4,643,066

43.75.Tv ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Akiyoshi Oya, assignor to Nippon Gakki 13 February 1987 (Class 84/1.01); filed originally in Japan 3 July 1975

This patent, which issued more than a decade after original filing, is one of a number of patents in which complex musical tones are generated by frequency modulation of sinusoidal carrier waveforms. In this system are a "first signal to define a time-varying modulation index," "a second signal to define a time-varying carrier frequency," and "a third signal to define a time-varying modulation frequency," with circuitry for combining the first and third signals and for using this combination for frequency modulating the second signal.--DWM

4,706,537

43.75.Tv TONE SIGNAL GENERATION DEVICE

Shigenori Ognra, assignor to Nippon Gakki 17 November 1987 (Class 84/1.03); filed in Japan 7 March 1985

On the assumption that musical percussive tones vary in timbre to a greater degree during the attack portion of the tone than during the steady or decay portion, this electronic digital musical instrument provides a var- iety of attack tone spectra, a single tone spectrum for the steady or decay portion, and blends a selected attack spectrum (or a weighted combination of two attack spectra) into the subsequent tone spectrum, the choice of attack spectrum depending upon control factors such as the velocity of playing key touch.--DWM

4,733,590

43.75.Tv KEYBOARD SWITCH APPARATUS FOR ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Keisuke Watanabe, assignor to Nippon Gakki 29 March 1988 (Class 84/1.1); filed in Japan 4 December 1984

For many years electronic piano circuits have used a sequence of switch operations by the playing key for measuring the velocity of key depression, and imparting a proportional amplitude to the envelope of the electronically generated decay tone. This patent describes a simple, corn-

pact switch structure for this purpose, consisting of three layers 30, 31, 32 of an elastic material (e.g., polyester) separated by nonconducting spacers 33, 34. Conductors 35, 36, 37, and 38 are formed upon the surfaces shown. When the musician plays the key a downward motion causes the upper pair of conductors first, and the lower pair of conductors later, to make con- tact.--DWM

4,726,276

43.75.Tv SLUR EFFECT PITCH CONTROL IN AN ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Mitsumi Katoh, Masatada Wachi, and Tokuji Hayakawa, assignors to Nippon Gakki

23 February 1988 (Class 84/1.19); filed in Japan 28 June 1985

This electronic musical instrument provides two quite different tonal attack modes. In the first mode the tone starts at one fundamental frequency and slurs (slides) gradually to a second fundamental frequency, with no change in tone spectrum. In the second mode the frequency does not change but the attack portion of the tone has a different spectrum from that of the ensuing steady-state portion of the tone.--DWM

4,733,591

43.75.Tv ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Makoto Kaneko and Susumu Kawashima, assignors to Nippon Gakki 29 March 1988 (Class 84/1.01); filed in Japan 30 May 1984

This is a teaching type of electronic musical instrument in which the playing key depressed not only generates a tone signal of the appropriate frequency but also actuates a speech-signal generating circuit that produces an audible name for the tone produced (e.g., "do," "re," or "mi," as appro- priate). The same result can be programmed automatically when the tones are actuated by an automatic rhythm circuit.--DWM

4,727,634

43.75.Tv MUSICAL INSTRUMENT TRANSDUCER

Lawrence R. Fishman, Woburn, MA 1 March 1988 (Class 29/25.35); filed 25 June 1987

This is a manufacturing method patent for making a transducer for the vibrations of the strings of a musical instrument such as a piano or guitar. Piezoelectric disks are inserted in a row between a ground strip and a second conductor strip that collects the outputs of all of the disks in parallel. A conductive shield is wrapped around the assembly. This structure has a great deal in common with that of patent 3,519,721 [reviewed J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 50, 1276 ( 1971 ) ] issued to this reviewer, but not referenced in the present patent.--DWM

4,735,123

43.75.Tv GENERATION OF TIME VARIANT

HARMONIES IN AN ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Ralph Deutsch, assignor to Kawai Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company

5 April 1988 (Class 84/1.19); filed 27 October 1986

In the wavetrains of most conventional musical instruments successive

waveforms vary slightly. Consequently, the digital storage of a complete wavetrain requires considerable storage capacity. This patent provides for variability on the "assumption that the waveshape for the imitated acoustic musical instrument does not change markedly for several such contiguous successive" waveforms. In addition to a first set of data values a second

different set is stored, and the data selector is switched back and forth between the two sets at a variable rate lower in frequency than the tone frequency.--DWM

1132 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 84(3), Sept. 1988; 0001-4966/88/091132-01500.80; © 1988 Acoust. Soc. Am.; Patent Reviews 1132

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