Musical instrument pickup signal processor

• US 9,099,066 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Issued: 08/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stephen Welch
• Original Assignee: Stephen Welch
• Inventors: Welch, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): WARREN, DAVID S
• Application Number:
  US14/213,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20140260906A1
• Time in Patent Office: 508 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/02 Means for controlling the tone frequencies, e.g. attack or decay; Means for producing special musical effects, e.g. vibratos or glissandos
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/211 for microphones, i.e. control of musical parameters either directly from microphone signals or by physically associated peripherals, e.g. karaoke control switches or rhythm sensing accelerometer within the microphone casing microphones per se H04R
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/525 Piezoelectric transducers for vibration sensing or vibration excitation in the audio range; Piezoelectric strain sensing, e.g. as key velocity sensor; Piezoelectric actuators, e.g. key actuation in response to a control voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 3/182 using two or more pick-up means for each string
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 3/186 Means for processing the signal picked up from the strings filtering G10H1/12

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed that facilitates the processing of a sound signal. In embodiments, an input sound signal can be processed according to a computational model using predetermined parameters. A sound signal originating from a musical instrument can be processed according to coefficients that are generated using a learning model.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an interface configured to receive information from one or more sensors associated with a first instrument;

a processing module configured to generate a processed signal by processing the received information according to a predetermined computational model, wherein parameters of the computational model are predetermined by operating on one or more stored sound recordings;

a parameter module configured to determine parameters for the computational model that, when applied to a first stored recording, minimize the difference between the first stored recording and a second stored recording, the first stored recording being received from one or more sensors associated with a second instrument, and the second stored recording being received from one or more microphones; and

an output interface configured to output the processed signal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information received from the one or more sensors is an analog signal that is converted to a digital signal prior to reaching the processing module.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processed signal is a digital signal, and is converted into an analog signal before being output.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first stored recording and the second stored recording are associated with the same musical instrument.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computational model comprises a learning model.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the difference between the first stored recording and the second stored recording is the mean square error.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the difference between the first stored recording and the second stored recording is computed in the frequency domain.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the computational model comprises a plurality of sub-models, the parameters of each sub-model being determined by operating on pre-determined portions of one or more stored sound recordings, wherein the predetermined portions of the stored sound recordings are statistically similar.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors associated with the second instrument comprise one or more musical instrument pickups.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the first instrument and the second instrument comprise the same instrument.

11. A method comprising:

receiving, an electronic communication from one or more sensors;

performing numerical operations on the electronic communication;

wherein the numerical operations are determined by a predetermined computational model;

wherein the parameters of the computational model are predetermined by operating on stored sound recordings;

wherein predetermining the parameters of the computational model comprises;

assigning a stored recording made using a pickup attached to an instrument as the input to the computational model;

assigning a stored recording made using one or more external microphones of a musical instrument as the output of the computational model;

determining parameters for the computational model that, when applied to the input, minimize the variation between the model input and output; and

outputting the operated on electronic communication.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the electronic communication from the one or more sensors is an analog signal that is converted into a digital signal prior to performing numerical operations and the output electronic communication is a digital signal that is converted into an analog signal after being output.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the stored recording made using a pickup and the stored recording made using one or more microphones are made with the same musical instrument.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the variation between the model input and output is the mean square error.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the computational model comprises a plurality of sub-models, the parameters of each sub-model being determined by operating on pre-determined portions of one or more stored sound recordings.

16. One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform the operations comprising:

receiving, an electronic communication from one or more sensors;

generating a processed signal by performing numerical operations on the electronic communication;

wherein the numerical operations are determined by a computational model;

wherein the parameters of the computational model are determined by processing one or more stored sound recordings;

wherein determining the parameters of the computational model comprises;

assigning a first stored recording as the input to the computational model, the first stored recording being made using a pickup attached to an instrument;

assigning a second stored recording as the output of the computational model, the second stored recording being made using one or more external microphones of a musical instrument; and

determining parameters for the computational model that, when applied to the first stored recording, minimize the difference between the first stored recording and the second stored recording; and

outputting the processed signal.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 16, wherein the electronic communication from the one or more sensors is an analog signal that is converted into a digital signal prior to performing numerical operations and the processed signal is a digital signal that is converted into an analog signal after being output.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 16, wherein the first stored recording and the second stored recording are made with the same musical instrument.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 16, wherein the difference between the first stored recording and the second stored recording is the mean square error.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 16, wherein the difference between the first stored recording and the second stored recording is computed in the frequency domain.