Yamaha Corporation

Masaharu Ono

Yoshiki Nishitani

Kenichi Miyazawa

Nagayuki Kato

Yoshitaka Noguchi

Speaker with lighting

Electronic piano

There is provided a musical tone control apparatus that enables a user to easily play a musical instrument without spoiling the user's feeling that he is actually playing a musical instrument. A storage device stores musical piece data containing interval data indicative of intervals of musical tones constituting a musical piece. A motion of an operator is detected. A controller provides control so as to instruct a musical tone output device capable of outputting musical tones to adopt the intervals as one of characteristic amounts relating to musical tones to be output from the musical tone output device, according to the interval data, and instruct the musical tone output device to adopt at least one of the characteristic amounts other than the intervals according to the detected motion of the operator.

Musical tone control apparatus and method

A musical tone signal generation apparatus accommodated for multiple users to play music in an ensemble is configured by a main unit and a prescribed number of performance operators, which are physically separated from each other. The main unit installs speakers that are arranged in connection with the performance operators respectively. At least one of the performance operators is configured as a hold operator that is configured using a pressure sensor mounted on a base member and encapsulated in a hold member which is made by elastic material (e.g., urethane foam) and is formed in a round shape suited for grip of the user. Each of other performance operators installs at least a pad, which is manually operated by each user to issue tone-generation instructions. Performance data (e.g., MIDI data) and tone color data are provided with respect to at least a single musical tune constructed by plural parts respectively corresponding to plural tone colors, which are automatically assigned to the performance operators. Herein, musical tone signals are automatically generated based on the performance data to play automatic performance, or musical tone signals are generated in response to tone-generation instructions being issued from the performance operator to play manual performance by the user. Moreover, the main unit installs a control panel having indicators and switches for prescribed functions and elements in music play such as play, stop, fast forward, reverse, tone volume, tempo and modulation, while the performance operator installs a sub panel having a limited number of switches.

Musical tone signal generation apparatus accommodated for multiple users playing music in ensemble

Growing community of inventors

Hamamatsu, Japan

Masaharu Ono