WO2023222691A1 - Keyboard instrument for optional mute mode - Google Patents

Abstract

A keyboard instrument (10) for optional mute mode has strings (22) and hammerheads (21) designed to directly or indirectly strike the strings (22). The movement of the hammerheads (21) can be limited using a stop device (41). As a result, the hammerheads (21) do not hit the strings (22) during playing. An electronic device (30) is used to incorporate and/or convert the movement of the hammerheads (21) into a sound recording and/or sound reproduction device. A manually operable Bowden cable (52) moves flexibly and in two directions parallel to its longitudinal axis. This Bowden cable (52) is arranged in such a way that it produces the optional mute mode by rotating or shifting the hammerheads (21). The hammerheads (21) strike the strings (22) in playing mode, whereas they do not in mute mode. The same movement of the Bowden cable (52) shifts an escapement rail (54) from moving elements. The Bowden cable (52) has two control cables that run around two deflection rollers (53) and together form a continuous Bowden cable. The deflection rollers (53) drive the stop device (41) and the escapement rail (54).

Description

Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik GmbH 1

# 0450-6335 PCT E/ms, we May 16, 2023- Description-

Keyboard instrument for optional silent operation

The invention relates to a keyboard instrument for optional silent operation according to the preamble of claim 1.

A keyboard instrument according to the preamble of claim 1 is disclosed in US 5,608,175 A. Further prior art is US 5,557,052 A, DE 10 2008 055 839 A1 and DE 195 27 270 A1.

Keyboard instruments such as pianos or grand pianos are very popular. In conventional keyboard instruments, when a key is confirmed, a hammer head assigned to this key is triggered and then strikes a string directly or indirectly. This causes the string to vibrate and produces the desired tone. The keys form a keyboard, the hammer heads form a hammer mechanism.

When playing this piano or other keyboard instrument, the player intensely feels the resistance that arises until the string is struck. The mechanical movement is also supported by dampers, which are lifted off the strings to allow the strings to vibrate freely. Such structures with hammers, dampers, strings and corresponding transmission mechanisms come in different forms.

However, it is often desired that the user and player of the keyboard instrument can use and operate their instrument, for example for practice purposes or for personal enjoyment, without the surroundings noticing the acoustic tones generated. This makes it possible to practice on and/or use the keyboard instrument in private apartments, regardless of the rest and night times of residents in other neighboring apartments.

The keystroke is first converted into electronic signals. An electronic system is used for this purpose. The electronic signals are then appropriately converted and transmitted to headphones that the player of the keyboard instrument puts on. The player of the This means that the keyboard instrument receives the acoustic effect caused by pressing the keys and also learns about its own possible mistakes, which is of course important for practice purposes, while the neighbors and the other surroundings are not disturbed and burdened by these noises.

In order to mute, the path from the key to the string must be interrupted in a suitable way.

Examples of such devices with different devices that cause this effect have been known from the prior art for several decades, for example from DE 44 08 505 A1. The device described there proposes a device for intercepting hammer heads just in front of the sound strings of a keyboard instrument. This enables particularly quiet operation and precise adjustment. EP 1 616 147 B1 further describes a keyboard instrument with particularly powerful electronic sound generation.

There are two main goals to be achieved with such instruments: On the one hand, the traditional path from the keys to sound production must be able to be interrupted before the sound can be heard by third parties. On the other hand, the acoustic sound impression now only has to be created so that it can be heard by the pianist and transmitted to him, for example, in headphones.

It should also be noted that even with a keyboard instrument with this additional option at another time, the user and player of the piano or other keyboard instrument should provide a switching option with which “normal” playing operation should be possible with the same keyboard instrument, i.e operation without headphones and without electronic conversion of the key movement into electronic sound generation. Then the piano or grand piano is not muted, but hitting the keys causes the strings to vibrate and thus the sound experience.

Another aspect is the pianist's desire to subjectively have a playing feeling like this, even with muting and electronic sound generation to experience with a conventional keyboard instrument. Despite the interception of the mechanical transmission of sound production on the one hand and the electronic transmission of the sound experience to the pianist on the other, the pianist wants to be conveyed not only the sound effect, but also the feeling of playing a conventional instrument.

It should also be noted that muting or muting the keyboard instrument impairs the player's feeling of playing as little as possible. The player wants to have the subjective impression of sitting at an ordinary keyboard instrument without a mute switch. To do this, the keystroke should be as realistic as possible and of course the sound impression from the headphones should correspond as closely as possible to the sound produced without muting. This is particularly important for practice purposes for professional pianists and ambitious amateurs, because the practice is intended to simulate and rehearse the emergency situation of a concert actually performed with purely mechanical keyboard instruments.

Many keyboard instruments with such a muting function now work using mechanical components that are operated by an electronic control or regulation. Electronic components are used for this electronic control or regulation. These electronic components are specifically designed to ensure the most precise interception device possible for the hammer heads that are activated when the key is struck, in order to prevent them from striking one of the piano strings. These electronic components must be clearly distinguished from those electronic components that are used to supply the headphones with the simulated sound effects. There are therefore two groups of electronic components that are required here, one assembly serving to prevent the generation of noise, while the other is used to generate replacement sounds to power the headphones.

As is well known, electronic components are being developed rapidly and at an ever-increasing pace. Their lifespan is limited, This is particularly due to the fact that when they are built it can be assumed that they will be technically outdated after just a few years and that operating programs will no longer function reliably, meaning that they will have to be replaced anyway. While this concept is obvious and successfully applied to larger electrical or electronic devices, it is fundamentally inappropriate for very long-lasting assets, which include keyboard instruments. Anyone who buys a keyboard instrument, such as a piano or a grand piano, wants to use it not just for a few years, but for decades. Maintenance intervals for such instruments are only common for tuning and regulation and regular replacement of components is unusual and impractical for keyboard instruments. It is therefore practically impossible to guarantee professional support for such newly introduced maintenance and the people who are usually involved in maintenance, for example with tuning pianos, also have no qualifications for looking after electronic components.

Therefore, maintenance or regular other support for such electronic components is undesirable and also leads to reservations about the otherwise very popular keyboard instruments with mute function.

It is an object of the invention to improve a keyboard instrument of the type mentioned at the outset with a view to the above-mentioned adversities.

This task is achieved by a keyboard instrument according to claim 1.

In the keyboard instruments with a mute switch according to the invention, a particularly small number of electronic components are required, so that the problem of a short life expectancy of these electronic components is small compared to the mechanical components of the keyboard instruments.

On the one hand, this reduces maintenance costs and, on the other hand, the problems that may arise when replacing such electronic components.

In addition, regulations are increasingly being drawn up that deal with the disposal of complete devices. This means that conventionally Precautions must be taken during the manufacture of a keyboard instrument to ensure that the keyboard instrument can be disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way possible decades later after the end of its useful life. These regulations can be followed much better if the keyboard instrument contains no electronic components or at least only the smallest possible number of electronic components, because then significantly fewer of these components have to be removed from the remaining mechanical keyboard instrument and disposed of.

According to the invention, the muting is now effected with great advantage by providing a Bowden cable. This Bowden cable runs under the keyboard instrument and is laid in a circuit.

A lever is provided with which the Bowden cable can be moved. The circuit of the Bowden cable means that the Bowden cable can be moved and works in one direction and the other.

In order to use the movement of the Bowden cable to mute the hammers and prevent them from actually striking a string of the keyboard instrument, a rectangular metal profile is inserted.

This metal profile has a long side. The metal profile is mounted in such a way that this long side can be swiveled downwards by a pivoting movement of 90 degrees, thereby preventing the hammer head from approaching the string of the keyboard instrument. This pivoting movement of the metal profile by 90 degrees is carried out by the lever that is set in motion, which in turn drives the Bowden cable. The Bowden cable is connected to the axis of the rectangular metal profile via a deflection roller.

This makes it possible to mute the keyboard instrument.

In addition, the keyboard instrument preferably has a doll bar or trigger doll bar as a second arrangement. Such trigger dummy strips are occasionally also provided in conventional keyboard instruments and are usually permanently mounted on a mechanical bar. The user of the keyboard instrument presses a button Press the button on this instrument to raise a lifting link. A jack is mounted on the lifting link and the jack ensures that the hammer head is thrown against the string without being muted and is responsible for producing the sound. However, this jack is prevented from exerting further pressure against the hammer butt assigned to the hammer head by the mentioned trigger doll bar. The trigger doll bar is an element of a conventional piano mechanism and is therefore known as such to the piano maker.

The trigger doll bar is largely responsible for the piano player's feeling of playing. If the path of the hammer to the string is shortened during a muting process by intercepting the hammer in front of the string's attacks using a rectangular profile, then the piano player's feeling of playing is also changed.

In order to adapt the user's feeling of playing the keyboard instrument to the changed situation, a series of dolls are now lowered. The dolls now ensure the corresponding premature release of jacks and the associated playing feeling in the key of the keyboard instrument. The now spring-mounted release doll bar can be lowered using a bar that can be pivoted about its axis using appropriate eccentric clamping devices.

In order to integrate this trigger doll bar into the musculoskeletal system of the mute switch, the Bowden cable is preferably placed over the various shafts to be driven or strips that can be pivoted about their axes, similar to a V-belt. In addition, the Bowden cable is guided over appropriately sized deflection rollers.

In this way, the effect is created that the trigger doll bar and the stop bar are moved synchronously with one another, using a purely mechanical coupling.

Electronic components are therefore no longer required for this entire functional area of the keyboard instrument, even when muted. It This creates the advantage of a purely mechanical solution. This is fail-safe and easy to repair in an emergency as only mechanical components are affected.

In particular, no additional electronic components (besides the sound-producing and sound-replacing components that provide the input for the headphones) are required. This means that these additional electronic components, which are no longer required, are no longer required in terms of disposal and in the regulations for registering the product for any later disposal routes, thereby saving both costs and effort and are also available as an additional argument for the user .

The concept according to the invention with a Bowden cable and two cable pulls around two deflection rollers can be installed particularly easily and later adjusted more easily than would be possible, for example, with a solution with a linkage.

The solution according to the invention also requires fewer bearing points and is therefore less susceptible to annoying noise developments.

Since no pretension is required for the Bowden cable or other concepts, the risk of vibrations occurring is also reduced.

Further preferred features are characterized in the subclaims and the following description of the figures.

An exemplary embodiment of the invention is described in more detail below with reference to the drawing.

Show it:

Figure 1 is a front view of a keyboard instrument;

Figure 2 shows a perspective view of the keyboard instrument from Figure 1 at the top, partially cut away, and the same embodiment at the bottom on an enlarged scale of the area of the keys;

Figure 3 above is a perspective view of some components from the embodiment of Figures 1 and 2 for clarification, with the keys and other components omitted;

Figure 4 is a side view at the top of the embodiment from Figure 3 in section with the mute switch not activated and at the bottom is a perspective view on a reduced scale of the same situation; and

Figure 5 above shows the side view from Figure 4 in section with the mute switch activated and below the same situation in a reduced perspective view.

Figure 1 shows a keyboard instrument 10. The keyboard instrument 10 has a keyboard with keys 11.

In addition, the keyboard instrument 10 has a frame known technically as a chair base 12 and three feet 13, since this is a grand piano. In the front view from Figure 1, the viewer sees the feet 13 on the left and right on the front facing him with the keyboard and the keys 11, while the third foot 13 is arranged on the back of the grand piano facing away from him. All three feet 13 are on rollers 14 so that the sash can be transported more easily. The rollers 14 have horizontal axes.

In addition, foot pedals 15 are provided, which are arranged in the middle of the grand piano from the viewer's perspective and can be easily reached by the pianist in his position in front of the keyboard with the keys 11.

It can be seen that the keys 11 have hammer heads 21. The hammer heads 21 are part of a hammer mechanism or a hammer mechanism. When playing, the hammer heads hit strings 22, which cannot be seen in Figure 1.

On the right side of the frame or chair base 12, as seen from the pianist, under the keyboard with the keys 11, there is an electronic device 30 for recording and/or converting the movement of a hammer head 21 into a sound recording and/or sound reproduction device. These electronic devices 30 are also referred to as sound modules. They serve to register and, if necessary, save the movement of the hammer head 21 or all hammer heads 21. On the one hand, the piece of music played by the pianist can be played back at a later time, and on the other hand, it is possible to ensure that the keyboard instrument 10 operates in silent mode.

During this silent operation, the hammer heads 21 of the hammer mechanism are prevented from hitting the strings 22 of the keyboard instrument 10 and thus realizing the conventional form of sound generation.

Instead, the electronic implementation of the movement of this hammer head 21 enables sound reproduction via, in particular, headphones (not shown) that the pianist can put on. Such a frequently used and very successful option for the pianist can be selected accordingly via the sound module of the electronic device 30. For the environment, the neighbors or other people, this is the case The piece of music played by the pianist on the grand piano or keyboard instrument 10 cannot be heard, but it can be heard by him.

A stopping device 41 and a triggering device 42 are provided, which serve precisely to prevent the hammer heads 21 from hitting the strings 22.

On the left of the frame or chair base 12, also easily accessible for the pianist in his seat in front of the keyboard instrument 10, there is a lever 51. This lever 51 can be switched into at least two positions, one for carrying out the playing operation and the other for carrying out the performance for silent operation. The further function of the lever 51 is explained in connection with the following figures.

In Figure 2 you can see the keyboard instrument from Figure 1, seen in perspective from above, partially cut away. It can be clearly seen that it is a wing that has keys 11, feet 13, a chair base 12, a circumferential wall 16, hammer heads 21 and also a stopping device 41 and a triggering device 42.

In Figure 2 below you can see the area of the keys 11, the hammer heads 21 and the stopping device 41 as well as the triggering device 42 on a larger scale and the triggering device 42 on a larger scale and the lever 51 on the left of the chair base 12 can also be seen.

3 shows a representation which, like the perspective representations in FIG.

First you can see the electronic device 30 on the right side of the omitted keyboard with the keys 11 of the keyboard instrument 10, while the lever 51 can be clearly seen on the left side, since the chair base 12 of the keyboard instrument 10 is also not shown. Instead, a sensor bar 32 can be seen, which serves to determine the operation of the keys 11 directly or indirectly, for example by scanning the movement of the keys 11 or in another form. The data determined by the sensor bar 32 is fed to the electronic device 30, the so-called sound module.

The lever on the left is coupled to a flexible machine element 52. The flexible machine element 52 is in particular a Bowden cable. Here, an embodiment of a Bowden cable is selected for the flexible machine element 52, which relates to two parallel, longitudinally extending flexible metallic cable pulls that are movable relative to one another or relative to their longitudinal extent. These two cable pulls run around two deflection rollers 53 and together form an endless, flexible machine element 52. Running around the deflection rollers 53 takes place in the manner of V-belts. This means that a moving flexible machine element 52 results in a rotation of the deflection rollers 53. If you move the flexible machine element 52 lengthways towards itself, the deflection rollers 53 are rotated about their axis.

A movement of the Bowden cable or flexible machine element 52 can be brought about by moving the lever 51.

You can also see in Figure 3 the stopping device 41 and the triggering device 42, which is rotated about its axis by one of the deflection rollers 53. As a result, by actuating the lever 51 via the flexible machine element 52, the associated deflection roller 53 and thus also the stopping device 41 and the triggering device 42 can be rotated. The stopping device 41 and the triggering device 42 are thereby guided out of engagement with the hammer heads 21 during game operation and into engagement with the movement of the hammer heads 21 in silent operation.

The second deflection roller 53 is connected to an additional shaft, which belongs to a second arrangement with a trigger doll bar 54 and movable elements. Also this wave of the second arrangement with the When the lever 51 is actuated, the trigger doll bar 54 is rotated synchronously with the actuation of the bar of the hammer heads 21. This second arrangement of components carries a trigger doll bar 54. This trigger doll bar 54 is constructed in such a way that it exerts a force on the components of the hammer mechanism which acts in the opposite direction to that of the stopping device 41 and the trigger device 42.

The pianist therefore has the feeling that he is still active in playing, which feeling continues through his fingers and all the muscles used while playing. As a result, silent operation is only acoustically present.

In Figure 4 you can see the corresponding elements in a side view. It can be seen that, as in Figure 3, the lever 51 points towards the pianist. This is followed by the flexible machine element 52, which leads to deflection rollers 53. A deflection roller 53 is switched into the movement of the hammer heads 21 on the strings 22, the other is coupled to the bar for the trigger doll bar 54, which can be pivoted about its longitudinal axis.

In the lower part of Figure 4 you can see a perspective arrangement of these components, which illustrate this movement.

In Figure 5 you can see the same representation, but here the lever 51 is rotated by 90 degrees and is therefore actuated. This automatically means that the flexible machine element 52, here in the form of a Bowden cable, has been actuated accordingly and the deflection rollers 53 have also rotated.

As a result, the area of the hammer heads 21 is so removed from the string 22 that they are no longer struck when the keys 11 are pressed.

In a similar form, an additional force is transmitted through the other deflection roller 53 to the pivotable bar of the second arrangement with the trigger doll bar 54. This can be seen in the perspective view of the area of the lever 51 indicated at the bottom of Figure 5.

Reference symbol list

10 keyboard instrument

11 Key of the keyboard instrument 10

12 Chair base of the keyboard instrument 10

13 feet of keyboard instrument 10

14 rollers on the feet 13 of the keyboard instrument 10

15 Foot pedal of the keyboard instrument 10

16 Wall of the keyboard instrument 10

21 hammer head in one mechanism

22 string

30 electronic device for recording and/or converting the movement of a hammer head into a sound recording and/or sound reproduction device

32 sensor bar

33 pedal sensor

41 stopping device

42 trigger device

51 levers

52 flexible machine element or Bowden cable

53 deflection pulley

54 trigger doll bar

Claims

Claims Keyboard instrument (10) for optional silent operation, with strings (22) and with hammer heads (21), which are designed for direct or indirect striking of the strings (22), with a stopping device (41), which is designed in such a way that it has a Movement of the hammer heads (21) can be limited so that they do not hit the strings (22) during playing, with an electronic device (30) for recording and/or converting the movement of the hammer heads (21) into a sound recording and/or Sound reproduction device, wherein a Bowden cable (52) is provided, the Bowden cable (52) being designed and arranged in such a way that it implements the optional mute operation in such a way that the hammer heads (21) strike the strings (22) when playing, but not when mute , wherein a trigger doll bar (54) is provided for influencing the movement of the hammer heads (21), characterized in that the Bowden cable (52) has two parallel, longitudinally extended, flexible and relatively movable metallic cable pulls, these two cable pulls two deflection rollers (53) run and together form an endless Bowden cable (52), the deflection rollers (53) driving the stopping device (41) and the trigger doll bar (54). Keyboard instrument (10) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a lever (51) is provided, which is arranged within reach of the player of the keyboard instrument (10) and is operatively connected to the Bowden cable (52) and is equipped for switching between playing mode and silent mode is.