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The Triadex Muse...
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Here's an excerpt from Hal Chamberlin's Book, The Musical Applications
of Microprocessors
The Muse.
Thirty-eight different digital signals are generated by several
counter stages and a 31-stage shift register. These signals, along with
constants 0 and 1, are connected to 40 signal rows. Eight 40-position
slide switches, divided into two groups of four, act as columns and can
connect to any individual row signal. Four of these switches, which are
called THEME controls feed a parity generator, whose output feeds the
31-position shift register. The other four switches, designated INTERVAL
controls, are connected through some translation logic to a 5-bit DAC,
which drives a VCO tone generator. The VCO and DAC are adjusted so that
the step size is a semitone on the equi-tempered scale. The translation
logic converts its 4-bit input into 5-bit output according to the
conventions of the major musical scale. An adjustable low-frequency
oscillator clocks the counters and shift register. The rows driven by
the counters and constants 0 and 1 are designated as the "C"
(counter) region. Five of these rows are connected to a simple 5-bit
counter, while two more connect to a divide-by-6 and a divide-by-12
counter. The outputs of the various counts are normally used for short,
highly ordered, sequences. For example: if the "A" switch is
set to row "C1", B to C2, C to C4 etc., the device will
generate an ascending major scale. Essentially, a binary counter has
been connected to the DAC, which would be expected to generate an
ascending staircase waveform. If switch A is moved to the C½ position,
the scale will still ascend, but by alternate intervals of one note and
three notes. Moving D and B back to the OFF position (constant 0 row),
results in a pair of trills: C-D-C-D-G-A-G-A-C-D... Many other
combinations, of course, are possible, but the sequence length will
never be more than 64 notes using the C6 row, or 32 notes otherwise. The
31 rows in the "B" (binary) region are driven by the 31-stage
shift register, which shifts downwards from row 1 to 2 to 3 etc. The
four THEME switches are used to control the shift register by
determining what will be shifted into the register's first stage input.
If they are set in the C region, then the register acts merely as a
delay line. This can be useful in creating canon effects. However, if
one or more are set in the B region, then a feedback path into the shift
register is created and complex sequences can result. One possibility is
to set the THEME switches for a complex sequence, set three of the
INTERVAL switches in the C region for a repetitive tone pattern, and set
the fourth somewhere in the B region. The result is that the repetitive
pattern is modified according to the shift register pattern. The number
of unique combinations is, for all practical purposes, infinite. |
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