Patent ID: 7754957

Claim:
A musical instrument for producing regular tones and after-tones, comprising: plural manipulators moved between respective rest positions and respective end positions; a first timing generator determining a first sort of timing to produce said regular tones equivalent to tones be produced for the manipulators moved toward said end positions; a second timing generator determining a second sort of timing to produce said after-tones equivalent to tones to be produced for the manipulators moved toward said rest positions; and a tone generating system provided in association with said plural manipulators, connected to said first timing generator and said second timing generator, and including an automatic player for giving rise to the movements of said plural manipulators without any fingering of a human player, an acoustic tone generator responsive to movements of said plural manipulators for producing acoustic tones as one of or both of said regular tones and after-tones at said first sort of timing, said second sort of timing or both of said first sort and second sort of timing and an electronic tone generator responsive to said movements of said plural manipulators for electronically producing electronic tones as the other of said regular tones and after-tones at said first sort of timing or said second sort of timing.