Automatic rhythm playing apparatus

Claim 2

In an automatic rhythm playing apparatus having memory means in which information is stored, first address means for providing cyclically changing address signals to said memory means, second address means for providing constant address signals corresponding to selected information stored in said memory means, said memory means producing output signals corresponding to the selected information in response to said cyclically changing and constant address signals, and gating means connected to said first address means for producing percussion instrument sound signals by application thereto of the output signals of said memory means to obtain a rhythm sound signal consisting of a plurality of percussion instrument sound signals.

Claim 3

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said first address means comprise a clock pulse oscillator, a dynamic counter having a plurality of stages for successively counting clock pulses and a decoder for decoding the outputs of each stage of said dynamic counter into address signals which circulate in accordance with repetition of counting of said counter.

Claim 4

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said second address means comprise a plurality of rhythm selection switches, a rhythm selection signal generating circuit for generating a rhythm selection signal by closing of a desired rhythm selection switch and a decoder for decoding the output of said rhythm selection signal generating circuit into an address signal which is peculiar to the selected rhythm.

Claim 5

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said memory means consist of a read only memory.

Claim 6

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 1 in which said means for obtaining a rhythm sound signal comprise a gate circUit connected to the output of said memory means, a gate signal waveshaping circuit for supplying a gate pulse having a sharp waveform synchronized with the clock pulse to said gate circuit and a percussion instrument sound signal generating circuit having oscillators for each percussion instrument sound respectively driven by the output of said gate circuit.

Claim 7

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 2 which further comprises a 1/4 frequency divider consisting of first and second flip-flops provided between the output of said clock pulse oscillator and the input of said dynamic counter and a switch for feeding back the output of said second flip-flop to the input of said first flip-flop whereby a percussion instrument sound signal for a triplet is obtained at a specific output terminal of said memory means by closing of said switch.

Claim 8

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 6 which further comprises at least two rhythm selection circuits, at least two rhythm units respectively provided in correspondence to said rhythm selection circuits for receiving a rhythm selection signal from the corresponding rhythm selection circuit and producing a plurality of percussion instrument sound generating signals having pulses corresponding to the notes of each percussion instrument sound of the selected rhythm, and a percussion instrument sound signal generating circuit having oscillators for each percussion instrument sound driven by said percussion instrument sound generating signal.

Claim 9

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 7 in which each rhythm unit comprises a dynamic counter having a plurality of stages for counting pulses obtained by frequency dividing the clock pulses, a first decoder for decoding the outputs of each stage of said dynamic counter into a first address signal, a second decoder for decoding the rhythm selection signal into a second address signal, a memory which digitally stores notes of a plurality of rhythms for each percussion instrument sound and from which a signal having a note arrangement of the selected rhythm for each percussion instrument sound is read out by said first and second address signals, and a gate circuit for gating the read out output of said memory thereby to obtain a percussion instrument sound generating signal.

Claim 10

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus comprising memory means storing a plurality of rhythm patterns, address means for providing cyclically changing address signals to said memory means to read out said plurality of rhythm pattern signals from said memory means, rhythm pattern selection circuit means for selecting the rhythm pattern signals corresponding to the kind of rhythm selected, means for supplying a constant address signal corresponding to the selected rhythm to said rhythm pattern selection circuit means and gating means connected to the address means for producing percussion instrument sound signals by application thereto of the outputs of said rhythm pattern selection circuit means to obtain a rhythm sound signal consisting of a plurality of percussion instrument sound signals.

Claim 11

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus comprising memory means storing a plurality of rhythm patterns, address means for providing cyclically changing address signals to said memory means to read out said plurality of rhythm pattern signals from said memory means, rhythm pattern selection circuit means for selecting the rhythm pattern signals corresponding to the kind of rhythm selected, means for supplying a constant address signal corresponding to the selected rhythm to said rhythm pattern selection circuit means and gating means connected to the address means for producing percussion instrument sound signals by application thereto of the outputs of said rhythm pattern selection circuit means to obtain a rhythm sound signal consisting of a plurality of percussion instrument sound signals.

Claim 12

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 9 in which said address means comprise a clock pulse oscillator, a dynamic counter having a plurality of stages for successively counting clock pulses and a decoder for decoding the outputs of each stage of said dynamic counter into address signals which cyclically change in accordance with repetition of counting of said counter.

Claim 13

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 9 in which said means for supplying a constant address signal comprise a plurality of rhythm selection switches, a rhythm selection signal generating circuit for generating a rhythm selection signal by closing of a desired rhythm selection switch and a decoder for decoding the output of said rhythm selection signal generating circuit into an address signal which is peculiar to the selected rhythm.

Claim 14

An automatic rhythm playIng apparatus as defined in claim 9 in which said memory means and said rhythm selection circuit means respectively consist of a read only memory.

Claim 15

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 9 which further comprises a lamp lighting means for lighting a lamp at each predetermined note of a specific rhythm pattern in response to a specific output of said rhythm pattern selection circuit means.

Claim 16

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 13 in which said means for obtaining a rhythm sound signal comprise a gate circuit connected to the output of said rhythm pattern selection circuit means, a gate signal waveshaping circuit for supplying a sharp gate pulse synchronized with the clock pulse to said gate circuit, a start switch for supplying voltage to said gate circuit by closing thereof and a percussion instrument sound signal generating circuit having percussion instrument sound oscillators respectively driven by the output pulse of said gate circuit.

Claim 17

An automatic rhythm playing apparatus as defined in claim 14 in which said lamp lighting means comprise a logic circuit which causes the lamp to be lighted by a rhythm pattern signal from said gate circuit having a pulse at the head of each measure during closing of a start switch, by a rhythm pattern signal from said rhythm pattern selection circuit means having a pulse at each predetermined note without activating said gate circuit during closing of a start synchronization switch which starts operation of the apparatus in synchronization with the start of playing of the electronic musical instrument and before performance of the electronic musical instrument, and by only the rhythm pattern signal from said gate circuit at the head of each measure during closing of the start synchronization switch and after the performance of the electronic musical instrument is started.

Claim 18

In combination with a memory having a plurality of output terminals from which signals are obtained in accordance with signal patterns stored therein and a plurality of input address terminals through which said signal patterns are selected at each of the output terminals, sound generating means connected to said output terminals for producing different sounds in response to signals from said output terminals, a source of clock pulses, binary decoding means connecting said source to the memory for cyclically applying said clock pulses to some of the input terminals producing signal pulses at selected ones of the output terminals, rhythm selection means connected to the other of the input terminals for applying constant signals to selected ones of said other of the input terminals, whereby the pulse signals at the selected ones of said output terminals cyclically drive the sound generating means in accordance with the selected signal patterns and gating means connected to the decoding means for modifying the pulse signals at the output terminals of the memory.

Claim 19

In combination with a memory having a plurality of output terminals from which signals are obtained in accordance with signal patterns stored therein and a plurality of input address terminals through which said signal patterns are selected at each of the output terminals, sound generating means connected to said output terminals for producing different sounds in response to signals from said output terminals, a source of clock pulses, binary decoding means connecting said source to the memory for cyclically applying said clock pulses to some of the input terminals producing signal pulses at selected ones of the output terminals, rhythm selection means connected to the other of the input terminals for applying constant signals to selected ones of said other of the input terminals, whereby the pulse signals at the selected ones of said output terminals cyclically drive the sound generating means in accordance with the selected signal patterns and gating means connected to the decoding means for modifying the pulse signals at the output terminals of the memory.