Electronic musical instrument

• US 4,696,214 A
• Filed: 10/10/1986
• Issued: 09/29/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/1985
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Ichiki, Tetsuji
• Primary Examiner(s): WITKOWSKI, STANLEY J
• Application Number:
  US06/917,909
• Time in Patent Office: 354 Days
• Field of Search: 84/1.01, 84/1.03, 84/1.11-1.13, 84/1.19-1.28
• US Class Current: 84/603
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 5/005 Voice controlled instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 7/02 in which amplitudes at successive sample points of a tone waveform are stored in one or more memories

Abstract

An electronic musical instrument of the sampling type is provided. The electronic musical instrument comprises a memory having a plurality of storage areas, and operates in one of full sampling, part sampling, full play and part play modes. Sampling data of waveform of a tone are stored into addresses of all the storage areas in the full sampling mode, and are stored into addresses of one of the storage areas in the part sampling mode. Thus, only one waveform is sampled and stored in the full sampling mode, whereas a plurality of waveforms can be sampled and stored in the part sampling mode. In the full play mode, the whole sampling data are read from the storage areas to form a tone, so that the tone can have a complicated waveform if the sampling data have been stored in the memory in the part sampling mode. In the part play mode, the sampling data are read from the corresponding storage area, so that the tone can be formed from a portion of a waveform if the waveform has been stored in the full sampling mode.

Claims

1. An electronic musical instrument comprising:

mode selection means for selecting one of a plurality of modes including sampling and play modes, said mode selection means outputting a mode signal representative of the selected mode;

transducer means for converting a tone into a tone signal representative of said tone;

memory means comprising a plurality of storage areas each having a plurality of addresses;

read/write rate designation means for outputting a first rate signal designating a first rate of access to the addresses of said memory means when said mode signal represents said sampling mode, and for outputting a second rate signal designating a second rate of access to the addresses of said memory means when said mode signal represents said play mode;

storage area designation means for designating one of said plurality of storage areas and for outputting an area signal indicative of the designated storage area;

read/write control means responsive to said mode signal, said first rate signal and said area signal for storing data representing said tone signal into the addresses in said designated storage area only at said first rate when said mode signal represents said sampling mode, and responsive to said mode signal and said second rate signal for reading data from the addresses in said plurality of storage areas at said second rate when said mode signal represents said play mode; and

tone generating means for generating a tone in accordance with the data read from said memory means.

2. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 1

further comprising a keyboard having a plurality of keys, said read/write rate designation means outputting said first rate signal in response to depression of any one of said keys, said first rate corresponding to a pitch of tone designated by said depressed key.

3. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 1

further comprising a keyboard having a plurality of keys, said read/write rate designation means outputting said second rate signal in response to depression of any one of said keys, said second rate corresponding to a pitch of tone designated by said depressed key.

4. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 1

further comprising a keyboard having a plurality of key zones each having a plurality of keys, said plurality of key zones corresponding respectively to said plurality of storage areas, said storage area designation means outputting said area signal in response to depression of any one of the keys of said keyboard, said area signal designating the storage area corresponding to the key zone to which said depressed key belongs.

5. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 1

wherein said read/write control means comprises an accumulator and a memory storing a plurality of data representative of different frequencies one of which is read therefrom in response to either of said first and second rate signals, said accumulator accumulating said data read from said memory to produce address data for accessing the addresses of said memory means.

6. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 5, wherein said read/write control means further comprises a register for storing data indicative of the address to be first accessed and an adder for adding an output of said accumulator to said data contained in said register, an output of said adder being said address data for accessing the addresses of said memory means.

7. An electronic musical instrument comprising:

mode selection means for selecting one of a plurality of modes including sampling and play modes, said mode selection means outputting a mode signal representative of the selected mode;

transducer means for converting a tone into a tone signal representative of the tone;

memory means comprising a plurality of storage areas each having a plurality of addresses;

read/write rate designation means for outputting a first rate signal designating a first rate of access to the addresses of said memory means when said mode signal represents said sampling mode, and for outputting a second rate signal designating a second rate of access to the addresses of said memory means when said mode signal represents said play mode;

storage area designation means for designating one of said plurality of storage areas and for outputting an area signal indicative of the designated storage area;

read/write control means responsive to said mode signal and said first rate signal for storing data representing said tone signals into the addresses in said plurality of storage areas at said first rate when said mode signal represents said sampling mode, and responsive to said mode signal, said second rate signal and said area signal for reading data from the addresses in said designated storage area only at said second rate when said mode signal represents said play mode; and

tone generating means for generating a tone in accordance with the data read from said memory means.