded by the decoder 28, will be shifted into the shift register 23 in accordance with the clock pulse from the decoder 24.

On the other hand, there is provided a stop pulse generating circuit 29, similar to stop pulse generating circuit 8, which will generate a stop pulse when it has counted the number of clock pulse corresponding to one block. The stop pulse will be supplied to a tapedrive motor control circuit 30 similar to motor control circuit 9 which may control the revolution of a motor M to stop the motor M, and at'the same time, will open the selective gate 22 so as to cause the shift register 23 to receive a time base pulse. A time pulse will be generated by a time base pulse generator 32, similar to time base pulse generator 7 once every counting of one block of clock pulses generated by a clock pulse generator 31. At this time, the keying pattern signal written in the (n)th block is shifted into the latching circuit 25, and the time count signal written in the (n+1 )th block,

which functions to control the play time duration of the keying pattern, is shifted into the shift register 23. The information stored in the shift register 23, therefore, will be sent out once every cycle of the time base pulse, and will be compared in the start pulse generating comparison circuit 21 so that, at the time when no time base pulse output is supplied from the output of the shift register 23, the comparison circuit 21 will generate a start pulse to actuate the motor M so as to drive the magnetic tape for a predetermined distance intermittently. By the repetition of the process described above, whenever the keying pattern changes, and even when a key of the electronic instrument is depressed continuously for a duration longer than the time of one block, the final bit will necessarily be a zero count signal, whereby the magnetic tape may be driven for every block. Thus, the automatic performance of the electronic instrument can be accomplished by way of the operation of signal gates controlled by the output of latching circuit 25.

During moving of the magnetic tape, if there is a phase difference between the clock pulse decoded by the decoder 24 and the clock pulse supplied from the clock pulse generator 31, a timing discrepancy of the time base pulse will occur at the time of stopping of the tape, thereby possibly causing a malfunction. A conventional phase comparison circuit 33 will operate to generate a control signal to regulate the speed of revolution of the motor M, so that coincidence of the clock pulse decoded by the decoder 24 with the clock pulse from the clock pulse generator as a reference may be achieved.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. An automatic performance system for electronic 6 instruments comprising a source'of clock pulses; parallel-serial translating circuit means for translating groups of parallel ON-OFF signals generated in parallel in accordance with keying patterns of an electronic instrument, into a train of serial pulse signals that may .vary in every predetermined infinitesimal time unit corresponding to a clock pulse; a recording means including a recording head and a recording medium for intermittently driving said recording medium a predetermined distance relative to said recording head in response to a change in said keying pattern so that an output signal from the parallel serial translating circuit means is recorded in one block corresponding to said predetermined distance ofa track of the recording medium and so that the time duration of the block is recorded as time count signals in the succeeding block of another track of the recording medium; means for controlling the intermittent movement of the recording medium in accordance with the time count signal; a reproducing head for reproducing the intermittently recorded output from said parallel-serial translating circuit means; a serial-parallel translating circuit means for translating the recorded train of serial pulse signals, read out through said reproducing head, into groups of parallel signals that vary in said infinitesimal time unit; and means for controlling the performance of the electronic instrument with the output from said serialparallel translating circuit.

2. An automatic performance system for electronic instruments as defined in claim 1, wherein said recording medium is a magnetic tape and said recording and reproducing head is a magnetic head.

Claims (2)

1. An automatic performance system for electronic instruments comprising a source of clock pulses; parallel-serial translating circuit means for translating groups of parallel ON-OFF signals generated in parallel in accordance with keying patterns of an electronic instrument, into a train of serial pulse signals that may vary in every predetermined infinitesimal time unit corresponding to a clock pulse; a recording means including a recording head and a recording medium for intermittently driving said recording medium a predetermined distance relative to said recording head in response to a change in said keying pattern so that an output signal from the parallel serial translating circuit means is recorded in one block corresponding to said predetermined distance of a track of the recording medium and so that the time duration of the block is recorded as time count signals in the succeeding block of another track of the recording medium; means for controlling the intermittent movement of the recording medium in accordance with the time count signal; a reproducing head for reproducing the intermittently recorded output from said parallel-serial translating circuit means; a serial-parallel translating circuit means for translating the recorded train of serial pulse signals, read out through said reproducing head, into groups of parallel signals that vary in said infinitesimal time unit; and means for controlling the performance of the electronic instrument with the output from said serial-parallel translating circuit.

2. An automatic performance system for electronic instruments as defined in claim 1, wherein said recording medium is a magnetic tape and said recording and reproducing head is a magnetic head.

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