1. An electronic musical instrument comprising:
a plurality of slide-type faders for changing sound volume of respective tones included in a musical scale, the respective slide-type faders being provided with the respective tones;
a scale setup means for setting said musical scale to define the respective tones of the respective slide-type faders; and
a sound synthesis means for synthesizing sounds having the respective tones with predefined sound quality, the changing pattern of sound volume of the respective sounds being defined based on operation of the respective slide-type faders.
2. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the slide-type fader is a slide rheostat.
3. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the number of said plurality of the slide-type faders is not less than the number of tones included in an octave.
4. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein said scale setup means specifies the tones of at least one octave included in a predetermined scale for each slide-type fader.
5. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 4, wherein said scale setup means comprises:
a scale changeover switch for changing at least major and minor scales; and
an assign key for assigning the tone for a scale selected by the scale changeover switch to said plurality of slide-type faders.
6. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, further comprising an octave changeover switch for varying the tone provided to the respective slide-type faders in units of octaves.
7. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a master octave changeover switch for varying the tones of all of the slide-type faders in units of octaves.
8. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein said sound synthesis means comprises:
an AD converter for converting an output in proportion to the slide-type fader operation amount into a digital signal;
a CPU for issuing a command for making a sound having predetermined characteristics based on the digital signal;
a DSP for outputting specified timbre data based on the command issued from the CPU; and
a DA converter for converting the timbre data output from the DSP into an analog sound signal.
9. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 8, wherein said CPU issues a command to the DSP, the command including an instruction of a sound volume and at least one of predefined sound generation, envelope, sustain sound, and decay sound.
10. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a key fader curve changeover switch for specifying change characteristics of an output sound volume corresponding to a stroke amount of the slide-type fader.
11. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein said sound synthesis means synthesizes sounds using sound source data previously stored in an external storage medium.
12. The electronic musical instrument according to claim 1, wherein said sound synthesis means synthesizes sounds using sound source data which is a digital signal converted from analog output of an external sound source.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for operating a frequency converted laser source comprising at least one semiconductor laser and a wavelength conversion device optically coupled to the at least one semiconductor laser, the method comprising:
operating the frequency converted laser source to produce a frequency converted output beam from the wavelength conversion device;
intermittently heating the wavelength conversion device above a recovery threshold temperature TR of the wavelength conversion device; and
holding the wavelength conversion device above the recovery threshold temperature TR for a period of time sufficient to restore an output power of the frequency converted output beam lost to photo-degradation in the wavelength conversion device during operation of the frequency converted laser source.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the wavelength conversion device is intermittently heated between periods of operation of the frequency converted laser source.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the wavelength conversion device is intermittently heated during operation of the frequency converted laser source.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the frequency converted output beam is maintained below a degradation power threshold while the wavelength conversion device is heated above the recovery threshold temperature TR such that a restored output power due to heating is greater than an amount of output power lost to photo-degradation during heating.
5. The method of claim 3 wherein the wavelength conversion device is intermittently heated during periods of phase-matched operation of the frequency converted laser source.
6. The method of claim 3 wherein the wavelength conversion device is intermittently heated during periods of non-phase-matched operation of the frequency converted laser source.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the wavelength conversion device is heated after photo-degradation of the wavelength conversion device.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the wavelength conversion device is heated after a power of the frequency converted output beam exceeds a degradation power threshold for a specified period of time.
9. The method of claim 7 wherein the wavelength conversion device is heated after an efficiency of the frequency converted laser source decreases below a nominal efficiency.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the wavelength conversion device comprises a heater.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the wavelength conversion device comprises a waveguide portion and a heater disposed over the waveguide portion.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one semiconductor laser is heated with the wavelength conversion device.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the wavelength conversion device comprises an MgO-doped, periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide portion.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the waveguide portion comprises about 5 mol. % MgO.
15. The method of claim 13 wherein the recovery threshold temperature TR of the wavelength conversion device is about 70\xb0 C.
16. The method of claim 13 wherein a degradation energy density of the waveguide portion of the wavelength conversion device is at least about 0.1 Wcm2.
17. The method of claim 1 wherein the frequency converted laser source is operated from about \u221210\xb0 C. to about 60\xb0 C.
18. A frequency converted laser source comprising a wavelength conversion device, at least one semiconductor laser optically coupled to a waveguide portion of the wavelength conversion device, a heater, and a controller, wherein the heater is disposed over the waveguide portion of the wavelength conversion device and operable to heat the waveguide portion to a temperature greater than a recovery threshold temperature TR of the wavelength conversion device.
19. The frequency converted laser source of claim 18 further comprising a package controller electrically coupled to the heater, wherein the package controller is programmed to intermittently heat the waveguide portion to a temperature greater than the recovery threshold temperature TR of the wavelength conversion device.
20. The frequency converted laser source of claim 18 wherein:
the wavelength conversion device is an MgO-doped, periodically poled lithium niobate crystal; and
the recovery threshold temperature TR of the wavelength conversion device is greater than about 70\xb0 C.