Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2003-01-14
2004-07-20
Fletcher, Marlon T. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S600000, C084S601000, C084S720000, C084S744000, C084S745000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06765142
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic keyboard musical instrument that gives performance feeling and expression closer to those given when an acoustic piano is played.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an electronic piano has become fairly closer to an acoustic grand piano in its tone-generating system. However, as far as a manner of tone generation responsive to a key release is concerned, the conventional electronic piano has failed to exhibit a sufficient reality.
To eliminate this inconvenience, the present assignee developed an electronic keyboard musical instrument that employs a double sound source (key-on source and key-off source) system in which musical tones generated by an acoustic grand piano during damping at the time of key release are sampled and used as key-off tones generated by the electronic keyboard musical instrument.
However, in the conventional electronic keyboard musical instrument, no consideration has been give of the idea of controlling a musical tone using a position of a string touching a damper member during key release as a turning point. Therefore, although musical tones generated upon key release show reality, the performance feeling given by the musical instrument is different from that given by an acoustic grand piano.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide an electronic keyboard musical instrument that gives performance feeling closer to that given by an acoustic piano (e.g. a grand piano) and enables the technique of expression closer to that used when playing the acoustic piano.
To attain the above object, in a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic keyboard musical instrument comprising an actuating member, an output member that is actuated by the actuating member to output a plurality of pieces of information according to respective actuating positions of the actuating member, a touch information-generating device that generates touch information based on first information output by the output member when the actuating member is in a vicinity of an actuation-terminating position thereof, a musical tone-generating device that generates a musical tone according to the touch information generated by the touch information-generating device, and a control device responsive to second information output by the output member during returning of the actuating member, the second information being generated on a side closer to an actuation-starting position of the actuating member than a position in which the first information is generated, for providing control such that the musical tone being generated is progressively damped and a musical tone having a predetermined characteristic is generated, wherein the output member outputs the second information when the actuating position of the actuating member is equivalent to a damper-leaving position in a key stroke of an acoustic piano keyboard.
According to the first aspect of the invention, when touch information is generated based on first information output by an output member when an actuating member is in a vicinity of an actuation-terminating position of the actuating member, a musical tone is generated according to the touch information, and in response to second information output by the output member during returning of the actuating member, the second information being generated on a side closer to an actuation-starting position of the actuating member than a position in which the first information is generated, the musical tone being generated is progressively damped, and at the same time a musical tone having a predetermined characteristic is generated. Further, the output member outputs the second information when the actuating position of the actuating member is equivalent to a damper-leaving position in a key stroke of a real piano keyboard. Therefore, it is possible to make closer the performance feeling and techniques of expression to those available from the real piano.
To attain the above object, in a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an electronic keyboard musical instrument comprising an actuating member, an output member that is actuated by the actuating member to output a plurality of pieces of information according to respective actuating positions of the actuating member, a touch information-generating device that generates touch information based on first information output by the output member when the actuating member is in a vicinity of an actuation-terminating position thereof, a musical tone-generating device that generates a musical tone according to the touch information generated by the touch information-generating device, and a storage device responsive to one of pieces of second information output by the output member during actuation in a key-depressing direction, the pieces of second information being generated on a side closer to an actuation-starting position of the actuating member than a position in which the first information is generated, the one of pieces of the second information corresponding to a key position remotest from a non-key-depression position, for assigning a first value defined by a plurality of bits to a marker indicative of the one of pieces of the second information corresponding to the key position remotest from the non-key-depression position, and storing the assigned first value, the storage device being responsive to another one of the pieces of the second information different from the first information being output by the output member when the actuating member is in a vicinity of an actuation-starting position thereof during returning of the actuating member, the other one of pieces of the second information corresponding to a key position closest to the non-key-depression position, for assigning a second value defined by a plurality of bits to a marker indicative of the other one of pieces of the second information corresponding to the key position closest to the non-key-depression position, and storing the assigned second value, and a parameter control device that controls musical tone parameters based on the stored first and second values.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, when touch information is generated based on first information output by an output member when an actuating member is in a vicinity of an actuation-terminating position, a musical tone is generated according to the touch information. In response to one of pieces of second information output by the output member during actuation in a key-depressing direction, the pieces of second information being generated on a side closer to an actuation-starting position of the actuating member than a position in which the first information is generated, the one of pieces of the second information corresponding to a key position remotest from a non-key-depression position, a first value defined by a plurality of bits is assigned to a marker indicative of the one of pieces of the second information corresponding to the key position remotest from the non-key-depression position, and the assigned first value is stored. On the other hand, in response to another one of the pieces of the second information different from the first information being output by the output member when the actuating member is in a vicinity of an actuation-starting position thereof during returning of the actuating member, the other one of pieces of the second information corresponding to a key position closest to the non-key-depression position, a second value defined by a plurality of bits is assigned to a marker indicative of the other one of pieces of the second information corresponding to the key position closest to the non-key-depression position, and the assigned second value is stored. Musical tone parameters are controlled based on the stored first and second values. Therefore, even when an output member for outputting a large number of information items is used, a similar sounding system can be applied irrespective of th
Kudo Masaki
Sakurada Shinya
Tokuda Kozo
Fletcher Marlon T.
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Yamaha Corporation
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