In tone generators for electronic musical instruments
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorMassimo Di Pietro
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A tone generator for electronic musical instruments, useful in particular for the modular composition of an electronic organ, comprising a plurality of inputs corresponding to a keyboard octave of the musical instrument. The inputs are connected to a plurality of groups of analog modulators which receive, respectively, tone signals produced by a tone generator and submultiples thereof produced by a plurality of toggles according to the number of footages desired on the output of the groups of modulators. The tone generator includes an audio frequency modulator having a high modulation index with full modulation depth remaining substantially constant over the whole supply voltage range.
Claims16
An electronic tone synthesizer comprising a plurality of octave inputs for receiving input signals corresponding at least to notes of an octave scale of a musical instrument;
- a plurality of groups of analog amplitude modulators, each group comprising a number of modulators equal in number to said plurality of octave inputs, each modulator in a group having a carrier input, a modulating input and an output;
- for each modulator group, means connecting the modulator outputs to a respective footage output for that modulator group;
- carrier generator means for producing an ordered frequency submultiple series of sets of tone signals, each set comprising a number of tone signals having harmonically related frequencies of a musical scale octave and corresponding in number to the number of amplitude modulator means in each said modulator group;
- means connecting said octave inputs to respective modulating inputs of corresponding modulators of each group and means for connecting each set of tone signals to the carrier inputs of corresponding modulators of an individual one of the modulator groups such that an input on any particular octave input produces at the footage outputs an amplitude modulated series of submultiple frequency tone signals.
An electronic tone synthesizer comprising respective groups of octave inputs for receiving input signals corresponding at least to notes of an individual keyboard octave musical scale of a musical instrument;
- clock pulse generator means for generating base frequency clock pulses and means for successively frequency dividing the base frequency clock pulses;
- for each said group of octave inputs;
- a plurality of groups of analog amplitude modulators, each group comprising a number of modulators equal in number to said plurality of octave inputs, each modulator in a modulator group having a carrier input, a modulating input and an output;
- for each modulator group, means connecting the modulator outputs to a respective footage output for that modulator group;
- carrier generator means comprising tone signal generator means responsive to a clock pulse input of selected frequency for producing an ordered frequency submultiple series of sets of tone signals, each set of tone signals having harmonically related frequencies of a musical scale octave and corresponding in number to the number of amplitude modulators in a modulator group, means for connecting the octave inputs associated with a particular octave to respective modulating inputs of corresponding modulators of said modulator group;
- means for connecting each set of tone signals to the carrier inputs of corresponding modulators of an individual one of the modulator groups;
- and
- means for connecting the base frequency clock pulses and the successively frequency divided clock pulses to the tone generator means of the respective modulator groups.
An electronic musical instrument including a keyboard arranged in octaves, a plurality of tone synthesizers each comprising respective groups of octave inputs, each group of inputs connected to keys of at least a keyboard octave of the said musical instrument;
- clock pulse generator means for generating base frequency clock pulses and a means for successively frequency dividing the base frequency clock pulses;
- for each group of octave inputs;
- a plurality of groups of analog amplitude modulators, each group comprising a number of modulators equal in number to said plurality of octave inputs, each modulator in a modulator group having a carrier input, a modulating input and an output;
- for each modulator group, means connecting the modulator outputs to a respective footage output for that modulator group;
- carrier generator means comprising tone signal generator means responsive to a clock pulse input of selected frequency for producing an ordered frequency submultiple series of sets of tone signals, each set of tone signals having harmonically related frequencies of a musical scale octave and corresponding in number to the number of amplitude modulators in a modulator group, means for connecting the octave inputs associated with a particular octave to respective modulating inputs of corresponding modulators of said modulator group;
- means for connecting each set of tone signals to the carrier inputs of corresponding modulators of an individual one of the modulator groups;
- and
- means for connecting the base frequency clock pulses and the successively frequency divided clock pulses to the tone generator means of the respective modulator groups.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.