Patent ID: 8502059

Claim:
A musical instrument for producing pieces of music data expressing tones, comprising: a keyboard having plural keys selectively depressed so as to specify pitch of said tones in a performance of a piece of music; at least one pedal pressed down so as to specify a pedal effect to be given to at least one of said tones in said performance, and moved along a pedal trajectory divided into more than two regions, one of said more than two regions being assigned to the tones without any pedal effect, others of said more than two regions being respectively assigned to the tones with pedal effects different from one another; a mechanical tone generator connected to said plural keys and said at least one pedal, having vibratory component parts capable of mechanically producing said tones at the specified pitch through vibrations thereof in said performance, and giving the pedal effect to said at least one of said tones in said performance; plural key sensors monitoring said plural keys, and producing key signals representative of key movements in said performance; at least one pedal sensor monitoring said at least one pedal, and producing a pedal signal representative of a pedal movement on said pedal trajectory in said performance and a calibration carried out before said performance; a sound system for producing electronic tones from an audio signal; and a controller connected to said plural key sensors, said at least one pedal sensor, said mechanical tone generator and said sound system, producing music data codes defined in music protocols and expressing at least said specified pitch of said tones and the pedal effect to be given to said at least one of said tones on the basis of said key signals, said pedal signal and relation during said performance on said musical instrument, said relation being established between an input value expressing a current physical quantity of said at least one pedal and a value of the music data code expressing said pedal effect, and having a memory storing said relation in a rewritable manner so as to make it possible to optimize said relation with respect to actual movements of component parts of said mechanical tone generator related to said pedal effects in said calibration, said controller including an electronic tone generator connected to said sound system, capable of producing said audio signal representative of said electronic tones to be produced at said specified pitch in said performance on the basis of said music data codes expressing said at least specified pitch, and modifying said audio signal in said performance so as to give said pedal effect on the basis of said music data code expressing said pedal effect and prepared with reference to said relation, said tones produced by said mechanical tone generator and said electronic tones produced through said electronic tone generator being selective.