Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-23
2001-09-11
Fletcher, Marlon T. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S600000, C084S624000, C084S625000, C084S659000, C084S660000, C084S723000, C084S735000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06288320
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric musical instrument, and more particularly to an electric musical instrument such as an electric violin in which a tone generating source such as strings is driven by a driving member such as a bow to carry out musical performance.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, there have been provided several types of electric violin in which vibration of strings produced by a rubbing or twanging action with a bow is detected with a pickup embedded in a bridge, and a musical tone signal is generated from the detected signal. There has been also provided another type of electric violin which is constructed such that a microphone is arranged in a resonating belly that constitutes a main body of the violin, and an electric signal output from the microphone is subjected to some processing to be output as a musical tone signal.
The conventional electric violins as described above are constructed such that vibration of strings produced by a rubbing action with the bow is detected via the bridge by the pickup, or vibration due to resonance of the resonating belly is detected by the microphone. Thus, the vibration detected by the pickup or the microphone is not vibration of the strings themselves, but vibration after being subjected to a filtering action effected by the bridge and the resonating belly. As a result, musical tones generated from the detected vibration are slow in rise time, and have higher harmonic components cut off. This leads to a problem that a player finds it difficult to achieve rich and diverse expressions as he or she intends to exhibit in musical performance. This problem is not limited to rubbed string instruments such as a violin, but common to all electric musical instruments, including wind instruments and percussion instruments, in which musical tones are generated by an interaction of a tone generating source (strings, pad, mouth-piece or the like) with a driving member (bow, stick, reed or the like) for driving the same.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electric musical instrument which has solved the above-mentioned problem and which enables rich and diverse expressions to be achieved in musical performance.
To attain the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric musical instrument comprising a tone generating source, a driving member that drives the tone generating source, a driving member-side signal generator that obtains a signal from the driving member and outputs the obtained signal, and a musical tone signal generator; wherein the musical tone signal generator generates a musical tone signal using the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator and outputs the generated musical tone signal.
With the above construction, besides musical tones obtained from the tone generating source, musical tones obtained from the driving member can be output, to thereby enable rich and diverse expressions to be achieved in musical performance.
Preferably, the electric musical instrument according to the first aspect further comprises an electronic tone generator that outputs an electronic tone generator musical tone signal specified by at least one of the signal obtained from the tone generating source and the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator.
In a preferred form of the first aspect, the musical tone signal generator comprises a mixing device that mixes the signal obtained from the tone generating source and the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator, to thereby form the musical tone signal.
With this construction, features of musical tones obtained from the driving member can be applied to musical tones obtained from the tone generating source or musical tones obtained from the electronic tone generator.
In a preferred form of the first aspect, the musical tone signal generator comprises a mixing device that mixes the signal obtained from the tone generating source, the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator and the electronic tone generator musical tone signal output by the electronic tone generator, to thereby form the musical tone signal.
Preferably, the musical tone signal generator comprises a selector that selects one of the signal obtained from the tone generating source and the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator, to thereby form the musical tone signal.
Alternatively, the musical tone signal generator comprises a selector that selects at least one of the signal obtained from the tone generating source, the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator and the electronic tone generator music tone signal output by the electronic tone generator, to thereby form the musical tone signal.
With these constructions, musical tones obtained from the tone generating source, musical tones obtained from the driving member, or musical tones obtained from the electronic tone generator can be selectively output, to thereby enable musical tones suited to a user's taste to be output.
Preferably, the musical tone signal generator comprises a modulation device that modulates the signal obtained from the tone generating source with the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator, to thereby form the musical tone signal.
With this construction, features of musical tones obtained from the driving member can be applied to musical tones obtained from the tone generating source.
Preferably, the electric musical instrument according to the first aspect further comprises a vibration generating device that generates vibration corresponding to at least one of the signal obtained from the tone generating source and the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator, and a tone generating member that resonates with the vibration generated by the vibration generating device, to thereby produce musical tones.
With this construction, a member played by a player and a resonant member (tone generating member) that generates musical tones corresponding to the player's performance can be arranged physically separately from each other, to thereby enable performance of the electric musical instrument in various manners.
In a preferred form of the first aspect, the electric musical instrument further comprises a memory, and a writing device that writes time change of at least one of the signal obtained from the tone generating source and the signal output by the driving member-side signal generator into the memory.
With this construction, a time change in the signal stored in the memory can be analyzed to evaluate the performance. In particular, the signal obtained from the driving member-side signal generator can reflect the delicate action of a player more accurately. Therefore, by analyzing the signal, accurate evaluation of the performance, in particular evaluation of the bowing action, is possible. Further, by analyzing the signal obtained from the driving member-side signal generator, evaluation of the player's performance action using the driving member is also possible.
To attain the above object, according to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric musical instrument comprising a tone generating source, a driving member that drives the tone generating source, a tone generating source-side signal generator that obtains a tone generating source-side signal from the tone generating source and outputs the obtained signal, a driving member-side signal generator that obtains a driving member-side signal from the driving member and outputs the obtained signal, a modulation device that frequency-modulates one of the tone generating source-side signal and the driving member side signal with the other of the tone generating source-side signal and the driving member-side signal and outputs the modulated signal, and an output device that outputs the modulated signal output from the modulation device as a sound.
With the above constructi
Murakami Kazuo
Suzuki Hideo
Fletcher Marlon T.
Morrison & Foerster
Yahama Corporation
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