Yamaha Corporation

Taro Kawabata

Yuji Fujiwara

Yasuhiko Oba

Kiyoshi Kawamura

Yoshimasa Isozaki

Takashi Tamaki

Shigeru Muramatsu

Jun Ishii

Tadaharu Kato

Fukutaro Okuyama

Rei Furukawa

Wayne L Stahnke

Yasuhiko Ohba

Kenichi Yamauchi

Motoya Kondo

Hironori Osakabe

Teruo Akimoto

Masaaki Suzuki

A performance recording apparatus includes: a performance information acquiring unit which is configured to acquire performance information indicating a performance performed by a performer; a musical score information acquiring unit which is configured to acquire musical score information indicating a musical score that is used in the performance; and a producing unit which is configured to produce a performance file containing the performance information and the musical score information.

Performance recording apparatus

In order to precisely express motion of a key or motion of a hammer, a voice message for the polyphonic key pressure and another voice message for the control change, which stand idle in an automatic player piano, are used to express rough key position or rough hammer position and an offset from the rough key position or rough hammer position, and the offset is described at a high resolution on an ordinary trajectory between the rest position and the end position and at a low resolution outside of the ordinary trajectory; moreover, the numerical range expressed by the third byte of the voice message for the polyphonic key pressure is divided into two numerical sub-ranges respectively assigned to the keys and hammers so that only a few voice messages are required.

Musical instrument recording advanced music data codes for playback, music data generator and music data source for the musical instrument

A keyboard musical instrument has keys equal to a multiple of five assigned to the fingers of a trainee, an electric tutor and an electronic sound generating system, and the electric tutor gives the trainee guide in practicing the fingering along a passage, wherein the electronic sound generating system generates the tones when the trainee satisfies predetermined conditions for the training so as to correctly guide him in the practice.

Training system for music performance, keyboard musical instrument equipped therewith and training keyboard

A keyboard instrument is configured such that a flat panel-like display unit such as a liquid crystal display for displaying character information and/or images is provided on an instrument main body and that speakers, a recording/reproducing unit for multi media such as sound and/or image recording media, a microphone and a 'karaoke' reproduction unit are connected to the display unit so as to improve the function of displaying a notation and/or lyric at the time of a performance, a performance function such as an ensemble performance or 'karaoke' performance, and a tuning function.

Keyboard instrument with touch responsive display unit

A brand-new player piano is designed to have a compatibility with the conventional player piano and the electronic musical instrument based on the MIDI standard while providing a capability of playing a highly skilled music performance such as the performance technique of half stroke. The player piano creates a new version of performance information which uses a key-depression event frame in addition to a string-striking event frame and a key-release event frame. Herein, the string-striking event frame contains extensional information for a string-striking velocity, while the key-release event frame contains extensional information for a key-release velocity. The extensional information is not specifically defined by the MIDI standard and is neglected by the conventional player piano. The key-depression event frame, which is newly introduced by this player piano and is neglected by the conventional player piano, represents a note number and a key-depression velocity as well as extensional information for the key-depression velocity. Using the extensional information, it is possible to control each of the velocities more precisely. The performance information is recorded on a recording media. At a reproduction, the player piano produces trajectory data and position data with respect to each of the keys on the basis of the performance information. The trajectory data represent a key-depression-uniform-motion trajectory and a key-depression-slow-down trajectory along which a key moves when being depressed. The trajectory data also represent a key-release-uniform-motion trajectory and a key-release-slow-up trajectory along which the key moves when being released.

Player piano reproducing special performance techniques using

A solenoid driving circuit contains solenoids, each of which is driven to produce a magnetic field for driving each of keys of a player piano. A NPN transistor is provided to allow or block a flow of current across each solenoid. The solenoid is connected between a DC power source for providing a source voltage and a collector of the NPN transistor whose emitter is grounded. A drive signal, which is subjected to pulse-width modulation, is supplied to a base of the NPN transistor, so that the NPN transistor is switched over between ON and OFF. A diode is introduced to provide prescribed forward voltage for attenuation of the current across the solenoid when the NPN transistor is turned OFF. Herein, an anode of the diode is connected to a connection between the solenoid and NPN transistor, while a cathode of the diode is connected to a cathode of a zener diode having prescribed reverse voltage. An anode of the zener diode is connected to the DC power source. An effective time constant of the solenoid is represented in a mathematical form using the forward voltage, reverse voltage and source voltage as well as a real time constant of the solenoid. So, the solenoid driving circuit designed in such a way that the effective time constant of the solenoid is sufficiently small as compared to a maximum value of an operating frequency of the key of the player piano (i.e., action cutoff frequency of the player piano).

Design for solenoid driving circuit based on regulations of current

An automatic player piano records an original key motion reciprocated between a rest position and an end position as a series of a key-on event, a hammer event and a key-off event by using key/hammer sensors, and supplements the key/hammer event for an unusual key motion such as a half stroke, thereby faithfully reproducing the original key motions in a playback mode.

Keyboard musical instrument equipped with dummy key/hammer event

An automatic player piano controls keys to be rotated by solenoid-operated actuator units in such a manner as to pass a reference point on a trajectory of the key at a reference velocity in a playback mode, and a hammer driven by the depressed key strikes strings at the same intensity as that in a recording mode, because the intensity is variable with the reference velocity at the reference point.

Automatic player piano and estimator for acceleration of depressed key

A hammer sensor incorporated in a keyboard musical instrument monitors a motion of each hammer assembly, and a controller not only determines a hammer velocity and an impact time for generating a set of music data codes representative of a music performance but also measures an actual distance between the hammer sensor and an impact point against a music string on the basis of a forward trajectory and a backward trajectory measured by the hammer sensor; thereby allowing a worker to easily adjust the hammer sensor to an appropriate position.

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Hamamatsu, Japan

Taro Kawabata