JP5516764B2 - Electronic musical instruments - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument that reproduces the operational feeling of an acoustic musical instrument.

So far, various electronic keyboard instruments have been conceived that mimic the feel of an acoustic instrument, for example, an acoustic piano when a key is operated.
As a typical example, a load is applied when a key is depressed by providing a pseudo hammer arm interlocking with a key rotation operation below or behind each key.

Moreover, the structure of the key is partially changed as described in Patent Document 1, the interlocking mechanism between the key and the pseudo hammer arm is complicated as described in Patent Document 2, or as described in Patent Document 3. By providing a dedicated member, there may be a feeling that the load is suddenly lightened during the key press stroke, and a feeling of letting off (let off) or a click feeling is given.
Each of these simulates the operational feeling resulting from the structure of a stringing mechanism (consisting of a hammer, a jack, etc.) of an acoustic piano.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-289850 JP 07-168869 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-230770

However, in an acoustic piano, there are strings that are struck by the string-striking mechanism,
This string vibration is also transmitted to performance operators such as keys and pedals.
This string vibration is transmitted more strongly as the key-pressing operation is stronger, and the lower the sound is (the thicker the string is).
Those who are proficient in acoustic pianos can listen to the sound with their ears, measure the timing of key release and change the amount of pedal operation while sensing the vibration of the strings transmitted to the keys and pedals with their fingertips and toes. There are things to do.

However, this point was not taken care of in conventional electronic keyboard instruments, and the operation feeling of an acoustic piano could not be completely reproduced.
Therefore, there is a problem that a person who has played only an acoustic piano feels uncomfortable when he / she plays an electronic keyboard instrument for the first time and does not feel that he is playing the piano.
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to reproduce the operation feeling of an acoustic instrument typified by an acoustic piano very faithfully.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, in the invention described in claim 1 , in accordance with the performance operator that designates the pitch and instructs the generation of a musical tone of the pitch, the performance operator is responsive to the operation of the performance operator. A musical tone signal generating means for generating a musical tone signal having a pitch designated by the operating element and having at least an attack portion and a sustaining portion that follows, a vibration element for vibrating the performance operating device, and the performance When the pitch specified by the controller is higher than the predetermined pitch, the vibrating element is vibrated based only on the attack portion of the musical tone signal, and when the pitch is lower than the predetermined pitch, Control means for controlling the vibrating element to vibrate based on both the attack portion and the sustain portion.

The operation feeling of the acoustic musical instrument can be reproduced very faithfully, and the feeling of strangeness is not given to those who have played only the acoustic musical instrument.

1 is an external view showing a first embodiment of an electronic keyboard instrument to which the present invention is applied. It is an external view which shows 2nd Embodiment of the electronic keyboard musical instrument to which this invention is applied. It is an external appearance sectional view showing a 3rd embodiment of an electronic keyboard musical instrument to which the present invention is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of 3rd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the pronunciation and vibration of 3rd Embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.
A. First Embodiment FIG. 1 is an external view of a first embodiment of an electronic keyboard instrument to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 1 (b) is a front external view, and FIG. 1 (a) is FIG. 1 (b). It is sectional drawing of AA in FIG.
The musical instrument main body 1 has a keyboard portion 2 composed of a plurality of white keys and black keys. In response to a player's key pressing operation on the keyboard portion 2, a musical tone signal having a pitch corresponding to the key pressing position is electrically generated. A built-in sound source is generated (not shown).

Leg plates 3 are attached to the longitudinal direction of the musical instrument main body 1, that is, the left and right ends in FIG. 1B, respectively, and the bottom plate 4 having a hollow portion at least in the center is attached to the lower ends of both leg plates 3. A plurality of pedals 5 are mounted on the central portion of the board 3, and the instrument 5 is electrically or mechanically connected to the instrument body 1 so that the operating state of the pedal 5 can be transmitted to the instrument body 1. Connected (not shown).

A first back plate 6 is attached to a portion surrounded by the instrument main body 1, the left and right leg plates 3 and the bottom plate 4. A predetermined amount is provided on the front side of the first back plate 6, that is, in the right direction in FIG. A second back plate 7 is attached with a gap.
Circular openings are formed in the left and right upper portions of the second back plate 7, and speakers 8 for emitting a musical sound signal generated by a sound source are attached to the openings.
A partition wall 10 is provided between the first back plate 6 and the second back plate 7 to form a duct 9 that connects the back surface of the speaker 8 and the rear end portion of the pedal 5.

When a performance is performed on the electronic keyboard instrument configured as described above, a musical tone signal generated by the sound source is amplified by an amplifier (not shown) and supplied to the speaker 8. The speaker 8 emits a musical sound from the player side, that is, in the right direction in FIG. The musical sound emitted from the back surface of the speaker 8 contains a lot of low-frequency components, and air vibrations of the low-frequency components pass through the duct 9 and the rear end of the pedal 5 (the left end in FIG. 1A).
Is transmitted to. The vibration transmitted to the rear end of the pedal 5 is the front end of the pedal 5 (FIG. 1A).
To the right of the player's foot).
Thereby, the performer can obtain a feeling as if the string vibration of the acoustic piano is transmitted to the pedal 5.

B. Second Embodiment FIG. 2 is an external view of a second embodiment of an electronic keyboard instrument to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 (b) is a top external view, and FIG. 2 (a) is FIG. 2 (b). It is sectional drawing of BB in FIG.
A rectangular opening facing upward is formed on the front side (right direction in FIG. 2) of the musical instrument case 11 of the musical instrument body 1, and a plurality of white keys and black keys are exposed from the opening. The keyboard part 2 is placed. Furthermore, the musical instrument main body 1 has a built-in sound source that electrically generates a musical tone signal having a pitch corresponding to the key pressing position in response to a player's key pressing operation on the keyboard unit 2 (not shown). .

Circular openings are formed at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the upper surface plate 12 located on the back side (left direction in FIG. 2) of the musical instrument case 11, and a musical tone signal generated by a sound source is emitted to the openings. Speakers 8 for sounding are respectively attached.
A partition wall 10 is provided between the upper surface plate 12 and the lower surface plate 13 of the musical instrument case 11 to form a duct 9 that connects the rear surface of the speaker 8 and the rear end portion of the keyboard portion 2.

When a performance is performed on the electronic keyboard instrument configured as described above, a musical tone signal generated by the sound source is amplified by an amplifier (not shown) and supplied to the speaker 8. The speaker 8 emits a musical sound upward and simultaneously emits a musical sound from the back. The musical sound emitted from the back surface of the speaker 8 contains a lot of low-frequency components, and air vibrations of the low-frequency components pass through the duct 9 to the rear end portion (the left end in FIG. 2 (a)) of the keyboard portion 2. Communicated. Then, the vibration transmitted to the rear end portion of the keyboard portion 2 is transmitted to the front end portion (the right end in FIG. 2A) of the keyboard portion 2 and further to the fingertip of the performer.
Thereby, the performer can obtain a feeling as if the string vibration of the acoustic piano is transmitted to the keyboard unit 2.

C. Third Embodiment FIG. 3 is an external cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of an electronic keyboard instrument to which the present invention is applied.
Similar to the first embodiment described above, the musical instrument main body 1 has a keyboard portion 2, and a pedal 5 is placed below the keyboard portion 2. A vibration element 14 that vibrates in response to a musical tone signal from a sound source (not shown) is attached to the rear end portion (left end in FIG. 3) of the keyboard portion 2 and the pedal 5.
The vibration element 14 may be any element as long as it is driven according to an electrical signal, such as a solenoid or a motor.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the third embodiment.
The CPU 15 controls the entire operation of the electronic keyboard instrument, and the ROM 16 is the CPU 15
A program for operating the sound, a musical sound waveform processed by a sound source to be described later, original data of an envelope waveform, and the like are stored, and the RAM 17 temporarily stores data when the CPU 15 operates.
The performance operator is composed of the keyboard section 2 and the pedal 5, and the sound source 18 is R according to the operation of the performance operator.
The CPU 1 uses the original data of the musical sound waveform and envelope waveform read from the OM 16.
A musical tone signal is electrically generated in accordance with the instruction of No. 5. Since the operation of the musical tone signal generation by the sound source 18 is a well-known method, a detailed description thereof is omitted. And these, CPU15, ROM16,
The RAM 17, the performance operator and the sound source 18 are connected via a bus line 19.

The musical sound signal from the sound source 18 is amplified by the amplifier 20 and then output from the speaker 8 and supplied to the drive circuit 21 for driving the vibration element 14.
Vibrates in response to a drive signal from the drive circuit 21.

When a key is depressed on the keyboard unit 2, the CPU 15 recognizes the position (pitch) of the depressed key and determines whether the depressed position is higher or lower than a predetermined position. This predetermined position separates the high and middle bass ranges of the keyboard unit 2 and may be a fixed value or may be set arbitrarily by the performer.
When the position of the depressed key is lower than the predetermined position, the CPU 15 instructs the sound source 18 to send all the generated musical sound signals to the drive circuit 21. As a result, the drive circuit 21
Sends a drive signal to the vibration element 14 in the entire section from the start of sound generation to the end of mute. On the other hand, when the position of the depressed key is higher than the predetermined position, the sound source 18 is instructed to send only a part of the generated musical sound signal to the drive circuit 21. Accordingly, the drive circuit 21 sends a drive signal to the vibration element 14 only in a part of the section from the start of sound generation to the end of mute.

This will be specifically described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 shows an envelope waveform of a general piano sound, with the vertical axis representing amplitude and the horizontal axis representing elapsed time.
At the beginning of sound generation by pressing the key, the amplitude suddenly rises immediately after hitting the string (attack part), then attenuates slightly (decay part) immediately after that, and then becomes stable (
(Sustain part), attenuated by key release operation, etc. (release part).

When the position of the depressed key is lower than the predetermined position, that is, in the middle / low range, the tone signal of the entire section from the attack part to the release part generated by the sound source 18 is supplied to the drive circuit 21. When the position of the pressed key is higher than the predetermined position, that is, in the high range, only the attack part and decay part of the musical sound signal generated by the sound source 18 are supplied to the drive circuit 21, and the sustain part and the release part are released. The musical tone signal of the part is not supplied to the drive circuit 21.
The reason for this construction is that the acoustic piano vibrates the keyboard part 2 and the pedal 5 immediately after the key is pressed regardless of the pitch of the musical tone, and then continues to vibrate the strings if the musical tone is a mid-low tone. This is because the vibration of the string is hardly transmitted to the keyboard unit 2 or the pedal 5 if it is transmitted to the pedal 2 or the pedal 5 and is a high tone.

When a performance is performed on the electronic keyboard instrument configured as described above, the musical tone signal generated by the sound source 18 is amplified by the amplifier 20 and supplied to the speaker 8 to be emitted. At the same time, in the performance in the middle / low range, the keyboard 2 and the pedal 5 vibrate during the sound emission period, and in the performance in the high range, the keyboard 2 and the pedal 5 vibrate only immediately after the start of the sound. It is transmitted to the fingertips and soles.
Thereby, the performer can obtain a feeling as if the string vibration of the acoustic piano is transmitted to the keyboard unit 2 and the pedal 5.

In the above description, the attack part and the decay part are supplied to the drive circuit 21 in the high sound range, but only the attack part may be provided.
Further, the amplitude of the envelope waveform is controlled based on the key depression strength at the time of the key depression, and the drive signal output from the drive circuit 21 is changed in accordance with the amplitude, whereby the magnitude of the vibration of the vibration element 14 is increased. If this is controlled, a realistic acoustic piano playing feel can be obtained.
Furthermore, if the magnitude of vibration is made different between the keyboard unit 2 and the pedal 5, a more realistic acoustic piano playing feel can be obtained.

Although the electronic keyboard instrument has been described so far, the present invention can also be applied to an electronic guitar or the like. In this case, if the neck portion or body portion of the electronic guitar is vibrated, the player can feel like an acoustic guitar.

2 Keyboard part 5 Pedal 6 1st back board 7 2nd back board 8 Speaker 9 Duct 10 Bulkhead 14 Vibration element 15 CPU
18 Sound source 21 Drive circuit__

Claims (1)

A performance operator for designating a pitch and instructing the generation of a musical tone of the pitch;
In response to the operation of the performance operator, a musical sound signal generating means for generating a musical sound signal having a pitch designated by the performance operator and having at least an attack portion and a sustain portion following the attack portion;
A vibrating element for vibrating the performance operator;
When the pitch specified by the performance operator is higher than a predetermined pitch, the vibrating element is vibrated based only on the attack portion of the musical tone signal, and when the pitch is lower than the predetermined pitch, An electronic musical instrument comprising: control means for controlling the vibration element to vibrate based on both an attack portion and a sustain portion of a signal.

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