Method and apparatus for introducing dynamic transient voices in an electronic musical instrument

摘要

A method and apparatus for introducing transient voices in an electronic musical instrument. It is the nature of some musical instruments such as a piano, harpsichord, or guitar to produce tones having a transient characteristic; however, instruments such as the trumpet, clarinet and pipe organ, which are considered to produce steady state tones, also exhibit transient characteristics at times. In general, transient effects in musical instruments can be characterized as combinations of harmonic and amplitude variations over some time period. PPIn order to more closely synthesize the sounds of musical instruments, the present invention employs a scheme whereby a sequence of voices, which may have different harmonic and amplitude characteristics, are generated during the transient time period. This is accomplished through the use of a transient voice memory divided into "n" voice zones. Each zone may contain the same or a different voice from every other zone in the memory. The use of multiple memories is also possible if desired. The present invention is particularly suited for use in digital electronic musical instruments which generate attack and decay scale factors in response to key depression and release. Using the instrument's attack and decay counter means in conjunction with an attack and decay zone decoder, one or more voice memory zones are selected from the respective memories for combining with the normal voice associated with the desired sound. The combined voice is then processed through the instrument in the usual fashion.