Electronic musical instrument simultaneously operable in monophonic and polyphonic modes
AssigneeNorlin Industries, Inc.
InventorRichard M. Walborn
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electronic musical instrument having combined monophonic and polyphonic sound producing capabilities includes a keyboard simultaneously operating a monophonic tone signal generating circuit and a polyphonic tone signal generating circuit. The tone signals produced by the tone generating circuits are combined and coupled through a single signal processing stage and therefrom to an output speaker. A gate signal for enabling the monophonic tone signal generating circuit and for operating the signal processing stage is derived at the output of a detector circuit which is responsive to the presence of an audio output from the polyphonic tone signal generating circuit.
Claims11
An electronic musical instrument having combined monophonic and polyphonic sound producing capabilities comprising:
- a plurality of player operable keys each representing a different pitch of a musical scale;
- polyphonic means for producing a first audio signal having frequency components representing the pitches of all of said keys which are depressed;
- means for producing a gate signal in response to the detection of the presence of said first audio signal;
- monophonic means enabled in response to said gate signal for producing a second audio signal having a frequency representing the pitch of only one of said keys which are depressed;
- means for producing a third audio signal representing the sum of said first and second audio signals;
- and
- output means responsive to said gate signal for controllably processing said third audio signal.
In an electronic musical instrument of the type having a keyboard and an output system, the improvement comprising:
- means for developing a polyphonic audio signal in accordance with the operation of said keyboard;
- means for producing a gate signal in response to said polyphonic signal;
- a voltage controlled oscillator;
- means developing a voltage control signal representing the pitch of a single depressed key of said keyboard;
- gate means responsive to said gate signal for coupling said voltage control signal to said voltage controlled oscillator for developing a monophonic audio signal representing said single operated key;
- and
- means for coupling said polyphonic and monophonic audio signals to said output system.
An electronic musical instrument having combined monophonic and polyphonic sound producing capabilities comprising:
- a plurality of player operable keys each representing a different pitch of a musical scale;
- polyphonic means for producing a first audio signal having frequency components representing the pitches of all of said keys which are depressed;
- means for producing a gate signal in response to said first audio signal;
- monophonic means enabled in response to said gate signal for producing a second audio signal having a frequency representing the pitch of only one of said keys which are depressed;
- means for producing a third audio signal representing the sum of said first and second audio signals;
- and
- voltage controlled means responsive to said gate signal for controllably processing said third audio signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.