JPH0456995A - Electronic keyboard instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To selectively control only the touch feeling of a pushed key in response to pushing the key by providing a key operation detecting means for detecting each key operation of plural keys and a touch control means to apply force upon the key so as to control the touch feeling of the key based on the output signal of the key operation detecting means. CONSTITUTION:The position of the key 1 is detected by a position sensor 3, and the detection signal of the position sensor 3 is supplied to a threshold deciding part 11, and is compared with a threshold, and a monitor signal 15 is generated. This monitor signal 15 is supplied to the touch control part 12, and the touch control part 12 supplies a control signal for controlling the key 1 to a drive circuit 13. The drive circuit 13 supplies a desired control signal based on the control signal to a solenoid 7. Accordingly, unnecessary control for many non-pushed keys can be prevented, and power saving can be realized. Thus, the desired touch feeling control can be executed as preventing excessive current consumption.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an electronic keyboard instrument, and more particularly to an electronic keyboard instrument having a keyboard with controlled characteristics.

[Prior Art] The keyboard of a natural musical instrument such as a piano has a fairly complex mechanical structure and is large in size. In electronic keyboard instruments, there is no need to move hammers or the like on the keyboard; it is sufficient to specify and generate parameters used to control musical tone signals, such as pitch and key pressing speed.

The pitch is determined by the key position, and the key pressing speed is determined by, for example, a two-make switch. Therefore, the mechanical structure of the keyboard of an electronic musical instrument is usually greatly simplified compared to that of a natural musical instrument. For example, a piano key has an invisible part that is about the same length as the part that can be seen from the outside, and has several additional mechanisms behind it, whereas the key of an electronic musical instrument has a part that is visible from the outside. is the main part. Furthermore, while piano keys are made of a solid material, keys of electronic musical instruments are usually made of hollow plastic.

A keyboard with such a simple structure produces a touch feeling different from that of a keyboard of a natural musical instrument.

There are ideas for improving the touch feel of electronic musical instrument keyboards. For example, a technical concept has been proposed in which keyboard touch data is fed back to the keyboard.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] One method for controlling the touch feel of a keyboard is to attach a magnet to each key, combine an electromagnet with a magnetic pole near the magnet, and apply a current to the solenoid of the electromagnet to generate attraction or repulsion. It would be a way to generate power.

In order to achieve the desired touch sensation control and to keep power consumption reasonable, each key on the keyboard should be equipped with a sensor, etc., to detect when a key is operated (pressed). A control current will be passed through the solenoids associated with the keys. In this case, if many keys are played at the same time, many solenoids associated with those keys will be connected to the power supply in parallel at the same time, and a huge amount of power will be generated. This will require electricity.

When you hit a key on the A board hard, not only the pressed key but the other keys also vibrate. Then, even if the key is not pressed, the sensor detects vibrations and tries to send current to the solenoid. Therefore, when you hit the key hard, a huge amount of current flows.

When a large current flows, not only does power consumption increase, but also the power supply voltage may drop due to internal resistance of the power supply.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic keyboard instrument that can selectively control only the touch feeling of a pressed key in response to a pressed key.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention includes a keyboard including a plurality of keys for performing performance operations by specifying pitches, and a keyboard for detecting key operations of each of the plurality of keys. and a touch control means for applying force to the key to control the touch feeling of the key based on the output signal of the key operation detection means.

[Based on the output signal from the key operation detection means that detects the operation of the active key, the operated key is detected and the touch control of that key is performed, so the touch feeling of only the pressed key is controlled. . Therefore, unnecessary control corresponding to many keys that are not pressed can be prevented, and power saving can be realized.

[Embodiment] FIGS. 1(A), (B), and (C) show the key control portion of an electronic musical instrument according to an embodiment of the present invention. A key 1 of an electronic keyboard instrument is supported by a fulcrum 2 and is A magnet 4 is provided at the end opposite to the part where the performance is operated.

An electromagnet 6 is arranged to face this magnet 4. ! The magnet 6 includes a solenoid 7 and a yoke 8. Magnetic flux is generated by supplying direct current to the solenoid 7.
Depending on the direction of the direct current, either a repulsive force or an attractive force is generated against the key 1 provided with the magnet 4. The position of key 1 is determined by position sensor 3.
Detected in

The detection signal of the position sensor 3 is supplied to a threshold value determining section 11, where it is compared with a dark value and a monitor signal 15 is generated. This monitor signal 15 is supplied to the touch control section 12, and the touch control section 12 supplies a control signal for controlling the key 1 to the drive circuit 13. The drive circuit 13 supplies a desired control current to the solenoid 7 based on the control signal.

The function of this dark value determining section 11 is schematically shown in FIG. 1(B).

In Fig. 1(B), the horizontal axis shows the output voltage of the position sensor, and the vertical axis shows the monitor signal voltage.The output of the six position sensors shows the position of key 1.When the key starts to be pressed down, the position sensor Although an output voltage is generated, a position sensor output does not generate a monitor signal until the key is depressed a predetermined amount.

A monitor signal is generated when the key is depressed by more than a predetermined amount and the position sensor output voltage correspondingly exceeds the dark value.

After that, the monitor signal voltage is almost the same! It is formed in a proportional relationship to the sensor output voltage.

The touch control unit 12 that has received the monitor signal 15 supplies a control signal to the drive circuit 13 in response to the monitor signal to achieve a desired touch feeling.

The drive circuit 13 outputs a current to drive the solenoid 7 based on a control signal from the touch control section. Note that the threshold value is set to be sufficiently higher than the noise voltage generated in the first sensor output due to vibrations generated in other keys when a key is strongly struck.

FIG. 1C shows signal waveforms of the position sensor output and monitor signal based on the key press operation. As the key press operation begins and the key 1 is depressed, the position sensor output increases the signal voltage. The monitor signal is formed approximately corresponding to the position sensor output after the position sensor output increases to the dark value voltage.When the 0M key is operated, the position 1 sensor output generates an output voltage corresponding to the key release operation. However, when the position sensor output drops to the threshold voltage, the monitor signal is abruptly cut off and becomes zero.

By using a key control mechanism as shown in Figure 1,
Even if other keys vibrate when a key is hit hard, the position sensor output due to the vibration is ignored, thereby preventing excessive current from flowing.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the key control is activated when the key is depressed beyond a certain depth.

However, when the key is pushed down to its deepest position,
The key almost stops movement. While this key is almost stationary,
A predetermined reaction force is generated.

FIG. 2 shows an electronic keyboard instrument according to another embodiment of the present invention, including a key 1 of the keyboard, a fulcrum 2 of the key, a position sensor 3, a magnet 4,
The electromagnet 6 is equivalent to that shown in FIG. 1(A). The output of the position sensor 3 that detects the position of the keys on the keyboard is
The signal is supplied to the touch control section 20 and the threshold value determination section 21 . The touch control unit 20 generates touch data T based on the position of the key.
D. Output M# flaw signal for #I11# touch feeling.

The threshold value determination unit 21 compares the input signal with several threshold values, and based on the comparison result, controls the control enable signal CE.
, a key-on signal KON, etc.

Figure 3 shows the displacement of the keys on the keyboard and the touch enable signal CB.
, shows the waveform of the key-on signal KOH, when the key on the keyboard is 2nd and 3rd.
Assume that a key press operation is performed as shown in the upper part of the figure. The displacement amounts L1 and L2 of the keys on the keyboard represent two threshold values for a key press operation, and the displacement amounts L3 and L4 represent two threshold values for a key release operation.

The control enable signal shown in the middle part of FIG. 3 is a signal that extracts the main parts where the key is displaced in each key press operation and key release operation, and forms a signal for enabling touch control during the key press operation and key release operation. That is, the displacement of the key exceeds Ll and L2
CE remains at a high level until it reaches . In addition, in the key release operation, after the key exceeds L3 until it reaches L4,
CE will be at a high level. That is, in a key press operation, a shallow displacement of L1 or lower is ignored, and in a key release operation, a shallow displacement of L4 or lower is ignored, thereby eliminating noise components based on other key operations. In addition, a displacement of 2 or more after a key press operation and a displacement up to L3 after a key release operation are considered to be the same as the state in which the key is held in the deepest position.In other words, when the key is kept being pressed, touch control is disabled. Simplified so that a constant reaction force is obtained.

Therefore, it is also possible to save on flow consumption. The key-on signal KON is continuously generated until the key exceeds the Ll level when the key is pressed and falls below the L4 level when the key is released, forming a signal that enables musical tone generation. That is, while KON is at a high level, this is essentially a period in which musical tones are generated. This key-on signal KON is supplied to the gate 22, and while the key-on signal KON is at a high level, the touch control unit 20
The touch control signal provided by the touch control signal passes through the gate 22. The touch control signal passing through the gate 22 is transmitted to the drive circuit 2
3 and generates a current that drives the solenoid 7. At the beginning of key press operation and at the end of key release operation,
Since the key-on signal KON is at a low level, the gate 22 is in a closed state and the solenoid 7 is not driven. This prevents the solenoid from being driven unnecessarily and causing a large current to flow.

Note that the touch data TD from the touch control section 20 and the key-on signal KON from the threshold determination section 21 are sent to the key assigner 25, and used together with the pitch signal to prepare the sound generation channel. The musical tone signal subjected to channel processing by the key assigner 25 is sent to a sound source 26 to generate a musical tone.

Note that the touch control unit 12.20 in the above embodiment can perform various types of control as desired. For example, it is possible to achieve a touch feeling similar to that of a piano keyboard, which is a natural musical instrument, or to set an arbitrary touch feeling according to the player's preference.

An example of touch sensation control is shown in FIGS. 4(A) and 4(B).

FIG. 4(A) shows the repulsive force of the key felt by the finger.

The horizontal axis indicates time, that is, the envelope of this repulsive force provides a touch sensation. Based on the key press operation, a weak repulsive force is initially generated, and then from a certain depth, a repulsive force that rapidly increases depending on the strength of the key press is felt. fff indicates the fortissimo key press and corresponds to the strongest key press. mf stands for mezzo forte and corresponds to normal key pressing operations. P represents piano and corresponds to weak key press operations. As the key is pushed further from a certain depth, the repulsive force increases rapidly, and after passing the peak, the repulsive force rapidly decreases, returns a little, and then reaches a constant value.The peak of the 0 repulsive force is when the key is pressed. It corresponds to the strength. The decrease in repulsion of the peak value reflects the peak height. A constant repulsion force corresponds to the state in which the key is pushed to the deepest position. When the key is released, the repulsive force gradually decreases depending on the degree of key release.

FIG. 4(B) shows the waveform of the drive current that drives the solenoid.
Or a warm increasing current flows, creating a weak repulsive force. Eventually, when the key press reaches a certain depth, the drive current increases rapidly, generating a strong repulsive force on the key corresponding to the keys of a natural musical instrument, the piano. Subsequently, after the repulsive force has passed its peak in response to the "dropping" of the piano key, the drive current is rapidly reduced, representing inertial force. Following this, a suction force may be generated.

After generating the pseudo-inertia force in this way, a preset constant hold is applied in response to the deepest key press hold to provide an appropriate reaction force. When the key is released, as the key is released, a current flows corresponding to the key release speed to generate a return force so that the key returns to its original position.

To explain this in conjunction with Figure 3, in the region of small displacement until the displacement of the key exceeds Ll, the key is equivalent to being at rest, and the force is sufficient to hold the key and generate a certain repulsive force. A weak current is flowing. The displacement of the key is Ll
When the value exceeds , key press touch control is started. In response to this, a strong current corresponding to the key press operation is supplied as shown in FIG. 4(B), making the finger feel a strong repulsive force. When the key moves to a certain extent, the driving current is rapidly reduced so that an inertial force is generated in the key, and sometimes it is passed in the opposite direction to generate an attractive force, and the repulsive force is increased until the key displacement reaches L2. Control takes place. When the displacement of the key reaches L2, it is determined that the key has been pushed to the deepest position, and the touch sensation control is stopped. During this time, the 0M key operation begins, in which enough current is supplied to generate a certain repulsive force, and when the key displacement divides L3, ! f! Tazuchi IIJal is started and a rapidly increasing current is applied to create a return force on the key.

When the key moves to a certain extent based on the M key operation, an inertial force is generated in the key, so the solenoid drive current is correspondingly rapidly reduced. When the key release speed is too far, a strong return force is generated to speed up the return of the M board and enable fast performance operations. A slow return force is generated for the slow 1lli #1. When the displacement of the key is less than L4, the key is equivalently determined to be released, and the touch control ends. In this state, a weak current is applied to generate a constant weak repulsion force equivalent to that in the initial state.

The control of the repulsion force at the time of key depression and the control of the repulsion force at the time of 88 are executed in accordance with setting conditions such as the position, velocity, acceleration, and tone of the key, expressed in a table or by a certain arithmetic expression. When performing touch control, a control signal is generated based on these parameters by referring to a memory table or performing calculations.

In addition, level Ll for setting the dead zone when a key is pressed, level L4 for setting the dead zone when the key is released, and L2 and L3 for setting the state of key press and hold are used for tone specification, panel operation, etc. 0 can be made programmable by
The output of the position sensor is initial touch control,
It can also be used as a drive signal for aftertouch control, etc. If aftertouch is not used, the position sensor may consist of a switch that is activated at a certain depth of the key, and a signal that controls the gate on and off that supplies the touch control data of the touch control section to the drive circuit of the solenoid. In this example, the key-on signal formed by the threshold determination section is used, but the key-on signal for musical tone generation after channel assignment by the key assigner may be used as the gate control signal. In this case, the key-on signal is limited by the number of channels. Ru. Therefore, the number of driven solenoids is limited to a certain number or less based on the number of sound generation channels. Therefore, it is possible to further reduce the capacity of the solenoid driving power source.

When the keyboard is not pressed, it will fall if no force is applied to it, so a certain amount of holding force is required, but this force can be applied by solenoid current as mentioned above, but it can also be applied by other means. You can also give it as

For example, a spring, a weight, or a combination of these may be used.

Further, in this embodiment, a position sensor is used to detect the operated key, but a strain sensor, a temperature sensor, etc. may be provided on the surface of the key to detect the key operation.

In this case, power-saving touch control can be performed from the moment the key is touched, which is very effective.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to examples, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to these examples, and that, for example, various changes, improvements, combinations, etc. can be made.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, it is detected that a key on a keyboard has been operated, and touch control is performed only on that key. Consumption is carried out while preventing it.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1(A), (B), and (C> are sections for explaining an electronic keyboard instrument according to an embodiment of the present invention.
) is a block diagram showing the configuration, FIG. 1(B) is a graph for explaining the function of the threshold determination section, FIG. 1(C) is a graph showing the signal waveform of the control signal, and FIG. 2 is a graph showing the signal waveform of the control signal. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electronic keyboard instrument according to another embodiment; FIG. )
is a graph showing an example of touch sensation control, and FIG. 4 (A
) is a graph showing the repulsive force felt by the fingers when playing, Figure 4 (B
) is a graph showing the solenoid drive current. In the figure, E D Key fulcrum position sensor Magnet Electromagnet Solenoid Yoke Threshold determination section Touch control section Drive circuit Monitor signal Touch control section Threshold determination section Gate drive circuit Key assigner Sound source control enable signal Touch data KON Key-on signal

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) a keyboard including a plurality of keys for specifying pitches and performing performance operations; key operation detection means for detecting key operations on each of the plurality of keys; and the key operation detection means. an electronic keyboard instrument comprising: touch control means for applying force to the key to control the touch feel of the key based on an output signal. (2) An electronic keyboard according to claim 1, wherein the touch control means includes an electromagnet coupled to a key, and controls a drive current to the electromagnet in response to displacement within a predetermined range of a key press operation and a key release operation. musical instrument.