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Claims  |
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What is claimed is;
1. An electronic musical instrument comprising:
breath detection means for detecting a state of breath operation performed
by a player;
instruction means for giving an instruction to start generation of a
musical tone in response to breath operation force detected by said breath
detection means when said breath operation force exceeds a predetermined
value;
tendency detection means for judging if a variation in breath operation
force during a predetermined time period detected by said breath detection
means exhibits a tendency to increase or a tendency to decrease after a
musical tone has been generated in accordance with the instruction from
said instruction means;
output means for outputting first control data when said tendency detection
means judges that the variation in the breath operation force exhibits a
tendency to increase and meanwhile for outputting second control data when
said tendency detection means judges that the variation in the breath
operation force exhibits a tendency to decrease; and
control means for controlling parameters of said musical tone in accordance
with the first control data, when said output means outputs the first
control data while the musical tone is being generated in accordance with
the instruction from said instruction means and for controlling at the
same time so as to start generation of a sound of a particular effect, and
for controlling parameters of said musical tone in accordance with the
second control data in a different manner from that in accordance with the
first control data, when said output means outputs the second control data
while the musical tone is being generated in accordance with the
instruction from said instruction means and for controlling at the same
time so as to stop generation of the sound of a particular effect.
2. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 1, wherein the
parameters of the musical tone generated in accordance with the
instruction from said instruction means comprises pitch parameters and the
sound of a particular effect comprises white noise sounds.
3. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 1, wherein
said breath detection means comprises breath-sensor means for detecting
state of breath operation.
4. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 1, further
comprising musical-tone generating means for generating the musical tone
in accordance with an instruction of said instruction means.
5. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 4, wherein
said musical-tone generating means are mounted on a body of the musical
instrument.
6. An electronic musical instrument, comprising:
performance-input detection means for detecting a state of performance
input by a player;
instruction means for giving an instruction to start generation of a
musical tone in response to performance input force detected by said
performance-input detection means when said performance-input force
exceeds a predetermined value;
tendency detection means for judging if a variation in performance-input
force during a predetermined time period detected by said
performance-input detection means exhibits a tendency to increase or a
tendency to decrease after a musical tone has been generated in accordance
with the instruction from said instruction means;
output means for outputting first control data when said tendency detection
means judges that the variation in the performance-input force during a
predetermined time period exhibits a tendency to increase and meanwhile
for outputting second control data when said tendency detection means
judges that the variation in the performance-input force during a
predetermined time period exhibits a tendency to decrease; and
control means for controlling parameters of said musical tone in accordance
with the first control data, when said output means outputs the first
control data while the musical tone is being generated in accordance with
the instruction from said instruction means and for controlling at the
same time so as to start generation of a sound of a particular effect, and
for controlling parameters of the above musical tone in accordance with
the second control data in a different manner from that in accordance with
the first control data, when said output means outputs the second control
data while the musical tone is being generated in accordance with the
instruction from said instruction means and for controlling at the same
time so as to stop generation of the sound of a particular effect.
7. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 6, wherein the
parameters of the musical tone generated in accordance with the
instruction from said instruction means comprises pitch parameters and the
sound of a particular effect comprises white noise sounds.
8. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 6, wherein
said performance-input data detected by said performance-input detection
means is used for designating a pitch of a musical tone to be generated,
said first control data output from said data-output means is used for
altering the pitch designated by said performance input data to a higher
pitch and also for outputting particular effect sounds and said second
control data output from said data-output means is used for altering the
pitch designated by said performance input data to a lower pitch and also
for stopping generating of particular effect sounds.
9. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 6, wherein
said performance-input data detected by said performance-input detection
means is used for designating a pitch of a musical tone to be generated,
said first control data output from said data-output means is used for
altering the pitch designated by said performance-input data to a higher
pitch and also for outputting first particular effect sounds and said
second control data output from said data-output means is used for
altering the pitch designated by said performance-input data to a lower
pitch and also for stopping generating of particular effect sounds.
10. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claims 6, wherein
said output means comprises:
converter means for converting performance-input data into a relevant
digital value, said performance-input data detected by said
performance-input detection means; and
data-output means for detecting at predetermined time lapses digital values
output from said converter means, and for outputting said first control
data when the digital value shows a tendency to increase and for
outputting said second control data when the digital value shows a
tendency to decrease.
11. An electronic musical instrument comprising:
pitch designation means for designating a pitch of a musical tone to be
generated;
breath detection means for detecting state of breath operation performed by
a player;
instruction means for giving an instruction to start generation of a
musical tone in response to breath operation force detected by said breath
detection means when said breath operation force exceeds a predetermined
value;
tendency detection means for judging if a variation in breath operation
force during a predetermined time period detected by said breath detection
means exhibits a tendency to increase or a tendency to decrease after a
musical tone has been generated in accordance with the instruction from
said instruction means;
output means for outputting first control data when said tendency detection
means judges that the variation in the breath operation force exhibits a
tendency to increase, and for outputting second control data when said
tendency detection means judges that the variation in the breath operation
force exhibits a tendency to decrease; and
control means for controlling parameters of the generated musical tone of a
pitch designated by said pitch designation means in accordance with the
first control data and for controlling at the same time so as to start
generation of a sound of a particular effect, and for controlling
parameters of said musical tone in accordance with the second control data
in a different manner from that in accordance with the first control data,
when said output means outputs the second control data while the musical
tone is being generated in accordance with the instruction from said
instruction means and for controlling at the same time so as to stop
generation of the sound of a particular effect.
12. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 11, wherein
the parameters of the musical tone generated in accordance with the
instruction from said instruction means comprises pitch parameters and the
sound of a particular effect comprises white noise sounds.
13. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 11, wherein
said breath detection means comprises breath sensor means for detecting
state of breath operation.
14. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 11, wherein
the first control data supplied from said data-output means is used for
altering the pitch designated by said pitch designation means to a higher
pitch and for outputting particular effect sounds and second control data
supplied from said data-output means is used for altering the pitch
designated by said designation means to a lower pitch and for generating
particular effect sounds effect sounds and the second control data
supplied from said output means is used for altering the pitch designated
by said pitch designation means to a lower pitch and for outputting second
particular effect sounds.
15. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 11, wherein
said pitch designation means is mounted on a body of the musical
instrument.
16. An electronic musical instrument comprising:
pitch designation means for designating a pitch of a musical tone to be
generated;
performance-input detection means for detecting state of performance input
by a player;
instruction means for giving an instruction to start generation of a
musical tone in response to performance input force detected by said
performance-input detection means when said performance-input force
exceeds a predetermined value;
tendency detection means for judging if a variation in performance-input
force during a predetermined time period detected by said
performance-input detection means exhibits a tendency to increase or a
tendency to decrease after a musical tone has been generated in accordance
with the instruction from said instruction means;
output means for outputting first control data when said tendency detection
means judges that the variation in the performance-input force during a
predetermined time period exhibits a tendency to increase, and for
outputting second control data when said tendency detection means judges
that the variation in the performance-input force during a predetermined
time period exhibits a tendency decrease; and
control means for controlling parameters of the generated musical tone of a
pitch designated by said pitch designation means in accordance with the
first control data and for controlling at the same time so as to start
generation of a sound of a particular effect, and for controlling
parameters of said musical tone in accordance with the second control data
in a different manner from that in accordance with the first control data,
when said output means outputs the second control data while the musical
tone is being generated in accordance with the instruction from said
instruction means and for controlling at the same time so as to stop
generation of the sound of a particular effect.
17. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 16, wherein
the parameters of the musical tone generated in accordance with the
instruction from said instruction means comprises pitch paratmeters and
the sound of a particular effect comprises white noise sounds.
18. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 16, wherein
said output means comprises:
converter means for converting performance input data detected by said
performance-input detection means into relevant digital values;
digital value detection means for detecting, at predetermined time lapses,
digital values supplied from said converter means;
discrimination means for sequentially reading digital values detected by
said digital value detection means for at least three times, and for
discriminating whether the read digital value is showing a tendency to
increase or a tendency to decrease; and
data output means for outputting said first control data and said second
control data in accordance with the discrimination result by said
discrimination means, said first control data indicating that said digital
data shows a tendency to increase and said second control data indicating
that said digital data shows a tendency to decrease.
19. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 16, wherein
said output means comprises:
converter means for converting performance-input data detected by said
performance-input detection means into relevant digital values;
digital value detection means for detecting at predetermined time lapses
digital values supplied from said converter means;
discrimination means for sequentially reading digital values detected by
said digital value detection means for at least three times, and for
discriminating whether the read digital value is showing a tendency to
increase or a tendency to decrease; and
control data output means for outputting first control data and second
control data in accordance with the discrimination result by said
discrimination means, said first control data indicating that said digital
data shows a tendency to increase and said second control data indicating
that said digital data shows a tendency to decrease.
20. An electronic musical instrument in accordance with claim 19, wherein
the first control data supplied from said output means is used for
altering the pitch designated by said pitch designation means to a higher
pitch and for outputting particular effect sounds and the second control
data supplied from said output means is used for altering the pitch
designated by said pitch designation means to a lower pitch and for
outputting second particular effect sounds. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to electronic musical instruments such as
electronic wind instruments, electronic rubbed string instruments and
electronic stringed instruments, and more particularly to electronic
musical instruments capable of controlling parameters of a musical tone
being produced in response to performance input operations such as
breathing operation, lip operation and bow movement operation.
With a recent rapid development of electronic technology, there have been
developed a wide variety of electronic musical instruments such as
electronic wind instruments, electronic rubbed string instruments and
electronic stringed instruments. In particular, electronic wind
instruments are instruments capable of expressing musical tones in
conformity with player's senses. In the electronic wind instruments, a
breath sensor or a lip sensor provided on its mouthpiece portion
translates breathing operation and lip operation of the player into
electric signals, thereby allowing fine controls of sound volume and
pitches of musical tones being electronically produced.
Such electronic wind instruments are described in, for example, U.S. Pat.
No(s). 3,767,833, 2,138,500, 2,301,184, 2,868,876, 3,429,976, 3,938,419
and 3,439,106. In the electronic wind instruments of this type,
tone-designating switches are disposed at a position where the player can
easily put his fingers. The player designates one musical tone (musical
interval) with a combination of a plurality of these depressed switches.
Further, in the electronic wind instruments, when breath intensity has
become higher than a predetermined value, a musical tone having the
designated pitch is output with volume corresponding to the breath
intensity and the pitch of the musical tone is delicately changed in
response to intensity of the lip operation.
When an acoustic wind instrument is actually played, however, tone color of
a musical tone is different at beginning of browing and stopping of
browing, even though the same quantity of breath supply is blown through
the instrument. And even in case that a certain tone pitch is designated,
slight deviations from the above tone pitch can be caused. Also in the
acoustic instrument, when the breath intensity is gradually increasing at
the beginning of blowing, breath leaking sounds and white noise sounds are
caused.
However, in conventional electronic wind instruments, sound volume of
musical tones is controlled only by the breath intensity, i.e., level or
value of breath data and various parameters of a musical tone are not
controlled so as to be affected by breath intensity varying with time. As
described above, the conventional electronic wind instruments are
incapable of reproducing with a high fidelity performance effects which
are exhibited particularly by the above acoustic wind instruments.
The electronic rubbed string instruments and the electronic stringed
instruments have defects similar to the mentioned above. For instance, the
conventional electronic rubbed string instrument, as described in U.S.
Pat. No. 4,765,219 and French Pat. No. FR 2,598,017, is capable of
controlling volume of musical tones being produced in accordance with the
speed of the bow movement but is incapable of controlling parameters
(volume, tone color, effect) of a musical tone to be produced. Hence, this
electronic rubbed string instrument, for instance, is not capable of
increasing volume and adding vibrato effect at an upwards tendency in the
speed of the bow movement and also is not capable of decreasing volume and
adding a tremolo effect at a downwards tendency in the speed of the bow
movement.
Similarly, the conventional electronic stringed instrument, as described in
U.S. Pat. No(s). 4,458,690 and 4,580,479, is incapable of controlling
parameters of a musical tone to be produced, which parameters are affected
by varying-with-time tendencies of the speed of bow-movement operation and
of the intensity of string plucking operation. Therefore, by playing these
electronic musical instruments, it is impossible to obtain performance
effects similar to those expressed by playing classic acoustic rubbed
string instruments and classic acoustic stringed instruments.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been intended to dissolve the above conventional
disadvantages.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an
electronic musical instrument capable of obtaining performance effects
similar to those expressed by playing classic acoustic musical
instruments.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic
musical instrument capable of controlling musical tones by use of
parameters different to each other in accordance with a varying-with-time
tendency of performance input conditions.
Further, it is the other object of the present invention to provide an
electronic musical instrument capable of controlling musical tones by use
of parameters different to each other in accordance with a varying
tendency per a predetermined time period of breathing operation and/or lip
operation.
In case that the present invention is applied to an electronic musical
instrument of a wind instrument type, there is provided an electronic
musical instrument comprising:
breath detection means for detecting state of breath operation;
tendency detection means for detecting a variation tendency per a
predetermined time period of breath operation force detected by said
breath detection means;
output means for outputting control data different to each other, in
accordance with the variation tendency detected by said tendency detection
means;
pitch designation means for designating a pitch of a musical tone to be
generated; and
control means for individually and independently controlling and varying
parameters of a musical tone having a pitch designated by said pitch
designation means in accordance with control data output from said output
means.
The term used above, "breath operation force", means intensity of breath
blowing through the mouthpiece portion (a speed of breath air flow or a
volume of breath air flow). The term, "variation tendency", means a
tendency of a variation rate per a predetermined time period of the above
breath operation force. The variation tendencies may be classified into
three broad classes; an upward tendency of the breath operation force, a
downward tendency of the breath operation force and a non-variation
tendency of the breath operation force.
In case that in the similar manner, the present invention is applied to
electronic musical instruments of the wind instrument type, there is
provided an electronic musical instrument comprising:
lip detection means for detecting state of lip operation;
tendency detection means for detecting a variation tendency per a
predetermined time period of lip operation force detected by said lip
detection means;
output means for outputting control data different to each other, in
accordance with the variation tendency detected by said tendency detection
means;
pitch designation means for designating a pitch of a musical tone to be
generated; and
control means for individually and independently controlling and varying
parameters of a musical tone having a pitch designated by said pitch
designation means in accordance with control data output from said output
means.
The term used above, "lip operation force", means intensity of biting or
pressing with lips the mouthpiece portion of the instrument.
Further, the term, "parameters of a musical tone", means a pitch, tone
color of a musical tone to be produced, and an effect and special effect
sound to be added to a musical tone being produced.
One example of an electronic musical instrument of a wind instrument type,
to which the present invention is applied will be described below.
In the electronic wind instrument according to the present invention, a
musical tone is produced from musical tone generating means, which musical
tone is controlled by the breath operation and operating pitch-designating
switches or by the breath operation, the lip operation and operating
pitch-designating switches.
The mouthpiece portion is provided, for example, at an upper portion of a
pipe. A relevant tone pitch is designated by a combination of pitch
designating switches or operating a particular pitch designating switch.
The pitch designating switches are provided preferably on a portion of the
above pipe, which allows a player to easily finger. A sensor means is
provided, for example, inside the mouthpiece portion, which sensor means
detects, as sense data, intensity of at least one of the breath operation
and the lip operation on the mouthpiece portion.
A tone data generating means is provided, for example, inside the above
pipe, which means generates tone data for controlling musical tones on the
basis of the above sense data detected by the sensor means and varying
with time lapse.
Further, a musical tone generating means is provided, for example, inside
the above pipe, which musical tone generating means controls and generates
on the basis of the above tone data a musical tone having a pitch
designated by operating the tone designating switches.
In the above construction, the player of the instrument designates a pitch
of a desired musical tone by operating the tone designating switches and
starts a performance only by breath operation blowing his breath through
the mouthpiece portion or by lip operation giving biting pressure to the
mouthpiece portion as well as the above breath operation. When, for
example, breath operation is performed at an intensity higher than a
predetermined value, the musical tone generating means generates a musical
tone having a pitch designated by switching operation of the tone
designating switches.
At this time, the sensor means detects as sense data at least one of
breath-operation intensity and lip-operation intensity and outputs the
sense data to a tone data setting means.
The tone data generating means reads the above sense data, for example, at
predetermined time intervals and produces, on the basis of variation state
of the above sense data varying with time lapse, tone data for controlling
musical tones, e.g., delicately changing pitch of a musical tone being
produced by the musical tone generating means, outputting white noise
sounds and adding a vibrato effect to the musical tone and sends the tone
data to musical tone generating means.
On the basis of tone data delivered from the tone data generating means,
the musical tone generating means, for example, delicately changes pitch
of a musical tone being produced, outputs white noise sounds and adds a
vibrato effect to the musical tone.
The tone data generating means generates the above tone data only when
variation amount of the sense data sequentially read in becomes larger
than a predetermined value, and furthermore, discriminates a variation
state of the sense data varying with time lapse from more than three sense
data sequentially read in at predetermined time intervals.
As mentioned above, in the electronic wind instrument according to the
present invention, tone character can be controlled in accordance with
variation state of the breath-operation intensity or the lip-operation
intensity varying with time lapse and therefore white noise sounds
together with the musical tone are output, pitch of the musical tone is
delicately changed and a vibrato effect is added to the musical tone.
In the same way, in case that the present invention is applied to
electronic stringed instruments and electronic rubbed string instruments,
the similar performance effects are available.
The present invention is applicable not only to the above electronic
musical instruments of the wind instrument type but also to electronic
musical instruments of other type, such as electronic rubbed string
instruments and electronic stringed instruments.
In case that the present invention is applied to electronic musical
instruments of a type other than the above electronic musical instruments
of a wind instrument type, there is provided an electronic musical
instrument comprising:
performance-input detection means for detecting state of performance input;
detecting means for detecting a varying-with-time tendency of
performance-input data detected by said performance-input detection means;
output means for outputting control data corresponding to the
varying-with-time tendency detected by said detecting means; and
control means for individually and independently controlling parameters of
a musical tone to be generated in accordance with the control data output
from said output means.
The term, "state of performance input," means state of rotating operation
of a tremolo arm used in electronic stringed instruments, state of pitch
bend operation of strings, state of plucking operation of strings and
state of bow operation applied to electronic rubbed string instruments.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system construction of one embodiment
of an electronic wind instrument according to the present invention;
FIG. 2A is a left side view of the embodiment of the electronic wind
instrument according to the present invention;
FIG. 2B is a front view of the embodiment of the electronic wind instrument
according to the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a flow chart of operation to be executed when breath operation is
performed in a first embodiment; and
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of operation to be executed when breath operation is
performed in a second embodiment.
EMBODIMENTS
An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail
hereinafter.
Construction
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system construction of an embodiment of an
electronic wind instrument according to the present invention. A
pitch-designation switch group 1 comprises a plurality of switches for
designating pitch of a tone to be generated. Each of tones is designated
by a combination of depressed switches (turned-on switches).
Tone color-effect selection switch group 2 serves for electing tone color
of a musical tone and for deciding whether or not various effects are
added to a musical tone.
CPU (Central Processing Unit) 3 comprises, for example, a microprocessor,
which reads state (turned-on/turned off) of each switch of the pitch
designation switch group 1 at predetermined time intervals and
discriminates pitch designated by the tone designation switch group 1 from
the above state data. When another pitch has been designated, the CPU 3
outputs to a musical tone generating circuit 4 tone data for generating a
musical tone having a pitch currently designated.
Further, the CPU 3 reads state of each switch of the tone color-effect
selection switch group 2 at predetermined time intervals and decides an
effect to be added to the designated tone color or | | |
