Wind controller for music synthesizers

A method of producing a glitch free data stream of note signals from a wind controller for controlling a music synthesizer to produce a sequence of musical notes, said controller comprising a control instrument having a body member with an onboard computer and a plurality of keys mounted thereon, each of said keys being movable between a released position and a held position, at least some of said notes requiring a combination of two or more of said keys to be in said held position at the same time, said method comprising the steps of:

• monitoring the movement of each of the keys which are moved between said released position and said held position to produce a desired note signal,
• for each said key, producing a tristate logic signal having a first state when said key is in its released position, having a second state when said key is in its held position and having a third state when said key is in transition between said released and said held positions, said tristate logic signal having a two bit format for representing the position of said key,
• decoding said tristate logic signals to produce a one bit format in said data stream of said note signals representing the held and released positions of each of said keys and processing said tristate logic signals to detect any key in said third state and converting said data stream of note signals in said one bit format to MIDI note signals for controlling said synthesizer for playing said sequence of musical notes, only when none of said tristate logic signals is in said third state,
• whereby said synthesizer does not receive any MIDI note signals while any one of said keys is in transition between said released and said held positions.

A method of producing a data stream of note signals from a wind controller for controlling a music synthesizer to produce a sequence of musical notes, said controller comprising a control instrument having a body member with a plurality of keys mounted thereon, each of said keys being movable between a released position and a held position, at least some of said notes requiring a combination of two or more selected keys to be in said held position at the same time, said method comprising the steps of:

• monitoring the movement of each of said plurality of keys between said released position and said held position and, for each of said keys, producing a logic signal having a first state when said key is in its released position having a second state when said key is in its held position and having a third state when said key is in transition between said released and said held positions,
• storing said logic signals for all of said keys until none of said logic signals is in said third scare, and then,
• using the stored logic signals for producing a data scream of note signals for playing said sequence of musical notes,
• whereby said synthesizer does not receive said note signals while any one of said keys is in transition between said released and said held positions.

A method of producing a data stream of note signals from a wind controller of the type adapted for use with a music synthesizer to produce a sequence of musical notes, said controller comprising a control instrument having a body member and a plurality of note keys mounted thereon and containing a computer and onboard memory including a key map memory having a plurality of key map codes stored therein, there being at least one unique key map code corresponding to each note in an octave, and a look-up table adapted for storing code representing notes within the MIDI range, each of said keys being selectively movable between a released position and a held position for producing a selected note, at least some of said notes requiring a combination of two or more of said keys to be in said held position at the same time, said method comprising the steps of:

• monitoring the movement of each of said keys, and for each of said keys, producing a tristate logic signal having a first state when its associated key is in said released position, having a second state when its associated key is in said held position, and having a third state when its associated key is in transition between said released and held positions,
• storing the set of said tristate logic signals for each selected note in a logic signal register,
• converting said tristate logic signals, which comprise n*2 bits, into key map data signals, which comprise n bits total, (where n is the number of note keys) and producing an enable signal when none of said tristate logic signals in said logic signal register is in said third state,
• upon occurrence of said enable signal, comparing each of said key map data signals with said key map codes stored in said key map memory and,
• when there is a match of a key map data signal with a key map code, using the key map code as an address for accessing a corresponding code in said look-up table for sending a MIDI note signal to said synthesizer, whereby glitches are avoided in said sequence of musical notes.