JPH0934457A - Electronic musical instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic musical instrument in which the timbre and the like of a musical sound generated during a musical performance can be controlled without making special operation and, particularly in the case of a four-hand performance, musical sound generated by each player depressing keys can be distinguished and controlled. SOLUTION: In an electronic musical instrument with a keyboard 4 having a plurality of keys, a musical sound signal generating circuit 11 and the like for generating the musical sound signal of a tone corresponding to a pressed key, a pulse generating means 9 periodically generates a plurality of signals S1 to S4 each having different generation timing and outputs them to a plurality of contacts 6a to 6d. When a player 3 makes a musical performance while touching either one of the contacts 6a to 6d by a part of the body (for instance, a leg) to touch the key of the keyboard 4, either one of the plural signals S1 to S4 is transmitted to a touch electrode (forming a touch electrode group 18) formed in the surface of a key from the contacts through the body of the player 3. The tone and the like of a musical sound generated by the musical sound signal generating circuit 11 are controlled in accordance with the generation timing of the signal.

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 having a plurality of performance operators such as an electronic organ, an electronic piano, a keyboard, an electronic guitar and an electronic drum.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electronic musical instrument equipped with a keyboard having a plurality of keys as performance operators, a large number of white keys and black keys constituting the keyboard are depressed by the performer's selective operation. The key actuator turns on the key switch, which causes a pitch signal corresponding to the key to be generated, and the musical tone signal generation circuit generates a musical tone signal having a pitch (frequency) corresponding to the musical pitch signal to generate a sound. The system sounds the tone.

Furthermore, various buttons, wheels, slide type or rotary type volume controls, encoders, levers, and other operators are provided, and the tone color, volume, and pitch of musical tones generated by the player's operation can be controlled. It is possible to control and various effects (vibrato, reverb, pitch bend, etc.) to be added to the musical sound.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional electronic musical instrument, the musical tone cannot be controlled unless the performer operates any operator other than the keyboard during the performance. There was a problem that was annoying. In addition, in the case of a continuous play in which one electronic musical instrument is played by two players, it is not possible to control the musical sounds played by the respective players separately.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and makes it possible for a player of an electronic musical instrument to control the tone color or the like of a generated musical tone without any special operation during the performance. In particular, it is an object of the present invention to be able to discriminately control the musical sound generated by each player's key depression, especially in the case of continuous playing.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an electronic musical instrument comprising a plurality of performance operators and a tone generating means for generating a tone having a pitch corresponding to the operator pressed by the player.
In order to achieve the above object, a signal generating means for periodically generating a plurality of signals whose generation timings are different from each other and an output terminal of the plurality of signals of the signal generating means are individually connected to each other, and A plurality of contacts that can be contacted with or attached to a part of the body, a touch electrode provided on each surface of the plurality of performance operators, and the performance of the contacts when the performance operator is pushed by the player. Musical tone control means for controlling the tone color of the musical tone generated by the musical tone generating means in accordance with the generation timing of the signal transmitted to the touch electrode through the human body or conductor.

[0007]

In the electronic musical instrument according to the present invention having the above-described structure, the player selectively makes contact with one of the contacts with a part of the body (eg, foot) (having a contact like a stick of conductor). When any of the contacts is attached to a part of the body such as hands, feet or arms and the performance operator is operated to perform, the signal generating means periodically generate different timings. Any of the plurality of signals is transmitted from the contactor to the touch electrode provided on the surface of the performance operator through the player's body or conductor. The tone color or the like of the musical tone generated by the musical tone generating means is controlled according to the generation timing of the signal.

Therefore, the musical tone generated can be controlled without the player having to operate various operating elements other than the performance operating elements such as the keyboard during the performance, and the musical tone can be contacted with or attached to a part of the body. By changing the contactor, different control can be performed on the generated musical sound. In addition, when performing a continuous bullet, if each player touches a part of his body with a different contactor or attaches a different contactor to a part of his body and plays, it is transmitted to the touch electrode when a key is pressed. Since the timing of generation of the signal to be generated differs depending on the player, it is possible to perform control such as giving a different tone color to the generated musical tone depending on the player.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a playing state of the electronic musical instrument according to the embodiment of the present invention. This electronic musical instrument includes a musical instrument body 1 and a player's 3 foot 3a.
It consists of a footrest 2 on which is mounted. The musical instrument body 1 and the footrest 2 may be separate bodies as shown in the figure, or may be integrally connected.

The musical instrument body 1 has a keyboard 4 having a plurality of keys as performance operators, and musical tone generating means for generating musical tones having a pitch corresponding to the key pressed by the player 3 of the keyboard 4 and the musical tone generating means. And a signal generating means for periodically generating a plurality of signals having different timings. The output terminals 5a to 5d for a plurality of signals generated by the signal generating means are provided on the side surface.
Is provided.

As shown in, for example, FIG. 3A, the footrest 2 has an upper surface 2a which is a sloping surface with a downward slope, and a plurality of contacts (electrodes) are formed on the upper surface 2a at intervals in the left-right direction. Pieces 6a to 6d are attached. Each contact 6a
1 to 6d are individually connected to the respective output terminals 5a to 5d of the musical instrument body 1 by a 4-core cable 7 as shown in FIG. 1, for example.

On the other hand, on the surface of each of the white keys 4w and the black keys 4b constituting the keyboard 4 of the musical instrument body 1, at least the portion touched by the finger 3a of the hand by the player 3 at the time of key depression is shown in FIG.
The touch electrode 8 is formed as shown in FIG. As the touch electrode 8, a transparent conductive film may be formed on the surfaces of the keys 4w and 4b so as not to impair the appearance of the keyboard 4.

As described above, the contacts 6a to 6 of the footrest 2 are arranged.
d and the touch electrode 8 of the keyboard 4 constitute a touch switch, and the performer 3 attaches the foot 3 to any one of the contacts 6a to 6d.
When a is placed and a key is pressed with the finger 3b of the hand, the contactor (any of 6a to 6d) on which the foot is placed and the touch electrode 8 of the pressed key are conducted through the player 3.

As shown in FIGS. 5 (b) to 5 (e), the signal generating means is generated from the output terminals 5a to 5d of the musical instrument body 1 through the cables 7 to the contacts 6a to 6d of the footrest 2. Pulse signals with different timings (not overlapping in time) are applied to the respective.

KC1 to KCn shown in FIG. 5A mean key codes of n keys constituting the keyboard 4, and their widths indicate scan slots for detecting a depressed key. . Each of the pulse signals (b) to (e) is generated in four divided periods in synchronization with the period corresponding to this scan slot, and one of them is performed by the performer (human body) 3 as indicated by an arrow in FIG. It is transmitted to the touch electrode 8 of the pressed key 4w or 4b through the inside.

Therefore, it is possible to determine the timing within the scan slot of the pulse signal transmitted to the touch electrode 8 of the pressed key, and control the musical sound generated by the musical sound generating means in accordance with the timing. For example, the pulse signals of (b), (c), (d), and (e) of FIG. 5 are discriminated, and the tones of the musical tones generated are identified as organ sounds, harpsichord sounds, piano sounds, and string sounds. Can be controlled.

Further, when two players perform a continuous bullet using one electronic musical instrument, one player places his foot on the contactor 6a or 6b of the footrest 2 and the other one. Even if two players perform a key operation on the common keyboard 4 by playing with their feet placed on the contactors 6c or 6d, different musical tones can be generated for each player. it can.

Then, by changing the position where each player places his foot from one of the two contacts to the other, it is possible to change the timbre of the musical tone generated thereby. Furthermore, when two performers hit and touch the exposed arms and shoulders in accordance with the rhythm, for example, the tone of one performer can be added to the tone of the other performer only then. Alternatively, only at that time, a completely different third tone color can be used, and a new performance expression is possible.

The number, shape and arrangement of the contacts provided on the footrest 2 can be arbitrarily changed. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 (b), two recesses 2b, 2c are formed on the front side of the upper surface 2a of the footrest 2 at a distance in the left-right direction,
A plurality (three in the illustrated example) of contacts 6 may be radially formed in each of the recesses 2b and 2c.

With this arrangement, the player places the heel of the foot 3a in the recessed portion 2b or 2c, and rotates the foot 3a as indicated by arrows A and B with the heel as an axis, so that the foot 3a is moved. By arbitrarily changing the contactor 6 that comes into contact, it is possible to change the timbre during performance, add or change various effects, and insert a fine cutting rhythm. Of course, the tone color or the like to be pronounced may be different for each player during the continuous playing.

Next, an embodiment of the internal structure of the electronic musical instrument according to the present invention is shown in the block diagram of FIG. 1, and its operation will be described with reference to the waveform diagram of FIG. In FIG. 1, portions corresponding to those shown in FIGS. 2 to 4 are designated by the same reference numerals. In addition, each of the white keys 4w and the black keys 4b of the keyboard 4 described above.
A large number of touch electrodes 8 (see FIG. 4) formed on the surface of the touch electrode group 18 configures the touch electrode group 18.

The pulse generator 9 is a signal generating means. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6A, the pulse generator 9 periodically generates four signals S1 to S4 whose generation timings are different from each other. Each of the signals S1 to S4 is composed of a plurality of pulse waveforms as shown in the drawing, and the above-described footrest 2
It is individually output to each of the upper contacts 6a to 6d.

The scan circuit 10 scans a key switch provided for detecting a key depression for each key on the keyboard 4 with a scan slot assigned to each key, and a touch switch group 18 within the scan slot. The corresponding touch switch 8 is also scanned. Further, the pulse generator 9 is synchronized so as to generate the signals S1 to S4 for each scan slot.

Each key switch of the keyboard 4 is a scan circuit 1
When it is detected that the key switch is turned on by scanning 0, the pitch information of the key, that is, any one of the key codes KC1 to KCn (when a plurality of keys are simultaneously pressed, a plurality of key codes are ) Is sent to the tone signal generation circuit 11.

The tone signal generation circuit 11 includes a tone generator that generates tone signals corresponding to the key codes input from the keyboard 4, and various controls for the tone signals, that is, tone color,
It comprises a tone control section (tone control means) for controlling the volume and pitch and for controlling various effects (vibrato, reverb, pitch bend, etc.) applied to the tone. In this embodiment, the latch circuit group 19 outputs a signal a. The tone color of the generated musical tone is switched depending on which one of the input to d is input.

The musical tone signal generated by the musical tone signal generating circuit 11 is amplified by the amplifier 12 of the sound system, and converted into electric-acoustic sound by the speaker 13 to emit a musical tone. The tone generator of the tone signal generating circuit 11 and this sound system constitute tone generating means.

Further, each touch electrode 8 of the touch electrode group 18
Also, the scan circuit 10 scans each scan slot of each key, and outputs the signal transmitted to the touch electrode 8 of the pressed key through the performer (human body) 3 to the amplifier circuit 14. Assuming that the player 3 is playing with a part of the body (for example, a foot) in contact with the contactor 6a as shown by the solid line in FIG. 1, the touch of the key pressed by the finger of the player 3 The electrode 8 and the contactor 6a are electrically connected to each other, and the signal S1 generated at the earliest timing by the pulse generator 9 is transmitted to the touch electrode group 18, and the signal S1 shown by the solid line in FIG. S is output.

The signal S is clipped and smoothed by the waveform shaping circuit 15 to have a constant amplitude, and the waveform is shaped, as shown in FIG.
Then, a rectangular wave C as shown by a solid line is formed. Differentiate it 1
Differentiate by 6 to give rise pulse D shown by the solid line in (D), and apply it to distributor 17 by the microcomputer.

The distributor 17 discriminates the timing of the input pulse D, and as shown in FIG. 6E, one of the pulses P1 to P4 having different timing is latched by the latch circuit group 1
It outputs to and latches the corresponding latch circuit among the latch circuits L1 to L4. In this case, the pulse P1 is output to the latch circuit L1, and the latch circuit L1 inputs the latched signal a to the tone signal generation circuit 11 as shown in (F). As a result, the tone signal generating circuit 11 controls the tone color of the tone signal generated by the key depression to the first tone color (eg, organ tone).

When the performer 3 plays with a part of his body brought into contact with any of the other contacts 6b to 6d, the amplifier circuit 1
The output signal S of FIG. 4, the rectangular wave C output by the waveform shaping circuit 15, and the pulse D output by the differentiating circuit 16 are either ones indicated by broken lines in (B), (C), and (D) of FIG. 6, respectively. It becomes a timing signal, and the distributor 17 applies one of the pulses P2 to P4 indicated by the broken line in (E) to the latch circuits L2 to L4.
One of the signals b to d indicated by the broken line is input to the musical tone signal generating circuit 11 in the latched (F).

That is, in the latch circuit group 19, only the channel which is in contact with the touch electrode 8 among the four channels,
A time-divisional latch signal will be output during the entire contact. As a result, the tone signal generation circuit 11 controls the tone color of the tone signal generated by the key depression to any one of the second to fourth tone colors (for example, harpsichord tone, piano tone, string tone, etc.).

In addition, as described above, even when two players perform a continuous hit, each performer puts his / her foot on a different contact so that each key on the keyboard 4 can be played by any performer. According to the signal output from the latch circuit group 19, it can be determined which channel the tone signal generation circuit 11 should pass, and the tone color of the tone generated thereby can be made different.

Alternatively, even if one performer steps on one of the contacts and the other performer does not step on any of the contacts, the tone color differs depending on the performer as in the above case. Can be made. Note that the control of the musical sound is not limited to the tone color, and other effects such as the volume, the pitch, or the vibrato can be controlled.

Further, by assigning a unique MIDI channel to each pulse signal having a different generation timing, when a plurality of keyboards are played side by side, the pulse signals having the same timing are irrespective of the setting. If you play by touching the contactor that is given
Even if you play different keyboards one after another according to the performance, you can play with a tone that does not change.

On the contrary, switching to a contactor to which a pulse signal of a different timing is applied has the same effect as instantly changing the MIDI channels of all the keyboards. The contactor is not limited to the one touching the sole of the foot, and may be any one that can be contacted by the performer anywhere on the body, and may be one that can be worn on the ankle or arm. That way, you don't have to play barefoot on the contactor.

Further, in the present invention, the generation timing (phase) of a plurality of signals applied to each contact is made different,
Even if the voltage is changed or the frequency is changed, it is possible to similarly determine the performer and control the musical sound.

As another embodiment, for example, the performance may be performed by wearing conductive gloves as a contactor, and a mini electrode is attached to a finger to operate the keyboard. In that case, timing (phase) Any of the plurality of signals deviated from (1) can be transmitted to the touch electrode 8 through the glove or the mini electrode without passing through the human body.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to keyboard electronic musical instruments, but can be applied to MIDI musical instruments such as MIDI guitars and electronic drums, which are equipped with various other performance operators in place of the keyboard.
In the case of an electronic drum, a touch electrode may be formed on the surface of the pad, and a stick hitting the pad may serve as a contact and conductor for transmitting a signal for discrimination to the touch electrode.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if the player of the electronic musical instrument does not operate any special button or lever other than the performance operator during the performance, the generated musical tone can be generated. Tones and the like can be controlled. Particularly in the case of continuous playing, it is possible to distinguish and sound by changing the tone color of the musical tone generated by the key depression of each player.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing a playing state of an embodiment of an electronic musical instrument according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a different example of the footrest table 2.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a part of the keys of the keyboard.

FIG. 5 is a waveform diagram showing an example of a plurality of signals having different generation timings, which are given to each contactor of the footrest together with a scan slot by a key code.

FIG. 6 is a signal waveform diagram of each part for explaining the operation of the electronic musical instrument shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... instrument body, 2 ... footrest, 3 ... performer, 4 ... keyboard, 4
w ... White key, 4b ... Black key, 5a-5d ... Output terminals, 6, 6
a to 6d ... contactor, 7 ... cable, 8 ... touch electrode, 9
... pulse generator (signal generating means), 10 ... scan circuit, 11 ... tone signal generation circuit, 12 ... amplifier, 13 ... speaker, 14 ... amplification circuit, 15 ... waveform shaping circuit, 16 ...
Differentiating circuit, 17 ... Distributor, 18 ... Touch electrode group, 19 ...
Latch circuit group

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic musical instrument comprising a plurality of performance operators and a tone generating means for generating a tone having a pitch corresponding to a performance operator pressed by a player, and a plurality of signals having mutually different generation timings. And a plurality of contactors that are individually connected to the output terminals of the plurality of signals of the signal generation means, respectively, and that can be contacted with or worn on a part of the performer's body, Touch electrodes provided on each surface of the plurality of performance operators, and the signal transmitted from the contactor to the touch electrode through the player's body or conductor when the performance operator is operated by the player. And an electronic musical instrument control means for controlling the musical tone generated by the musical tone generating means in accordance with the generation timing of the electronic musical instrument. 2. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the musical tone control means is means for controlling a tone color of a musical tone generated by the musical tone generating means.