JPH0423246Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] This invention relates to an electronic musical instrument, and more particularly to an electronic musical instrument that uses a visual display to indicate which key to press next and guide the performance.

[Prior art and its problems] Electronic keyboard instruments are known that provide optical guidance for melodies and chords in order to support performers' performance practice. In a typical musical instrument of this kind, display elements such as LEDs are arranged on the keyboard corresponding to each key, and a processor decodes performance information (songs) recorded in a memory such as a ROM pack. In order to make it easier to practice playing the piece of music, the performer is informed of which key to operate next by lighting up a display element at the corresponding position. As a result, the user can relatively easily learn how to perform music on the keyboard. Such a function is called a navigation function.

However, in this type of conventional musical instrument, the display element is used only for the purpose of navigation, and there is a problem in that the efficiency of its use is very low and there is a lot of waste.

[Purpose of the invention] This invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to simply use the display means arranged corresponding to each key of the keyboard as a key press guide during performance. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument that not only functions as a musical instrument, but also functions as a device that displays the progress of a song, and that also reduces costs.

[Main points of the invention] In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, in this invention, when the first mode is selected by the mode selection means, a keyboard is provided corresponding to each key constituting the keyboard. The key point is that the display means is used for key press guidance, and when the second mode is selected by the mode selection means, the display means is used for displaying the progress of the music.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of this invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration> The overall circuit configuration of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 1, and the external appearance is shown in FIG. 2.

1 is a switch section including each control switch;
The operation is determined by the CPU 2 and corresponding processing is performed. As shown in Figure 2, the upper part of the electronic instrument has the above-mentioned control switches for power off, number of songs selection display, navigation, normal play, automatic play/position display, and manual play of selected songs. Mode switch 1a for selecting the mode, start/stop switch 1b for automatic performance, etc., rhythm selection switch 1c for selecting the rhythm stored in the rhythm pattern memory 3, tone selection switch 1d for selecting the tone of the music, volume control for controlling the volume. A switch 1e and a program switch 1f for selecting the number of songs, etc. are provided.

In front of the electronic musical instrument is a keyboard 4, and each light emitting diode 5x constituting an LED display section 5 is provided above each key of this keyboard 4. As will be described later, in this embodiment, this LED display section 5
Each of the light emitting diodes 5x is used not only as a navigator for performance practice, but also for displaying the progress of the performance.

Reference numeral 6 denotes an automatic performance memory for storing automatic performance information, and here, as shown in FIG. 2, it is composed of a ROM pack that is attached to the electronic musical instrument at any time.

When automatically playing a selected song in the ROM pack 6, the automatic performance information is read by the CPU 2, and the musical sound information of melody sounds and chord sounds of this automatic performance information is given to the musical sound generation circuit 7. The rhythm information is supplied to the rhythm sound generation circuit 8 to become a rhythm sound signal, and both are emitted via the amplifier 10 and the speaker 11.

The above CPU 2 is equipped with a register section 2a,
As will be described later, the DR register is used as a display register for displaying the song number position and performance position on the LED display section 5, and the UL register is used as a timer or counter for unit time length.

<Operation> Next, the operation of the embodiment will be explained. The normal play mode in which the mode switch 1a is placed at the normal play position A is the same as that of a normal electronic musical instrument, so its explanation will be omitted.
The manual performance mode for selected songs will be explained.

Navigate Mode When navigating through the selected songs in the ROM pack 6, the mode switch 1a is set to the navigation position B. Start/stop switch 1b
When instructed to start, the CPU 2 reads the performance information of the selected song from the ROM pack 6, decodes the pitch information, converts it into information for controlling the LED display section 5, and displays the corresponding light emitting diode 5x. Turn it on. For example, from ROM pack 6, E ₃
When pitch information corresponding to (mi) is received,
The light emitting diode 5x above the E ₃ key (Figure 2) is lit. On the other hand, when the performer presses the E ₃ key, the performance information currently stored in the internal register in the CPU 2, in this case performance information including the pitch information of E ₃ , is sent to the musical sound generation circuit 7. Sound is emitted via sound systems 10 and 11. Next, the CPU 2 starts reading the next performance information from the ROM pack 6, and thereafter repeats the above operation.

Song number selection display mode (FIG. 3) When it is desired to automatically play a plurality of songs in the ROM pack 6, the mode switch 1a is set to the song number selection display position C. Next, follow the steps in Figure 3.
As shown at S1, the designation of the number of songs is input via the program switch 1f. As a result, the music number counter inside the CPU 2 is set to the specified value (step S2). Then, "1" is set in the display register DR in accordance with the content of the music number counter, and the corresponding light emitting diode 5x is lit (steps S3 and S4).

For example, when six songs are specified, six light emitting diodes 5x from the left end in FIG. 2 are lit.

Next, when the start/stop switch 1b instructs the automatic performance to start (step
S5), the CPU 2 sequentially reads out the performance information of the selected song from the ROM pack 2, transfers it to the musical sound generation circuit 7 and the rhythm sound generation circuit 8, and then advances the address and moves on to reading the next performance information. Repeat the action. When the end address of the selected song is reached, the automatic performance of one song ends (step S6), the song number counter is decremented by 1 (step S7), and the above steps S3 and subsequent steps are continued until the song number counter reaches 0. Repeat.

Therefore, the number of remaining songs is displayed on the LED display section 5, and the user can immediately confirm the remaining number of songs to be played automatically from the number of light-emitting diodes 5x that are lit.

When the automatic performance of the specified number of songs is completed, the content of the song number counter becomes zero (step S8), the display register DR is set to all "0", and the LED display section 5
All light emitting diodes 5x are turned off (step
S9, S10).

In this way, in the song number selection display mode, the progress status of automatic performance of a plurality of songs can be known via the LED display section 5.

Automatic Performance/Position Display Mode (FIG. 4) In this mode, one song selected from the ROM pack 6 is automatically played, and the current performance position is displayed on the LED display section 5. In this example, since the LED display section 5 is composed of 32 light emitting diodes 5x, the total tone length of the selected song is divided into 32 parts, and all the light emitting diodes 5x are lit at first, and the unit time length, that is, the whole tone length is divided into 32 parts. Each time 1/32 of the length of time has elapsed, the lights are turned off one by one.

More specifically, when the mode switch 1a is set to the automatic performance/position display position E and the start/stop switch 1b is used to instruct a start, the flow shown in FIG. 4 is entered.

First, calculate the unit time length from the total note length of the selected song in the ROM pack, initialize the ROM address to the start position of the selected song, set the basic clock generation timer, and set the display register DR to all 1s (step T1, T2, T3, T4).

Subsequently, the number of light emitting diodes 5x is turned on according to the contents of the display register DR, and the ROM pack 6 is turned on.
The performance information at the current address is read out, and the musical tone generation circuit 7 and the rhythm tone generation circuit 8 (TG) generate sounds according to the pitch information (step T5,
T6, T7).

Subsequently, for tone length processing, the tone length data is decremented by 1 each time the basic clock timer times out, and the process is repeated until the tone length data becomes 0 (steps T8, T9, T10).

When the tone length processing is completed, the read address of the ROM pack 6 is advanced (step T11), and if it is not the end address, it is determined whether or not the unit time length timer UL has timed out (steps T12, T13).
If it has not timed out, the process returns directly to step T5; if it has timed out, the next bit in the display register DR is set to zero in step T14, and then the process returns to step T5.

Note that steps T5 to T12 above correspond to normal automatic performance processing without performance position display.

Manual performance/position display mode of selected song (Figure 5) In this mode, a song selected from ROM pack 6 is manually played for practice, and the LED display 5 shows how far the song has been played. is displayed. In the sense of showing the progress of the performance during a song, processing that is quite similar to the automatic performance/position display mode shown in FIG. 4 is performed. However, in order to proceed with the execution step, in this example, the condition is that there is a pressed key that matches the performance information in the ROM pack 6, especially the pitch information. In other words, when there is a key input that matches the pitch information in ROM pack 6,
After performing the corresponding musical tone processing, the read address for the ROM pack 6 is incremented by one, and the contents of the unit note number counter corresponding to the unit time length timer used in the mode of FIG. 4 are updated. Then, the light emitting diodes 5x are turned off one by one as the unit note number counter overflows.

Specifically, the mode switch 1a to enter this mode is set to the corresponding position F. As a result, as shown in Figure 5, the unit note length (=total note length/32) is calculated from the total note length of the selected song in ROM pack 6, the ROM address and unit note length counter are initialized, and the display register DR is set to all. Set to 1 (steps U1, U2, U3).

Next, the light emitting diodes 6x are lit according to the contents of the current display register DR (all are lit at first) (step U4), and the key is waited for. If there is a key pressed, the pitch and pitch associated with the pressed key are displayed. It is determined whether the pitch information at the current address of the ROM pack 6 matches or not (steps U5 and U6).

When a matching key is pressed, the unit note number counter UL is incremented by 1, the tone generation circuits 7 and 8 are processed to produce sound using the information read from ROM pack 6, and the read address of ROM pack 6 is advanced by one. (Steps U7, U8, U9).

If the end address has not been reached, it is determined whether the contents of the counter UL have exceeded the number of unit notes (steps U10, U11), and if not, the process returns to the above step U4 without doing anything. If it exceeds, display register DR at steps U12 and U13.
The next 1 bit is set to zero, the counter is reset, and the process returns to step U4.

As a result, each time a correct key press corresponding to 1/32 of the total note length of the selected song is made, the light emitting diodes 6x go out one by one, allowing the performer to easily check how far he has practiced.

[Modifications] This invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications and changes are possible.

For example, in the above embodiment, to indicate the progress of the performance, all the light emitting diodes are turned on at first, and then turned off one by one as the performance progresses. You can turn off the lights and turn them on sequentially as the progress progresses.
Alternatively, only one light emitting diode may be lit at a time, and the lighting position may be shifted one by one as the vehicle progresses.

Further, in addition to turning on or off, the light may be dimmed (blinking). for example,
The number of songs among multiple songs that is currently being played is indicated by the light, while the number of songs is displayed by deducting points, or the number of songs currently being played is shown by deducting points, and then the next song will be played. Possible options include displaying songs by lighting them up. Alternatively, the navigating light emitting diode may be turned on, and the currently selected song (or the current progressing position within the song) may be processed by point deduction. In this case, it is possible to know the selected song and the current position in the song at the same time as navigating.

Further, the display section is not limited to a light emitting diode, and other display elements (EL, plasma, etc.) may be used.

[Effects of the invention] As detailed above, according to this invention, when the first mode is selected by the mode selection means, the display provided corresponding to each key constituting the keyboard. The means is used for key press guidance, and when the second mode is selected by the mode selection means, the display means is used for displaying the progress of the music. Depending on the mode selected by the means, one display means can be used for key press guidance or for displaying the progress of a piece of music. There is no need to separately provide both the progress display display means, which is very convenient for use, and has the advantage that production costs can be significantly reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an overall circuit configuration diagram of an embodiment of this invention, Fig. 2 is an external view of the embodiment, Fig. 3 is a flowchart of operation in song number selection/display mode, and Fig. 4
The figure shows a flowchart in automatic performance/position display mode, and FIG. 5 shows a flowchart in manual performance/position display mode. 2...CPU, 4...Keyboard, 5...LED display section,
6... Automatic performance memory.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) A pressed key, a display means provided corresponding to each key constituting the keyboard, and a mode selection means capable of selecting a first mode and a second mode. When the first mode is selected by the mode selection means, the display means is used for key press guidance, and when the second mode is selected by the mode selection means. The electronic musical instrument is characterized in that the display means is used for displaying the progress of a musical piece. (2) When the second mode is selected by the mode selection means, the display means indicates that a specific piece of music is currently being played among a plurality of pieces of music that are continuously automatically played. 2. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the electronic musical instrument is used as a musical instrument. (3) When the second mode is selected by the mode selection means, the display means is used to indicate that a specific musical part of one musical piece is currently being played. An electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, characterized in that: