Patents by Inventor Takeo Shibukawa

Takeo Shibukawa has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5136916
    Abstract: An electroic musical instrument of the present invention is provided with a damper control as well as tone generation instructin device and tone generation device. While the damper control is operated, the tone generation device continues tone generation even if the stop thereof is instructed by the tone generation instruction device. Moreover there is provided pitch control device adapted to change the pitch of the tone currently generated while the damper control is operated.Accordingly, when the damper control is operated, the resulting musical tones can be enhanced in their variety, distinct from normal tone generation. This allows an electronic musical instrument, for example, to generate such sounds as when the damper pedal is stamped with a piano.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 1991
    Date of Patent: August 11, 1992
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Takeo Shibukawa
  • Patent number: 5117728
    Abstract: A soft pedal effect applying apparatus is utilized in an electronic musical instrument in order to apply a soft pedal effect to a musical tone to be generated when a soft pedal is operated, wherein this soft pedal effect is set quite similar to that of a non-electronic musical instrument such as a grand piano. Before operating the soft pedal, a generated musical tone has a reference tone volume and a reference tone color which are determined based on a touch operation intensity applied to a depressed key in a keyboard. By operating the soft pedal, a tone volume of the generated musical tone is softened due to the soft pedal effect by slightly lowering the tone volume by the predetermined tone volume attenuation value, wherein this lowered tone volume can be clearly discriminated from the reference tone volume. Such attenuation value can be arbitrarily varied in response to the tone volume level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1989
    Date of Patent: June 2, 1992
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Takeo Shibukawa, Hidemichi Kimura, Tokuji Hayakawa
  • Patent number: 5078040
    Abstract: When an operation to give a transposition instruction is performed during generation of musical tone, the transposition is not performed for the musical tone being generated but the transposition is performed for only the specific musical tone to which the musical tone generating instruction is given newly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 7, 1992
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Takeo Shibukawa
  • Patent number: 5069104
    Abstract: An automatic key-depression indication apparatus has an examination device which examines whether at least one of the musical note information corresponds to the key-depression information output from the key-depression control device, or not. When the decision is affirmative, it decides that at least one of the keys is correctly depressed which corresponds to a plurality of musical notes, the number of which is less than total number of the musical notes. A key-depression indication is then advanced, thereby enabling practice of a performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 1990
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1991
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Takeo Shibukawa
  • Patent number: 4982644
    Abstract: For imparting a sostenuto effect to a series of sounds produced by key depressions successively repeated in an electronic musical instrument, a searching device searches a first memory device for a first memory channel which has already stored a note information identical with the note information produced on the basis of the repeated key depression, and, then a setting device is actuated in the presence of aforementioned first channel and operative to copy the sostenuto information indicative of the instruction of imparting the sostenuto effect from a second channel paired with aforementioned first channel having already stored the identical note information to the second channel paired with another first channel where the note information produced by the repeated key depression is newly stored, thereby imparting the sostenuto effect between tones produced by repeated key depressions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 1989
    Date of Patent: January 8, 1991
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Takeo Shibukawa
  • Patent number: 4953438
    Abstract: An automatic performance apparatus includes a memory device, an input device, a write device, a switching device, and a write control device. The memory device stores performance information. The input device inputs the performance information. The write device sequentially writes the performance information at predetermined addresses of the memory device on the basis of an operation of the input device. The switching device commands rewriting. In response to a command from the switching device, the write control device returns a write address of the memory device to an immediately preceding start point of a predetermined music composition unit having two or more notes, thereby enabling an easy and accurate edit of the once stored performance information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 1988
    Date of Patent: September 4, 1990
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Takeo Shibukawa
  • Patent number: 4922794
    Abstract: An electronic musical instrument includes a musical tone information storing device, a plurality of external memory devices, a control unit, a switching unit, and a determining unit. The musical tone information storing device stores musical tone information. The control unit controls information transfer between at least one of the external memory devices and the musical tone information storing device. The switching unit generates a transfer command. The determining unit determines whether an external memory device of the highest priority in accordance with a predetermined priority is in a transfer enable state. The control unit controls information transfer between the external memory device of the highest priority which is selected by the determining unit and the musical tone information storing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 1988
    Date of Patent: May 8, 1990
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Takeo Shibukawa
  • Patent number: 4869701
    Abstract: A fabricated toy is equipped with a plurality of toy component members having predetermined shapes, a detecting device for detecting the assembly state of these toy component members, and a sound generating device for emitting sounds in accordance with the assembly state of the toy component members detected by the detecting device so that when the toy component members are correctly assembled, a specific shape is completed. In this fabricated toy, the sound generating device generates the sounds of mutually different kinds in the cases where the toy component members are correctly assembled and incorrectly. Infants, therefore, can play at the assembly of the toy for a long period of time, without losing their interest in the toy, and the toy, which is "a horse" or "a frog", can also serve as educational stuff for assembling correctly the toy into the shape of the animal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1987
    Date of Patent: September 26, 1989
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Kawai, Takeo Shibukawa, Fujiyo Mandai
  • Patent number: 4858508
    Abstract: For imparting a sostenuto effect to a series of sounds produced by key depressions successively repeated in an electronic musical instrument, a searching device searches a first memory device for a first memory channel which has already stored a note information identical with the note information produced on the basis of the repeated key depression, and, then a setting device is actuated in the presence of aforementioned first channel and operative to copy the sostenuto information indicative of the instruction of imparting the sostenuto effect from a second channel paired with aforementioned first channel having already stored the identical note information to the second channel paired with another first channel where the note information produced by the repeated key depression is newly stored, thereby imparting the sostenuto effect between tones produced by repeated key depressions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 1988
    Date of Patent: August 22, 1989
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Takeo Shibukawa
  • Patent number: 4703680
    Abstract: An electronic musical instrument comprises a keyboard for generating tone data or key codes each representative of a tone to be generated and a tone generating circuit having a plurality of tone generating channels. The electronic musical instrument also comprises a RAM having a plurality of storing positions for storing the key codes each of which is assigned under the control of a central processing unit (CPU) to a respective one of the tone generating channels to thereby generate a tone determined by the assigned key code. When a key is newly depressed on the keyboard, each of the key codes stored in the RAM is read therefrom and supplied to an envelope generator which in turn generates data representative of an amplitude of each of the envelopes given to the tones. The key codes read from the RAM are also supplied to a ROM to read therefrom weighting data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 1986
    Date of Patent: November 3, 1987
    Assignee: Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masatada Wachi, Takeo Shibukawa
  • Patent number: 4628788
    Abstract: An automatic rhythm performing apparatus comprises a rhythm pattern generator (A); a rhythm tone generator; a rhythm control switch (B); and a control circuitry (C) connected to the rhythm pattern generator, the rhythm tone generator and the rhythm control switch. The rhythm pattern generator generates repetitively a repetition period signal defining a repetition period, a first (normal) rhythm pattern signal with the period, and a second (fill-in) rhythm pattern signal with the period. The rhythm tone generator generates rhythm tone signals in response to said first and second rhythm pattern signals. The control means controls the generation of the rhythm tone signals to be responsive to which of the first and second rhythm pattern signals according to timings of the actuation of the rhythm control switch. Thus the apparatus carries out a variety of rhythm control according to the timings of the actuation of the rhythm control switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 1985
    Date of Patent: December 16, 1986
    Assignee: Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takeo Shibukawa