ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT WITH DIRECT PRINT INTERFACE

Abstract

In an electronic musical instrument, an input device inputs performance information. A tone generator operates based on tone setting parameters for generating music sounds according to the performance information. A display is capable of switching a plurality of scenes for displaying either of the performance information or tone setting parameters. An image data generation part creates one or a plurality of print image data representing contents of the plurality of the scenes upon detecting a print instruction operation. An interface is provided in the electronic musical instrument to output the print image data directly to an external printer for printing out the contents of the scenes.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1 a and 1b illustrate an example screen and an example print of a display provided in a first embodiment of the electronic musical instrument according to the first aspect of the present invention.

FIGS. 2 a and 2b illustrate an example screen and an example print of a display provided in a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an electronic musical instrument of the first embodiment.

FIGS. 4 a, 4b and 4c illustrate an overview of a USB interface.

FIGS. 5 a and 5b illustrate a detailed configuration of a display of the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a print process main routine in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a print setting information creation subroutine in the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of an image data file preparation subroutine in the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of an image data file creation routine in the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of a print setting information creation subroutine in the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of an image data file preparation subroutine in the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an electronic musical instrument according to the second aspect of the present invention when it is connected to a printer.

FIG. 13 is an overall block diagram of the electronic musical instrument.

FIG. 14 is a format diagram of a tone address table and a tone data table provided in the electronic musical instrument.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating a front part of a program executed on the electronic musical instrument.

FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating a middle part of the program.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating a rear part of the program.

FIG. 18 is a flow chart illustrating details of the print process routine of FIG. 17.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example printout which represents setting states of an operating panel.

FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram illustrating an operator selected from operators in FIG. 12 and illustrating modified examples thereof.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating another example printout which lists setting states of the operating panel.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware structure of an electronic musical instrument according to the third aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a conceptual diagram of descriptors of the USB interface of the electronic musical instrument.

FIG. 24 is a conceptual diagram illustrating connection between the electronic musical instrument and the USB host according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a system flow between the electronic musical instrument and the printer (USB host) according to the embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a flow chart of a procedure for the electronic musical instrument according to the embodiment.

FIG. 27 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of image data created at a process shown in FIG. 26.

Claims

1. An electronic musical instrument comprising: an input device that inputs performance information;a tone generator that operates based on setting parameters for generating music sounds according to the performance information;an image data generation part that generates image data which represents either of the performance information or the setting parameters; andan interface that is directly connectable to an external printer for outputting the image data to the external printer.

2. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a display that is capable of switching a plurality of scenes for displaying either of the performance information or setting parameters, wherein the image data generation part generates one or a plurality of image data representing contents of the plurality of the scenes upon detecting a print instruction operation, and wherein the interface outputs the image data to the external printer for printing the contents of the scenes.

3. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 2, further comprising a print capability acquisition part that acquires information indicating whether or not the external printer has a predetermined print capability through the interface, wherein the image data generation part generates appropriate image data depending on the acquired information indicating whether or not the external printer has the predetermined print capability.

4. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 2, wherein the display comprises a plurality of display elements having different shapes and different positions, each display element changing its display state in response to the switching of the scenes, wherein the electronic musical instrument further comprises a display element information storage part that stores respective positions and shapes of the display elements, and wherein the image data generation part generates the image data based on both of the positions and shapes of the display elements stored in the display element information storage part and the display states of the display elements which change in each scene.

5. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 4, wherein the display further comprises a display face on which a character or figure is printed, wherein the electronic musical instrument further comprises a display face print information storage part that stores a position and shape of the character or figure, and wherein the image data generation part generates the image data based on the position and shape of the character or figure stored in the display face print information storage part.

6. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 2, wherein the image data generation part generates the plurality of the image data corresponding respectively to the plurality of the scenes so as to print out one scene in one page.

7. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 2, wherein the image data generation part generates one image data for two or more of the scenes so that the external printer prints out the two or more scenes in one page.

8. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 2, wherein the display sequentially displays the plurality of the scenes which are automatically switched as the generating of the music sounds progresses.

9. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 8, wherein the display sequentially displays the plurality of the scenes to indicate pitches of the music sounds based on the performance information including note-on events indicating generations of the music sounds and a duration indicating a time interval between the generations of the music sounds, and the display displays each scene based on one note-on event or a plurality of note-on events without duration therebetween in the performance information.

10. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 2, wherein the display displays the scenes according to display image data which represents the contents of the performance information or setting parameters, and the image data generation part generates, as the image data, the same image data as the display image data.

11. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, further comprising: an operating panel that has a plurality of operators for setting an operating mode of the tone generator, wherein the image data generation part generates image data representing a setting state of the operating mode set by the plurality of the operators in a format suitable for the external printer; anda print control part that transmits the generated image data to the external printer through the interface, thereby causing the external printer to print an image of the setting state of the operating mode represented by the transmitted image data.

12. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 11, wherein the image data generation part previously stores panel image data representing an appearance of the operating panel, and generates the image data representing the setting state of the operating mode by integrating images of the plurality of the operators into an image of the appearance of the operating panel represented by the panel image data.

13. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 11, further comprising an indicator lamp indicating the setting state of the operating mode in correspondence to at least a part of the plurality of the operators on the operating panel, wherein the image data generation part generates the image data representing the setting state of the operating mode set by the plurality of the operators in association with an indication of the indicator lamp.

14. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 11, wherein the image data generation part generates the image data for displaying characters representing the setting state of the operating mode set by the plurality of the operators.

15. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, further comprising: a main part including the tone generator and a manual operator for generating music sounds from the tone generator by playing the manual operator under a current setting state;an acquisition part that acquires an image data format printable by the external printer, wherein the image data generation part generates image data representing the current setting state of the main part in the acquired image data format; anda print instruction part that transmits the generated image data to the external printer through the interface, thereby causing the external printer to print the current setting state of the main part.

16. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the input device includes one or more operators for inputting either of setting operation for setting the electronic musical instrument or performance operation, and the tone generator generates music sounds in response to the performance operation, the electronic musical instrument further comprising: an acquisition part that acquires an image data format printable by the external printer;a recording part that records a log which is at least one of a history of operations of the operators and a transition of the setting state of the electronic musical instrument based on a sequence of setting operations by the operators, wherein the image data generation part generates image data representing the recorded log in the acquired image data format; anda print instruction part that transmits the generated image data to the external printer through the interface, thereby causing the external printer to print the log according to the generated image data.

17. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 16, further comprising a reception part that receives performance information for use in the tone generator to generate the music sounds according to the received performance information and that receives setting information for use in setting of the various parts of the electronic musical instrument from external equipment, wherein the recording part records a log which is a history of the reception of the performance information and setting information and a transition of the setting state of the electronic musical instrument due to the setting information.

18. A machine readable medium for use in an electronic musical instrument having an input device that inputs performance information, a tone generator that operates based on setting parameters for generating music sounds according to the performance information, an interface for outputting the image data to an external printer directly connected to the electronic musical instrument, and a processor, the medium containing a program executable by the processor for causing the electronic musical instrument to perform a method comprising: an image data generation process of generating image data which represents either of the performance information or the setting parameters; andan output process of outputting the image data to the external printer through the interface for printing the mage data.

19. The machine readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the electronic musical instrument has a display device, the medium containing the program executable by the processor for causing the electronic musical instrument to perform the method further comprising a display process of switching a plurality of scenes for displaying either of the performance information or setting parameters on a screen of the display device, wherein the image data generation process generates one or a plurality of image data representing contents of the plurality of the scenes upon detecting a print instruction operation, and the output process outputs the image data to the external printer through the interface for printing the contents of the scenes.

20. The machine readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the electronic musical instrument has an operating panel that has a plurality of operators for setting an operating mode of the tone generator, the medium containing the program executable by the processor for causing the electronic musical instrument to perform the method wherein image data generation process generates image data representing the setting state of the operating mode set by the plurality of the operators in a format suitable for the external printer, wherein the method further comprises a print control process of transmitting the generated image data to the external printer through the interface, thereby causing the external printer to print an image of the setting state of the operating mode represented by the transmitted image data.

21. The machine readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the electronic musical instrument has a main part including the tone generator and a manual operator for generating music sounds from the tone generator by playing the manual operator under a current setting state, the medium containing the program executable by the processor for causing the electronic musical instrument to perform the method further comprising: an acquisition process of acquiring an image data format printable by the external printer, wherein the image data generation process generates image data representing the current setting state of the main part in the acquired image data format; anda print instruction process of transmitting the generated image data to the external printer through the interface, thereby causing the external printer to print the current setting state of the main part.

22. The machine readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the electronic musical instrument has the input device including one or more operators for inputting either of setting operation for setting the electronic musical instrument and performance operation, the medium containing the program executable by the processor for causing the electronic musical instrument to perform the method further comprising: an acquisition process of acquiring an image data format printable by the external printer;a recording process of recording a log which is at least one of a history of operations of the operators and a transition of the setting state of the electronic musical instrument based on a sequence of setting operations by the operators, wherein the image data generation process generates image data representing the recorded log in the acquired image data format; anda print instruction process of transmitting the generated image data to the external printer through the interface, thereby causing the external printer to print the log according to the generated image data.