Electronic musical instrument with automatic rhythm section triggered by organ section play

Claim 2

An electronic musical instrument comprising an organ section for playing melody and accompaniment tones and including a pLurality of playing keys; and an automatic rhythm section including a clock pulse oscillator generating repetitive clock pulses, counters connected to said clock pulse oscillator for counting down to submultiples of the frequency of said clock pulses from said clock pulse oscillator, a rhythm pattern pulse encoder connected to said counters for producing plural sets of rhythm pattern pulse trains, each rhythm pattern pulse train being comprised of a combination of different preset output pulses from said counters, a rhythm selection circuit coupled with said encoder to select the desired one or more of the various rhythm pattern pulse trains from said encoder, and a plurality of rhythm tone generators connected to said selection circuit and being selectively triggered by the rhythm pattern pulse train preselected by said rhythm selection circuit to produce said preset one or more rhythm sounds in exact timing with the tempo of the preselected rhythm pattern, the improvement comprising: a key depression detector coupled to the said playing keys and generating a trigger pulse upon depression of said keys, a rhythm cycle end detector connected to at least one of said counters and generating another trigger pulse upon detection of the end of the counter cycle, and a start-stop control circuit having inputs coupled to said key depression detector and to said rhythm cycle end detector for receiving said trigger pulses and having an output coupled to said clock pulse oscillator for generating a first output signal for normally maintaining said clock pulse oscillator inoperative, said start-stop control circuit including means responsive to the trigger signal from said key depression detector for generating a second output signal to render said clock pulse oscillator operative upon receipt of the trigger signal from said key depression detector, and means responsive to the trigger signal from said rhythm cycle end detector for generating said first output signal to render said clock pulse oscillator inoperative upon receipt of the trigger signal from said rhythm cycle end detector, thereby automatically ending rhythm performance at the end of each rhythm cycle.

Claim 3

An electronic musical instrument claimed in claim 1 wherein said start-stop control circuit comprises a flip-flop circuit.

Claim 4

An electronic musical instrument claimed in claim 1 further including a resetting circuit coupled to said counters for resetting said counters back to a preset original state prior to rhythm performance.

Claim 5

An electronic musical instrument claimed in claim 3 wherein said resetting circuit comprises a one shot multivibrator.

Claim 6

An electronic musical instrument claimed in claim 1 wherein said clock pulse oscillator comprises an astable multivibrator with a frequency control element.

Claim 7

An electronic musical instrument claimed in claim 1 wherein said counters comprise four stage cascade arranged binary circuits.

Claim 8

An electronic musical instrument claimed in claim 6 wherein the first and second stages of said binary circuit have a feedback loop which is selectively closed, and said first and second stage binary circuits with the closed feedback loop constitute a single ternary circuit.

Claim 9

An electronic musical instrument comprising an organ section for playing melody and accompaniment tones and including a plurality of playing keys; and an automatic rhythm section including a clock pulse oscillator generating repetitive clock pulses, counters connected to said clock pulse oscillator for counting down to submultiples of the frequency of said clock pulses from said clock pulse oscillator, a rhythm pattern pulse encoder connected to said counters for producing plural sets of rhythm pattern pulse trains, each rhythm pattern pulse train being comprised of a combinaton of different preset output pulses from said counters, a rhythm selection circuit coupled with said encoder to select the desired one or more of the various rhythm pattern pulse trains from said encoder, and a Plurality of rhythm tone generators connected to said selection circuit and being selectively triggered by the rhythm pattern pulse train preselected by said rhythm selection circuit to produce said preset one or more rhythm sounds in exact timing with the tempo of the preselected rhythm pattern, the improvement comprising: a key depression detector coupled to the playing keys and generating a trigger pulse upon depression of said keys, a ring counter coupled to the input of said counters and producing a signal at the end of a cycle, a rhythm cycle end detector connected to the output of said ring counter and generating another trigger pulse upon detection of the end of the ring counter cycle, and a start-stop control circuit having inputs coupled to said key depression detector and to said rhythm cycle end detector for receiving said trigger pulses and having an output coupled to said clock pulse oscillator for generating a first output signal for normally maintaining said clock pulse oscillator inoperative, said start-stop control circuit including means responsive to the trigger signal from said key depression detector for generating a second output signal to render said clock pulse oscillator operative upon receipt of the trigger signal from said key depression detector, and means responsive to the trigger signal from said rhythm cycle end detector for generating said first output signal to render said clock pulse oscillator inoperative upon receipt of the trigger signal from said rhythm cycle end detector, thereby automatically ending rhythm performance at the end of each rhythm cycle.

Claim 10

An electronic musical instrument comprising an organ section for playing melody and accompaniment tones and including a plurality of playing keys; and an automatic rhythm section including a clock pulse oscillator generating repetitive clock pulses, counters connected to said clock pulse oscillator for counting down to submultiples of the frequency of said clock pulses from said clock pulse oscillator, a rhythm pattern pulse encoder connected to said counters for producing plural sets of rhythm pattern pulse trains, each rhythm pattern pulse train being comprised of a combinaton of different preset output pulses from said counters, a rhythm selection circuit coupled with said encoder to select the desired one or more of the various rhythm pattern pulse trains from said encoder, and a Plurality of rhythm tone generators connected to said selection circuit and being selectively triggered by the rhythm pattern pulse train preselected by said rhythm selection circuit to produce said preset one or more rhythm sounds in exact timing with the tempo of the preselected rhythm pattern, the improvement comprising: a key depression detector coupled to the playing keys and generating a trigger pulse upon depression of said keys, a ring counter coupled to the input of said counters and producing a signal at the end of a cycle, a rhythm cycle end detector connected to the output of said ring counter and generating another trigger pulse upon detection of the end of the ring counter cycle, and a start-stop control circuit having inputs coupled to said key depression detector and to said rhythm cycle end detector for receiving said trigger pulses and having an output coupled to said clock pulse oscillator for generating a first output signal for normally maintaining said clock pulse oscillator inoperative, said start-stop control circuit including means responsive to the trigger signal from said key depression detector for generating a second output signal to render said clock pulse oscillator operative upon receipt of the trigger signal from said key depression detector, and means responsive to the trigger signal from said rhythm cycle end detector for generating said first output signal to render said clock pulse oscillator inoperative upon receipt of the trigger signal from said rhythm cycle end detector, thereby automatically ending rhythm performance at the end of each rhythm cycle.

Claim 11

An electronic musical instrument claimed in claim 9 wherein said start-stop control circuit comprises a flip-flop circuit.

Claim 12

An electronic musical instrument claimed in claim 9 wherein said clock pulse oscillator comprises an astable multivibrator with a frequency control element.