JP3427409B2 - Electronic musical instrument - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument in which a single-tone performance and a chord-based performance are mixed and played without any discomfort.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, an electronic musical instrument is capable of producing a single tone and simultaneously producing a plurality of tones, that is, playing a chord (hereinafter referred to as a chord performance). When playing chords in this kind of electronic musical instrument, the notes forming each chord (hereinafter referred to as chord constituent notes) are formed into musical tones with different pitches based on the same waveform, and these musical tones are simply overlapped. I try to pronounce chords.

[0003]

By the way, the chord constituent tones formed by the above-mentioned conventional electronic musical instrument are formed based on the same waveforms as the musical tones when they are played as single notes. For this reason, a sound created to have a presence when it is pronounced as a single note, when pronounced as a chord, does not blend well with the other chord constituent tones, and the sound does not resonate. It was On the other hand, the sound created to blend well with other constituent sounds when pronounced as a chord had no presence and was unsatisfactory when pronounced as a single note. Furthermore, when a chord performance and a single-tone performance (hereinafter referred to as a single-tone performance) are mixed in a conventional electronic musical instrument, the volume of the chord performance is higher than that of the single-tone performance due to the overlapping of the sounds. As a result, there is a problem that timbre (or volume) disparity occurs between single notes and chords, and that notes do not connect smoothly.

The present invention has been made under such a background, and an object thereof is to obtain optimum musical tones even when a single note performance and a chord performance are mixed. Another object of the present invention in another aspect is to provide an electronic musical instrument capable of smoothly connecting sounds even when a single note performance and a chord performance are mixed.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

Further, the invention according to claim 1, as well as generating a tone corresponding to one sound generation instruction to generate the musical tone corresponding to each of the plurality of sound generation instruction, simultaneously a plurality of tone generation It is a means of distinguishing between chord performance and single note performance in an electronic musical instrument capable of
By allowing a timing deviation for a predetermined period even if there is only one sounding instruction, the identification means for identifying a substantial chord performance and the volume generated based on the identification result of the identification means are suppressed during the chord performance. It is characterized by comprising a control means for controlling.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, one musical tone is generated in response to one sounding instruction, and a musical tone is generated in response to each of a plurality of sounding instructions, and a plurality of musical sounds are simultaneously generated. In an electronic musical instrument capable of playing, it is a means for discriminating between chord performance and single-tone performance, and even if a plurality of musical tones are simultaneously generated, it is substantially based on the pitch difference between the musical tones that are being produced. Identifying means for distinguishing a chord performance that forms harmony from a chord performance that does not substantially form harmony, and in the case of a chord performance that does not substantially form harmony, as a single tone performance, and the identifying means And a control means for controlling the volume generated based on the identification result of 1.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, one tone is generated in response to one sounding instruction, and a tone is generated in response to each of the plurality of sounding instructions, and at the same time, a plurality of tone sounds are generated. In an electronic musical instrument equipped with a sound source means capable of performing a chord, a discriminating means for discriminating between playing a chord and a single note, and when the discriminant result of the discriminating means is a chord, a tone color set for the chord is produced. A tone color instruction means for instructing the sound source means to instruct the sound source means to sound with a tone color set for a single tone when the identification result of the identification means is a single tone, and a tone color for the single tone in the sound source means When a tone with a chord is instructed to be played with a tone, the tone of a tone that has already been pronounced with a single tone is gradually changed to a tone with a chord. Equipped with transformation means It is characterized in Rukoto.

[0009]

[0010]

[Action]

According to the first aspect of the invention, since the discrimination means discriminates by allowing the timing deviation of the sounding instruction, it is possible to discriminate a substantial chord and a substantial single tone. When the chord is being played based on the identification result, the entire volume may increase. Therefore, the control unit can control the volume so as to optimize the volume.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the identifying means forms the harmony substantially and the one which substantially forms the harmony based on the pitch difference of the musical tones generated at the same time. It is possible to distinguish those that do not form a harmony by distinguishing those that do not form a harmony. When the chord is being played based on the identification result, the entire volume may increase. Therefore, the control unit can control the volume so as to optimize the volume.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the identifying means identifies whether the chord performance or the single note performance. If it is identified as a chord performance, the tone color instructing means instructs the sound source means to produce a tone color for the chord, and if it is identified as a single tone performance, the tone color instructing means instructs the sound source means to produce a single tone. Instruct to sound in tone. In addition, if the pronunciation of a chord tone is instructed while a tone is already being generated for a single tone, the gradual change means changes the tone color of the tone already produced by the single tone. The timbre is gradually changed to a chord timbre.

[0014]

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A: First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an electronic musical instrument according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, 1 is a keyboard. Reference numeral 2 denotes a keyboard detection circuit, which detects a key pressing operation on each key of the keyboard 1 and outputs a detection signal corresponding to the key pressing operation.

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 3 controls each part of the electronic musical instrument connected via the bus 12. Details of the operation of the CPU 3 will be described later. 4 is a ROM (read-only memory), which is a CPU
The control program executed by 3 is stored. 5 is RAM
It is a (readable / writable memory) and stores various calculation results by the CPU 3, register values, and the like.

Next, 6 is a panel switch. The panel switch 6 is composed of a switch group for setting various operation modes. Reference numeral 7 denotes a panel detection circuit, which detects an operation on each switch of the panel switch 6 and outputs a detection signal corresponding to the operation. Also, 8 is MIDI
A (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) interface, which controls transmission / reception of MIDI signals to / from an external MIDI device connected to this electronic musical instrument.

Further, 9 is a PCM (Pulse Code Modulat).
ion) method is a sound source circuit. The tone generator circuit 9 has a plurality of tone generation channels and is capable of simultaneously producing a plurality of tones by time division or the like. In addition to the key-on / key-off signal and the key code signal supplied from the CPU 3, the tone color, etc. Generates tone signals according to various tone control signals. Reference numeral 10 denotes a D / A (digital / analog) converter, which converts a digital musical tone signal supplied from the tone generator circuit 9 into an analog signal and outputs the analog signal. Reference numeral 11 denotes a sound system, which performs filtering processing such as noise removal on the analog musical tone signal converted by the D / A converter 10 and then amplifies the signal to produce it as a musical tone from a speaker.

Next, the operation of the embodiment having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, when the power is turned on, the CPU 3 loads the control program from the ROM 4. Then, the tone color control routine shown in FIG. 2 is activated, and the process proceeds to step Sa1. In step Sa1, after performing various initial setting processes, each key on the keyboard 1 is scanned to determine whether or not there is a key-on event.

If there is no key-on event, the result of this determination is "No", and the determination in step Sa1 is performed again. That is, step Sa1 is repeatedly executed until there is a key-on event.

When there is a key-on event,
The determination result of step Sa1 is “Yes”, and the process proceeds to step Sa2. In step Sa2, time counting of the time interval until the next key-on event occurs is started.
Then, when the process proceeds to step Sa3, the elapsed time when the time measurement is started in step Sa2 when the last key-on event occurs, that is, the time interval between the last key-on event and the current key-on event is a predetermined time T (for example, 10 m).
It is longer than (about s).

If the time interval between the previous key-on event and the current key-on event is longer than the predetermined time T, the result of this judgment is "Yes", and step Sa4
Proceed to. In step Sa4, the current key-on event is regarded as a sounding instruction with a single tone. However, in reality, when the time interval between the current key-on event and the next key-on event is longer than the time T, it is determined that the current key-on event is a single note for the first time. It will be. Then, if the time interval from the next key-on event is longer than the time T, the tone color number of the tone color corresponding to the single tone is supplied to the tone generator circuit 9 to instruct the tone generation. As a result, the tone generator circuit 9 synthesizes the tone signals based on the parameter values preset so that the tone color is suitable for a single tone, and the sound system 11 produces a sound. On the other hand, if there is a next key-on event within the time T, it is sounded as a chord in step Sa6 described later. Then, the processing of the CPU 3 is step S
Returning to a1, the above operation is repeated.

On the other hand, if the time interval between the previous key-on event and the current key-on event is shorter than the predetermined time T in step Sa3, the determination result here is "No", and the process proceeds to step Sa5. Step Sa
In step 5, it is determined whether or not the scale difference between the key key-on this time and the key key-on last time is within K degrees (for example, 7 degrees). That is, here, even if there is a key-on event at almost the same time, it is a chord that substantially forms harmony, or the scale difference is too large and does not substantially form harmony. It is determined whether it is sound.

Here, when the scale difference is within K degrees,
The determination result of step Sa5 is "Yes", and the process proceeds to step Sa6. In step Sa6, the previous and current key-on events are regarded as chords, and the tone color numbers of the tone colors corresponding to the chords are supplied to the tone generator circuit 9 to instruct the tone generation. As a result, in the tone generator circuit 9, the musical tone signals are synthesized based on the parameter values set in advance so that the tone color is suitable for the chord, and the sound system 11 produces the sound. Here, the sound corresponding to the previous key-on event is
When the chord is pronounced together with the key-on event of the last two times, it is not necessary to pronounce the previous key-on event again. Then, the processing of the CPU 3 returns to step Sa1 and repeats the above operation.

On the other hand, in step Sa5, when the scale difference is K degrees or more, the determination result here is "N".
Then, the process proceeds to step Sa4 described above. Step S
At a4, as described above, the key-on events of the previous time and the current time are regarded as the pronunciation instruction by the single tone, and thereby, the tone color suitable for the single tone is produced.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, whether or not the sound instructed to be pronounced is a chord is discriminated based on the interval between adjacent key-on events and their pitch difference, and the discrimination result is determined according to the discrimination result. To control the timbre during pronunciation. In this case, as described above, in order to determine that the key-on event of this time is the sounding instruction by the single note performance, it is a condition that the time interval from the next key-on event is the predetermined time T or more. Therefore, in the single-tone performance, as shown in FIG. 3, there is a delay of a predetermined time T from when there is a key-on event until the actual sound generation. The delay in pronunciation at this time is 1 for the time T.
If it is set to about 0 ms, it does not matter much to the performer. Actually, as is often the case when beginners play, chords may not be played exactly at the same time, so it is possible to allow timing deviations and judge the actual chord performance to be a single note performance. I try not to do it.

On the other hand, in the chord performance, as shown in FIG. 4, the first note N ₁ having the key-on event _first is the chord performance when the second note N _{2 having} the key-on event occurs next. Therefore, the start of sound generation is delayed by the time interval t of the key-on event of the first sound N ₁ and the second sound N ₂ . Then, the sound after the second sound N ₂ ,
Since it is possible to identify N ₃ , ... As the constituent tones of the chord when each key-on event occurs, it is possible to start sounding immediately after the key-on event.

B: Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In addition,
Since the hardware configuration of this embodiment is similar to that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the description thereof will be omitted and the same reference numerals will be used for common parts.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. First, when the device is powered on, the CPU 3 loads the control program from the ROM 4. Then, the tone color control routine shown in FIG. 5 is activated, and the process proceeds to step Sb1. In step Sb1, after performing various kinds of initial setting processing, each key of the keyboard 1 is scanned to determine whether or not there is a key-on event.

If there is no key-on event, the result of this judgment is "No", and the judgment in step Sb1 is carried out again. That is, step Sb1 is repeatedly executed until there is a key-on event.

If there is a key-on event,
The determination result of step Sb1 becomes "Yes", and the process proceeds to step Sb2. In step Sb2, it is determined whether or not there is a sound currently being sounded. Here, the method of determining that the sound is being generated may be a method of monitoring key-off,
Alternatively, the tone generation state of the tone generator circuit 9 may be directly checked.

If there is a sound currently being sounded, the result of this judgment is "Yes", and the routine proceeds to step Sb3.
In step Sb3, the current key-on event is regarded as a sounding instruction with a chord, and a tone color waveform corresponding to the chord is supplied to the tone generator circuit 9. In addition, when the sound currently being pronounced is pronounced as a single tone, these tones are also switched to the chord tones, so that the waveform of the tone color corresponding to the chord is output to the sounding channel of the tone generator circuit 9 that is producing the sound. As a result, all the sounds being sounded, including the sound corresponding to the current key-on event, are sounded in a tone color suitable for the chord. Then, the process of the CPU 3 returns to step Sb1 to repeat the above operation.

On the other hand, in step Sb2, if there is no sound currently being sounded, the determination result here is "No", and the process proceeds to step Sb4. In step Sb4, the key-on event this time is regarded as a pronunciation instruction by a single note,
A tone color waveform corresponding to a single tone is supplied to the tone generator circuit 9. As a result, sound is produced with a tone color suitable for a single note. Then, the process of the CPU 3 returns to step Sb1 to repeat the above operation.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is determined whether or not the key-on event is a chord performance depending on whether or not there is a sound being sounded when the key-on event occurs. In the case of a chord performance, the sound corresponding to the key-on event is pronounced in the chord tone color, and if the note that was being played up to that point is pronounced in the single tone color, the chord is played. Control to switch to the tone of. In addition, when changing the sound being sounded to a chord tones in this way, it is possible to change the sound tones unnaturally by controlling the tone to be changed gradually from a single tone to a chord tone. Can be avoided. In this case, each parameter value of the tone color program for a single tone may be gradually changed to each parameter value of the tone color program for a chord in about 10 ms. Alternatively, a new chord sound may be generated and replaced with a single sound by crossfading in a time of about 10 ms.

C: Modification In the above-described first and second embodiments, if the tone thickness is changed with tone colors similar to each other, no unnaturalness occurs during performance. For example, when playing a single note, a tone with a thick (thick) tone is used to produce a strong presence, while a chord is played with a relatively thin (thin) tone so that it blends with the other chord components. do it. Further, not limited to such tone color setting, completely different tone colors (for example, brass and strings) may be set for a single tone and a chord, and another effect may be produced in the performance.

Further, the sound source circuit 9 is not limited to the PCM system, and other systems such as an FM (Frequency Modulation) system may be adopted. Depending on the method of the tone generator circuit 9, for example, the following tone color control methods are possible. (1) When the PCM method is adopted for the tone generator circuit 9: Different waveforms are read from the waveform memory for a single tone and a chord. The same waveform is always used as the waveform read from the waveform memory. However, after the waveform is read, the processing method using a filter or the like is different between a single tone and a chord. For example, in the case of a single tone, the read waveform is output as is,
In the case of a chord, the read waveform is passed through an HPF (high pass filter) to slightly cut the bass component (fundamental tone). In this case, the characteristics of the HPF may be controlled according to the pitch of the musical sound. (2) When the FM method is adopted for the tone generator circuit 9, the modulation degree is controlled to be small for a single tone and to be large for a chord.

Further, in the first and second embodiments, the tone color is made different between the single tone and the chord, but not limited to the tone color, it is also possible to make the volume different. In other words, in the case of chord performance, the overall volume may be raised because multiple notes are sounded at the same time. In this case, if the volume of each constituent sound is suppressed a little, the volume balance between single-note performance and chord performance may be increased. Will get better. Also, the reverberation amount may be changed for chords and for single notes to adjust the reverberation. Further, for example, a wave guide disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-40199 may be used to cause unique resonance in chords, which is different from that in a single note.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to play single notes and chords in the optimum musical tone mode. At this time, the player only performs a normal performance, and the electronic musical instrument of the present invention discriminates and controls the single-tone performance and the chord performance, so that the player is not burdened with a new load. In addition, it is possible to eliminate the difference in volume generated between a single note and a chord, and thus it is possible to smoothly connect the sounds even when the single note performance and the chord performance are mixed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic musical instrument according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a tone color control routine of a control program executed by a CPU in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a time chart showing sound generation timing during a single note performance in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a time chart showing a sound generation timing when a chord is played in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a tone color control routine of a control program executed by a CPU in the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... keyboard, 2 ... keyboard detection circuit, 3 ... CPU, 4 ...
... ROM, 5 ... RAM, 6 ... Panel switch, 7 ...
... Panel detection circuit, 8 ... MIDI interface, 9
...... Sound source circuit, 10 ...... D / A converter, 11 ...... Sound system, 12 ... Bus

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G10H 1/18 G10H 1/38 G10H 1/46

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electronic musical instrument capable of generating one musical tone in response to one pronunciation instruction and simultaneously generating a musical tone in response to each of a plurality of pronunciation instructions and simultaneously producing a plurality of musical tones. A means for identifying whether the performance is a single note or a performance, and for identifying a substantial chord performance by allowing a timing deviation for a predetermined period even if there is only one sounding instruction at a predetermined moment; An electronic musical instrument comprising: a control unit for controlling a volume generated based on the identification result of the identification unit so as to suppress the volume when a chord is played. 2. An electronic musical instrument capable of generating one musical tone corresponding to one pronunciation instruction and simultaneously generating a musical tone corresponding to each of a plurality of pronunciation instructions and simultaneously producing a plurality of musical tones. It is a means for distinguishing between playing and single-tone playing, and even if a plurality of musical tones are simultaneously generated, it is a chord playing that substantially forms harmony based on the pitch difference between the sounding tones. And a chord performance that does not form harmony, and in the case of a chord performance that does not substantially form harmony, a discrimination means for discriminating as a single note performance, and a discrimination result generated by the discrimination means. An electronic musical instrument comprising: a control unit that controls the volume of the sound to be suppressed when playing a chord. 3. A sound source means is provided which generates one musical tone in response to one pronunciation instruction, generates a musical tone corresponding to each of a plurality of pronunciation instructions, and is capable of simultaneously producing a plurality of musical sounds. In the electronic musical instrument, identification means for identifying whether a chord performance or a single note performance, and when the identification result of the identification means is a chord, instructing the tone generator means to produce a tone color set for the chord,
When the discrimination result of the discriminating means is a single tone, a tone color instructing means for instructing the sound source means to sound in a tone color set for a single tone, and a tone is already generated in the tone color for the single tone in the sound source means. And a gradual change means for gradually changing the tone color of a musical tone that has already been pronounced with a single tone color to a chord tone color when instructed to generate a tone color for a chord An electronic musical instrument characterized by that.