Patent ID: 8389845

Claim:
A musical tone signal generating apparatus comprising: a waveform memory storing fast decay waveform data of a plurality of fast decay waveforms, extracted from a plurality of waveforms of a musical instrument performed with various levels of strength, and slow decay waveform data of a slow decay waveform, extracted from a waveform of the musical instrument performed with a high level of strength; a first read-out section for selecting, in response to a generation start command which instructs the apparatus to newly generate a musical tone signal and includes strength information representative of level of strength of the musical tone signal, fast decay waveform data of at least a fast decay waveform from among the fast decay waveform data stored in the waveform memory, according to the strength information, and reading out the selected fast decay waveform data from a top address of the selected fast decay waveform data; a second read-out section for determining, in response to the generation start command, a read start address of the slow decay waveform data based on the strength information in the generation start command and reading out the slow decay waveform data stored in the waveform memory from the determined start address of the slow decay waveform data, the read start address being determined further away from a top address of the slow decay waveform data as the strength represented by the strength information decreases; and a mixing section for mixing the fast decay waveform data read out by the first read-out section and the slow decay waveform data read out by the second read-out section, and outputting the mixed waveform data.