Automatic performance system for electronic instruments

Claim 1

An automatic performance system for electronic instruments comprising a source of clock pulses; parallel-serial translating circuit means for translating groups of parallel ON-OFF signals generated in parallel in accordance with keying patterns of an electronic instrument, into a train of serial pulse signals that may vary in every predetermined infinitesimal time unit corresponding to a clock pulse; a recording means including a recording head and a recording medium for intermittently driving said recording medium a predetermined distance relative to said recording head in response to a change in said keying pattern so that an output signal from the parallel serial translating circuit means is recorded in one block corresponding to said predetermined distance of a track of the recording medium and so that the time duration of the block is recorded as time count signals in the succeeding block of another track of the recording medium; means for controlling the intermittent movement of the recording medium in accordance with the time count signal; a reproducing head for reproducing the intermittently recorded output from said parallel-serial translating circuit means; a serial-parallel translating circuit means for translating the recorded train of serial pulse signals, read out through said reproducing head, into groups of parallel signals that vary in said infinitesimal time unit; and means for controlling the performance of the electronic instrument with the output from said serial-parallel translating circuit.