particular_tags

Method for operating a musical instrument
2010-03-08
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said two outer lines in each of said first, fifth and sixth groups have a visually observable width that is larger than other lines in said first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth groups.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

said sound is produced utilizing a keyboard instrument.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein:

said two staff portions have relative line widths and orientation substantially as shown in FIG. 14.Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method for operating a musical instrument to produce sounds corresponding to a musical piece. The method is particularly useful for identifying and activating the appropriate keys of a keyboard instrument, such as a piano.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Musical sounds have been produced for hundreds of years by musicians operating musical instruments by reading music from a conventional music staff and manipulating the musical instrument to create sound corresponding to the music represented on the musical staff. According to the conventional music notation system currently in use, symbols are placed on a series of parallel, horizontal lines, called a staff, to depict tones of the music being visually recorded. The conventional staff consists of five uniformly spaced, horizontal lines and the intervening spaces. Graphic symbols, often referred to as notes, are positioned on the staff on a line, in a space between two lines, in the space immediately above the top line, and in the space immediately below the bottom line. Additional notes can be shown above or below the described position by the use of ledger lines, which are used to show how far up, or down, the note is. Counting ledger lines can be a serious problem, adding confusion to the process of reading music, for both the novice and the experienced musician or vocalist.

Clefs are graphic characters placed on the staff to locate the position of a note that represents a specific pitch. The positions of other notes representing other pitches are then determined relative to the fixed note. The most common clefs are the bass (indicating that the fourth line from the bottom is "F below middle C") and the treble clef (indicating that the second line from the bottom is "G above middle C"). The "C" clef is used on any of the first four lines to indicate the location of "middle C" and becomes the soprano clef, the mezzo soprano clef, the alto clef or the tenor clef, respectively. The "C" clef is used to minimize the number of ledger lines that would be needed for a given piece that would be encompassed by the ranges served by the bass or treble clefs.

Notes are placed on the staff to show both the pitch and the rhythmic or durational value of the represented tone. The note has a notehead, being the body of the note. The position of a notehead on the staff indicates the pitch of the represented tone, and especially the pitch relative to the pitch of the note fixed in position by the clef. The conventional notehead has a generally rounded shape that appears somewhat elliptical. The rhythmic value of the represented tone is indicated by the relative size of the notehead, whether the notehead is blackened or unblackened, and by adding additional symbolization such as stems and flags.

One problem with the conventional notation system is that the conventional staff is used to serve a greater range than the approximate octave and a half it can easily represent, including the use of clefs and ledger lines. To increase the number of pitches available in the staff, a system of key signatures and "accidentals" is used. A group of flats or sharps characters, referred to as key signatures, is placed at the left end of the staff, immediately to the right of the clef, to indicate the set of pitches that comprise the predominant scale. "Accidental" markings are then placed to the left of the noteheads to indicate temporary alterations of the basic scale. Therefore, a notehead located at any given position on the staff could represent more than one pitch. This anomaly in conventional music notation is a historical accident and contributes to confusion in reading music from a conventional staff.

For example, the standard keyboard instrument, such as a piano, contains eighty-eight keys. Each key represents a different pitch. Twelve pitches, represented by twelve consecutive keys, make up an octave. Therefore, the standard keyboard contains keys representing seven octaves plus four additional pitches. The twelve pitches within any octave are represented by a group of seven white keys and five black keys, beginning with the note named "C" and ending with the note named "B." In conventional notation, insufficient space has been allocated on the staff to accommodate a separate position for each of the twelve pitches in an octave. Therefore, the black keys are generally represented using key signature marks or "accidentals," indicating sharps or flats. The use of key signature and "accidentals" is inherently complex.

Confusio...

Method and apparatus for automatic variable articulation and timbre assignment for an electronic musical instrument
2010-03-06
a duration of said first note such that a time of overlap between said first note and said second note is a function of the time interval N.

35. A method for controlling an articulation between successive musical notes, comprising the steps of:

receiving performance data for a first note a second note, and a third note;

determining a time interval N-1 between a start time of said first note and a start time of said second note based on said performance data;

setting an initial duration of said second note to a duration less than the time interval N-1;

determining a time interval N between a start time of said second note and a start time of said third note based on said performance data;

adjusting the initial duration of said second to a duration substantially equal to the time interval N if the time interval N is less than the initial duration of said second note.

36. A method for generating a chord of pitches, comprising the steps of:

receiving performance data corresponding to individual notes, the performance data including a note-on time and pitch data for each note;

detecting a note-on time of a first note;

collecting the performance data for subsequent notes whose respective note-on times are within a predetermined time interval of the note-on time of said first note;

setting a common start time and a common duration for said first note and said subsequent notes; and

simultaneously generating a plurality of tones at said same start time for said same duration, said tones having pitches that correspond to the pitch data of said first note and said subsequent notes.Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates broadly to the field of electronic musical instruments, electronic tone generators, and electronic musical controllers. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling expressive musical articulation by controlling the duration, overlap, and timbre assignment of successive tones as a function of playing speed.

2. Description of the Related Art

Electronic musical instruments comprise two distinct systems: a tone generator and a controlling interface (controller). The two systems can be embodied in a single device or as two entities that are interconnected. A controller transduces the physical gestures of the performer and sends performance data to one or many tone generators. At a minimum, the performance data includes a pitch and a note-on signal, with optional additional data representing other musical parameters such as velocity. Some controllers sense and transmit note-off data. Typical controllers are a piano-like keyboard, an array of drum pads, or a keyed wind instrument. Another type of controller is a sequencer, which is a program that stores performance data (either recorded from another controller or entered by hand) and replays the data automatically. Further, a controller can be a computer that computes performance data and transmits the performance data over a data transmission line (e.g., a dedicated data transmission line, a data transmission line within a network system, or the Internet) to a tone generator.

Traditionally, a performer controls articulation by varying musical attributes relating to the perceived "connectedness" of a sequence of notes. There are two main ways to control this effect. One method is to control the time when notes begin and end, thereby controlling the duration of each note and the degree of overlap or detachment among successive notes. Another method is to vary the shape of the amplitude envelope of a note, particularly the speed of the attack (ramp-up in volume from silence or the previous note upon a new note-on action) and release (ramp-down to silence upon note-off action).

One attribute of articulation is the degree of overlap between successive tones. A continuum ranging between "legato" and "staccato" can be used to characterize the articulation of tones. Legato is characterized by slow attack and perceivable overlap between successive tones. Staccato is characterized by fast attack and an interval of silence between tones.

The ability of a performer to control legato/staccato depends on the particular capabilities of the tone generator and controller combination employed. In particular, the degree of legato overlap effect cannot be controlled unless the player can manipulate the controller so as to send separate note-on and note-off signals to the tone generator and the tone generator has the ability to sustain a tone indefinitely and to produce many tones simultaneously.

Continuous controllers, like piano or organ keyboards transmit note-on messages on key depress and note-off on key release. This permits great flexibility in articulation, but can also work to the disadvantage of some players, who may have difficulty performing fast passages where notes "smear" because the keys are not released quickly enough.

Percussive controllers, such as drum pads/triggers or marimba-like arrays of pads respond only to the initial stroke and note duration is controlled indirectly by automatically sending a note-off after some time interval has elapsed. The interval is either fixed or velocity-sensitive (i.e., the duration of the note is a function of the speed at which the drumstick strikes the pad), and is determined at the time of initial gesture and unchangeable thereafter. Fast musical passages can result in blurred sound where many notes of fixed duration overlap.

In current practice, it is common to achieve a legato effect by controlling the attack and decay rates of the amplitude envelope, or by connecting notes in a monophonic fashion, allowing only one tone to sound at a time.

Many continuous and percussive controllers can measure the velocity of the initiating note-on gesture (speed of key-down or mallet stroke, puff of air) and the tone generator can use this data to control rate of attack. Some keyboard...

Method and Apparatus for Playing in Synchronism with a CD an Automated Musical Instrument
2010-03-04
conversion into an analog signal, the digital audio data on the CD having the same track number.

17. The method of claim 11, where the music sequence is authored to accompany the digital music data.Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional application 60/713,936, which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] This invention relates to the area of automated musical instruments, particularly pianos, the invention also relates to the method of creating or authoring music sequences files for use with the automated musical instrument.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Automated musical instruments, such as pianos, are well known in the art. Such instruments are typically acoustic instruments that use mechanical actuators to operate the instrument. The actuators receive commands of articulation events or music sequences to control or play the instrument. The music sequences are delivered to the instrument by a controller. There have been a number of attempts to have an automated instrument play in synchronization or accompaniment with a prerecorded CD or hard drive. Such attempts are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,138,925, 5,300,725, 5,148,419 and 5,313,011. In order allow for synchronous play, those previous attempts rely upon timing information presented on a sub-channel of the CD to provide a common time frame for both the music sequences and the CD audio to reference. While such an arrangement is sufficient, it suffers from the limited resolution offered by the timing information of the CD sub-channel. The timing information of the CD sub-channel has a period or resolution of 13 milliseconds, which is not accurate enough for some piano sequences. The present invention described herein uses the timing inherent in the CD audio data as the time reference. By the use of this technique, the timing can have a period or resolution of 22.7 microseconds based upon the sample rate of 44.1 kHz of the digital audio data of the CD

[0004] While listening to the automated instrument playing alone is entertaining for the user, some users desire to have the instrument play along with a commercial recording of a musical selection, thus allowing the user to experience the recorded selection accompanied by a live automated instrument.

[0005] In early products for playing an automated piano in synchronism with a CD, the CD media contained music sequences that were pre-synchronized to a digital accompaniment music track encoded as linear PCM. For instance, the audio music track would be encoded as PCM on the left channel of the CD, and the ...

Electronic device to detect and generate music from biological microvariations in a living organism
2010-03-02
generating a sequence of different lighting intensities in the environment of said organism.

57. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the means for generating a sequence of different lighting conditions further comprises means for generating a sequence of different lighting color spectrums in the environment of said organism.

58. The apparatus of claim 42, further comprising:

means for providing a digital feedback signal from said microprocessor;

means for applying said digital feedback signal to a DAC to produce an analog feedback signal;

means for using said analog feedback signal to level-shift the range of the analog signal applied to said analog to digital converter; and

means for periodically updating said digital feedback signal to keep said analog signal in-range for said analog to digital converter.

59. An apparatus that uses microvariations of a biological living organism to generate a sequence of environmental changes perceptible through one of the human senses, such apparatus comprising:

signal conditioning electronics adapted to transform microvariations within a living organism into an analog electrical signal; and

an environment enhancing processor adapted to generate the sequence of environmental changes perceptible through the human senses based on said analog signal.Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention relates to living organisms and more particularly to the detection of microvariations within living organisms.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/849,756, filed on May 4, 2001 now 6,487,817 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/324,402, filed on Jun. 2, 1999 (abandoned).

In the medical arts there are systems for detection of biologic variations, such as electrocardiographs (ECGs), electroencephalographs (EEGs), lie detectors, etc. There are also other systems to detect biological and bioclimatic variations used for the automatic control of greenhouses and servocontrols which, for that purpose, use sensors which assess environmental conditions, such as humidity and soil moisture content. This invention is different from all of the above because it uses a living organism itself as the signal source of the sensor and the user of the signal it produces.

SUMMARY

A method and apparatus are provided for using micro-variations of a biological living organism (such as a plant) to generate pleasing environmental conditions perceptible through one of the human senses, such as by generating music, controlling mood lighting, etc. One embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of detecting microvariations within a living organism, and using data from those microvariations as input to a microprocessor-based musical code generator which plays music through a MIDI music synthesizer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of a system for controlling the environment of a living organism in accordance with an illustrated embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 depicts a direct-contact example of the Interface block in FIG. 1, including a first-order electrical model of an organism;

FIG. 2a depicts a resistive divider excitation source for use in exciting the direct-contact interface shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 2b depicts a current source excitation for use in exciting the direct-contact interface shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 3 depicts an optical embodiment of organism interface 3 in FIG. 2, where light is shined through a portion of a living organism, and microvariations in opacity are measured;

FIG. 4 depicts a capacitive embodiment of organism interface 3 in FIG. 2, where an electric field is applied to a portion of a living organism, and microvariations in the dielectric constant of that portion of the organism are measured;

FIGS. 5a and 5b together comprise the analog circuitry por...

Magnetic pickup for stringed musical instrument
2010-03-01
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The outer polepieces reduce the flux path impedance by providing a return path for magnetic flux. The pole legs on the outer polepiece also serve to concentrate the flux coupled in each string.

A method of selecting the heights of the individual sections of the polepiece comprises forming the inner and outer polepiece means as flat structures with a preselected height for each string and, when pole legs are employed, shearing the distalends of the outer polepiece pole legs.

It is an object of this invention to provide a magnetic pickup having a high output.

It is an object of this invention to provide a magnetic pickup and a method for making the same in which production costs are reduced by simplifying tooling and assembly.

It is a further object of this invention to provide tamper-proof sensitivity selections for each string.

It is another object of this invention to provide a set of sensitivity selections which can be standardized for a particular product model.

It is yet another object of this invention to enable a set of professionally chosen sensitivity selections which may be incorporated into a magnetic pickup during production.

It is another object of this invention to simplify the method of manufacturing magnetic pickups.

ON THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a magnetic pickup provided in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the invention, a cover being omitted;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line II--II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the magnetic pickup of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of this invention taken along a line similar to line II--II in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a top view of a third embodiment;

FIGS. 6, 7, 8, and 9 are side views of alternate embodiments for polepieces of the invention;