sounding_tags
Simulated musical rainmaker2010-03-30 00:00:00fall of particulate material disposed within said rainmaker,
first and second end closing means mounted on said first and second opposed ends,
a plastic holder secured to said casing,
at least one electronic
sounding means comprising a circuit board, a sound IC, a battery, a speaker, a motion detector, and connectors and wires to connect components of a pulse oscillator circ...
Method and apparatus for generating musical tone waveforms by user input of sample waveform frequency2010-03-24 00:00:00performance information for commanding to generate musical tones;
a second receiving step of receiving limitation information defining a maximum number of channels for generating tones;
a generating step of carrying out, at predetermined time intervals longer than a sampling cycle, a musical tone waveform calculation of a plurality of
sounding channels which said performance information has commanded to generate tones, for generating a plurality of musical tone waveform samples in said plurality of
sounding channels, wherein when said performance information commands to start generation of a new tone, one new
sounding channel is added to said plurality of
sounding channels, and when the tone generation in one of said plurality of
sounding channels is finished, said one of said plurality of
sounding channels is removed from said plurality of
sounding channels; and
a reproduction step of outputting said plurality of musical tone waveform samples, sample by sample, every sampling cycle;
wherein said generating step generates said musical tone waveform samples by said musical tone waveform calculation in a manner such that a maximum number of said plurality of
sounding channels is limited in accordance with said limitation information by inhibiting said musical tone waveform calculation for some of said plurality of
sounding channels when a total number of said
sounding channels exceeds the maximum number defined by said limitation information.
5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the received limitation information is input based on a setting operation by a user.
6. A method of generating musical tones which is executed on a computer, comprising:
a first receiving step of receiving a plurality of pieces of performance information for commanding to generate musical tones;
a second receiving step of receiving limitation information defining a maximum amount of processing capacity of a processor of the computer which can be employed for tone generation;
a generating step of carrying out, at predetermined time intervals longer than a sampling cycle, a musical tone waveform calculation of a plurality of
sounding channels which said performance information has commanded to generate tones, for generating a plurality of musical tone waveform samples in said plurality of
sounding channels, wherein when said performance information commands to start generation of a new tone, one new
sounding channel is added to said plurality of
sounding channels, and when the tone generation in one of said plurality of
sounding channels is finished, said one of said plurality of
sounding channels is removed from said plurality of
sounding channels; and
a reproduction step of outputting said plurality of musical tone waveform samples, sample by sample, every sampling cycle;
wherein said generating step generates said musical tone waveform samples by said musical tone waveform calculation in a manner such that a total number of said plurality of
sounding channels is limited in accordance with said limitation information by inhibiting said musical tone waveform calculation for some of said plurality of
sounding channels when a total amount of processing capacity of the processor which is used by the musical tone waveform calculation in the generating step exceeds the maximum amount of processing capacity of the processor defined by said limitation information.
7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the received limitation information is input based on a setting operation by a user.
8. A method of generating musical tones which is executed on a computer, comprising:
a performance information receiving step of receiving performance information which designates a pitch of each of the musical tones to be generated;
a control information receiving step of receiving control information;
a waveform sample generating step of carrying out, at predetermined time intervals longer than a sampling cycle, a musical tone waveform calculation of a plurality of
sounding channels which said performance information has commanded to generate tones, for reading musical tone waveform samples from a memory, interpolating the read musical tone waveform samples in a manner selected by the control information, at a rate corresponding to a pitch designated for each of said
sounding channels by said performance information, and generating a plurality of musical tone waveform samples for each of said
sounding channels based on the musical tone waveform samples interpolated, wherein said musical tone waveform samples generated has the pitch designated by said performance information; and
a reproducing step of outputting said musical tone waveform samples generated by said waveform sample generating step, sample by sample, every sampling cycle.
9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the received control information is input based on a setting operation by a user.
10. A method of of generating musical tones which is executed on a computer, comprising:
a first receiving step of receiving performance information;
a second receiving step of receiving instruction information for instructing a digital filter to switch on or off;
a generating step of carrying out, at predetermined time intervals longer than a sampling cycle, a musical tone waveform calculation in response to the received performance information, for generating a plurality of musical tone waveform samples, and storing the generated plurality of musical tone waveform samples in a memory, wherein said musical tone waveform calculation includes a digital filtering step of filtering said generated plurality of musical tone waveform samples to control a tone color of said musical tone waveform samples, only when said instruction information for instructing the digital filter to switch on is received by said second receiving step; and
a reproducing step of outputting said plurality of musical tone waveform samples, sample by sample, every sampling cycle.
11. A method as claimed in claim 10...
Method and apparatus for achieving timbre modulation in an electronic musical instrument2010-03-15 00:00:00or indirectly, e.g. by the plucking of strings. The term key is used in a generic sense to include depressible levers, actuable on-off switches, touch or proximity responsive devices, closable apertures and soforth. More particularly, the present invention relates to timbre modulation for electronic musical instruments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art attempts to simulate the transient voice effects of musical timbre have included the momentary
sounding of independent "chiff" tones. As a result, the chiff or transient voice effect took on an independent character with limiteddependence on the particular voices selected. U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,450 discloses a "chiff" of this type.
Prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,908,504 and 3,972,259, while disclosing harmonic modulation and pulse width modulation respectively, employ complex and expensive hardware. The inventor knows of no prior art which affords the versatility and costeffectiveness of the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a new and unobvious approach to the accomplishment of timbre modulation which is particularly useful in digital electronic musical instruments. The present invention may be used during attack, decay, or both,thereby providing a variety of desirable musical effects.
Briefly, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a digital magnitude comparator which compares selected note frequency signals to selected scale factors. The outputs of the digital magnitude comparator are combined in digitallogic with a note attack and decay indicator signal. The output of this logic and a sample gating signal are applied to further digital logic to achieve timbre modulation. During note attack, the high output of the digital magnitude comparator willoccur infrequently at first, but will occur more frequently as the scale...
Method and apparatus for automatic variable articulation and timbre assignment for an electronic musical instrument2010-03-06 00:00:00particular, 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 controllers can sense the speed of note release and use this information to control release rate. In both cases, the effect is determined at the time of the initiating gesture and applies only to the note associated with that gesture.
The duration of a tone depends on the player's ability to control the moment of note-off (i.e., when the release segment of the envelope begins) and is limited by the affordance of the particular controller being used. In particular, keyboard-like controllers send a note-off signal upon key release, and percussive controllers predetermine note duration at the time of note-on.
Current practice either imposes no constraints on the number of notes with legato envelopes that can sound simultaneously or limits legato to strictly monophonic mode where one tone sounds at a time. When a legato passage is played it is useful to allow only two notes to be
sounding at the same time in order to have some amount of overlap while avoiding a blurred effect. The amount of overlap should be adjusted to account for the speed of consecutive notes in a musical passage.
When an electronic instrument allows variable articulative control over envelope and duration, it is always on a note-by-note basis. This can be a problem when a group of notes is performed together in a chord. Individual notes may have different envelopes resulting in an unpleasant balance, or the duration of notes may differ so that the chord is released in a ragged way, each note at a different time.
The Studio Vision sequencer program from Opcode has a legato mode operation that can be applied to a selected range of notes in a sequence. This program will change the duration of each selected note so that it extends a given percentage of the way to the next note. This feature is an editing operation that must be applied to a recorded sequence out of real time; it cannot be used while actually playing.
The Kurzweil K2500 tone generator has a "Legato Play" mode. In this mode a note will play the attack segment of its amplitude envelope only when all other notes have been released. The K2500 also has a legato switch which causes the instrument to behave in a monophonic fashion: whenever a new note is begun, the previously
sounding note is immediately terminated.
The "malletKAT" is a MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) controller that resembles a xylophone. It has a mono mode overlap feature which provides a fixed overlap interval between successive notes; when a new note is started the previous note is terminated after the fixed interval has elapsed. The overlap interval does not change and the feature is available only when the controller is in monophonic mode; thus, chordal or polyphonic performance of many simultaneous tones is impossible.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,960 describes a keyboard instrument that produces a legato-type envelope depending on a predetermined playing style and instrument timbre. The legato effect is strictly monophonic; it is produced when a new note-on is received and another note its still
sounding. The release of the old note and attack of the new note are forced to be coincident and shaped by a predetermined amplitude envelope with relatively small attack for the new note. No overlapping of the two notes occurs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,183 describes a keyboard instrument which distinguishes between two states, legato and non-legato, depending on the speed of successive key-down signals, and applies legato or non-legato ADSR envelopes on a note-by-note basis. The duration of notes is not controlled, the overlapping of successive legato notes is not controlled, and the number of simultaneously
sounding legato notes is not constrained. All non-legato notes are treated the same, whether they are part of a chord or a polyphonic passage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,731 describes a device for selecting one of two fixed durations for percussive tones such that when many keys are played in quick succession the duration is set shorter to avoid excessive overlap. This device concerns percussive tones with fixed durations and which are incapable of being sustained indefinitely.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,019 describes a touch controller that adjusts the note-on velocities according to playing speed. The time interval from the immediately preceding note-off or note-on is used to adjust the touch velocity so that the degree of responsiveness to force of touch varies with playing speed. The disclosed device includes means for altering the touch effects of a new note when a note-on is recei...
Method and Apparatus for Playing in Synchronism with a CD an Automated Musical Instrument2010-03-04 00:00:00music sequence along with its Volume ID and associated track number and checks to make sure that that particular CD is loaded for playback.
[0027] Playback of audio CDs is implemented by the controller by reading the digital audio data, commonly referred to as Redbook audio data, directly off of the CD and sending that data to its DAC Subsystem for rendering to an analog signal. The DAC Subsystem itself is regulated by the audio rate of the DAC, which will nominally run at 44.1 kHz--the CD Audio sample rate. Hence, the data itself is consumed at the CD audio data rate by the DAC Subsystem which, via its DMA progress status, then provides the controller with an accurate digital audio time-base.
[0028] Once playback of the CD audio track has been initiated, the controller resets its internal sequencer time-base and monitors the progression of audio time as measured by the DAC Subsystem. As this digital audio time progresses, the controller submits the MIDI events to the Piano system in accordance with the event timestamps. Thus, the CD and the automated musical instrument are synchronized.
[0029] Since the automated Piano is a solenoid-actuated system, there is a measurable time delay from the time it receives a MIDI Event and the time it can actually sound a note on the automated acoustic Piano. In practice, his time can be as low as 100 ms or as high as 500 ms. Although the time is variable, the controller fixes the absolute delay from event reception to note
sounding at 500 ms. Because of this delay, the controller advances the assertion of MIDI events during playback by 500 ms relative to the song start in order to maintain absolute synchronization to the CD as perceived by the user.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0030] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the operational components of the system of the invention.
[0031] FIG. 2 is a front view of a controller.
[0032] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the timely relationship between an analog audio output and a music sequence.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0033] As shown in FIG. 1, the synchronization system 20 described herein includes a controller 22, an automated musical instrument, such as a piano 24, and an amplifier 26 and speaker 28. The amplifier 26 and speaker 28 can be incorporated into the controller 22 in an alternate embodiment, and need not be separate devices. Similarly, the amplifier 26 and speaker 28 can be replaced with any combination of devices that will allow the user to hear the recorded material on the CD placed into the CD drive 40 of the controller 22. Thus, it is beneficial for the housin...
really feltomfortable rording 2010-02-08 00:00:00Pkett - songs from the influential Stax label. They're not the obvious songs you mighthoose,'' Sebastian says."When you listen to Motown mus, whh was the rival of Stax, they're all very pop
sounding. These are a little more gritty and unpolished."When you listen to Hold On, I'moming, Soul Man, In the Midnight Hour, Knk on Wood, like all those songs, it's really raw.''Who better to play on an album of Sta...
Device for and method of detecting and supplying chord and solo sounding instructions in an electronic musical instrument2009-11-07 00:00:00new
sounding operation changes a solo being played, and various ways of
sounding musical tones are permitted by a selection of whether or not a chord being played is to be changed. In response to an instruction for
sounding a musical tone, chord tone data is provided together with tone data indicating a single key number, to thereby determine whether or not the chord is to be detected, and whether or not chord tone data is be output. Accordingly, ways of
sounding musical tones, such as changing a chord being played together with a solo being played, or not changing a chord being played but changing only the solo being played.ClaimsI claim:
1. A device for supplying
sounding instructions in an electronic musical instrument comprising:
a plurality of
sounding instruction means for generating on and off instructions for
sounding a musical tone;
on determining means for determining on instructions of said plurality of
sounding instruction means;
off determining means for determining an off instruction of said plurality of
sounding instruction means;
first output means for detecting and outputting solo tone data corresponding to the instructions generated by said plurality of
sounding instruction means, according to a result of an on determination by said on determining means;
output terminating means for terminating the output of said solo tone data by said first output means, according to a result of an off determination by said off determining means;
second output means for detecting and outputting chord tone data corresponding to the instructions generated by said plurality of
sounding instruction means, independent of said solo tone data according to said result of the on determination by said on determining means;
switching means for switching said second output means, independent of said first output means between an operative and an inoperative state;
storing means for storing state data indicating the operative state or the inoperative state switched by said switching means; and
switching control means for controlling the switching of said second output means between the operative or inoperative state according to the state data stored in said storing means, independent of said first output means.
2. The device according to claim 1, wherein said first output means includes means for outputting tone data indicating a single key number,...
Waveform data processing system and method 2009-10-12 00:00:00permitting the
sounding of tones with various varieties. In addition, if musical tone waveform data corresponding to a tone designated for
sounding is not stored in the memory, it is automatically loaded in the memory, thus permitting automatic
sounding of tones to be requested.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A waveform data reading/writing device for an electronic musical instrument comprising:
first waveform storage means capable of being mounted in and removed from said electronic musical instrument and having storage capacity to store data of musical tone waveforms;
first reading means for reading the data of musical tone waveforms from said first waveform storage means;
third waveform storage means, in said electronic musical instrument, for storing the data of musical tone waveforms read by said first reading means;
third writing means for writing the data of musical tone waveforms read by said first reading means in said third waveform storage means;
third reading means for reading the data of musical tone waveforms from said third waveform storage means;
second waveform storage means, in said electronic musical instrument, including a semiconductor for storing the data of musical tone waveforms read by said third reading means;
second writing means for writing the data of musical tone waveforms read by said third reading means in said second waveform storage means;
automatic performance information storing means for storing automatic performance information;
automatic performance information reading means for reading the automatic performance information in an order of performance from said automatic performance information storing means;
designating means for designating a musical tone according to the automatic performance information read by said automatic performance information reading means;
second reading means for reading the data of musical tone waveforms from said second waveform storage means according to a designation by said designating means;
output means for outputting the data of musical tone waveforms read by said second reading means as data concerning the musical tone designated by said designating means;
checking means for executing a check with respect to the musical tone designated by said designating means as to whether the data of musical tone waveforms corresponding to the musical tone designated is stored in said second waveform storage means;
fourth reading means for reading the data of musical tone waveforms from said third waveform storage means according to the check by said checking means; and
fourth writing means for writing the data of musical tone waveforms read by said fourth reading means in said second waveform storage means.
2. The waveform data reading/writing device for an electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the data of musical tone waveforms is of a sampled type.
3. The waveform data reading/writing device of claim 1, wherein the data of musical tone waveforms corresponds to sounds of various musical instruments or corresponds to groups of spectra of specific frequency bands according to specific formants.
4. The waveform data reading/writing device of claim 1, wherein the data of musical tone waveforms corresponds to touch data, range of touch data, pitch data, or range of pitch data.
5. A method of waveform data reading/writing for an electronic musical instrument comprising the steps of:
(a) storing data of musical tone waveforms in a first waveform storage area capable of being mounted in and removed from said electronic musical instrument and having storage capacity;
(b) reading the data of musical tone waveforms from the first waveform storage area;
(c) writing the data of musical tone waveforms read in step (b) in a third waveform storage area provided in said electronic musical instrument;
(d) reading the data of musical tone waveforms from the third waveform storage area;
(e) writing the data of musical tone waveforms read in step (d) in a second waveform storage area provided as a semiconductor in said electronic musical instrument;
(f) storing automatic performance information;
(g) reading the automatic performance information in an order of performance stored in step (f);
(h) designating a musical tone according to the automatic performance information read in step (g);
(i) reading the data of musical tone waveforms from the second waveform storage area according to the designation in step (h);
(j) outputting the data of musical tone waveforms read in step (i) as data concerning the musical tone designated in step (h);
(k) checking with respect to the musical tone designated in step (h), whether the data of musical tone waveforms is stored in the second waveform storage area;
(l) reading the data of musical tone waveforms from the third waveform storage area according to a result of the check in step (k); and
(m) writing the data of musical tone waveforms read in step (l) in the second waveform storage area.
6. The method of waveform data reading/writing of claim 5, wherein the data of musical tone waveforms is of a sampled type.
7. The method of waveform data reading/writing of claim 5, wherein the data of musical tone waveforms corresponds to s...
