Electronic musical instrument

Claim 2

An electronic musical instrument having a parameter adjustment mode and a playing mode of operation, comprising a) a plurality of fret members (24) located at prede­termined spacings; b) a string (16), stretched over said fret members so that a player's depression of the string causes contact between said string and one or ones of said fret members, c) vibration generating and receiving means (28) for producing supersonic vibrations in said string and receiving the supersonic vibrations reflected from any of said fret members through said string, the supersonic vibrations transmitted from said vibration generating and receiving means being reflected from a fret member contacted by said string; and d) fret-position detecting means (A05) responsive to the supersonic vibrations transmitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means for detecting the fret member contacted by said string, said fret-position detecting means comprising - means for detecting the waveform of the supersonic vibrations reflected to said vibration generating and receiv­ing means, - means for detecting a peak value of said waveform, - means (B05) for determining a threshold value in respect of said string during said parameter adjusting mode of operation, and - memory means (50 a /B06) for storing said threshold value during, - means for comparing a peak value detected from said waveform with said threshold value during said playing mode of operation for determining whether or not the waveform is of the supersonic vibrations reflected from any of said fret members.

Claim 3

An electronic musical instrument having a parameter adjustment mode and a playing mode of operation, comprising a) a plurality of fret members (24) located at predeter­mined spacings; b) a string (16) stretched over said fret members so that a player's depression of the string causes contact between said string and one or ones of said fret members, c) vibration generating and receiving means (28) for producing supersonic vibrations in said string and receiving the supersonic vibrations reflected from any of said fret members through said string, the supersonic vibrations transmitted from said vibration generating and receiving means being reflected from a fret member contacted by said string; and d) fret-position detecting means (A05) responsive to the supersonic vibrations transmitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means for detecting the fret member contacted by said string, said fret-position detecting means comprising - memory means (50 b /C06) for storing data representa­tive of a reference time interval for which the supersonic vibrations are transmitted from and reflected to said vibra­tion generating and receiving means in respect of each of said fret members during said parameter adjusting mode of operation, - first detecting means for detecting the time interval for which the supersonic vibrations are transmitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means during said playing mode of operation, - means for comparing the time interval detected by said first detecting means with said reference time interval during said playing mode of operation for thereby determining the fret member from which the supersonic vibrations are reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means, - second detecting means (C01-C05) for detecting the time interval for which the supersonic vibrations are trans­mitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means in respect of a selected one of said fret members during said parameter adjusting mode of operation, and - means (C06-C11) for producing time interval data on the basis of the time interval detected by said second detecting means and and storing said time interval data into said memory means.

Claim 4

An electronic musical instrument having a parameter adjustment mode and a playing mode of operation, comprising a) a plurality of fret members (24) located at predeter­mined spacings; b) a string (16) stretched over said fret members so that a player's depression of the string causes contact between said string and one or ones of said fret members, c) vibration generating and receiving means (28) for producing supersonic vibrations in said string and receiving the supersonic vibrations reflected from any of said fret members through said string, the supersonic vibrations transmitted from said vibration generating and receiving means being reflected from a fret member contacted by said string; and d) fret-position detecting means (A05) responsive to the supersonic vibrations transmitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means for detecting the fret member contacted by said string, said fret-position detecting means comprising - memory means (50 b /C06) for storing data representa­tive of a reference time interval for which the supersonic vibrations are transmitted from and reflected to said vibra­tion generating and receiving means in respect of each of said fret members during said parameter adjusting mode of operation, - first detecting means for detecting the time interval for which the supersonic vibrations are transmitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means during said playing mode of operation, - means for comparing the time interval detected by said first detecting means with said reference time interval during said playing mode of operation for thereby determining the fret member from which the supersonic vibrations are reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means, - second detecting means (C01-C05) for detecting the time interval for which the supersonic vibrations are trans­mitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means in respect of a selected one of said fret members during said parameter adjusting mode of operation, and - means (C06-C11) for producing time interval data on the basis of the time interval detected by said second detecting means and and storing said time interval data into said memory means.

Claim 5

An electronic musical instrument having a parameter adjustment mode and a playing mode of operation, comprising a) a plurality of fret members (24) located at prede­termined spacings; b) a string (16) stretched over said fret members so that a player's depression of the string causes contact between said string and one or ones of said fret members, c) vibration generating and receiving means (28) for producing supersonic vibrations in said string and receiving the supersonic vibrations reflected from any of said fret members through said string, the supersonic vibrations transmitted from said vibration generating and receiving means being reflected from a fret member contacted by said string; d) fret-position detecting means (A05) responsive to the supersonic vibrations transmitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means for detecting the fret member contacted by said string; e) string displacement detecting means (60) for detect­ing an amount of lateral displacement of said string on any of said fret members and producing data representative of the detected amount of lateral displacement of said string; f) memory means (50/D03) for storing said data repre­sentative of the amount of lateral displacement detected with said string maintained in a non-bent state; and g) means for comparing the amount of lateral displacement of said string from the data produced by said string displacement detecting means during said playing operation with the data stored in said memory means for thereby producing bent-string data representative of a corrected amount of lateral displacement of said string.

Claim 6

An electronic musical instrument having a parameter adjustment mode and a playing mode of operation, comprising a) a plurality of fret members (24) located at prede­termined spacings; b) a string (16) stretched over said fret members so that a player's depression of the string causes contact between said string and one or ones of said fret members, c) vibration generating and receiving means (28) for producing supersonic vibrations in said string and receiving the supersonic vibrations reflected from any of said fret members through said string, the supersonic vibrations transmitted from said vibration generating and receiving means being reflected from a fret member contacted by said string; d) fret-position detecting means (A05) responsive to the supersonic vibrations transmitted from and reflected to said vibration generating and receiving means for detecting the fret member contacted by said string; e) string displacement detecting means (60) for detect­ing an amount of lateral displacement of said string on any of said fret members and producing data representative of the detected amount of lateral displacement of said string; f) memory means (50/D03) for storing said data repre­sentative of the amount of lateral displacement detected with said string maintained in a non-bent state; and g) means for comparing the amount of lateral displacement of said string from the data produced by said string displacement detecting means during said playing operation with the data stored in said memory means for thereby producing bent-string data representative of a corrected amount of lateral displacement of said string.