Musical tone synthesizing apparatus utilizing an all-pass filter having a variable fractional delay

Abstract

The musical tone synthesizing apparatus is mainly configured by a closed loop which at least provides a delay circuit and an all-pass filter. The delay circuit delays an input signal (e.g., excitation wave signal) by a first delay time corresponding to a certain integral number of sampling periods. The all-pass filter functions to at least delay an output of the delay circuit by a second delay time corresponding to a decimal fraction of the sampling period, so that an output of the all-pass filter is fed back to the delay circuit. The whole delay time of the closed loop consists of the first and second delay times which can be respectively controlled. Thus, a musical tone signal representing a synthesized musical tone (e.g., an attenuating sound which is produced from an percussion instrument) is picked up from the closed loop. Incidentally, the whole configuration of the closed loop can be embodied by a digital signal processor (DSP).