Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Patent
1990-04-26
1993-06-29
Witkowski, Stanley J.
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
84DIG24, G10H 318
Patent
active
052236609
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a pick-up system for acoustic devices such as musical instruments, in particular for mounting in connection with bridges on stringed instruments. It is well known that the vibrations of strings and in instrument cases may be detected by suitable microphones or transducers with a view to an electrically amplified sound reproduction, but it is also known, that hereby a certain number of problems arise concerning correct reproduction of timbre and sound intensity relations among various local sound sources such as the individual strings of a multistring musical instrument. Incorrectly detected intensity relations may, however, be corrected by selective attenuation of the signals from the various transducers associated with the individual sound sources, but such electrical attenuation in itself implies certain problems regarding necessary attenuation equipment, noise generation and interference phenomena in a parallel connected system of transducers. As far as a correct detection and reproduction of the timbre is concerned, it is in no way given that this will be achievable by placing an otherwise excellent microphone at a presumed suitable place of the instrument, as the timbre may well be determined or codetermined by sound waves which pass through or along the relevant instrument surface portion without revealing itself outwardly to the microphone.
With the present invention it is aimed at providing a pick-up system which distinguishes itself by such placeability and adjustability that in a simple manner both a possibility of a purely acoustic attenuation of the signal to be detected and a possibility of an adjustment to an optimized reproduction of the timbre of the instrument is achievable, and according to the invention this is achieved through the pick-up system comprising one or more microphones each designed with a circular cylindrical housing for frictionally fixed rotatable reception in a mounting hole in a selected part of the musical instrument, said housing comprising a piezoelectric transducer with diametrically oriented axis.
Hereby the microphone or microphones are placeable in narrow mounting holes in a relevant part of the instrument, whereby sound vibrations can be detected which are transmitted along the relevant surface portion in some main direction therein. As the microphone is rotatably mounted in the mounting hole an optimum angular position as the directional microphone may be empirically determined, whereby a required individual attenuation of the detected signal and/or an individual correction of the detected and reproduced timbre, respectively, will be achievable.
As the transducers are mounted in cylindrical holes, they may furthermore be adjusted with respect to their penetration depth into the holes, and also hereby an attenuation and/or timbre adjustment may be effected.
According to a main embodiment of the invention a transducer is situated immediately below each of the strings of the bridge of a stringed instrument, whereby it is possible to solve the problem of getting the signals from the individual strings suitably mutually attuned without applying electrical attenuation equipment. By their close contact with the bridge in the near fields of the respective strings the transducers may produce quite heavy output signals when they are oriented in the primary sound routes from the strings down along the bridge, while the same signals may be attenuated by the said purely mechanical adjustment of the orientation and mounting depth of the transducers. In the bridge also secondary vibrations occur as reflections from the timbre box and just this renders it possible for the transducers to also detect the timbre of the instrument
The mounting in the near field of the strings presents the advantage that it is predominantly the actual instrument sound that is detected while noise signals from e.g. the fingering at a fingerboard will only to a limited extent be transmitted to the transducers.
A pick-up system according to the invention can be construc
REFERENCES:
patent: 3325580 (1967-06-01), Barcus et al.
patent: 4147084 (1979-04-01), Underwood
patent: 4278000 (1981-07-01), Saito et al.
patent: 4378721 (1983-04-01), Kaneko et al.
patent: 4860625 (1989-08-01), Mathews
patent: 4867027 (1989-09-01), Barbera
Wilson Jorgen
Witkowski Stanley J.
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