Patent Application
20120186419
The present disclosure relates generally to musical instruments, and more particularly, to the electronic processing of sounds from musical instruments.
Cymbals have traditionally been an acoustic-only instrument. For live performance in large spaces or recording sessions, microphones are commonly used to pick up their sound for subsequent amplification and/or recording, but the intent is generally “faithful” reproduction of the natural sound of the cymbals. Occasionally a moderate post-processing effect such as reverb or equalization is applied to tailor the cymbals' sound as required or desired.
The advent of electronic drum kits has naturally given rise to “electronic cymbals.” Like their drum counterparts, these devices are used as electronic “triggers,”—that is, the sound of the “cymbal” itself being struck is not amplified for listening or intended to be heard at all. The “cymbal” (or more accurately, a plastic or plastic-covered replica of a cymbal) is fabricated with a sensor of some type, producing trigger signals that initiate playback of pre-recorded “samples” of acoustic cymbals when struck. The “sound” of the electronic cymbal is changed by changing the sample(s) that are triggered by the sensor being struck. While this approach offers advantages of virtually silent operation and “authentic” pre-recorded cymbal sounds, it suffers greatly in “feel” and “expression.” Drummers are accustomed to the feel of “stick-on-metal” that an acoustic cymbal provides, and the very large range of sound variation achievable by striking an acoustic cymbal in different locations with varying types of strikes, strike force, and striking objects (sticks, mallets, brushes, etc.). Practical, cost-effective sensing schemes are not available for providing the feel and range of expression that drummers are accustomed to with acoustic cymbals.
The cymbal system as described herein can use true metal cymbals or the like, providing drummers with the stick-on-metal feel they value. Sound level can be reduced to acceptable home levels by means of perforations in the cymbal metal if desired. Rather than using the cymbals as “triggers” for sampled sounds, the natural vibrations of the cymbals themselves are converted to electrical signals by means of close-range microphones, contact microphones, or other type (optical, magnetic, etc.) of pickup device, providing isolation of each cymbal's sound from other cymbals in the drum kit. The outputs of these pickups, which can represent the amplitude, frequency and other characteristics of the vibrations, are then sent to a controller/signal processing unit where modifications to the natural sound of the cymbals can be performed. This provides users such as drummers with something that guitarists have long been accustomed to but drummers have never had: access to a wide range of tonal variations via electronic signal processing means while retaining all the natural expressiveness of their instrument's inherent acoustical vibrations.
As described herein, an electronic cymbal system includes a first pickup configured to generate an electrical signal representative of vibrations in a first cymbal, and a controller configured to receive the first electrical signal and to process the first electrical signal to generate an output.
Also as described herein, a controller includes a first input, a digital signal processor (DSP) configured to receive, through the first input, a first electrical signal representative of vibrations in a first cymbal, and to subject the first electrical signal to a digital signal processing technique, and a first output configured to output a version of the subjected first electrical signal.
Also described herein is a method for processing cymbal sound. The method includes detecting vibrations in a first cymbal, generating a first electrical signal representative of the detected vibrations, subjecting the first electrical signal to a digital signal processing technique, and outputting a version of the subjected first electrical signal.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more examples of embodiments and, together with the description of example embodiments, serve to explain the principles and implementations of the embodiments.
In the drawings:
Example embodiments are described herein in the context of an electronic cymbal system. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the example embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used to the extent possible throughout the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or like items.
In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations described herein are shown and described. It will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with application- and business-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
In accordance with this disclosure, some of the components, process steps, and/or data structures described herein may be implemented using various types of operating systems, computing platforms, computer programs, and/or general purpose machines. In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that devices of a less general purpose nature, such as hardwired devices, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or the like, may also be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. Where a method comprising a series of process steps is implemented by a computer or a machine and those process steps can be stored as a series of instructions readable by the machine, they may be stored on a tangible medium such as a computer memory device (e.g., ROM (Read Only Memory), PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Eraseable Programmable Read Only Memory), FLASH Memory, Jump Drive, and the like), magnetic storage medium (e.g., tape, magnetic disk drive, and the like), optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, paper card, paper tape and the like) and other types of program memory.
The term “exemplary” is used exclusively herein to mean “serving as an example, instance or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments.
The connections between the pickups 104 and the controller 102 may be wireless. Alternatively, the connections may be by way of cables 108, in which case such cables can serve the additional purpose of powering lights for providing functional or aesthetic illumination to the cymbals, using for example LEDs. Such an arrangement is shown in
Returning to
Controller 102 also includes a user interface (UI) microcontroller 216 or the like coupled to the DSP 206. Microcontroller 216 is coupled to a memory 218 used for storage of data and code as necessary. Microcontroller 216 is also coupled to a UI 220, through which a user is able to provide input and instructions to the microcontroller 216 and controller 102 and to receive system information therefrom. The system information received can be conveyed in the form of lights (blinking LEDs, etc.), alphanumeric displays, display screens, sounds in the form of tones or pre-recorded or synthesized voices, and so on.
The various components of controller 102, shown independently for illustrative purposes only, might be combined in different ways. For example DSP 206 is shown separately from the A-D and D-A converters 204 and 206 and separately from the microcontroller 216. Depending on cost constraints, product feature set goals, product development strategy, component availability, and so on, however, some or all of these elements may be combined. Further, a powerful enough DSP 206 may incorporate the functionality of the UI microcontroller 216, dispensing with the need for a separate component. The UI microcontroller 216 may incorporate memory 218. It should be noted that some details of each of the various components are omitted for clarity. For instance, the DSP device can include its own dedicated memory (RAM, ROM, etc.) 221 as necessary to perform its functions. Alternatively, the memory can be a separate (or additional) component 221a, and can be expandable as desired.
User interface 220, shown in more detail in
A wide range of signal processing operations is possible by DSP techniques. Among these are dynamic range compression and expansion, frequency equalization, harmonic “exciters,” comb filters, pitch shifters, and the like. These techniques are known in the art and bear no further explanation. The building blocks for these techniques are generally implemented as reconfigurable software elements or modules within the DSP's programming, although complete or partial hardware implementations are also contemplated. The parameters of the various processing blocks and the order of the blocks in the signal chain can be configured as desired via software instructions stored in a presets memory (not shown) and/or in real time via the user interface.
An example signal processing chain empirically found to work particularly well with cymbals is as follows, although other processing chains are contemplated:
Limiter->Pitch Shifter->Exciter->Parametric Equalizer->Comb Filter->Limiter
Many other processing blocks and configurations of processing blocks are possible depending on the DSP's processing speed and power.
If the presets are stored in rewritable memory (RAM, Flash ROM, EEPROM, etc.), such as memories 218, 221 and/or 221a, then provision can be made for user-editing of the preset parameters, either via the on-board interface controls (knobs 222 and buttons 224, for example) or remotely from a desktop PC (not shown) via a standard interface such as USB, MIDI, Ethernet, and so on.
Controller 102 also operates to manage the operation of the LEDs 110 (
Controller 102 is also configured to receive inputs from electronic drums and other, auxiliary devices. The sounds produced by the drums for instance can be mixed with the sound of the cymbals by the DSP 206, with the resultant overall “kit mix” output for amplification and/or recording by subsequent equipment, via audio outputs 212. The signals from the cymbals and drums may be combined into a single integrated system with a consolidated user interface. The elements of the system shown here would be present, augmented by the trigger sensing, sample playback, etc. functions typical of electronic drum sets.
The auxiliary inputs (“Aux Inputs”) are inputs for additional audio sources that can be mixed with the cymbal (and drum) sounds, typically from a play back device such as an mp3 player or the like, so that the user can practice by playing along with prerecorded music.
While embodiments and applications have been shown and described, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing from the inventive concepts disclosed herein. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/966,965, entitled “System And Method For Electronic Processing Of Cymbal Vibration,” filed on Dec. 13, 2010.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12966965 | Dec 2010 | US |
| Child | 13436683 | US |
