Tennes, Charles J. (Palatine, IL)
Kern, Donald R. (Buffalo Grove, IL)

04/875915

03/02/1971

11/12/1969

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Hammond Corporation (Deerfield, IL)

84/600

84/656, 84/713, 84/635, 84/618, 984/347, 84/684, 84/675, 84/667

G10H1/36; G10H1/00; G10F1/00

84/1.01,1.03,1.24,(B),(CEC),(N),(G),(O),1.17 250/27

Sliney X, D.

Weldon U.

We claim

1. In an electrical musical instrument of the keyboard type, means providing a plurality of signal sources representative of notes of the musical scale, an output system, an accompaniment keyboard, a chord lead, a high note select lead and a low note select lead, said keyboard connecting said signal sources selectively to said chord lead according to keys played, a preference system actuated by said accompaniment keyboard, said preference system adapted to supply the note signal for the highest playing key of a group of any number of keys played simultaneously in said accompaniment section to said high note select lead and the lowest note of said group to said low note select lead, means for dividing the frequencies of the signals on said high and low note select leads to provide high and low note suboctave bass signals, control means connecting said high note suboctave signal and said low note suboctave signal and the mixed signal from said accompaniment keyboard individually to said output system, an automatic rhythm programmer, said automatic rhythm programmer being adapted to actuate said control means to connect said chord lead, said low note suboctave lead and said high note suboctave lead selectively to the output system cyclically and automatically according to a preset program.

2. The system called for in claim 1 including additional control means, said additional control means connecting said high note select and said low note select leads individually to said output system, and means actuated by said automatic programmer for selectively actuating said additional control means.

3. The system called for in claim 1 including means for producing a plurality of noise type rhythm voices depending upon which of several leads thereto receive a control signal, said programmer being adapted to supply control signals selectively to the last said leads according to a preselected program.

4. The system called for in claim 1 in which the frequency dividing means for providing both of said suboctave bass signals divides by four.

5. The system called for in claim 1 in which the frequency dividing means for the high note and low note divides by two and by four and in which there are signal leads for the high and low notes the high and low notes one octave down, and the high and low notes two octaves down.

6. The system of claim 1 in which in addition to the chord output called for there is an octavely related chord output and in which the octavely related chord output is also controlled by the automatic programmer.

7. In an electrical musical instrument, means providing a plurality of tone signal sources representative of notes of the musical scale, an output system, a chord lead, a high note select lead, a low note select lead, manual means adapted when actuated to supply selected signals from several of said sources simultaneously to said chord lead, a preference system actuated by said manual means, said preference system adapted to supply the note signal for the highest of the group of note signals supplied simultaneously to said high note select lead and the note signal for the lowest note of said group to said low note select lead, and selectively actuated means for connecting said chord lead, said high note select lead and said low note select lead selectively to said output system.

8. The musical instrument called for in claim 7 in which said high note select lead and said low note select lead include means for dividing the frequency by two.

9. The musical instrument called for in claim 7 in which said high note select lead and said low note select lead include means for dividing the frequency by four.

10. The musical instrument called for in claim 7 in which said high note select lead and said low note select lead have branches, and in which said branches include means for dividing the frequency by two, and means for selectively connecting said branches to the output system.

11. The musical instrument called for in claim 10 in which said branches have additional branches and in which said additional branches have means for additionally dividing the frequency by two, and means for selectively connecting said additional branches to the output system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Electric organ automated rhythm systems.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Generally available automatic rhythm systems for use in or with electric organs or similar instruments provide some mechanism for giving timed pulses on a cyclical basis according to a selected one of any of several available programs and these pulses are used to trigger any of several circuits which produce noise sounds, such as bass drum, snare, blocks, brush, cymbal, etc. These characteristic percussive sounds have different balances as between high and low frequencies and different attack and decay characteristics, but they do not contain pitch information. That is, they do not have a fundamental frequency and a series of harmonics related to the fundamental. It is customary, therefore, for the player to supply this musical information by playing chords with the left hand and bass notes on the pedals to give a musical downbeat, upbeat and the like. Most often used for the bass notes are the root, usually the lowest note of the accompaniment chord, and the fifth. Thus, for example, if the accompaniment chord C-E-G is being played with the left hand, the player will normally play C as the bass downbeat and G as the bass upbeat on the pedals. The problem is that this coordination of manual and pedal play is difficult to master, and thus although currently available automatic rhythm systems help by introducing percussive sounds of the noise or random frequency type on a programmed basis to give a rhythm accompaniment, they do not solve the basic difficulty of avoiding the necessity for precisely coordinating pedal play with play on the manuals.

A proposal which partially solved this difficulty of coordinating manual accompaniment and pedal play forms the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 2,645,968, to Hanert. In this scheme 96 buttons are used selectively and individually to play 96 chords, and electrical circuits are also established by the chord buttons to connect the chord root and fifth to separate pedals. The player can, therefore, use one pedal to play the root, whatever it happens to be, and the other pedal to play the fifth. This arrangement still requires the use of pedals, although only two are involved, and the chord buttons rather than keys for the accompaniment are unnatural to many, particularly those having some experience with the piano or organ. The system also always supplies the chords in a single inversion and thus less choice and variety is available to the player. Furthermore, it is of no help in playing very complicated patterns that tax the ability of even expert players. Some of these will be discussed below along with the present solution to the problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention makes use of any of the various basic and well known types of automatic rhythm systems which have a cycle timer or some other scheme to operate a collection of gates. Operation of the gates gives various percussive noise sounds on an appropriately timed basis to provide the rhythm accompaniment according to any of several patterns, such as Fox Trot, Waltz, Rhumba, March, or those of a more complicated nature, such as some of the Latin rhythms, according to the will of the designer. For the present purpose, such an automatic system is arranged to control three or more additional gates, one for the root, another for the fifth, or their equivalents, and a third for the chord. Others will be discussed presently. By equivalents as used here, what is meant is a pair of notes which although not the conventional root or fifth, nevertheless are notes which will serve the musical purpose. They are always harmonious with the chord being played on the accompaniment manual, but precisely what bass notes result will depend upon the particular chord inversion being held.

In a simplified version of the invention to be described first this is achieved by using low note select and high note select preference circuits controlled by the accompaniment manual together with frequency dividers and wave shaping circuits such that when the automatic rhythm system calls for the root by opening the root gate, the note sounded will be two octaves down from whatever is the lowest note being played on the accompaniment manual. Similarly, when the automatic programmer calls for the fifth, the note played will automatically be two octaves down from the highest note held in the accompaniment manual. The third gate when opened will play the full chord, whatever it is.

The player when supplied with this arrangement, therefore, has an automatic rhythm system which can play extremely complicated patterns made up of appropriate percussive noise sounds and two different bass notes, which may be percussive, both of which are harmonious with whatever chord is being held by the left hand, plus the chord. By playing appropriate inversions of the selected chords, the two bass notes will be musically effective, particularly since the ear's pitch discrimination at low frequencies is rather poor and also because the note played as or in place of the root will always be lower than the note placed as or in place of the fifth.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a simplified organ system embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a chart showing typical connections made by a programmer to obtain automatic patterns representative of those available with this invention as illustrated in FIG. 1,; and

FIG. 3 is similar to FIG. 1, but shows a more extensive development of the system.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

So far as various prior art expedients are used to perform various services as a part of the present system and are well known, detailed description will be avoided, but where it is believed that it will be helpful to a better understanding, reference will be made to prior patents for a fuller explanation of these devices.

In FIG. 1 the system of this invention is shown in simplified block form, since the various individual elements are known to those skilled in this art. The tone signal sources for the instrument are shown at 10. Just what form they take is a matter of choice. One common scheme is to provide 12 independent oscillators which give the 12 notes for the top octave of the instrument and to use 12 divide by two frequency dividers to give the next lower octave and so on until all the required notes are provided for. As shown in the specific embodiment of this FIG., these signal sources provide 53 notes from G at 104 Hz. to C at 2092 Hz. These frequencies and those to be mentioned later are expressed in round numbers in the interest of simplification.

From the sources 10 signal leads 12 connect to the instrument keyboard shown as divided into an accompaniment section 14 and 2 solo section 16. The accompaniment section has 20 keys and extends from C 131 Hz. to G 392 Hz. It is convenient to refer to this as a 4 foot stop. The solo section has 41 keys to provide both an 8 foot stop from G 208 Hz. to C 2092 Hz. and a 16 foot stop from G 104 Hz. to C 1046 Hz. The keyboards 14 and 16 may be at separate levels or placed end to end as shown. The intention is that the accompaniment section 14 will be played with the left hand and the solo section 16 with the right hand.

The 16 foot output of the keyboard solo section is indicated at 18 and the 8 foot at 20. These lead through whatever solo controls 22 are desired to the output section 24 which in turn feeds the speaker system 26. The swell control, reverberation circuitry and the like are not shown specifically but can be considered as a part of the output section 24. Wave shaping circuits and the like are examples of controls in the box 22. Wide variation in this general organization is of course possible and is contemplated, the present invention not being concerned with specific features or resources of the solo section, nor of the output section 24 and speaker 26.

As keys are played in the accompaniment section 14, usually in groups representative of accompaniment chords, the mixed output passes through lead 28 to a chord gate 30 and from the chord gate to an output lead 32 connected in turn to the output section 24. The gate 30 may be of well known construction and has the characteristic that when a certain DC potential is applied to its control lead 34, the gate opens and permits the signal to pass through from lead 28 to lead 32. In the absence of this DC potential the gate is closed. Holding keys in the accompaniment section 14, therefore, produces no response in the output section 24 unless the gate 30 is open. Other gates to be mentioned subsequently have this same characteristic and the several gates in the instrument may have percussive characteristics or different percussive characteristics than others according to the will of the designer. The nature of such gates is well known and needs no detailed description.

The accompaniment section 14 also has a preference circuit which may be of the type forming the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 2,874,286, to Bode. The important feature of this preference circuit is that whenever two or three or four or even more keys are held simultaneously in the keyboard section covered by the preference circuit, the highest key so held will connect the generator for this highest note to a high note select lead, represented in FIG. 1 by the numeral 36 and the lowest key so held will connect the lowest note, which is representative thereof, to the low note select lead 38. Thus, if CEG in that order is held in the keyboard accompaniment section, CEG as a mixed signal will appear in lead 28, C in lead 38 and G in lead 36. If a seventh chord is held, lead 28 will have the root, the third, the fifth and the seventh, and if the chord is held in that order, lead 38 will have the root and lead 36 the seventh. Since such preference circuits are well described in the Bode patent referred to above, no additional discussion is needed here beyond stating that each playing key has a contact for its source and that these contacts are connected to junctions between resistors or other impedances in a series mesh leading to an amplifier input at one end of the mesh. The impedances are high as compared with the impedances of the signal sources with the result that whenever several keys are held, the one closest to the amplifier will sound and simultaneously this key contact will in effect short out the signal from any more remote key through its low impedance source.

The low note select lead 38 is connected to a frequency divider 40 which divides the frequency by two and the output of this divider leads to a second divider 42 which again divides the frequency by two. The output of the second stage divider 40, therefore, covers the range from C 32 Hz. to G 98 Hz. rather than the keyboard range from C 131 to G 392. From the second stage divider 42 the signal passes through whatever are desired as wave shaping or formant circuits at 44 to the low bass lead 46. Similarly, the high note select lead 36 is connected through first and second stage dividers and wave shaping circuits at 48, 50 and 52 respectively to a high bass lead 54.

The low bass lead 46 is connected to the output 32 through a low bass gate 56 having a control connection 58 and the high bass lead 54 is similarly connected to the output by way of high bass gate 60 having a control lead 62. As with the chord gate 30, the gates 60 and 56 open when their control leads 62 and 58 are energized at a certain potential.

A rhythm programmer is shown at 64. The characteristics of this device are that the user can choose by the operation of tabs or buttons any of several available built in rhythm patterns and the device will provide these patterns automatically at a selected rate. It may be a motor driven commutator type device, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,146,290, to Park, or U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,307, to Campbell, or it may be of the electronic coincidence type such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 26,521, to Park. There also are other available types. Their common feature is that at appropriate times in the cycle which covers one or preferably two measures they can supply an electrical impulse selectively to one or more of a group of leads 66 which actuate noise making devices at 68. These noise making devices, usually electronic circuits, when pulsed supply a signal simulating some percussive instrument. Various noise circuits for this purpose are well known and need no discussion here, for instance see such patents as U.S. Pat. No. 2,432,152, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,342,338, to Hanert, U.S. Pat. No. 1,905,996, to Coupleux, U.S. Pat. No. 2,121,142, to Dudley, U.S. Pat. No. 3,328,506, or U.S. Pat. No. 3,325,578, to Park, as examples. So far as the present invention is concerned, no novelty is claimed in any particular rhythm programmer at 64 nor in the noise making devices located in the box 66. In the interest of completeness it will be assumed the rhythm voices at 66 can supply the following simulations: temple block, wood block, brush, snare drum, bass drum and cymbal. Others could be chosen and the resources could include more effects if desired.

The signal from whatever noise effect is pulsed passes through an on-off switching system 70 to the output lead 32. For the present purpose it is assumed that the programmer 64 cycles on a two measure basis with a capability of 24 equally spaced pulses per measure. That is, any output lead, such as those at 66, can receive any desired number of pulses and at any time according to a preset program covering 48 equally time spaced intervals before repeating. Such systems are current and common.

Additionally, to practice the present invention, the programmer 64 has three extra output pulse leads indicated at 72, 74 and 76. These may be considered as identical to the leads 66 in that they can supply pulses according to any of several built-in programs. Instead of being connected to noise producing percussion circuits, however, they are connected through an on-off switching mechanism at 78 respectively to the control leads 34, 62 and 58 for respectively the chord gate 30, the high bass gate 60 and the low bass gate 56. The gates 30, 60 and 56 are, therefore, under the control of the automatic rhythm programmer. The effect of this is that whenever a chord is being held in the accompaniment section 14, nothing sounds from this section until the programmer pulses one or more of the three leads 72, 74, 76. If it pulses lead 72, and assuming the on-off switching system at 78 is on, this will result in the chord, whatever it is, being sounded automatically. Similarly if the programmer pulses lead 72 it will automatically sound a single note two octaves down from the highest note held in the accompaniment section. Similarly also, pulsing lead 76 sounds the lowest note held two octaves down. Since it may be desired to play the accompaniment chord in the normal manual manner without automatic intervention, a switch 80 or the equivalent can be provided to bridge around the chord gate 30. With this switch closed, the chord signal in the lead 28 goes directly to the output lead 32.

FIG. 2 gives a few examples of how this system may be used to advantage. In this chart the numbers across the top represent the 48 time interval pulses available from the programmer covering two measures. Along the left various noise effects and the chord, high bass and low bass are listed. A dot on the chart indicates that the effect listed to the left is sounded at the time interval given vertically thereabove.

In the first section labeled "Latin" it will be seen that at 0, the first beat of the measure, the temple block, the wood block, the brush, the bass drum and the low bass note are all sounded together. At the third interval the brush is sounded, at the fourth interval the chord is played along with the snare drum. At the sixth interval which is the second beat in the measure, the temple block and the snare drum are sounded together with the chord. The ninth interval calls for the temple block, the wood block, the chord and the snare drum. At the 12th interval, the third beat of the measure, the brush and the bass drum are sounded together with the high bass note and so on. The second measure is a repeat of the first excepting for variation in the wood block effect. The station at 48, incidentally, is the same as at 0 and starts a new cycle.

The pattern labeled "Rock" in addition to the noise type effects shows the chord at intervals 6, 18, 21, 30, 42 and 45, the high bass note at 12 and 36 and the low bass note at 0 and 24.

The waltz pattern is comparatively simple and has the low bass note and bass drum at the first beat, position 0, the cymbal at position 6, the cymbal, the snare drum and the chord at the second beat, position 8, and the chord and snare drum at position 16, the third beat. The second measure repeats the first.

The invention when applied to a musical instrument as indicated above gives the player with only rudimentary skill the ability to provide complicated rhythm patterns which include chord and bass effects. As necessary he merely shifts fingers of the left hand to provide new chords, but there is no necessity to play the chords on a timed basis. For example, see the line labeled "Chord and Snare Drum" in the Latin pattern, FIG. 2. To accomplish this and coordinate it with the high bass and low bass would be extremely difficult for anyone not highly skilled if this invention were not available to him, even if he had available an automatic rhythm system to give all of the other sound effects.

Although the arrangement described above has great advantages to the player of small to moderate skill, the system with minor modification, FIG. 3, can provide useful effects that would be extremely difficult to master on a conventional instrument, with or without an automatic rhythm system. Some musicians become adept in certain types of effects, but have limited ability as to others which require the mastery of different techniques. For example, the introduction of grace notes, trills and other rapid fingering styles have little in common with Boogie which is a rapid and regular alternation between octavely related keys. The embodiment of FIG. 3, however, make various complicated and unrelated accompaniment styles easy of accomplishment, since as in the first embodiment it is necessary merely for the player to select the pattern he desires and slowly finger the required chords.

In FIG. 3 the components essentially similar to those in FIG. 1 have been given the same numbers. The sources 10 feed the accompaniment keyboard 14 having notes from C 131 to G 392 Hz. and the solo keyboard at 16. All outputs feed into line 32 connected to the output section 24. A programmer 64 provides pulses to operate a collection of rhythm voices at 68 and a group of gates for the musical effects. In the present embodiment, however, seven of these gates are provided as will appear presently. These seven include counterparts of those in the first embodiment plus four extra.

As in the first embodiment, the full chord signal appears in line 28 and is regulated by a gate 30 responsive to a control signal from the programmer 64 by way of line 34. The chord low note appears in line 38 and passes through divider 40 and divider 42 and thence through low bass gate 56. Similarly also, the chord high note in line 36 passes through divider 48 and divider 50 and by way of gate 60 under control of the programmer to the output. All of the above is substantially identical to the arrangement of FIG. 1.

In FIG. 3, however, the lead 38 is also connected through a gate 80 to the output 32, the gate 80 being under control of a lead 82 from the programmer 64. Similarly, lead 36 is connected to the output 32 through its gate 84 under control of the programmer lead 86. Gates 80 and 84, therefore, enable automatic programming of the chord low and high note respectively without frequency division. In a like manner, the output of the first frequency divider stage 40 is taken by line 88 and passed through gate 90 under control of programmer lead 92 and the output of divider 48 is taken at 94 and passed through gate 96 under control of programmer lead 98. In the interest of simplifying the showing, the customary wave shaping circuits have been omitted excepting for one at 100 in the lead from divider 40 to gate 90. This is representative and it will be appreciated that such voicing circuits can be incorporated in any of the music signal leads.

The arrangement of FIG. 3 permits the player to have the chord play normally by closing switch 80, or to play automatically as called for by the programmer. Also the programmer can play selectively the chord high note, the chord low note, the chord high note one octave down, the chord low note one octave down, the chord high note two octaves down or the chord low note two octaves down. Thus, by playing slow chord progressions an extremely full accompaniment will be provided that can be as complicated and involved as desired and as the programmer provides for. Even while the player is changing the position of the fingers of his left hand from one chord to another, the programmer will always find something to play that fits, even though momentarily less than three keys are held.

The second wave shaper 103 and gate 105 are representative of a provision that can be supplied for all of the signal leads and which can be under the control of the programmer. With this enhancement, the programmer not only can select a gate for the particular note to be played, but also it can select among two or more gates 90 or 105 for instance for two or more voices represented by wave shapers 100 and 103 for a particular note to be sounded, thus supplying additional variety to the automatic accompaniment and rhythm system. If desired, of course, some of the gate outputs can be combined into a single lead having common wave shaping circuits which can be manually or programmer selected.

The use of this arrangement avoids the monotony associated with such waltz patterns as Root-Chord-Chord-Root-Chord-Chord or Fox Trot patterns, Root-Chord-Fifth-Chord-Root-Chord-Fifth-Chord, which are common and at about the limit of accomplishment of many players. In these examples the root and fifth normally are bass notes played on the pedals.

Of course, it is common to play some notes with the left hand at the octave of middle C, C4, 262 Hz. rather than at C3, 121 Hz. and then to play the bass three octaves down at C1, 32 Hz. To accomplish this with the organization of FIGS. 1 or 3 it is necessary for the player sometimes to play notes in one or the other of the octaves in the accompaniment section, but this is not very difficult and even if it is not done the result will be satisfactory.

As an easily accomplished variation on the above mentioned waltz pattern, the chord CEG can be held and the programmer set to play bass C on the first beat, G followed quickly by C at the second beat and the full chord on the third beat. Thus, at the second beat G and C are played in succession as a substitute or musical variation of the cymbal noise sound as indicated in FIG. 2. Other variations will be apparent.

That there are vast pattern possibilities available from the automatic systems of FIGS. 1 and 3 will be obvious, and it will appear also that the system will add great variety and musical merit to musical renditions as compared to the current automatic rhythm systems which are limited to repeating various mixtures of noise type sounds, all of which lack pitch information.

Note that all of the above possibilities are based upon the assumption that the accompaniment section has an output at only one footage. If, as is frequent, the instrument has outputs at both 4 and 8 foot, chord gates, such as the gate at 30, can be put in each of the outputs. As thus arranged, the programmer can energize these gates selectively. As an example, it can gate them alternately and play octave alternations of the chord being held. This is a very useful effect not easily achieved with a conventional instrument.

This invention in its principal form supplies the accompaniment chord signal at one or more footages, the high note and the low note of the chord and octavely related lower notes, one or more octaves down, each on separate leads which are connectable individually to the output system. To make these connections in the preferred system an automatic rhythm programmer is shown and its operation described. Connections of these individual signal leads can, of course, be selectively made by manually actuated controls rather than by automatic control according to a preselected pattern. For some purposes such manual control of the individual connections will lead to greater personal expression, but of course greater skill is required. Mixed systems are also possible in which, as an example, the high and low bass notes are played automatically and the chord lead intermittently connected to the output as desired according to the actuation of a manual control.