Electrical musical instrument with chord generation
AssigneeWarwick Electronics Inc.
InventorAlden J. Carlson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electronic organ includes logic and a memory for detecting and storing a root note signal identifying a chord which has been either automatically or manually generated. Priority logic, coupled with the memory, passes the lowest root note signal to a tone selection matrix which passes a plurality of tone signals representing the note intervals forming the selected chord. A sequential gating circuit receives all of the tone signals and is responsive to an arpeggio circuit, a strum circuit, or a rhythm unit to gate selected tone signals, one at a time, to the voicing circuitry. When one or more of the tone signals are octavely displaced within the selected chord, disinverting gates are enabled to unfold the chord and cause the tone signals to occur in order of ascending frequency.
Claims8
An electrical musical instrument having a plurality of tone generators for respectively generating a plurality of tone signals, in which the improvement comprises the combination of:
- chord selection means for developing chord signals each representative of a chord composed of a different plurality of selected tone signals, said chord selection means having a separate output line for each one of said chord signals,
- priority logic means connected to said output lines and responsive to selection of more than one chord for disabling all but one of the chord output lines from developing a chord signal;
- and
- a tone selection matrix responsive to said chord signals for passing the plurality of tone signals from the tone generators respectively associated with said chord signals, the tone selection matrix including a plurality of gates, each of said gates coupled to only one of said tone generators and responsive to only one of said chord signals to pass the tone signal from the generator connected thereto and each of said chord signals causing all of those gates connected with tone generators which generate tone signals of the chord represented thereby to pass said tone signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.