JPH09146546A - Electronic string musical instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To conduct a special playing such as a harmonics playing in an electronicmusical instrument which has no string in its fingering section. SOLUTION: The instrument is provided with a string touching detecting section 13 which detects the fact that plural strings provided in the fingering section are touched, high toner specifying switches 11 of a high tone detecting section 14 which are provided corresponding to the plural strings in the fingering section and a CPU 12. The CPU 12 generates normal playing high toner data if the section 11 are pressed down and the section 13 detects string touching. If the section 13 detects string touching within a controlled time limit from the release of the pressing of the switches 11, the CPU 12 generates the high tone data for a harmonics playing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic stringed instrument such as an electronic guitar and an electronic bass.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional electronic guitar, a plurality of strings are stretched between a tail piece of a main body (body) and a head of a fingerboard (neck). The vibration of the string is converted into an acoustic signal by the microphone by the fret operation of pressing the string with a finger and the string-playing operation of the string, and the sound is sent from the speaker after being amplified by the amplifier. In this case, the pitch is determined by the string vibration between the pressed fret and the tail piece or the string vibration of the unpressed open string. on the other hand,
In a special performance called Harmonics, you simply strike your finger on the string and play it without pressing it against the fret. In the case of such a harmonics playing method, an overtone of the pitch of the open string can be generated according to the position of the finger applied to the string. For example, if you put your finger on the position of 1/2 of the string length, in addition to the fundamental tone that causes the position to vibrate,
Even-numbered overtones at which the position becomes a node of vibration, especially double-tones, are emphasized and pronounced.

[0003]

By the way, in some of the electronic guitars developed in recent years, the strings are provided only on the plucked parts of the main body and the strings are not stretched on the fingerboard part. In such an electronic guitar, the string is for detecting whether or not the string is struck, and the pitch is not determined by the vibration when the string is struck. It is the pitch designating switch arranged on the fingerboard that determines the pitch. The pitch designating switch is provided on each of the frets corresponding to the number of strings. When playing, the pitch designating switch is pressed by the same operation as the fret operation of pressing the string on the fret, and the string is operated on the string provided on the main body.
Then, the pitch data of the string that is struck according to the pressed pitch switch is generated. By supplying this pitch data to the musical tone generating circuit, an actual acoustic signal is output from the musical tone generating circuit, amplified by the amplifier, and a sound is emitted from the speaker. However, with an electronic guitar that does not have strings on the fingerboard, it is not possible to put the fingers of the left hand on the strings,
There was a problem that special performances such as harmonics performance could not be performed. An object of the present invention is to enable a special performance such as a harmonics performance in an electronic musical instrument having no strings on the fingerboard.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there are provided a plurality of strings provided on a string part of a main body, a string detection part for detecting that the strings have been stringed, and a fingerboard part of the main body. A pitch designating switch provided on each of the plurality of frets corresponding to the plurality of strings, and a pitch of a normal playing style when the string detection unit detects a string when the pitch designating switch is pressed. The data generating means is provided with a data generating means for generating pitch data of the harmonic performance when the string detecting section detects a string within a predetermined time limit after pressing and releasing the pitch specification switch. Has become. With such a configuration, if the string operation is performed within the predetermined time limit after the pitch designating switch that was once pressed is released, the harmonics playing mode is entered and the pitch data of the overtone is To generate.

[0005]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION First to third embodiments of the electronic musical instrument of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 12 by taking an electronic guitar as an example. In the electronic guitars according to the first to third embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, a fingerboard portion (neck) 2 is attached to a body 1, and is provided at an end portion 3 of the fingerboard portion 2 and a central portion of the body 1. Six strings 5 between the tailpiece 4
Is stretched. A speaker 6 is attached inside the body 1, and a volume volume 7 for adjusting the volume and a tone color selection switch 8 are provided on the operation surface of the body 1. In addition, although not shown in the figure, various switches necessary for playing are provided. FRE on the surface of the fingerboard 2
Fifteen frets 9 of T (0) to FRET (14) are formed. Actual finger strings are not stretched on the fingerboard 2, but as shown in FIG. 2, STR (0) to
Six pseudo strings 10 of STR (5) are formed, and have a structure that bends by pressing like an actual string. Further, inside the fingerboard portion 2 on the lower side of the pseudo string 10, six rows of fingerboard switches 11 are provided for each of the 15 frets 9. Although not shown in the figure, each fingerboard switch 11 has a contact pattern formed on a printed circuit board embedded in the fingerboard section 2 and a conductive pattern that is provided close to the contact pattern and contacts the contact pattern by pressing. Composed of rubber and. Therefore, when an arbitrary pseudo string of an arbitrary fret is pressed, the conductive rubber on the lower side comes into contact with the contact pattern, so that the fingerboard switch 11 corresponding to the pseudo string of the pressed fret is turned on. As described above, the strings are not stretched on the fingerboard portion 2 of the electronic guitar, but the six strings 5 provided on the body 1 are STR corresponding to the pseudo strings 10.
The numbering from (0) to STR (5) allows the player to play this electronic guitar with the same feel as in the case of an actual string. When the string 5 vibrates due to the string,
This vibration is detected by a sensor (not shown) by a magnetic method or another method to detect a string.

As shown in FIG. 3, a circuit section having a CPU 12 as a control means at its core is provided inside the electronic guitar. That is, the CPU 12 is connected to the string detection unit 13, the pitch detection unit 14, the ROM 15, the RAM 16, the tone color selection switch 8, and the tone generation circuit 17. The speaker 6 is connected to the musical tone generating circuit 17 via an amplifier 18, and the amplifier 18 has a volume control section 19
Is connected. Next, the function of each unit will be described. The string detection unit 13 detects the vibration of the string 5 caused by the string by a sensor and inputs the string on / off data to the CPU 12. The pitch detection unit 14 forms a matrix switch of the fingerboard switch 11 with the fret number line KC and the string number line KI, and inputs ON / OFF data to the CPU 12 in response to the pressing operation of the fingerboard switch 11. CPU
12 is a string detection unit 13 based on the operation program,
The musical tone data created by the data input from the pitch detecting section 14 and the tone color selection switch 8 is output to the musical tone generating circuit 17. The musical tone generating circuit 17 generates an actual acoustic signal based on the musical tone data from the CPU 12 to generate an amplifier 18
To enter. The amplifier 18 amplifies this acoustic signal and gives it to the speaker 6 to send out sound. The volume control unit 19 changes the amplification factor of the amplifier 18 in accordance with the operation of the volume control 7 provided on the operation surface of the body 1, and the speaker 6
Controls the volume sent from.

Next, the configurations of the ROM 15 and the RAM 16 will be described. The ROM 15 stores an operation program executed by the CPU 12, an open string pitch table 20, and a harmonics addition pitch table 21. The RAM 16 is provided with a buffer area (not shown) for temporarily storing the data to be processed by the CPU 12, and also has a fret detection register 22, a fret change detection register 23, a harmonic fret area 24, and a harmonic timer. 25 are provided. The table of the ROM 15 and the registers of the RAM 16 will be described later.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the main flow of FIG. 4, detection of the tone color selection switch 8 and other switches (step S1), detection of the pressed fret on the fingerboard portion 2 (step S2), and detection of the string 5 string (step S3) are performed. Sound control is performed according to the result (step S
4). As shown in FIG. 5, the pressed fret detection in step S2 is performed on the fret number line K with respect to the pitch detection unit 14.
An output signal is sent from C to take in the data of the input signal from the string number line KI (step S11). The highest pressed fret of all strings is detected from the captured data, and as shown in FIG. 6A, the string number i (i = 0 to 5) is used as an address in the fret detection register 22 of the RAM 16 to press the selected fret. Highest fret number data Ne
The wFret (i) is stored (step S12). In this case, the fret change register 23 of the RAM 16 stores the data OldFret (i) of the highest pressed fret number detected in the previous KI input data fetching, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (B), the string number i is stored as an address.

Next, the string number i is set to "0" (step S13), and NewFret (i) and OldFret are incremented while sequentially increasing the string number i from the first string.
It is determined whether or not (i) is the same (step S1)
4). If they are not the same, OldFret (i)
The fret register 24 for harmonics of RAM16
As shown in FIG. 6 (C), OldFret (i) is stored as HarmFret (i) with the string number i as an address (step S15). And NewFre
t (i) is stored in the fret change detection register 23 as OldFret (i) and updated (step S1).
6). Next, the data New of the fret detection register 22
It is determined whether or not Fret (i) is release data, that is, whether or not the pressed fret is released (step S17). If it is release data, if it is currently sounding, the sounding is turned off (step S18), and FIG.
In the timer register 25 for harmonics of the RAM 16 shown in (D), the HarmTimer of the string number i
LimitTime, which is the time limit, is stored in (i) (step S19). On the other hand, in step S17,
If NewFret (i) is not release data, the pitch is changed, that is, the pitch being sounded is changed if the tone is being sounded at present (step S20), and HarmTimer of the harmonic timer register 25 shown in FIG.
(I) is reset (step S21). Next, the string number i is incremented by "1" (step S2
2), it is determined whether i exceeds "5" (step S23). If i does not exceed "5", the process proceeds to step S14, and the processes of steps S14 to S23 are repeatedly executed until i becomes a value exceeding "5", and i is "5". When it exceeds, the process returns to the main flow.

As shown in FIG. 7, the string detection in step S3 of the main flow inputs the vibration of the string 5 from the sensor and stores the data in the RAM 16 (step S3).
1). Next, the string number i is designated as "0" (step S
32), while incrementing i, it is determined whether or not the string of the number i has been plucked (step S33). When a string is struck, HarmTimer (i) of the timer register 25 for harmonics shown in FIG. 6D is "0".
It is determined whether or not (step S34). Harm
The value of Timer (i) is decremented by a timer interrupt process by an interrupt every fixed time, for example, 5 ms. FIG. 8 shows the processing of this timer interrupt. When an interrupt is received, the string number i is designated as "0", and while incrementing i, Ha of the harmonics timer register 25 for the designated string number i is incremented.
It is determined whether rmTimer (i) is "0" (step S42). HarmT if not "0"
Decrement the imager (i) by "1" (step S43) and move to step S44, and if it is "0", move to step S44 without decrementing. In step S44, the value of i is incremented by "1". Next, it is determined whether or not the value of i exceeds "5" (step S45), and if it is equal to or less than "5", the process proceeds to step S42 and each process up to step S45 is performed. Therefore, when the timer interrupt process occurs every 5 ms, the LimitTime is "10".
Then, the time from when HarmTimer is set to when it reaches “0” is 50 ms. In step S45, if the value of i exceeds "5", the timer interrupt processing for all strings is completed, and the process returns to the flow of FIG.

In step S34 of FIG. 7, Harm
NewFr when Timer (i) is “0”
The tone generation on process for the normal tone color is performed at the fret pitch of et (i) (step S35). On the other hand, when HarmTimer (i) is not "0" in step S34, the harmonics addition pitch table 2 of the ROM 15 is set.
Data HarmFret of the string number i in 1
It is determined whether (i) is "0" (step S36).
The open string pitch table 20 of the ROM 15 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (A), open pitch data OpenPitch (i) is stored for each string number i. Also,
The harmonics addition pitch table 21 has an OpenPitch for each string number i when the harmonics are played.
The addition data HarmFret (i) to be added to (i) is stored. This addition data is key code data representing a pitch difference from the pitch of the open string. in this case,
The fret that the performer does not use as much as possible in the conventional electronic guitar harmonics performance stores "0", which means a pronunciation prohibition code.

In step S36 of FIG. 7, HarmFret of the harmonics addition pitch table 21.
If (i) is not "0", that is, it is not a pronunciation prohibition code, OpenPitch (i) contains HarmFr.
et (i) is added, and the tone-on processing for the harmonic tones is performed with the added pitch data (step S3).
7). For example, when the plucked string is the sixth string (i = 5), the pitch of OpenPitch (5) of this string is "E2" as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 9B, the overtone to be generated is determined according to the fret number. That is, when the pressed fret number is “2”, the addition data HarmFret
(5) is "30". When "30" is added to "E2", the pitch becomes "B4", and the tone generation ON process is performed with the pitch data of the sixth overtone. If the pressed fret number is “11”, the addition data HarmFret
(5) is "12". When "12" is added to "E2", the pitch becomes "E3", and the tone generation ON process is performed with the pitch data of the overtone. Step S35 or step S37
If it is determined in step S33 that the string is not struck after the sound-on process of step S36, and HarmFre of the harmonics addition pitch table 21 in step S36.
If t (i) is "0", that is, if it is a pronunciation prohibition code, the string number i is incremented by "1" (step S38), and it is determined whether or not the value of i exceeds "5". (Step S39). If it is equal to or less than "5", the process proceeds to step S33 and each process up to step S39 is repeatedly executed. When the value of i exceeds “5” in step S39, the process returns to the main flow of FIG.
The pronunciation control process of step S4 is executed.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, when the string 5 is operated within the time limit after the pitch designating switch 11 that has been pressed once is released, the harmonics playing method is performed. And shifts to the mode to generate overtone pitch data. Therefore, even in the case of an electronic guitar having no strings on the fingerboard part 2, it is possible to perform a special performance such as a harmonics performance. In this case, the ROM 15 is provided with an open string pitch table 20 for storing the pitch data of the open strings of each string 5, and a harmonics addition pitch table 21 for storing the addition data corresponding to each of the pitch designating switches 11. , The sum of the open string pitch data and the addition data is used as the pitch data for the harmonic performance. Therefore, it is possible to easily generate the pitch data of the harmonic performance style by a simple arithmetic process.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In the pressed fret detection processing in this embodiment, the processing when the release of the pressed pitch designation switch 11 is detected is different from that in the first embodiment. In the pressing fret processing illustrated in FIG. 10, when NewFret (i) in step S17 is released, the processing illustrated in FIG. 5 of the first embodiment is performed except for the processing after the process proceeds to step S18 and the sound generation off processing is performed. Since it is the same as the fret processing, the same processing steps are represented by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted. That is, if the sound is being generated in step S18 of FIG.
It is determined whether HarmTimer (i) of 5 is "0" (step S51), and if it is not "0", RO
Ha of the harmonics addition pitch table 21 of M15
It is determined whether or not rmFret (i) is "0", that is, whether or not it is a pronunciation prohibition code (step S52). If it is not a pronunciation-prohibited code, OpenPitch (i) has Ha
rmFret (i) is added, and the tone-on processing for the harmonic tones is performed with the added pitch data (step S53). In step S23, the value of i is "5"
When it exceeds, the pressed fret detection processing is completed for all strings 5, so the process returns to the main flow of FIG.
The process moves to the string detection process of step S4.

In the string detection process of FIG. 11, step S3
Other than the processing when the string of number i in 3 is played,
Since this is the same as the string detection processing shown in FIG. 7 of the first embodiment, the same reference numerals are used to represent each processing step, and description thereof will be omitted. When the string of number i is struck in step S33, the tone-on process for the normal tone is performed at the fret pitch of NewFret (i) (step S6).
1). Then, in the harmonic timer register 25 of the RAM 16 shown in FIG. 6D, the limit time is the limit time for the HarmTimer (i) of the string number i.
Time is stored (step S62). HarmTi
The mer (i) is decremented by the timer interrupt processing shown in FIG. 8 which is the same as in the first embodiment. And
When the pressed pitch designation switch 11 is released before the value of HarmTimer (i) becomes "0", the harmonic style is performed.

As described above, in the second embodiment, when the pressed pitch designating switch 11 is released within the time of LimitTime set at the time of the last string operation, the harmonic performance is changed from the normal playing style. Shift to playing style.
Therefore, even if the electronic musical instrument having no strings on the fingerboard 2 can perform the harmonics performance, if the pitch designation switch 11 is released within the time limit even after the performance of the ordinary performance is once performed, the harmonics performance can be achieved. You can pronounce the playing style.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the third embodiment, LimitTime, which is the maximum harmonic performance time, is set to a different value according to the rendition style. That is, after performing the tone-on processing with the tone color of the normal playing style in step S35 of FIG. 12, ShortTime (first time limit) is set (step S71). ShortTi in this case
The time length of me is shorter than the normal time length from a certain string operation to a next string operation in the normal performance.
On the other hand, after performing the tone-on processing with the tone color of the harmonics playing method in step S37, the long time (second time limit) longer than the short time is set (step S72). Since the other processing is the same as that in the flowchart of FIG. 7 in the first embodiment, the same reference numerals represent the respective processing steps, and the description thereof will be omitted. As described above, according to the third embodiment, when the normal performance style is changed to the harmonic performance style, the time limit after the pressed pitch designation switch 11 is released is lengthened. Therefore, it is possible to perform a stable string operation of the harmonic performance with a margin after the transition to the harmonic performance method. On the other hand, during normal playing, the time length of ShortTime is shorter than the time length from one string operation to the next string operation, so that it is possible to avoid accidentally becoming a harmonics performance style.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the addition data stored in the ROM 15 is in semitone units, but the addition data may be configured in units of semitones or less. In this case, the sound resembles that of a real harmonics performance. Also,
In each of the above-described embodiments, only the pitch designating switch 11 is provided for each fret of the fingerboard 2, but a volume code is made to correspond to each fret, and the harmonics playing method is performed at a volume according to the volume code. May be. In this case, a richer harmonics performance can be performed. Furthermore, in each of the above embodiments, the addition data is RO
Although the data is stored in M15, it may be stored in the RAM 16 and provided with an input unit as a harmonics selection unit to arbitrarily set the addition data. In this case, the user can play the desired harmonics.

[0019]

According to the present invention, since the pitch data of the harmonics playing method is generated when the string detection unit detects a string within a predetermined time limit after the pitch specification switch is released, When a string operation is performed within a predetermined time limit after the pressed pitch designation switch is released, the harmonic performance style mode is entered to generate harmonic pitch data. Therefore, a special performance such as a harmonics performance can be performed with an electronic musical instrument having no fingerboard strings.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an electronic guitar according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a part of a pseudo string of the electronic guitar shown in FIG.

3 is a block diagram showing a system configuration inside the electronic guitar in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a main flowchart showing the operation of the CPU in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of CPU pressing fret detection processing according to the first embodiment.

6 is a diagram showing a configuration of data stored in a register of the RAM of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a string detection process of the CPU according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a timer interrupt process of the CPU in the first to third embodiments.

9 is a diagram showing a table stored in a ROM of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of CPU pressing fret detection processing according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a string detection process of a CPU according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a string detection process of a CPU according to the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Fingerboard switch 12 CPU 13 String detection unit 14 Pitch detection unit 15 ROM 16 RAM

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of strings provided on a string part of a main body, a string detection part for detecting that the string has been stringed, and a plurality of frets on a fingerboard part of the main body. A pitch designation switch provided corresponding to a plurality of strings, and when the string detection section detects the string when the pitch specification switch is pressed, pitch data for normal playing is generated. A data generating means for generating pitch data of a harmonic performance when the string detection unit detects the string within a predetermined time limit after the pressing of the pitch specification switch is released. An electronic stringed instrument. 2. A storage means for storing auxiliary data corresponding to each of the pitch designating switches, wherein the data generation means adds to the pitch data of an open string related to a string a depressed sound in the storage means. The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 1, wherein auxiliary data corresponding to a high-designation switch is added to generate pitch data for the harmonic performance. 3. A storage means for storing pitch data corresponding to each of the pitch designating switches, wherein the data generating means is a sound of a normal playing style designated on a depressed fret of a string that has been struck. 2. The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 1, wherein auxiliary data corresponding to a pressed pitch specifying switch in the storage means is added to the high data to generate the pitch data of the harmonic performance. 4. The data generating means sets the predetermined time limit according to a rendition style.
The electronic stringed instrument according to any one of 3 to 3. 5. The data generating means sets a first time limit in a normal rendition style, and sets a second time limit longer than the first time limit after a transition from the normal rendition style to a harmonics rendition style. The electronic stringed instrument according to claim 4, which is characterized in that.