Music – Accessories – Tuning devices
Patent
1981-08-24
1984-03-06
Witkowski, S. J.
Music
Accessories
Tuning devices
84477R, 84484, G04F 502, G09B 1502, G10G 702
Patent
active
044346972
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an indicator apparatus for notes emitted by means of an instrument.
By instrument is meant here any wind or string musical instruments, the human voice, or any other devices producing sounds.
It is known that instruments, and in particular string instruments, require frequent tunings due to variations in temperature or hygrometry, or because of the hysteresis of tensile forces. The tuning can only be achieved by comparing the produced sound to a key note (diapason) or, just simply, by listening to that sound. This, however, pre-supposes a considerable experience and a particularly sharp "ear" for music.
Different types of apparatus have already been proposed to tune musical instruments by measuring the frequency of the sounds produced by said instruments.
Such an apparatus is described in German Patent Application DE No. 1 547 594. Said known apparatus comprises a calculating unit to effect the difference between a digital value representative of the frequency of the note to be checked and a digital reference value selected from a memory of a diode matrix type by actuating a keyboard. The difference calculated is displayed as well as its sign. With such an apparatus therefore, a manual intervention is necessary to select a new reference value everytime a note has to be controlled. This makes the apparatus difficult to use.
Another known apparatus is described in German Patent Application DE No. 2 716 910. With this particular apparatus, the frequency of the note to be controlled is measured and displayed in digital form, by counting the number of oscillations for a reference period of about one second. Such a reference period is relatively long. Moreover, the display of the result in digital form makes it necessary to effect a mental note/frequency or frequency
ote conversion.
It is an object of the present invention to propose a device permitting instantly and without any manoeuvring, to clearly display any note produced by way of an instrument, or more specifically, to clearly display the exact note closest to the sound produced by the instrument, with an indication as to the situation of the sound produced with respect to the displayed note.
It is also an object of the invention to propose a device which can be used by beginners as well as by experienced musicians to control the tuning of their instrument or even to control the accuracy of the notes that they produce with the said instrument.
Another object of the invention is to propose a device which is relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and to which extra functions can be added, for very little cost, which functions are useful when learning a musical instrument.
These objects are attained with a device comprising:
An amplifier for amplifying a signal representing a sound to be identified, a filtering circuit connected to the output of the amplifier, a calculation device connected to the output of the filtering circuit for working out a representative value of the frequency calculated, in which device, according to the invention, said calculation device comprises a microprocessor, and memories connected to said microprocessor and comprising a table of notes in which are recorded items of information which represent the identifiable notes and octaves, the reading of one such item of information in said table being controlled in relation to the measured value of the frequency of the sound to be identified, and display means are connected to said calculation device to receive the information read in said table and display that item of information which represents the closest note to the sound to be identified and the octave in which said sound is situated.
The use of a microprocessor with a memory constituting a table of notes, in which table are recorded all identifiable notes, makes it possible to obtain a display in uncoded form of the note to be identified, and this instantly and without any special manoeuvring.
Advantageously, the calculating device comprises means to estimate the difference between the calculated
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patent: 4205584 (1980-06-01), Foerst
patent: 4227437 (1980-10-01), Inloes et al.
patent: 4253373 (1981-03-01), Foerst
patent: 4273023 (1981-06-01), Mercer
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