Electronic keyboard instrument and tone reproduction method...

Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C084SDIG001, C084SDIG002, C381S118000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06828497

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to electronic keyboard instruments capable of generating tones of a plurality of tone colors and tone reproduction methods for use with the electronic keyboard instruments, and more particularly to an improved electronic keyboard instrument and tone reproduction method therefor which can create or set up feelings or senses of expansion, depth, etc. of tones separately for each tone color selectable on the electronic keyboard instrument and thereby faithfully reproduce characteristics of tones of various types of natural musical instruments.
Among various conventionally-known electronic keyboard instruments capable of generating tones of a plurality of tone colors (timbres) is one which individually assigns tone signals of various tone colors to reproduction systems of left and right channels and then audibly reproduces the assigned tone signals through left and right speakers after imparting a desired effect, such as reverberation, to the tone signals.
Although the above-mentioned conventional electronic keyboard instrument can set sound image localization, in a horizontal direction, (i.e., horizontal sound image localization) of tones for each tone color selectable on the instrument, it can not create or set up feelings or senses of expansion, depth, etc. of tones separately for each of the selectable tone colors, so that it can not reproduce characteristics of tones of various types of natural musical instruments.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved electronic keyboard instrument and tone reproduction method therefor which can set up senses of expansion, depth, etc. of tones separately for each tone color selectable on the instrument and thereby faithfully reproduce characteristics of tones of various types of natural musical instruments.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a tone reproduction method for an electronic keyboard instrument, which comprises the steps of: providing a front speaker in an orientation facing a human player and a non-front speaker in an orientation not facing the human player; setting tone volume allocations to be applied to the individual speakers, separately for each of a plurality of tone source channels that generate tone signals of respective tone colors; assigning the tone signals of the individual tone source channels to respective reproduction systems of the speakers, with the tone volume allocations set by the step of setting; and mixing the assigned tone signals of the individual tone source channels, separately for each of the reproduction systems of the speakers and audibly reproducing the mixed tone signals via corresponding ones of the speakers.
With the present invention thus arranged, it is possible to create or set up senses of depth and expansion of tones by increasing the tone volume allocations to the non-front speaker. Further, by setting appropriate channel-by-channel tone volumes to be allocated (i.e., tone volume allocations) to the non-front speaker relative to channel-by-channel tone volume allocations to be applied to the front speaker for each of the tone colors selectable on the instrument (namely, generatable by the tone generator section of the instrument), the present invention can set up senses of depth, expansion, etc. of tones for each of the selectable tone colors and thereby faithfully reproduce characteristics of tones of various types of natural musical instruments.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic keyboard instrument which comprises: a front speaker provided in an orientation facing a human player; a non-front speaker provided in an orientation not facing the human player; a tone generator section that generates tone signals of respective tone colors through a plurality of tone source channels; an assignment section that assigns the tone signals of the individual tone source channels to respective reproduction systems of the speakers, with tone volume allocations set individually for the reproduction systems; and a mixing section that mixes the assigned tone signals of the individual tone source channels, separately for each of the reproduction systems of the speakers and supplies the mixed tone signals to corresponding ones of the reproduction systems of the speakers.
In the electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention, the front speaker may include left and right front speakers provided on a front surface of a casing of the electronic keyboard instrument. In this case, it is possible to set horizontal sound image localization for each of the selectable tone colors, by setting tone volume allocations to be applied to the left and right front speakers for each of the selectable tone colors.
Further, the non-front speaker may include a rear speaker provided on a rear surface of the casing and facing rearwardly of the electronic keyboard instrument. By increasing tone volume allocations to the rear speaker, it is possible to particularly enhance a sense of depth of generated tones. Also, it is possible to set a sense of depth of generated tones for each of the selectable tone colors, by setting tone volume allocations to the rear speaker for each of the selectable tone colors (i.e., on a tone-color-by-tone-color basis). For example, increasing the tone volume allocations to the rear speaker in relation to a piano tone color can create a sense of depth of generated tones in much the same way as in a real grand piano. The rear speaker may comprise left and right rear speakers, for example.
The non-front speaker may include an upper speaker provided on an upper surface of the casing and facing upwardly of the electronic keyboard instrument. By increasing tone volume allocations to the upper speaker, it is possible to particularly enhance a sense of expansion of generated tones. Also, it is possible to set a sense of expansion for each of the selectable tone colors, by setting tone volume allocations to the upper speaker for each of the selectable tone colors. For example, increasing the tone volume allocations to the upper speaker in relation to a flute tone color can create a sense of expansion of flute tones. The upper speaker may comprise left and right upper speakers, for example.
The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention may further comprise a woofer speaker provided in an orientation facing the human player. In this case, the assignment section may assign the tone signals of the individual tone source channels to a reproduction system of the woofer speaker with tone volume allocations individually set for the reproduction system of the woofer speaker, and the mixing section may mix the tone signals assigned to the reproduction system of the woofer speaker and supply the resultant mixed tone signals to the reproduction system of the woofer speaker. In this case, it is possible to set tone volume allocations to the woofer speaker for each of the selectable tone colors, and thus, by increasing the tone volume allocations to the woofer speaker for a particular musical instrument tone including low-frequency components, the particular musical instrument tone can be reproduced in a realistic manner.
The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention may further comprise a storage section that, for each tone color generatable by the tone generator section, stores tone volume allocations of tone signals to be applied to individual ones of the reproduction systems of the speakers. In this case, for each of the tone source channels generating tone signals of respective tone colors, the assignment section read outs the stored tone volume allocations to be applied to the individual reproduction systems of the speakers, from the storage section, in response to a predetermined readout instruction, and then sets the read-out tone volume allocations as the tone volume allocations to be applied to the individual reproduction systems of the speake

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