Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reissue Patent
1996-10-03
2001-10-30
Witkowski, Stanley J. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S607000, C084S615000, C084S622000, C084S661000, C084SDIG009
Reissue Patent
active
RE037422
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument which is suitable for synthesizing a desirable musical tone by combining plural sounds.
2. Prior Art
Recently, there are developed several kinds of electronic musical instruments each of which activates a simulation model of a tone-generation mechanism of a non-electronic musical instrument so as to synthesize its musical tone. Such music synthesis technique is disclosed in the papers such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,984,276 and 4,130,043. Herein, there is disclosed an electronic musical instrument which simulates a tone-generation mechanism of the wind instrument such as the clarinet. In addition, the above-mentioned papers also disclose about the electronic musical instruments which simulate tone-generation mechanisms of the string-plucking-type instrument such as the guitar and string-striking-type instrument such as the piano.
Meanwhile, currently produced electronic musical instrument may provide plural FM sound sources called “operators”. By arbitrarily combining some of these operators, a desirable musical tone is to be synthesized. In addition, the above-mentioned electronic musical instrument provides a liquid crystal display (i.e., “LCD”) which displays the combining state or connecting manner of these operators. This combining state of the operators is called “algorithm” which is an important element for determining the tone color of the musical tone to be generated. By use of this algorithm, the user of this electronic musical instrument can acknowledge the physical combination of the sound sources. Therefore, by changing the contents of this algorithm, it is possible to carry out the sound synthesis or sound composition with ease.
When applying the above-mentioned function to the conventional electronic musical instrument which simulates the tone-generation mechanism of the non-electronic musical instrument, it is possible to carry out the varied sound synthesis by arbitrarily combining some of the tone-generation mechanisms of the non-electronic musical instruments. However, when using the different musical instrument to be simulated, such electronic musical instrument must require completely different tone-generation algorithm or its operation parameters. For this reason, when carrying out the sound synthesis by freely using several kinds of the tone-generation mechanisms, it is required for the user to have the expert knowledge concerning the tone-generation mechanism of the instrument itself to be simulated. This is difficult for the non-professional user who does not have the expert knowledge about the musical instrument, because such user cannot figure out the setting manner of the algorithm or operation parameters. Thus, there is a problem in that the sound synthesis is very difficult for the users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument which can carry out the sound synthesis by freely using several kinds of the tone-generation mechanisms of the non-electronic musical instruments with ease.
In a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic musical instrument comprising:
drive means for generating an excitation signal corresponding to tone-generation energy;
tone-generation means for resonating the excitation signal so as to output a resonated signal;
display means for displaying tone-generation algorithms defined by operation manners of the drive means and tone-generation means respectively in form of the graphics or graphic patters; and
algorithm control means for varying the operation manners of the drive means and tone-generation means displayed by the display means and/or combining them so as to control the tone-generation algorithms.
In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic musical instrument comprising:
sound source means for outputting a musical tone signal in accordance with a tone-generation algorithm which is predefined for each of instruments to be simulated;
display means for displaying the tone-generation algorithm in form of a predetermined graphic pattern; and
algorithm control means for controlling the display means to thereby vary the contents of the tone-generation algorithm in accordance with an operation made by a performer.
REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 31004 (1982-08-01), Niimi
patent: 4297933 (1981-11-01), Nishimoto
patent: 4554857 (1985-11-01), Nishimoto
patent: 4716804 (1988-01-01), Chadabe
patent: 4768086 (1988-08-01), Paist
patent: 4815354 (1989-03-01), Kunimoto
patent: 4833962 (1989-05-01), Mazzola et al.
patent: 4984276 (1991-01-01), Smith
patent: 5020410 (1991-06-01), Sasaki
patent: 5024133 (1991-06-01), Nakanishi et al.
patent: 5033352 (1991-07-01), Kellogg et al.
patent: 5040448 (1991-08-01), Matsubara et al.
patent: 5187314 (1993-02-01), Kunimoto et al.
patent: 5206446 (1993-04-01), Matsumoto et al.
patent: 5313013 (1994-05-01), Suzuki et al.
patent: 5319151 (1994-06-01), Shiba et al.
patent: 5340940 (1994-08-01), Iizuka et al.
patent: 5590364 (1996-12-01), Hanzawa et al.
patent: 0 393 701 A (1990-04-01), None
patent: 0 397 149 A (1990-05-01), None
patent: 63-40199 (1988-02-01), None
patent: 2-45596 (1990-03-01), None
patent: WO 84/02416 (1984-06-01), None
patent: WO 86/02791 (1986-05-01), None
“Fernseh-Und Kinotechnik,” vol. 43, No. 3, 1989, Heidelberg, pp. 156-157, H. Zander “Der Personalcomputer als Universales Hilfsmittel in Labor und Studio (VII)”.
“Keyboards Homerecording & Computer,” Nov. 1989, pp. 48-49, “Yamaha SY77 Synthesizer Der DX7 der 90er Jahre”.
“Der Personalcomputer als universales Hilfsmittel in Labor und Studio (VII)” Horst Zander, Fernseh Und Kino-Technik 43.
Jahrgang No. 3/1989, P 156-157 (and translation).
Shimizu Masahiro
Yamada Hideo
Morrison & Foerster
Witkowski Stanley J.
Yamaha Corporation
LandOfFree
Electronic musical instrument does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Electronic musical instrument, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Electronic musical instrument will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2570158