The present invention is a musical synthesizer that can respond to a pitch
wheel control by generating realistic slide-step-slide and slide-step
portamento pitch curves. The musical synthesizer responds to a pitch
wheel control in a context sensitive manner. When a first note-on occurs
the pitch wheel behaves in the standard fashion. However, when a
second-note on occurs, if the pitch wheel is still being held after the
second note-on then the effects of the pitch wheel are disabled. The
result is a clean slide-step portamento curve. In addition, the effects
of the pitch wheel are delayed slightly relative to the raw pitch wheel
signal. The result is that if the pitch wheel is released slightly before
a second note-on occurs then the delayed pitch wheel signal will still be
at substantially the previous held value when the second note-on occurs.
The result is a clean slide-step portamento curve. In another embodiment
when a second-note on occurs, if the pitch wheel is still being held
after the second note-on, effects of the pitch wheel are disabled and, in
addition, the pitch curve is forced to make a small ramp beginning
towards the pitch of the second note-on. The result is a clean
slide-step-slide portamento curve.