1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a musical tone control apparatus for controlling a musical tone in response to the movement at several portions of a player.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, a musical tone is generated by playing a musical instrument such as a piano, a violin and the like or by use of vocal cords of a player: known musical instruments cannot convert a body action of player such as a rhythmic exercise into the corresponding musical tone.
Therefore, a musical tone control apparatus for converting the body action of player into a musical tone has been proposed (see European Patent Application Laid-Open No. 0264782 assigned to the same assignee as the present invention).
FIGS. 1 and 2 are figures showing the configuration of the musical tone control apparatus. This proposed musical tone control apparatus consists of a main body 1, a detector 2 for detecting motion of a player's right elbow, a detector 3 for detecting motion of a player's left elbow, and a detector 4 for detecting motion of a player's right hand. The main body 1 is worn round a player's waist by a belt 5 and the detectors 2, 3 and 4 are mounted on the player's right elbow, left elbow and right hand, respectively. The main body 1 comprises not only a musical tone control apparatus but also a musical tone signal generating circuit 26 controlled by the musical tone control apparatus, and a speaker 27.
Now, detailed description will be given about the conventional detectors 2, 3 and 4. First, as shown in FIG. 3, the detector 2 for player's right elbow consists of a supporter 7a, a potentiometer 8a attached to the supporter 7a, a lever 10a connected to a shaft 9a of the potentiometer 8a, and a cylinder 12a in which the tip of the lever 10a is inserted and whose end 14a is attached to the supporter 7a. When the right elbow is bent with the player's right arm movement, the cylinder 12a and the lever 10a revolve, causing the shaft 9a of the potentiometer 8a to rotate with a sliding element in the potentiometer 8a. The detector 3 is made similar to the detector 2; when the left elbow is moved, a cylinder 12b (FIG. 1) and a lever rotate a sliding element in a potentiometer 8b. Terminals of the potentiometers 8a and 8b in the detectors 2 and 3 are connected to the main body 1 through cables 15a and 15b.
The detector 4 includes a glove 16 made of an elastic material and a potentiometer 8c. The potentiometer 8c is attached to the wrist portion of the glove 16. As in the detector 2, a lever whose tip is inserted into a cylinder 12c is connected to a shaft of the potentiometer 8c and the cylinder 12c is attached to the glove 16. In addition, on the inside of four finger tips of the glove 16, strain transducers 17a-17d are fixed whose proper resistances vary in accordance with respective pressures exerted on corresponding finger tips. No pressure is exerted on the strain transducers 17a-17d when the fingers are stretched. On the other hand, when the fingers are bent, pressure proportional to bending angles of the finger tips are exerted on the strain transducers 17a-17d, resulting in a variation of their proper resistances. Terminals of the potentiometer 8c and strain transducers 17a-17d are connected to the main body 1 through a cable 15c.
In FIG. 2, 20 denotes a seven-channel analog multiplexer which can select one of the detection signals (voltage signals) applied from the potentiometers 8a-8c and the strain transducers 17a-17d based on the channel-selection signal CS applied to a selection terminal thereof. An A/D converter (analog-to-digital converter) 21 converts a detection signal from the analog multiplexer 20 into digital detection data of predetermined bits. A CPU (central processing unit) 22 controls the musical tone control apparatus using programs stored in a ROM (read only memory) 23. A RAM (random access memory) 24 is used as a work area. The CPU 22 supplies the sequentially varying channel-selection signal CS to the analog multiplexer 20 so that the outputs of the potentiometers 8a-8c and the pressure transducers 17a-17d are scanned at a high speed. In addition, the CPU 22 discriminates the bendng angles of the player's right and left elbows by use of four angle stages based on the detection data from the A/D converter 21. On the basis of the discrimination result, the CPU 22 generates key code data KC indicating one of the predetermined tone pitches in response to combination of the bending angles of the player's right and left elbows. Further, the CPU 22 discriminates the bending angle of the player's right wrist by use of three angle stages based on the detection data which are obtained by converting the signal from the potentiometer 8c with the A/D converter 21. On the basis of the discrimination result, the CPU 22 generates tone volume data VOL selectively designating one of the predetermined three tone volumes (i.e., big, middle and small tone volumes) in response to the bending angle of the player's right wrist. Moreover, the CPU 22 discriminates whether each of the four fingers (i.e., index finger, middle finger, ring finger and little finger) is bent or not. On the basis of the discrimination result the CPU 22 generates tone color data TD selectively designating one of the predetermined tone colors (such as a piano, an organ, a flute, a saxophone, a clarinet and the like) in response to the combination of bent fingers. The key code data KC, the tone volume data VOL, and the tone color data TD which are generated in CPU 22 (these data are generally called musical tone control data) are transferred to a musical tone signal generating circuit 26 through a bus line 25. The musical tone signal generating circuit 26 generates a musical tone signal having the tone pitch corresponding to the key code data KC, the tone volume corresponding to the tone volume data VOL, and the tone color corresponding to the tone color data TD. The musical tone signal outputted from the musical tone signal generating circuit 26 is supplied to a speaker 27 for producing a musical tone as well as to a transmitter circuit 28 for transmitting the musical tone signal by wireless.
According to the apparatus described above, the combination of the bending angles of the player's right and left elbows can change the tone pitch of the musical tone produced out of the speaker 27 in the main body 1. Further, the bending angle of the player's right wrist can change the musical tone volume at the three steps. Moreover, the combination of bent fingers among the player's four fingers can change the tone color of the musical tone. Thus movements of the player can control the musical tone.
In the above mentioned conventional musical tone control apparatus, however, the output of the detector 2 for the right elbow, the output of the detector 3 for the left elbow, and the output of the detector 4 for the right hand are respectively transferred to the main body 1 through separate cables 15a, 15b and 15c, resulting in that the cables, especially the cables 15a and 15c extending along the player's right arm to the main body 1 are apt to twist together when the player moves with the detectors 2-4 put on him. This hinders smooth movement of the player.
Further, when the detectors 2-4 are mounted on respective joints, they hinder the player's smooth motion by their rather bulky size, because these detectors 2-4 consist of the respective potentiometers 8a-8c, and the respective transmitting mechanisms (the levers and the cylinders 12a-12c) for transmitting movements of joints to the sliding elements in the potentiometers 8a-8c.