Yamaha Corporation

Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha

Hamamatsu-Photonics K.k.

Sanshin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Asmo Co., Ltd.

Kabushiki Kaisha Showa Seisakusho

Hideo Suzuki

Masao Sakama

Yoshimasa Isozaki

Motoichi Tamura

Hideyuki Masuda

Akira Nakada

Masahiro Shimizu

Yoshinori Hayashi

Makoto Kaneko

Eiji Akazawa

Satoshi Usa

Yasuji Uchiyama

Shuichi Sawada

Takeshi Adachi

Yasushi Kurakake

Kazuhisa Okamura

Akihiko Komatsu

Teruo Hiyoshi

Masashi Hirano

Norio Tomisawa

Yasuyuki Umeyama

Takamichi Masubuchi

Shinji Kumano

Yoshio Fujita

Kotaro Mizuno

Masaki Kudo

Eiichiro Aoki

Shinichiro Aoshima

Takashi Suzuki

Toshifumi Kunimoto

Masatada Wachi

Ryoji Nakahama

Shigeru Yamada

Akiyoshi Oya

Tsutomu Hara

Tsutomu Yanase

Yasushi Ohbayashi

Kunio Hiyama

Masahiko Obata

Shunichi Matsushima

Satoshi Sekine

Nariyasu Yaguchi

Mamoru Kimpara

Kunihiko Watanabe

Souichi Takigawa

Emiko Suzuki, Legal Representative

Tsuyoshi Miyaki

Mamoru Kinpara

Kazuo Murakami

Akira Ozawa

Hirotaka Kuribayashi

Takashi Iwashita

Toru Hirano

Narihiro Yoshida

Masatoshi Murakami

Yasutaka Nakamura

Takehisa Amano

Masayoshi Yamashita

Masuhiro Okada

Yasuyuki Hayashi

Jun Sugiyama

Tomomi Kousaka

Kenji Itakura

Kunihide Okamoto

Hideaki Iwase

Kazunobu Nozue

Yasushi Obayashi

Takamichi Masabuchi

Takashi Ubayama

Mitsuru Aiba

Shinpachi Watanabe

Satoru Yano

Eiji Katayama

Umeyama Yasuyuki

A saxophone is equipped with a supporting system, and the supporting system assists a player in performance on the saxophone; the supporting system includes pressure sensors respectively adhered to the keys of the saxophone, torque motors provided in association with the keys for exerting assisting force on the keys and a controller for adjusting a driving signal to a certain amount corresponding to the pressure; since a conversion table is stored in the controller, the controller looks up the amount of driving current to be adjusted in the conversion table, and supplies the driving signal to the torque motor, whereby the keys are depressed by the total of finger force and assisting force.

Musical instrument and supporting system incorporated therein for music players

A sound source apparatus has operation blocks composed of softwares used to compute waveforms for generating a plurality of musical tones through a plurality of channels according to performance information. In the apparatus, a setting device sets an algorithm which determines a system composed of selective ones of the operation blocks systematically combined with each other to compute a waveform specific to one of the musical tones. A designating device responds to the performance information for designating one of the channels to be used for generating the musical tone. A generating device allocates the selective operation blocks to the one channel and systematically executes the allocated selective operation blocks according to the algorithm so as to compute the waveform to thereby generate the musical tone through the channel. The generating device responds to a variable sampling frequency for executing the operation blocks to successively compute samples of the waveform in synchronization to the variable sampling frequency so as to generate the musical tone, and sets the variable sampling frequency according to process of computation of the waveform by the operation blocks.

Sound source system based on computer software and method of generating acoustic waveform data

Three valve assemblies are linked with finger buttons and inserted into a pipe structure of a trumpet for changing the length of air column, and a supporting system assists a player in fingering on the finger buttons; sensors are adhered to the finger buttons so as to supply a detecting signal representative of force exerted on the finger buttons by the player to a controlling unit; when the force exceeds over a threshold, the controlling unit energizes actuators connected to the valve assemblies so as to make the player feel the valve assemblies lightly changed.

Wind musical instrument with pitch changing mechanism and supporting system for pitch change

A supporting system is provided on a saxophone for offering assistance to the player, and includes pressure sensors monitoring the touch pieces of the keys, power assisting units equipped with torque motors provided for the keys and a controller connected to the pressure sensors and the power assisting units; a conversion table for depressed touch pieces and another conversion table for released touch pieces are prepared in the controller, and different relations between the finger force and the amount of current to be supplied to the torque motor are respectively defined in the conversion tables, respectively; the amount of current to be supplied is read out from the conversion tables depending upon the increase and decrease of finger force so that the player quickly closes the tone whole with the padded cup without curious key touch.

In order to realize a small and light key actuating apparatus for actuating a key which is rotatably supported with respect to a frame, a key actuating apparatus () is provided which includes a polymer transducer () for rotatably moving the key () by using a deformation of the transducer, wherein the transducer which is substantially formed in a plate shape includes: a polymer film () which is dielectric and made from an elastically deformable polymer material; and a pair of electrodes () arranged at both sides of surfaces of the polymer film, and the transducer is deformed corresponding to switching between an application of voltage and a lack of voltage between the electrodes.

Key actuating apparatus and key actuation control system

A key actuating system () of a keyboard musical instrument is provided which helps quickly push the keys by reducing reaction force with respect to force of pushing the keys during manual operation, and which supports a person having less strength to play the keyboard musical instrument. The key actuating system for a keyboard musical instrument generates a sound when a key () is pushed including: a pressure detection sensor () detecting a pushing pressure on the key; a status detection sensor () detecting a movement status of the key: an actuator () actuating the key in a pushing direction of the key; and a control portion (), when the pressure detection sensor detects the pushing pressure and the status detection sensor detects motion of the key, controls operations of the actuator in order to maintain the detected pressure by the pressure detection sensor at a pressure threshold which is in a range larger than 0 and smaller than a pushing pressure on the key which is necessary for making a sound.

Key actuating system

The present invention is directed to a system and method for editing music on a computer. A preferred embodiment according to the present invention provides a score window display containing various types of execution graphical icon layers onto which graphical execution ions (representing musical symbols such as bend-up/down, grace-up/down, dynamics, glissando, tremolo) can be attached and arranged in conformity with a progression of a musical tune on a screen of the display. In accordance with the preferred embodiment, may select desired execution icons from an icon select palette that provides lists of execution icons and attach or detach them to the displayed layers via graphical drag-and-drop operations to edit the underlying musical score. In addition, a user may modify parameters of a specific icon.

Method and apparatus for editing performance data with modifications of icons of musical symbols

The present invention is directed to a performance data editing system embodied within a computer system (or electronic musical instrument) equipped with a display and a mouse. The present invention provides a score window containing various types of execution icon layers onto which execution ions representing exection-related data for adding articulation to a music tone are attached and arranged in conformity with a progression of a musical tune on a screen of the display. Each layer can be controlled in response to various commands. The present invention further allows a user (or music editor) to select desired execution icons from an icon select palette that provides lists of execution icons which are registered in advance. In addition, the present invention allows a user to modify parameters of a specific icon, as well as add icons to or delete icons from a prescribed display area (e.g., layer window) using drag-and-drop operations.

Method and apparatus for editing performance data with modification of icons of musical symbols

A performance data editing system is actualized by a computer system (or electronic musical instrument) which is equipped with a display and a mouse. The system initially provides a score window containing various types of execution icon layers onto which execution icons (representing musical symbols such as bend-up/down, grace-up/down, dynamics, glissando, tremolo) are attached and arranged in conformity with a progression of a musical tune on a screen of the display. Each of the layers is independently controlled in response to various commands such as display-on, small-scale display, display-off and vertical rearrangement. The system allows a user (or music editor) to select desired execution icons from an icon select palette that provides lists of execution icons which are registered in advance. In addition, the system also allows the user to modify parameters of a specific icon which is selected from among the execution icons attached onto the score window. That is, the user opens an icon modify window to change parameters of the specific icon with the mouse. Further, the system provides the user with a simple operation for deletion of execution-related data from performance data. That is, when the user performs drag-and-drop operations on a certain execution icon to move it outside of a prescribed display area (e.g., layer window) of the score window, the system automatically deletes the corresponding execution-related data from the performance data. Thus, it is possible to improve performability and efficiency in editing performance data by using icons with simple operations and without errors.

A player changes the pitch of tones produced through a trombone by controlling the breath and a slide, and the control of slide is not easy for children, handicapped persons and old players; a supporting system is combined with the trombone, and includes a manipulating board fitted to an appropriate portion of the trombone close to the slide, a driving mechanism connected to the slide and a controlling unit connected to the manipulating board and driving mechanism; when the player wishes to change the pitch of tones through the sliding motion of the slide, he moves a lever on the manipulating board by a distance shorter than a target stroke of the slide, and the controlling unit calculates the target stroke so as to supply a driving signal to the driving mechanism; and the driving mechanism exerts force on the slide so as to assist the player in varying the length of the column of air.

Wind musical instrument equipped with slide and supporting system for assisting player in performance

A saxophone has a complicated key mechanism for selectively closing and opening tone holes, and fingering on touch buttons and keys is not easy for children, handicapped persons and old players; a supporting system is combined with the saxophone so as to assist a human player in fingering, and includes sensors, actuators and a controlling unit; while the human player is fingering on the touch buttons and keys, the sensors inform the controlling unit of changes of the depressed touch buttons and depressed keys, and the controlling unit supplies driving signals to the actuators associated with the tone holes to be closed so as to permit the human player easily and quickly to play music tunes.

Wind musical instrument having pads for closing tone holes with mechanical assistance and supporting system used therein

The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing a score window containing various types of execution icon layers onto which execution icons are attached and arranged in conformity with a progression of a musical tune on a screen of the display. In accordance with the preferred embodiment, each layer is controlled in response to various display commands. The system allows a user to select desired execution icons from an icon select palette that provides lists of execution icons which are registered in advance. Specifically, the user may select and 'drag' an execution icon from the palette and place it at a position in correspondence with a particular point of progression of the music to be edited, causing the editing function corresponding to the execution icon to be effected at the point of progression of the musical piece. In accordance with the preferred embodiment, the execution icons are displayed by categories in accordance with a category display layer, which may be controlled to be displayed or not displayed in the editing screen.

A chirp compensation dielectric multilayer film mirror () reflects an incident light in a predetermined wavelength range and has group delay characteristics that prevent at least one of the dielectric multilayer film mirror () and a light transmission portion from applying a phase disturbance to an incident light within the predetermined wavelength range. Therefore, all the wavelength components of the incident light in the predetermined wavelength range are reflected by the chirp compensation dielectric multilayer-film mirror (), and no additional undesired phase disturbance occurs by the dielectric multilayer film mirror () and the light transmission portion. Accordingly, a spatial light modulator () enables a desired modulation only by a liquid crystal layer without giving an additional undesired phase disturbance to an output light.

Spatial light modulator and light pulse waveform controller

Partial waveform data representative of a waveform shape variation are extracted from supplied waveform data, and the extracted partial waveform data are stored along with time position information indicative of their respective time positions. In reproduction, the partial waveform data and time position information are read out, then the partial waveform data are arranged on the time axis in accordance with the time position information, and a waveform is produced on the basis of the waveform data arranged on the time axis. In another implementation, sets of sample identification information and time position information are obtained in accordance with a performance tone waveform to be reproduced, and sample data are obtained from a database in accordance with the sample identification information. The thus-obtained sample data are arranged on the time axis in accordance with the time position information, and the desired waveform is produced on the basis of the sample data arranged on the time axis. The time position information and/or sample data may be adjusted in accordance with predetermined adjustment information.

Method and apparatus for recording/reproducing or producing a waveform using time position information

A method of generating musical tones and a storage medium storing a program for executing the method are provided. Musical piece data is decomposed into phrases, the musical piece data being formed of pieces of performance data arranged in the order of performance. The pieces of performance data of the musical piece data are analyzed for each of the phrases obtained by the decomposing step. Tone color control data is prepared for each of the phrases according to results of the analyzing. The pieces of performance data of the musical piece data are reproduced by sequentially reading the pieces of performance data at timing at which the pieces of performance data are to be performed to the order of performance. Tone color characteristics of musical tones to be generated based on selected ones of the pieces of performance data which are reproduced by the reproducing step, are controlled according to the tone color control data prepared for ones of the phrases to which the selected ones of the pieces of performance data belong, respectively.

Musical tone-generating method

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Hamamatsu, Japan

Hideo Suzuki