Method and apparatus for automatic variable articulation and timbre assignment for an electronic musical instrument2010-03-06 00:00:00a 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 Instrument2010-03-04 00:00:00conversion 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 organism2010-03-02 00:00:00generating 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 instrument2010-03-01 00:00:00/>
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;
Musical resonator mounting structure2010-02-26 00:00:00mounting structure of claim 2, wherein through holes are respectively provided at the horizontal bottom end portion of said coupling plate and the fixed end of said support plate through which a cymbal stand is inserted and screwed up with a lock nut to hold a cymbal, enabling the corrugated metal wires of said resonator unit to be retained in contact with said cymbal.Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a musical resonator mounting structure, and more
particularly to such a musical resonator mounting structure which can be conveniently mounted on a musical instrument, and adjusted to keep corrugated metal wires of resonator unit in contact with the musical instrument.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a musical resonator mounting structure installed in a drum according to the prior art. This musical resonator mounting structure comprises a resonator unit, two holder plates, and an adjustment device. The holder plates are fastened to the drum at two opposite sides. The adjustment device is mounted on one holder plate, comprised of a link and a lever. The resonator unit comprises a first end plate fixedly fastened to one holder plate, a second end plate fastened to the link of the adjustment device, and a plurality of corrugated metal wires connected in parallel between the end plates and arranged at the bottom side of the drum. By means of operating the lever of the adjustment device to lift the link, the corrugated metal wires of the resonator unit are stretched and closely attached to the bottom side of the drum, as shown in FIG. 1, therefore the corrugated metal wires are vibrated when the drum is played by beating. When the lever of the adjustment device is operated to lower the link, the corrugated metal...
Stringed musical instrument2010-02-05 00:00:00in said top plate adjacent respective opposite sides of said instrument and each said f-hole is located between the adjacent said side and a respective adjacent end of said tension member.Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to musical instruments of the stringed kind. By way of example, the invention is applicable to musical instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar and mandolin. It will be convenient, however, to hereinafter describe the invention with
particular reference to violins.
Violin manufacture is a highly specialised art requiring the use of special timbers and the application of special skills which require many years to achieve. As a consequence, the violins of only a few manufactures are recognised as satisfactory for use by concert musicians, and those violins are extremely expensive. Even violins of lesser quality, however, are expensive because of the care and time involved in their manufacture.
The quality of sound derived from a
particular violin rests largely on the skill with which certain internal components have been manufactured and installed. Those components include a bridge support bar and a sound post. The bar is usually called the bass bar and is secured to the underside of the top plate or belly of the sound box of the instrument so as to extend longitudinally of the instrument. The bar is of relatively heavy section and is positioned under the foot of the bridge which is adjacent the "G" string, or the string of lowest pitch. The sound post is generally a slender rod of round cross-section which is wedged between the top and bottom plates of the sound box at a location beneath the foot of the bridge which is adjacent the "E" string, or the string of highest pitch.
Each of the two components mentioned above must be manufactured of suitable material, formed to a correct size, and accurately located within the sound box in order to enable the instrument to generate quality sound. Substantial skill is required to achieve those objectives.
Due to the construction of the traditional violin, the top and bottom plates are forced to move in a very complex manner when activated by the strings of the instrument. For this reason, correct selection of the timber for those plates is very critical. The standard manufacturing dimensions of violins have been...
Electronic musical instrument capable of reporting operating conditions including sound level and tempo2010-02-05 00:00:00When a
particular sound level or a
particular tempo is selected and set, a click having a
particular pitch matching the sound level or the tempo is generated to allow the user to recognize the sound level or the tempo on the basis of the pitch of the click. The instrument has a right and a left loudspeaker and, when the sound level is high or the tempo is fast, produces louder sound from one of the loudspeakers while, when the sound level is low or the tempo is slow, producing louder sound from the other loudspeaker.ClaimsWhat is claimed is:
1. An electronic musical instrument for generating tones by a digital procedure, comprising:
tone generating means for generating a tone associated with a key selected;
selecting means for selecting operating conditions in which said instrument should operate;
operating condition storing means for storing each of said operating conditions;
click data storing means for storing click data each being associated with respective one of said operating conditions and each having a plurality of pitches; and
control means for controlling said tone generating means, said selecting means, said operating condition storing means and said click data storing means such that click data matching an operating condition selected by said selecting means is read out of said click data storing means, and a click having a pitch represented by said click data is generated by said tone generating means.
2. An instrument as claimed in claim 1, wherein said operating conditions include a sound level of a tone to be produced from said instrument and a tempo for an automatic accompaniment.
3. An instrument as claimed in claim 2, wherein said selecting means comprises at least one of sound level switch means for selecting sound levels and tempo switch means for selecting tempos.
4. An instrument as claimed in claim 3, wherein said sound level switch means and said tempo switch means each comprises an UP switch and a DOWN switch.
5. An instrument as claimed in claim 3, wherein said operating condition storing means comprises at least one of a sound level data memory and a tempo data memory for storing sound level data and tempo data, respectively.
6. An electronic musical instrument for generating tones by a digital procedure, comprising:
selecting means for selecting operating conditions in which said instrument should operate;
tone generating means for generating tones;
click data storing means for storing click data...
Stringed musical instrument neck assemblies2010-02-04 00:00:00having wires coupled thereto; a mounting block having a shape corresponding to at least a portion of the recessedarea and coupled to the sidewall along the recessed area, the mounting block having a top surface adapted to receive a portion of a bottom surface of the instrument neck; and an aperture extending through the top surface of the body, the aperture sizedand shaped to provide passage of the wire of the light-system into the interior of the body, the aperture positioned such that it is concealed when the stringed instrument is assembled.DescriptionBACKGROUND
Learning to play any instrument, and
particularly stringed instruments such as a guitar, violin, banjo and the like, can be difficult and time consuming. In general, multiple strings must be pressed against a fingerboard or fingerboard at one ormore finger positions disposed along a neck of the instrument. At the same time, one or more selected strings must be vibrated via plucking, strumming or bowing, and thus, producing a musical tone, note or chord. Fingerboards are generally used onstringed instruments such as violins and cellos, and do not visually indicate finger positions per se. Conversely, guitars, for example, do have visual indicators--known as frets--and thus use a fretboard. Nonetheless, regardless of the type ofstringed instrument, finger positions must be memorized, one or more strings pressed at those positions against a fretboard (used herein forward interchangeably with "fingerboard"), and selected strings caused to vibrate.
Although mastering stringed instruments can be accomplished through employing instructors and/or utilizing self-teaching books and automated chord charts, among other means, it is time-consuming and arduous. A student generally must translatediagrams from paper or a computer screen to locations of finger positions along the fingerboard. Next, the student must determine which strings to vibrate. Further, because a single note or cord can be played using one of several different fingerpositions and/or strings, the student must then determine which of those positions is most beneficial in a sequence of notes or chords according to a song or tune.
Some attempts have been made to facilitate the learning process. One attempt has been to provide a fingering display apparatus that has one or more holes bored through a fretboard through which illuminated lights are visible even when notilluminated. Unfortunately, the bores were difficult to create, and often damaged or negatively impacted the strength of the neck, as well as its tonal qualities. The neck of the instrument could flex creating the need for frequent adjustments. Further, the bores required a cover or cap causing visible indications that the instrument had been altered. Moreover, the user could see the lights through the cover or cap. Thus, it was apparent that the instrument was a "learning" instrument.
Another attempt incorporated a "stick" on display having small lights. Much like the attempt described above, the lights could illuminate according to certain finger positions. But the display caused difficulties as it affected the tactile feelof the fingerboard, could slip in position, and was difficult to place on a neck of the instrument.
With those and other drawbacks in mind, it is apparent that while the light-system sub-displays are useful, there are no means to inexpensively employ them, no means to preserve the integrity of the instrument, and no means to hide the systemfrom observers.
Thus, one object of the invention is to provide stringed musical instrument neck assemblies that are useful as learning tools, and are inexpensive and substantially non-detectible. Another object is to provide necks assemblies for suchinstrument that have a light-system along the fingerboard. Another object is to provide neck assemblies with fingerboards that do not negatively affect the integrity or tonal characteristics of instruments and that can provide a tactile feelsubstantially as that of an instrument using a non-modified fingerboard.
SUMMARY
Described herein are methods and devices for illuminating stringed instruments. In one aspect, the instruments can include neck assemblies comprising a fingerboard and light elements. The neck assembly can further comprise a light-systemincluding multiple light elements and/or an instrument neck configured to support the fingerboard. The fingerboard can be an elongated structure, generally of a size and shape to be mounted or coupled to an instrument neck. Light elements that can beilluminated by the light-system, and are visible from the top surface when illuminated but otherwise substantially concealed. The fingerboard with the light-system is dispos...
Multi-stage musical instrument amplifier having distortion modes2009-11-09 00:00:00preamplifier of claim 19, wherein said level altering means comprises means connected to the output of the second amplifier stage for selectively changing the resistive loading on said second amplifier stage thereby changing the gain and the harmonic characteristics thereof.
21. In the preamplifier of claim 9, further comprising a buffer stage adapted to receive the output of the third amplifier stage and provide a buffered output signal corresponding thereto.
22. A preamplifier for audio frequency electrical signals generated by a musical instrument such as a guitar, said preamplifier comprising:
a plurality of cascaded amplifier stages for receiving electrical signals generated by a musical instrument and providing an output signal;
means for selectively attenuating the output of one or more of the stages;
means for selectively modifying the gain of one or more of the stages;
means for selectively activating the attenuating means and modifying means to provide a first mode in which all stages provide an increase in power to supply a substantially linear signal as the output signal and to provide a second mode in which all stages provide an increase in power to supply a substantially nonlinear saturated signal with increased harmonic content as the output signal.DescriptionFIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an electronic amplifier for musical instruments and, in
particular, a multi-stage musical instrument preamplifier having modes which selectively provide clean and undistorted signals, or signals with desired amounts of harmonic content.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many musicians now prefer vacuum tube preamplifiers and
particularly those which can provide, as desired, linear or clean undistorted amplification or amplification which is non-linear or distorted with desired amounts of harmonic content. In part, it is believed that having a controlled amount of distortion when desired provides amplified sound that is more pleasing to the human ear and has a richer, fuller tone. As only
particular passages of music are to be reproduced with non-linear or distorted sound characteristics, amplifiers which can be alternately operated in distorted and undistorted modes have been developed.
This has been accomplished in several ways such as using extra amplification stages or a different set of amplification stages to provide a distorted signal. In such arrangements there will be amplification stages which are not used in every mode of operation. As even clean undistorted music signals can benefit from having more amplification stages over the minimum needed for voltage gain it would be advantageous and efficient to have musical instrument amplifiers having multiple stages and having various modes of operation, some of which provide distortion, which use all of the stages of the amplifier in all modes of operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a multi-stage musical instrument amplifier operating with distorted and undistorted modes with each mode using all stages of the amplifier.
It is another object of this invention to provide a preamplifier which has selectable modes of operation.
It is another object of this invention to provide a multi-stage musical instrument amplifier having multiple modes of operation which takes advantage of the characteristics of the amplifier stages in each mode.
It is another object of this invention to provide a multi-stage musical instrument amplifier having various modes of operation in which separate tone and volume controls are provided for each mode of operation.
In one form, the invention is a preamplifier for audio frequency electrical signals generated by a musical instrument such as a guitar. A first amplifier stage receives electrical signals generated by the musical instrument and provides an output signal. A second amplifier stage is driven by the output signal from the first amplifier stage. Means are provided for attenuating the output signal of the first amplifier stage. Gain modifying means a...
Musical instrument string modifying device2009-10-24 00:00:00whereby the crown of said cover wire is compressed to form flats on the outer surface of said string, and whereby the curvature of the remainder of said cover wire remainssubstantially unmodified.DescriptionBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to musical instrument strings, and more
particularly refers to an apparatus for modifying the surface of the strings to prevent the production of noise when the fingers are slid along the strings.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Musical instrument strings are manufactured by winding a fine metal wire around a core. The wire may be formed of silver, copper, alloys of either or both, or aluminum. The cores are formed of gut, nylon, or metal wire such as steel. Since thefine wire wound around the core has a substantially circular cross-section in order to provide good intonation, when the player moves his fingers along the strings, since the peaks of the wire are spaced apart, a considerable amount of noise results. Various means have been utilized to modify the string to avoid or reduce the degree of noise. In one method, the string is ground with a centerless grinder after the string has been wound to produce a flat surface. This method has a disadvantage inthat the mass of the wire winding is reduced. To compensate for this, it has been found necessary to use both a larger diameter core and a larger diameter covering wire. To utilize a string manufactured by this method, it is necessary to increase theamount of tension required to bring the string t...
