Electronic wind instrument, method of controlling electronic wind instrument, and storage medium storing program for electronic wind instrument

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10360884-B2
Application number	US-201815919899-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2018
Priority date	Mar 15, 2017
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

An electronic wind instrument according to one aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of performance keys for specifying pitches, a breath sensor which detects at least a breath input operation, and a controller (CPU), wherein the controller (CPU) selectively switches between a first mode of outputting first sound waveform data generated on the basis of the breath input operation and operation of at least one performance key from among the plurality of performance keys, and a second mode of, when the breath input operation is detected, outputting second sound waveform data based on musical piece data regardless of whether operation of the at least one performance key is detected or is not detected.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic wind instrument, comprising:
a plurality of performance keys for respectively specifying pitches;
a breath sensor that detects a breath input operation by a user;
a memory storing therein musical piece data of a musical piece, the musical piece data including a part to be played by the electronic wind instrument; and
a processor,
wherein the processor defines user-selectable at least two modes of operation, which are a normal mode and a practice mode,
wherein in the normal mode, the processor generates sound waveform data in accordance with both of the breath input operation and operations of the plurality of performance keys by the user, and causes the generated sound waveform date to output audibly to the user, and
wherein in the practice mode, the processor performs the following:
receiving instructions from the user to select the musical piece to be practiced;
reading out at least a portion of the musical piece data representing at least a pitch of a note to be played by the electronic wind instrument in the selected musical piece from the memory;
generating sound waveform data, even if there is no operation of the performance keys by the user, in accordance with the breath input operation by the user and said read out portion of the musical piece data representing at least the pitch of the note; and
causing the generated sound waveform data to output audibly to the user so that the user can practice the breath input operation for the musical piece even if there is no operation of the performance keys by the user,

wherein the breath sensor outputs a breath value representing a pressure of a breath applied by the user, and the processor determines a degree of the breath input operation performed by the user based on the breath value, and
wherein in the practice mode, said portion of the musical piece data further includes data representing a sound effect to be applied to the note to be played and a base breath value associated with the sound effect, and the processor determines a degree of the sound effect to be applied to the note based on a difference between the base breath value and the breath value output by the breath sensor, and applies the determined degree of the sound effect to the note to be played in generating the sound waveform data.

2. The electronic wind instrument according to claim 1 , wherein for at least some of notes on the musical piece data, said sound effect is vibrato, and when the portion of the musical piece data read out by the processor includes data representing the vibrato to be applied to the note, the processor increases a depth of the vibrato to be applied to the note from a default value included in the read out portion of the musical piece data when the breath value is greater than the base breath value, and decreases the depth of vibrato to be applied to the note from the default value included in the read out portion of the musical piece data when the breath value is less than the base breath value, in generating the sound waveform data.

3. The electronic wind instrument according to claim 1 , wherein for at least some of notes on the musical piece data, said sound effect is a growling technique, and when the portion of the musical piece data read out by the processor includes data representing the growling technique to be applied to the note, the processor increases a growling waveform synthesizing ratio from a default value included in the read out portion of the musical piece data when the breath value is greater than the base breath value, and decreases the growling waveform synthesizing ratio from the default value included in the read out portion of the musical piece data when the breath value is less than the base breath value, in generating the sound waveform data.

4. The electronic wind instrument according to claim 1 , wherein for at least some of notes on the musical piece data, said sound effect is a subtone technique, and when the portion of the musical piece data read out by the processor includes data representing the subtone technique to be applied to the note, the processor increases a subtone waveform synthesizing ratio from a default value included in the read out portion of the musical piece data when the breath value is greater than the base breath value, and decreases the subtone waveform synthesizing ratio from the default value included in the read out portion of the musical piece data when the breath value is less than the base breath value, in generating the sound waveform data.

5. The electronic wind instrument according to claim 1 ,
wherein the musical piece data includes identifiers that define a breath input operation segment that includes a plurality of successive series of notes to be played and a plurality of breathing on and off operations to be performed by the user, and
wherein when the practice mode is executed in the breath input operation segment of the musical piece data, the processor generates sound waveform data such that the successive series of notes included in the breath input operation segment are output in synchronization with the plurality of breathing on and off operations that are actually performed by the user so as to reflect timings of the breathing on and off operations that are actually performed by the user.

6. The electronic wind instrument according to claim 5 , wherein while the practice mode is selected, if another breath input operation is detected after the breath input operation segment has ended, the processor generates sound waveform data based on the musical piece data from an end position of the breath input operation segment so as to cause the generated sound waveform data to output after the breath input operation segment has ended.

7. The electronic wind instrument according to claim 1 ,
wherein in the practice mode, said portion of the musical piece data further includes data representing a sound effect to be applied to the note to be played and a base breath value for modifying a volume of the note to be played, and the processor modifies the volume of the note based on a difference between the base breath value and the breath value output by the breath sensor, and applies the sound effect represented by said data included in said portion of the musical data to the note in generating the sound waveform data.

8. The electronic wind instrument according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processor defines another user-selectable mode, which is a key operation practice mode, and
wherein in the key operation practice mode, the processor performs the following:
receiving instructions from the user to select the musical piece to be practiced;
reading out at least a portion of the musical piece data representing at least the breath input operations to be performed by the user in the selected musical piece from the memory;
ignoring any breath input operation actually performed by the user;
generating sound waveform data in accordance with said portion of the musical piece data representing at least the breath input operations and operations of the plurality of performance keys actually performed by the user; and
causing the generated sound waveform data to output audibly to the user so that the user can practice the operations of the performance keys for the musical piece without the breath input operation by the user.

9. The electronic wind instrument according to claim 8 , wherein while the key practice mode is selected, the processor causes the performance keys that should be operated by the user to be indicated to the user in accordance with said read-out portion of the musical piece data so as to assist the user practice.

10. A method performed by a processor in

Assignees

• Casio Computer Co Ltd

Inventors

• Okuda Hiroko
• Hayashi Ryutaro

Classifications

• G10H2210/221

  Glissando, i.e. pitch smoothly sliding from one note to another, e.g. gliss, glide, slide, bend, smear or sweep · CPC title

• G10H1/0008 Primary

  Associated control or indicating means · CPC title

• G10H2220/361

  Mouth control in general, i.e. breath, mouth, teeth, tongue or lip-controlled input devices or sensors detecting, e.g. lip position, lip vibration, air pressure, air velocity, air flow or air jet angle · CPC title

• G10H2250/461

  Gensound wind instruments, i.e. generating or synthesising the sound of a wind instrument, controlling specific features of said sound · CPC title

• G10H1/053

  during execution only {(voice controlled instruments G10H5/005)} · CPC title