An electronic hi-hat 1 has a rod movable up and down with an operation of a player. A top cymbal 2 has a striking surface that can be struck by the player. A bottom cymbal 3 comes into contact with or separates from the top cymbal 2. An optical sensor 7 detects separation dimension between the top cymbal 2 and the bottom cymbal 3. The optical sensor 7 detects separation dimensions of a plurality of areas that are displaced with inclinations of the top cymbal 2 and the bottom cymbal 3 with respect to the rod r. The plurality of areas where the separation dimensions are detected are located on a common circumference of the top cymbal 2 and the bottom cymbal 3 around the rod r as a center.

A sensing system for a keyboard. Each key sensor comprises passive and active resonant circuits. The passive resonant circuit has a resonant frequency and the active resonant circuit excites the passive resonant circuit at the resonant frequency. A sensor driver drives the active resonant circuit with an RF drive signal, a multiplexing system multiplexes the drive signal such that simultaneously driven key sensors are separated by at least (k−1) keys, and a detector detects a level of RF signal from a driven key sensor for sensing a position and/or velocity of a key.

Described herein are embodiments of sensorized spherical input and output devices, systems, and methods for capturing gestural input from a user's physical interactions with a spherical device, including tossing, bouncing and spinning. In one embodiment, the spherical input and output device includes force sensors in a configuration to capture a variety of user gestures with the sphere. A microprocessor receives sensor input and transmits the sensor data to receiving devices which include computer software to translate the sensor signals to audio output, visual output, or various functions on receiving devices. Embodiments of the invention include the integration of inertial measurement units (IMUs), which may include a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers to capture complex user gestures involving motion, direction and spin of the sensorized sphere in three dimensional space.

A tactile touch sensor (TTS) system and method allowing physical augmentation of a high-resolution touch sensor array (TSA) is disclosed. Physical augmentation is accomplished using a TSA physical overlay (TPO) placed on top of the TSA. The TPO is constructed to transmit forces to the underlying TSA. Force transmission is accomplished by either using a flexible overlay or with a rigid mechanical overlay that transmits user forces exerted on the overlay to the underlying TSA. Incorporation of TPO identifiers (TPI) within the TPO permits identification of the TPO by a TPO detector (TPD) allowing operational characteristics of the TSA to be automatically reconfigured to conform to the currently applied TPO structure by a user computing device (UCD). The UCD may be configured to automatically load an appropriate application software driver (ASD) in response to a TPI read by the TPD from the currently applied TPO.

A controller device for the production of electronic music includes multiple control surfaces, including a touch sensitive display and a matrix of actuator pads, each of which are capable of operating in different modes simultaneously.

Mechanism that converts a rotary knob (potentiometer) motion on an electric guitar, into a linear sliding motion. The sliding motion can be easily manipulated by the strumming or picking hand of the musician while simultaneously playing the instrument. This mechanism allows an electric guitarist to make sweeping motions with the picking hand while playing to create musical effects with the tone control known as a “wah wah” sound, or “boo wah” sound, and the volume control to create effects known as “volume swells” or volume “tremolo”. The way this mechanism works is by pushing and pulling on a finger loop that is positioned for easy access, the finger loop is fastened to a trolley that has two bearings on it that roll in a track in the main body. The trolley has a gear rack fastened to it and that gear rack rotates a gear that is fastened to the knob stem on the potentiometer, and the action will rotate the potentiometer to its full range. This mechanism can be installed inside of a guitar body with minor modification. It can also be installed easily and without modification to a Telecaster style electric guitar as an external apparatus.

Mechanism that converts a rotary knob (potentiometer) motion on an electric guitar, into a linear sliding motion. The sliding motion can be easily manipulated by the strumming or picking hand of the musician while simultaneously playing the instrument. This mechanism allows an electric guitarist to make sweeping motions with the picking hand while playing to create musical effects with the tone control known as a “wah wah” sound, or “boo wah” sound, and the volume control to create effects known as “volume swells” or volume “tremolo”. The way this mechanism works is by pushing and pulling on a finger loop that is positioned for easy access, the finger loop is fastened to a trolley that has two bearings on it that roll in a track in the main body. The trolley has a gear rack fastened to it and that gear rack rotates a gear that is fastened to the knob stem on the potentiometer, and the action will rotate the potentiometer to its full range. This mechanism can be installed inside of a guitar body with minor modification. It can also be installed easily and without modification to a Telecaster style electric guitar as an external apparatus.

An electronic hi-hat 1 has a rod movable up and down with an operation of a player. A top cymbal 2 has a striking surface that can be struck by the player. A bottom cymbal 3 comes into contact with or separates from the top cymbal 2. An optical sensor 7 detects separation dimension between the top cymbal 2 and the bottom cymbal 3. The optical sensor 7 detects separation dimensions of a plurality of areas that are displaced with inclinations of the top cymbal 2 and the bottom cymbal 3 with respect to the rod r. The plurality of areas where the separation dimensions are detected are located on a common circumference of the top cymbal 2 and the bottom cymbal 3 around the rod r as a center.

A method for generating a music file for recording user performance may include: detecting, by a sensor, an event indicating a status change of an execution device of the keyboard instrument; generating, by the sensor, a signal corresponding to the detected event; receiving, by a processor, the signal; and generating, by the processor, a music file based on the signal. In some embodiments, the execution device may include a weight lever. The weight lever may a concrete structure in the keyboard instrument to simulate a rebound force generated by hammer striking on string, by striking on an elastic structure. In some embodiments, a rebound force for a first weight lever may be different from a rebound force for a second weight lever by adjusting parameters of the elastic structure or the weight lever.

A manual vibrato control device, system and processing arrangement are disclosed. A manual vibrato includes a rotatable shaft, a raised cam section on the shaft, first and second biased collars received on the shaft either side of the cam section, the bias of the first collar being rotationally opposite to the bias of the second collar such that as the shaft rotates in one direction, it receives a return force from the first collar but does not rotate the second collar, and vice versa.

Also disclosed are processing techniques to take the rotational data from rotational sensors, preferably Hall Effect, on the shaft and generate pitch change instructions for a pitch modification device. The mapping is user controllable to produce desired effects and performance.