1. Technical Field
The present patent document relates generally electronic music instruments and controllers, and more particularly to an improved electronic keyboard instrument, called a “keytar”.
2. Background of the Related Art
The “keytar” is a musical instrument with a piano-style keyboard that is worn with a strap like a guitar. It can have a built-in sound generator, or merely be a controller for an external sound generator.
The keytar is a relatively obscure but still established music instrument. A history of it can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keytar.
Although keytars have all the versatility of a synthesizer, many musicians find using a keyboard to generate other types of sounds awkward. Because the keyboard keys abut one another, it is easy to strike multiple or the incorrect key. So, for instance, if a musician desires to play percussive sound using the keyboard keys, using a slap-style of play similar to a bass player is impractical.
Also, many keyboards include function controls, like a pitch-bend control, to apply effects to the sound of the keyboard. However, these controls require the use of two hands to operate the controls. Keytars suffer a disadvantage to typical synthesizer keyboard because keytars are played with one hand, like a guitar is strummed. Although the musician's second hand is free to operate other functions controls, many musicians find this arrangement awkward at best.
Therefore, there is a perceived need in the industry for an improved keytar that provides the ability to generate a wider range of sounds and provide better easier controls to operate the keyboard functions, which can lead to better showmanship for stage acts.
Furthermore, tablet computers, such as the Apple iPad brand tablet computer, have emerged as popular devices for creating and composing music. Although a tablet computer's touch screen offers some interesting possibilities for the control and creation of music, these touch screens are inherently small when compared to the control surface of a piano. Also, the touch interface requires users to learn a new way of playing and composing music. That is, the touch control interface does not permit a user to interact with a full size piano keyboard in the same manner as operating the respective music instrument.
Therefore, there is a perceived need in the industry for an interface for a tablet computer that permits a user to compose and play music as one would with a traditional instrument.
The present invention solves the problems of the prior art by providing an improved keytar that includes a dock for including a tablet computing device (or just tablet computer), such as an Apple iPad brand tablet computer, a series of optimally placed drum pads and may also include an accelerometer configured to generate MIDI continuous controller values.
The controller uses the tablet computer's touch screen and digital signal processing (“DSP”) engine to control and produce the sound. Use of the tablet computer's inherent components reduces the cost of the controller because these components do not need to be included in the controller.
In addition to the piano-style keyboard, the improved keytar adds additional functionality to this instrument for greater performance and control possibilities. The included percussion pads enable drum sounds that can be more easily played on the instrument. Furthermore, the placement of the drum pads has been optimized to permit “slap bass” style of playing, which musicians find intuitive, and leads to dynamic performances. Specifically, these drum pads allow the musician to trigger drum sounds in a more natural and realistic way than using piano keys. The triggering method is very similar to how a bass player slaps the strings with his thumb and plucks with this fingers on a bass guitar. Thus, it is a very natural way of triggering percussive sounds.
Also, included is an accelerometer to determine if the instrument is tilted relative to the horizontal, in which case a MIDI continuous control is generated to modulate or affect the sound. For instance, the MIDI continuous control signal can be set to change the timbre, volume, or other parameter of a sound, offering new performance possibilities. As can be readily understood, the use of an accelerometer frees the musician to concentrate on playing the keytar. A side-effect of the accelerometer is also that it forces the musician to rock and tile the keytar which leads to a more physically expressive style of playing that entertains live audiences.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:
Referring now to
A cavity 27 is formed in the keyboard body 14 and is sized and dimensioned to hold a tablet computer 29, such as an Apple iPad brand tablet computer 29. Optional spacers and sleeves may be used to allow tablet computers 29 of different dimensions to be inserted into the cavity 27. An edge 31 defines an opening through the keytar body 14 and into the cavity 27. The edge 31 also forms lip 33 that overlaps the tablet computer 29.
The keyboard body 14 includes a neck 28 extending from the left side 20 of the keyboard body 14, which functions as a handle for the musician's left hand and includes additional controls to change the functions of the keytar 10. A fastening point 35 for a guitar strap to make the keytar 10 easier to carry may be located on the neck 28 or back 25 of the keyboard body 12 as is known in the art. The second fastening point 30 for the strap is located on the right side 22 of the keyboard body 14. It is important to note that the keytar 10 described and shown herein is set up for right-handed musicians, meaning the musician's right hand is primarily used to play the keyboard 12 keys. One skilled in the art would find it elementary to reverse the structures to make a keytar 10 for left-handed musicians.
Located the keytar body 14, so as to be easily accessible by the musician's right hand, are a number of drum pads 32. The drum pads 32, as will be more fully described below, permit the musician to play percussion sounds with the keytar 10. These drum pads 32 may also be configured to trigger other percussion sounds, such as cymbals too.
Referring to
A recess 38 is provided on the rear of the keytar body 14 to allow access to the headphone output and to manipulate buttons on the tablet computer 29, such as power, rotation lock, volume and mute switches.
Referring to
The locking mechanism includes a pair of locking members 40 biased outwardly from each other via a spring 42. The locking members 40 include finger holds 44, which a user squeezes together to release the locking mechanism permitting the door 34 to be opened. Each locking member 40 includes a beveled tongue 46 that engages reliefs 48 in the keytar body 14 to lock the door 34 shut.
The interior side of the door 34 includes a compressable layer 50 that deforms to capture the tablet computer 29 against the lip 33 of the keytar body 14.
Referring now to
The microprocessor 54 constantly scans the state of the keytar controls 58 (such as drum pads and keyboard keys). Each control 58 may be read by an individual port pin of the microprocessor 54. Alternatively, each control 58 can be formed into a matrix of rows and columns and read by a smaller number of microprocessor 54 pins, as is known in the art.
Audio from the tablet computer 29 is outputted digitally through the high-speed data controller integrated with the microprocessor 54. Digital audio transmitted via the high-speed data controller is passed through a digital-to-analog converter 60. The digital-to-analog converter 60 is connected to one or more connectors 62, such as XLR jacks, ¼″ jack, ⅛″ jack, RCA jacks, or other audio connectors. The analog output of the digital-to-analog converter 60 may also be passed through a differential operational amplifier 64, which may include an optional volume control, prior to being passed transmitted to the connectors 62.
Alternatively, audio may be outputted from the tablet computer 29 through the built-in analog outputs included on most commercial tablet computers 29 as is known in the art.
Each keytar control 58 has a particular MIDI note assigned to it. When the microprocessor 54 detects that a particular control 58 has been activated, it sends a MIDI note “On” signal to the keytar's MIDI outputs, which can be traditional 5-pin MIDI 66 or USB MIDI via a USB interface 68. MIDI output may also be transmitted from the tablet computer 29 to the keytar's MIDI outputs
To measure the tilt of the keytar 10, an accelerometer 70 is read by the microprocessor 54 through an analog to digital converter 72. The value of the accelerometer 70 is converted into a MIDI continuous controller value by the microprocessor 54, which may be transmitted to the tablet computer 29 for additional sound processing (and conversion to audio outputted through the connectors 62) or may be outputted via the MIDI outputs 66, 68 to control an external synthesizer or computer.
Therefore, the improved keytar solves the problems of the prior art by providing a keytar that includes a dock for a tablet computer, integrated drum pads and accelerometer functions, which makes the keytar a more versatile instrument. Because the improved keytar is more versatile it breathes new life into an instrument that has been considered an oddity in the commercial market. The improved keytar will make this old instrument into a staple instrument of future bands.
It would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the illustrated embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention. All such modifications and changes are intended to be within the scope of the present invention.
This patent document claims priority to earlier filed U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/489,876, filed May 25, 2011, and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/463,462, filed on May 3, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61489876 | May 2011 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13463462 | May 2012 | US |
Child | 13478474 | US |