Stringed instrument for connection to a computer to implement DSP modeling

• US 8,692,101 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2010
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Guitar Group, Inc. (Yamaha Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Line 6, Inc. (Yamaha Corporation)
• Inventors: Ryle, Marcus, Doidic, Michel A., Celi, Peter J., Zak, Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): FLETCHER, MARLON T
• Application Number:
  US12/858,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20100313740A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,329 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 84/723
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/053 during execution only voice controlled instruments G10H5/005
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/125 using a digital filter
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/281 Reverberation or echo
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/111 Spint ukulele, i.e. mimicking any smaller guitar-like flat bridge string instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/115 Spint sitar, i.e. mimicking any long-necked plucked string instrument with a large number of additional non-playable sympathetic resonating strings or an additional gourd-like resonating chamber
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/121 Spint mandolin, i.e. mimicking instruments of the lute family with hard sounding board, e.g. with strings arranged and tuned in pairs for tremolo playing lute with skin -like sounding board G10H2230/151
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/151 Spint banjo, i.e. mimicking a stringed instrument with a piece of plastic or animal skin stretched over a circular frame or gourd, e.g. shamisen or other skin-covered lutes
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2250/051 with variable time delay or variable length
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2250/115 FIR impulse, e.g. for echoes or room acoustics, the shape of the impulse response is specified in particular according to delay times FIR filters for musical processing G10H2250/075
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 3/183 in which the position of the pick-up means is adjustable
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 3/186 Means for processing the signal picked up from the strings filtering G10H1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 3/188 for converting the signal to digital format transmission using a MIDI interface G10H1/0066

Abstract

Disclosed is a stringed instrument that includes a plurality of strings and a pickup to which each of the plurality of strings is respectively coupled that is connectable to a computer to implement DSP modeling. A serial interface circuit is coupled to the pickup and to a digital connector that formats each digital string vibration signal received from the pickup into a digital serial protocol. A computer is coupled by a serial link to the digital connector such that the computer receives each serially formatted digital string signal (SFDSS). The computer operates at least one audio DSP-based software module to process each received SFDSS wherein each SFDSS is processed in order to emulate a corresponding string tone of one of a plurality of stringed instruments to create an emulated digital string tone signal (EDSTS). Each EDSTS is then transmitted back over the serial link to the stringed instrument for playback.

Claims

1. A processor-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by a processor of a computer, causes the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving serially formatted digital string signals over a serial link, the received serially formatted digital string signals associated with detected string vibration signals of played strings of a stringed instrument transmitted to the computer over the serial link; and

processing each serially formatted digital string signal utilizing a DSP-based software module in order to emulate a corresponding string tone of a model of a stringed instrument selected by a user from a plurality of selectable models of stringed instruments to create an emulated digital sting tone signal, wherein electric guitar DSP-based modeling is performed by the DSP-based software module that implements a digital filter to emulate electromagnetic pickup locations for an electric guitar model selected by a user to be emulated.

2. The processor-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to transmit each emulated digital string tone signal back over the serial link to the stringed instrument for playback through the stringed instrument.

3. The processor-readable medium of claim 2, wherein, the serial link includes a separate channel for each serially formatted digital string signal transmitted from the stringed instrument to the computer.

4. The processor-readable medium of claim 3, further comprising instructions to perform operations to create a left stereo mix of the emulated digital string tone signals and a right stereo mix of the emulated digital string tone signals, and transmitting both the left and right stereo mix of emulated digital string tone signals back over the serial link to the stringed instrument for playback.

5. The processor-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to perform acoustic guitar DSP-based modeling to process each received serially formatted digital string signal in order to emulate a corresponding string tone of one of a plurality of different acoustic guitars to create an emulated acoustic guitar digital string tone signal, each emulated acoustic guitar digital string tone signal being transmitted back over the serial link to the stringed instrument for playback.

6. The processor-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to perform pitch transposition to process each serially formatted digital string signal in order to alter the pitch of each received serially formatted digital string signal.

7. The processor-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to store each serially formatted digital string signal at the computer and to process each serially formatted digital string signal later in time during post-editing in order to emulate a corresponding string tone of one of a plurality of stringed instruments to create an emulated digital string tone signal.

8. The processor-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to extract signal information including at least a pitch of each serially formatted digital string signal.

9. The processor-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions to implement a synthesizer engine to create synthesized sounds, wherein based upon the extracted signal information, associated synthesized sounds are triggered and rendered for playback.

10. The processor-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions to implement a wavetable playback engine to create sounds, wherein based upon the extracted signal information, associated pre-recorded sounds in wave file format are triggered and rendered for playback.

11. A processor-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by a processor of a computer, causes the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of digitized string vibration signals; and

processing each digitized string vibration signal;

wherein each digitized string vibration signal is processed utilizing a DSP-based software module to emulate a corresponding string tone of a model of a stringed instrument selected by a user from a plurality of selectable models of stringed instruments to create an emulated digital sting tone signal such that a complete stringed instrument is emulated, wherein electric guitar DSP-based modeling is performed by the DSP-based software module that implements a digital filter to emulate electromagnetic pick-up locations for an electric guitar model selected by a user to be emulated.

12. The processor-readable medium of claim 11, wherein each received digitized string signal is transduced from a pickup of a guitar.

13. The processor-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the received digitized string signal are received in real-time as a plurality of strings of a stringed instrument are played, the digitized string vibration signals being associated with the played strings.

14. The processor-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the received digitized string signals are transmitted from a pre-recorded file.

15. The processor-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions to perform acoustic guitar DSP-based modeling to process each received digitized string signal in order to emulate a corresponding string tone of one of a plurality of different acoustic guitars to create an emulated acoustic guitar digital string tone signal.

16. The processor-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions to perform pitch transposition to process each digitized string signal in order to alter the pitch of each received digitized string signal.

17. The processor-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions to extract signal information including at least a pitch of each digitized string signal.

18. The processor-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions to implement a synthesizer engine to create synthesized sounds, wherein based upon the extracted signal information, associated synthesized sounds are triggered and rendered for playback.

19. The processor-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions to implement a wavetable playback engine to create sounds, wherein based upon the extracted signal information, associated pre-recorded sounds in wave file format are triggered and rendered for playback.

20. The processor-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the processed digitized string vibration signal undergoes further processing to emulate one of a plurality of amplifiers and cabinet setups.

21. A processor-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by a processor of a computer, causes the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of digital string vibration signals;

storing the digital string vibration signals; and

processing the stored digital string vibration signals, later in time, during post-editing, wherein each digital string vibration signal is processed utilizing a DSP-based software module to emulate a corresponding string tone of a model of a stringed instrument selected by a user from a plurality of selectable models of stringed instruments to create an emulated digital sting tone signal, wherein electric guitar DSP-based modeling is performed by the DSP-based software module that implements a digital filter to emulate electromagnetic pick-up locations for an electric guitar model selected by a user to be emulated.

22. The processor-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the audio DSP-based software module includes an acoustic guitar DSP-based modeling software module to process each stored digital string signal in order to emulate a corresponding string tone of one of a plurality of different acoustic guitars to create an emulated acoustic guitar digital string tone signal.

23. The processor-readable medium of claim 21, wherein each stored digital string signal is processed by a pitch-transposition software module to alter the pitch of each stored digital string signal.

24. The processor-readable medium of claim 21, wherein each stored digital string signal is processed to extract signal information including at least a pitch of the digital string signal.

25. The processor-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising instructions to render synthesized sounds based upon the extracted signal information.

26. The processor-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising instructions to render pre-recorded sounds in an audio file format based upon the extracted signal information.