Electronic transfer organ

Claim 1

In an electronic transfer organ, comprising in combination: a keyboard having a multiplicity of keys, each said key corresponding to at least one of a multiplicity of nominal pitches to be sounded; stop means having at least one stop, each said stop corresponding to a voice to be sounded; at least one large memory for each voice, each said large memory having stored therein individualized information comprising at least the amplitude, waveform, frequency, keying phases, and spatial position in the distance-from-listener dimension of each of said nominal pitches to be sounded; at least one array of small memories corresponding to each said large memory, said small memories being substantially identical to each other, the number of small memories in each array being equal to the number of keys that may be desired to activate concurrently; means responsive to depression of any key to activate one of said small memories in each array to receive information and cause transfer from each of said corresponding large memories of the said individualized information including said spatial position therein corresponding to that depressed key to the respective small memories corresponding to the depressed key for temporary storage therein; means for causing activation of any stop to convert the information temporarily stored in each small memory corresponding to that stop and the depressed key into a signal corresponding to the information so stored, there being a said signal corresponding to each note, each said signal being individualized with respect to amplitude, waveform, frequency, and keying phases; means responsive at least to said transferred spatial position information when a key is depressed, for generating at least four composite signals from said transferred individualized signals, each said composite signal representing a distinctive combination of the amplitudes, waveforms, frequencies and keying phases of its comprised individualized signals; and separate switch means for each voice for producing a pair of amplitude-multiplication factors characteristic of the lateral spatial position of that voice; sound-generating means responsive to said four or more composite signals and said pair of amplitude-multiplication factors for generating sounds whose combined acoustic sound image approximates the acoustic sound image of a multiplicity of individualized sound sources distributed in at least two orthogonal spatial dimensions; said sound-generating means including a multiresonant filter for each of said composite signals as modified by said amplitude-multiplication factors, said filters being adapted to modify the input currents thereto so that input currents of different frequencies are reinforced or attenuated according to the overall transfer characteristics of the filters, the resonant peaks in each multiresonant filter set spanning a plurality of octaves, whereby each of the peaks of each multiresonant filter set can be adjusted so that said combined acoustic sound image approximates the resonance characteristics of the enclosure of a pipe organ.