Synthesizer detecting pitch and plucking point of stringed instrument to generate tones

In an electronic musical apparatus having a stringed instrument manually operable at a variable plucking point to commence an acoustic vibration and a tone generator responsive to the acoustic vibration to generate a musical tone having a variable timbre depending on the variable plucking point, a plucking point detecting device comprising:

• pickup means for picking up the acoustic vibration to convert the same into a waveform signal which contains a pair of peaks distributed at a variable time interval depending on the plucking point;
• detector means for processing the waveform signal to measure the time interval between the pair of the peaks so as to detect the plucking point;
• and
• controller means for controlling the tone generator according to the detected plucking point to change the timbre of the tone generator in response to the plucking point.

In an electronic musical apparatus having an acoustic instrument manually operable to commence an acoustic vibration and a tone generator responsive to the acoustic vibration to generate a musical tone having a pitch corresponding to that of the acoustic vibration, a pitch detecting device comprising:

• pickup means for picking up the acoustic vibration to convert the same into a waveform signal;
• detector means for processing the waveform signal to successively detect a pitch of the acoustic vibration;
• quantizer means for successively quantizing the detected pitch and feeding the quantized pitch to the tone generator so that the tone generator can generate the musical tone having the successively quantized pitch;
• and
• controller means operative depending on a specific condition of the acoustic vibration for temporarily disabling the quantizer means so as to feed the detected pitch as it is to the tone generator so that the generated musical tone temporarily maintains the detected pitch which reflects the specific condition of the acoustic vibration.

In an electronic musical apparatus having an acoustic instrument manually operable to commence an acoustic vibration and a tone generator responsive to the acoustic vibration to generate a musical tone having a pitch corresponding to that of the acoustic vibration, a pitch detecting method comprising the steps of:

• picking up the acoustic vibration to convert the same into a waveform signal;
• operating a first detector according to a fast algorithm for processing the waveform signal so as to responsively produce a first output representative of the pitch of the acoustic vibration;
• operating a second detector in parallel to the first detector for processing the same waveform signal according to a slow algorithm so as to stably produce a second output representative of the pitch of the acoustic vibration;
• and
• operating a selector for selectively feeding one of the first output and the second output to the tone generator so that the first detector and the second detector can cooperate complementarily with each other to ensure responsive and stable detection of the pitch of the acoustic vibration.

In an electronic musical apparatus having a stringed instrument manually operable at a variable plucking point to commence an acoustic vibration and a tone generator responsive to the acoustic vibration to generate a musical tone having a variable timbre depending on the variable plucking point, a plucking point detecting method comprising the steps of:

• picking up the acoustic vibration to convert the same into a waveform signal which contains a pair of peaks distributed at a variable time interval depending on the plucking point;
• processing the waveform signal to measure the time interval between the pair of the peaks so as to detect the plucking point;
• and
• controlling the tone generator according to the detected plucking point to change the timbre of the tone generator in response to the plucking point.

In an electronic musical apparatus having an acoustic instrument manually operable to commence an acoustic vibration and a tone generator responsive to the acoustic vibration to generate a musical tone having a pitch corresponding to that of the acoustic vibration, a pitch detecting method comprising the steps of:

• picking up the acoustic vibration to convert the same into a waveform signal;
• processing the waveform signal to successively detect a pitch of the acoustic vibration;
• operating a quantizer for successively quantizing the detected pitch and feeding the quantized pitch to the tone generator so that the tone generator can generate the musical tone having the successively quantized pitch;
• and
• operating a controller dependently on a specific condition of the acoustic vibration for temporarily disabling the quantizer so as to feed the detected pitch as it is to the tone generator so that the generated musical tone temporarily maintains the detected pitch which reflects the specific condition of the acoustic vibration.

A machine-readable media for use in an electronic musical apparatus having an acoustic instrument manually operable to commence an acoustic vibration and a tone generator responsive to the acoustic vibration to generate a musical tone having a pitch corresponding to that of the acoustic vibration, the machine-readable media containing instructions executable by the electronic musical apparatus for causing the electronic musical apparatus to perform a pitch detecting operation including the steps of:

• picking up the acoustic vibration to convert the same into a waveform signal;
• operating a first detector according to a fast algorithm for processing the waveform signal so as to responsively produce a first output representative of the pitch of the acoustic vibration;
• operating a second detector in parallel to the first detector for processing the same waveform signal according to a slow algorithm so as to stably produce a second output representative of the pitch of the acoustic vibration;
• and
• operating a selector for selectively feeding one of the first output and the second output to the tone generator so that the first detector and the second detector can cooperate complementarily with each other to ensure responsive and stable detection of the pitch of the acoustic vibration.

A machine-readable media for use in an electronic musical apparatus having a stringed instrument manually operable at a variable plucking point to commence an acoustic vibration and a tone generator responsive to the acoustic vibration to generate a musical tone having a variable timbre depending on the variable plucking point, the machine-readable media containing instructions executable by the electronic musical apparatus for causing the electronic musical apparatus to perform a plucking point detecting operation including the steps of:

• picking up the acoustic vibration to convert the same into a waveform signal which contains a pair of peaks distributed at a variable time interval depending on the plucking point;
• processing the waveform signal to measure the time interval between the pair of the peaks so as to detect the plucking point;
• and
• controlling the tone generator according to the detected plucking point to change the timbre of the tone generator in response to the plucking point.

A machine-readable media for use in an electronic musical apparatus having an acoustic instrument manually operable to commence an acoustic vibration and a tone generator responsive to the acoustic vibration to generate a musical tone having a pitch corresponding to that of the acoustic vibration, the machine-readable media containing instructions executable by the electronic musical apparatus for causing the electronic musical apparatus to perform a pitch detecting operation including the steps of:

• picking up the acoustic vibration to convert the same into a waveform signal;
• processing the waveform signal to successively detect a pitch of the acoustic vibration;
• operating a quantizer for successively quantizing the detected pitch and feeding the quantized pitch to the tone generator so that the tone generator can generate the musical tone having the successively quantized pitch;
• and
• operating a controller dependently on a specific condition of the acoustic vibration for temporarily disabling the quantizer so as to feed the detected pitch as it is to the tone generator so that the generated musical tone temporarily maintains the detected pitch which reflects the specific condition of the acoustic vibration.