田进勤 Tian Jinqin's Archive

By Enrique Tomás , Martin Kaltenbrunner (Head of Department & Research Director) , 2024

New Musical Interfaces

This website presents a repository of documents and media developed following the first comprehensive study of the work of 田进勤 (Tian Jinqin), a pioneering figure in electronic music instrument design in China, conducted in collaboration with the author himself. In an upcoming publication, we introduce not only the biographical and contextual dimensions of Tian Jinqin’s contributions but focus particularly on his design principles, which anticipated many concepts later explored in Western academic discourse by several decades.

The materials on this website constitute the first digital archive dedicated to Mr. Tian Jinqin. They result from a visit and in-depth interviews conducted by Enrique Tomás and Martin Kaltenbrunner in February 2024, followed by ongoing conversations and weekly, if not daily, online exchanges between Enrique Tomás, Mr. Tian, and his son.

This study aims not only to highlight Tian’s importance within the history of Chinese music, as other authors have done, but also to understand deeply into his design decisions to inform the core aspects of his work. Our goal is to position his innovations as a bridge between traditional and contemporary China in terms of musical instrument development. Mr. Tian Jinqin was eager to share his experiences in designing electronic instruments and their interfaces; however, the relative obscurity of his work has left an extensive collection of academic, scientific, and artistic materials—including papers, schematics, sketches, and more—largely unrecognized. Organizing and translating these materials, as well as verifying them in consultation with Mr. Tian, has required over a year of dedicated effort.

As the first scholars likely to have engaged with Tian Jinqin’s complete body of published work since its inception, we recognize the critical importance of understanding the sociopolitical context in which he created his instruments and published his papers. For this reason, we are preparing both a book and a scholarly article on his work.

For more information please contact Enrique.Tomas@kunstuni-linz.at

Academic Publications

Tian Jinqin has written 12 academic publications. They are listed below.

Link to the digital repository (access only with permission – contact Enrique Tomás):

https://tamcloud.kunstuni-linz.at/s/DNikPYMY6DTzcBj

Year	Original Title + Editor	Translated Title + Editor	Notes	Abstract
1974.3	浅论电子乐器及其前景 (1974.3)	A Brief discussion on electronic musical instruments and their prospects (March 1974)	Unpublished. Made public by Fangmeng Jinqin on 28/12/2024 at his blog: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/byyPg5ln2Vd_l8GgzK5lEA Digital Version of the original document in Chinese available. English Translation available.	Signed with his name and position at the Radio Factory No.2 Taiyuan, it is still unpublished, This article describes the main differences between acoustic and electronic instruments, in the ways of generating sound and in the ways of performing with them, as well in their sonorities and the cultural values of each of the types. Before introducing electronic instruments, Tian Jinqin explains the existence of electrical (and amplified) instruments, their technologies, and how in fact the playing techniques do not differ too much from acoustic instruments. It is also presented the new possibilities that electronic music instruments propose
1982.3	声音的调色盘-电子合成器（1982.3）科学实验 Beijing : Ke xue chu ban she, 1970-1986 北京 : 科學出版社 1970-1986 v. : ill. ; 27 cm.	Sound Palette – Electronic Synthesizer (January 1981) pages 32-34 Scientific Experiments Journal Beijing : Ke xue chu ban she, 1970-1986 北京 : 科學出版社 1970-1986 v. : ill. ; 27 cm.	Digital Version from the author available. English Translation available.	Introduction of concept of sound effect synthesizer (oppposed to musical synthesizer) in the context of the public presentation of the DH-CC1 instrument created by Tian Jinqin. In this article the author explains the basic processes to create sound designs through synthesis, comparing it to the visual analogy of having a sound palette which have to be mixed to create new sound effects.
1984.1	《电子乐器》专著，23万字（1984.1）无线电爱好者丛书电子乐器田进勤编著黄翔鹏审阅责任编辑:沈成衡人民邮电出版社出版北京东长安街27号河北省邮电印刷厂印刷新华书店北京发行所发行各地新华书店经售命开本:787×1092 1/32 1984年1月第一版印张:10 页数:160 1986年6月河北第2次印刷字数:228千字插页:3印数:20,001-31.000册统一书号:15045·总2820-无6267 定价:1.65元	Monograph “Electronic Instruments,” (January 1984) Radio Amateur Series Electronic Musical Instruments Compiled by Tian Jinqin Reviewed by Huang Xiangpeng Editor: Shen Chengheng Published by People’s Posts and Telecommunications Press, No. 27 East Chang’an Street, Beijing, Printed by Hebei Post and Telecommunications Printing Factory, Distributed by Xinhua Bookstore Beijing Distribution Office Sold by Xinhua Bookstores in various places Format: 787×1092 1/32 First edition in January 1984 Printing sheets: 10 Number of pages: 160 Second printing in Hebei in June 1986 Number of words: 228,000 words Inserts: 3 Printing: 20,001-31.000 copies Uniform book number: 15045·Total 2820-No 6267 Price: 1.65 yuan	Physical and Digital Version available	This is a technical and theoretical book on the creation of synthesizers and electronic music instruments. From the oscillator circuits, filters, envelope controllers, to the techniques to play these instruments.
1986.3	试论电子乐器的乐器化和民族化问题（1986.3）田进勤 Tian Jinqin Archive X 发表于《音乐与午汤》	On the Issues of Instrumentation and Nationalization of Electronic music Instruments (March 1986) Tian Jinqin Archive Published in the Journal 音乐与午汤	Digital Version from the author available. Document in two parts.	Tian Jinqin says that most electronic music instruments in that moment are based on keyboards. This is an attempt to make electronic musical instruments “national”, understood as the interest to make musical instruments useful for Chinese music, or to better fit to the existing Chinese music.
1987.3	译著《声音的电子合成原理及技术实践》（1987.3）	Translation of “Principles and Technical Practice of Electronic Sound Synthesis” (March 1987)	We only count with photos of cover, back cover page and the seven pages of the translator notes. The original articles can be found at https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Practical_Electronics.htm at 1982 (6,7,8) and 1983 (6,7). We downloaded a PDF version to the repository. English translation of translator comments available.	Translation of five articles by A.R. Bradford published in the magazine Practical Electronics in 1982. Apart from the translation, Tian Jinqin writes a “translator comments” section where he contextualizes the original articles to the Chinese readers, and underlines the most important contributions of the original author, especially in regard to methods for controlling synthesizers, their sound quality, and a preliminar taxonomy of them.
1987.6	唱奏式电子乐器【1987.6.3】	Singing-Playing Electronic Instruments [June 3, 1987]	Unpublished. Handwritten in Tian Jinqin’s notebook. Digital Version (photos) provided from the author available	In this page of his notebook mr Tian describes a circuit that after capturing human voice through a microphone, creates synthetized sound following the envelope and frequency of the input.
1998.2	“一人合唱团”试验电路（1998.2）《安用电子立摘》•现代影音技术杂志•1998年第2期 https://www.cnki.net	“One-Person Choir” Experimental Circuit (July 1991) Practical Electronic Digest, a magazine on modern audio-visual technology. Issue 2, 1998 Retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure https://www.cnki.net	Digital Version from the author available. English translation available.	Article explaining a preliminary circuit to create a one person choir. The author explains what particularly differences a choir from a single voice playing at unison at different pitches. Then he provides a circuit that takes audio from a microphone a shifts the pitch, having a second voice, but the resulting signal is fed back to the input so that groups of shifted voices are created in a type of chorus effect. Mr Tian presents it as a preliminary circuit to provoke others to continue the work.
1992	影响主观音色感的非频谱因素探讨（1992年，第14届国际声学会论文）	Exploration of Non-Spectral Factors Influencing Subjective Timbre Perception (1992, 14th International Acoustics Society Paper)	Digital Version from the author available	It is a paper on synthetizing timbre. Mr Tian departs from the observation that a sound can be described of coming from different instruments depending on the amplitude evelope and decorations used (portamento, glissando, etc) so that there is a mitmatch between objective timbre (what sounds) and what is perceived. Mr Tian point to inharmonic partials and transients as the source to perceived timbre.
1993	电子乐器民族化问题再探（1993.12）	Re-exploring the Issue of Nationalization of Electronic Instruments (December 1993) 93rd Annual Meeting of the Chinese Acoustical Society on Audio Engineering Electroacoustic Technology 12/1993	Digital Version from the author available. English translation available.	This paper further explores the significance and content of the nationalization of electronic musical instruments, the electronic simulation of the timbre of national musical instruments, and the realization of the playing style of national musical instruments on electronic musical instruments. On this basis, a folk music electronic keyboard with the playing characteristics and timbre effects of national musical instruments has been developed. The author emphasizes that the soul of “nationalization” is “instrumentalization”; successful timbre simulation is inseparable from the support of personalized performance techniques; and the expressiveness of instrumental performance cannot be separated from musical works with certain national artistic characteristics.
1994	唱音美饰及音准矫正（1994）	Singing Beautification and Pitch Correction (1994). Audio Engineering Society, 1994. 194 Audio Engineering Academic Exchange Conference and New Audio Products Exhibition Paper	Digital Version from the author available. English translation available.	This is an academic paper published in the 1994 Academic Exchange Conference on Sound and Audio Engineering. In addition to discussing the object and content of various kinds of acoustic aesthetics, the paper specifically proposes the design of an electronic method for training singers to sing accurately. With the rise of karaoke, the way of singing for self-entertainment using electronic devices has spread all over the streets and alleys. However, if these devices are not properly controlled or the singers have poor pitch, it will cause poor playback results and even become a kind of sound pollution. Therefore, the author proposes to develop two types of sound processing equipment: one is a singing voice beautifier, which is used to beautify the singer’s singing voice; the other is a pitch correction device, which is used to help singers practice singing with correct pitch. This paper proposes and discusses the content and methods of vocal embellishment, as well as the design and practical significance of a pitch correction instrument.
1994.7	米老鼠效应机理探析【1994年7月电声技术】	Analysis of the Mickey Mouse Effect Mechanism [July 1994,Electro-Acoustic Technology]	Digital Version from the author available. English translation available.	The Mickey Mouse effect is the issue of using digital samples in pitch ranges very different from the original fundamental frequency of the original audio material. The author analyses different types of digital synthesis and how the inadequate use of samplers can result in synthesized audio with quite altered timbre. The author also analyses the cognitive and perceptual reason why we perceive it as unnatural or artificial, advocating for using other synthesis methods.
2004 (rev 2024)	浅谈乐器中的“声”和“音”（2019年6月）	A Brief discussion on sound and tone (June 2019).	Article written in 2004, revised since then a few times. First time made public on 26.4.2024 at the website: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/QFWpQFl_lx2pPI0uG_fSrw Original Digital Version from the author available. English translation available.	This article was first written in 2004 and has been revised many times by Tian Jinqin. In it, the author discussed the different notions of sound and tone when they are applied to audio synthesis. The author discusses how the articulation and timbre identification of the electronic music instrument depends mostly on the noisy part of the synthesis. Especially on the attack and transitioning part of enveloping audio. Tian Jinqin discusses the difference between synthetized sound and the phenomenological perception of sound by people, referring to two different things. For the author, the objective signal produced would still be called ”sound” while the perceived phenomenon could be called “Shen” 哂 (term coined by himself) to differenciate both.

Radio Magazine Publications

Tian Jinqin has contributed 57 times with articles in the Radio magazine. His articles are listed below.

Link to the digital repository (access only with permission – contact Enrique Tomás):

https://tamcloud.kunstuni-linz.at/s/DNikPYMY6DTzc

YEAR	ORIGINAL TITLE	TRANSLATED	NOTES AND ABSTRACT
1962.1	继电器接点电路的逻辑设计	Logic design of relay contact circuits
1962.10	电子评分机	Electronic grading machine
1963.4	机器狗	Robot dogs
1963.11	国外点滴	Drip abroad
1964.8	磁录音式程序控制车床	Magnetic recording program control lathes
1965.8	磁饱和稳压器	Magnetic saturation regulators
1966.9	取样示波器	Sampling oscilloscope
1978.10	自倒相RC推挽电路扩音机	Self-inverting RC push-pull circuit amplifier: Principles and production
1978.11	自倒相功放原理及制作【续】	Self-inverting RC push-pull circuit amplifier: Principles and production (Continued)
1979.2	滑奏式电子乐器	Glide electronic musical instrument
1979.9	吹奏式电子乐器	Wind-playing electronic musical instruments
1980.2	电子乐器自动节奏器	Automatic rhythms for electronic musical instruments
1980.3	电子乐器自动节奏器(续)	Automatic Rhythms for Electronic Musical Instruments (continued)
1980.7	谈谈电子乐器	Let’s talk about electronic musical instruments
1981.3	玩具琴	Toy piano
1982.2	业余自制电子琴	Amateur homemade electronic organ
1982.3	业余自制电子琴（续）	Amateur homemade electronic organ (continued) part 1
1982.4	业余自制电子琴（续）	Amateur homemade electronic organ (continued) part 2
1983.4	对“业余自制电子琴”一文的补充	A supplement to the article “Amateur Homemade Electronic Piano”
1984.7	电子乐器中的“哇”音电路	“Wow” sound circuits in electronic musical instruments
1984.8	介绍几种产生回荡音的方法	Describes several ways to produce reverberating sounds
1984.8-2	对STY—410型袖珍录音机的几点改进	Several improvements to the STY-410 pocket recorder	with pseudonym 进勤
1984.9	电子乐器中的“叨叨”音和音电路	“Chatter” and tones in electronic musical instruments
1984.10	电子乐器中的“喵喵”音和“嗖嗖”音电路	“Meow” and “whoosh” circuits in electronic musical instruments
1985.9	手动EPROM编程器	Manual EPROM programmer
1987.8	小议电子琴（－） “电子琴”一词含义的商榷	A brief discussion on electronic keyboard (Part 1): A discussion on the meaning of the term “electronic keyboard”	with pseudonym 吴速奋
1987.9	小议电子琴（二）电子乐器与传统乐器的主要区别	A brief discussion on electronic keyboard (Part 2): The main differences between electronic instruments and traditional instruments	with pseudonym 吴速奋
1987.10	小议电子琴（三）电子乐器的分类	A brief discussion on electronic keyboard (Part 3): Classification of electronic musical instruments	with pseudonym 吴速奋
1990.8	变色发光二极管的两种应用	Two applications of color-changing LEDs	with pseudonym 子萌
1990.9	一种简单的直流三倍压电路	A simple DC triple voltage circuit
1992.5	音乐走廊电路	Music Corridor Circuit	The music corridor circuit introduced in this article is a special automatic random music system. The circuit is properly installed on both sides of the corridor with walls, columns or fences on both sides. When people walk in the corridor, random music sounds that never repeat will be produced according to the direction, position and number of people. If some people are intentionally arranged to stand by the corresponding columns and walk in a pre-agreed order and direction. Beautiful specific music will also be played. This circuit can be secretly installed in clubs, cultural palaces, playgrounds, dance halls, teahouses and other places to increase the atmosphere of joy without losing elegance.
1992.7	晶体管阵列器件	Transistor array devices	with pseudonym 晋秦
1992.8	一体化红外发射接收头的应用	Application of an integrated infrared transmitter and receiver	with pseudonym 师业
1994.5	用万用表测试变压器简法	A simple method for testing transformers with a multimeter	with pseudonym 田芜
1995.2	吉它音色预滤器	A guitar tone pre-filter	Many electric guitar enthusiasts want their guitars to have rich and beautiful timbre, but they often do not want to go to the trouble of installing a dedicated amplifier with timbre control. Instead, they directly connect the output of the electric guitar to the line input or microphone input of an existing electro-acoustic device (such as a recorder) for amplification. In this case, if the connected device does not have a more complete timbre adjustment facility (such as a multi-band frequency equalizer), the playback effect of the guitar will not be ideal. A better guitar amplifier should be able to fully express the rich and powerful bass on the accompaniment strings of the electric guitar, and reflect the delicate and clear colorful treble on its melody strings. Therefore, a frequency response curve with a V-shaped filter characteristic is needed to support it.
1995.3	恒功率声像定位电路	A constant power sound and image positioning circuit	The sound image positioning circuit is a unit circuit used to set or change the sound image position (panorama) of a specific sound source (such as a musical instrument, actor or sound effect simulator, etc.) during stereo recording or playback. The sound image circuit can be composed of a double potentiometer with the head and tail connected inverted.
1995.9	DOSKEY趣味应用	An Interesting Application of DOSKEY	Starting from version 5.0, the disk operating system DOS has added a new function called DOSKEY. It brings a lot of convenience to computer users, saves the operator’s time, and greatly reduces the number of keystrokes, extending the life of the computer keyboard. By using the DOSKEY function skillfully, the computer can also be soft-encrypted, so that irrelevant personnel cannot use the processed computer at will. This has a positive effect on maintaining the security of files stored in the computer. Using DOSKEY can also complete many other interesting practical applications. The following examples talk about several aspects of DOSKEY application.
1996.2	计算机日记的优越性	On the Advantages of A Computer Diary	In order to record things, make notes, and facilitate future inquiries, people generally use diaries as an important tool. Many people have the habit of writing diaries every day, but they are often troubled by searching for the notes they want to find in their diaries. The reason is that it is not easy to find the information you need from diaries of many years. Even finding a note from a year’s diary is not easy. Sometimes it takes a lot of precious time. It would be great if there was a way to facilitate inquiries. At least this advantage of using a computer to write a diary!
1996.6	CMOS门电路的典型应用	Typical Applications of CMOS Gate Circuits	Many beginners are very interested in the design and application of gate circuits. For this reason, this article lists several electronic circuits designed with CMOS gate circuits and briefly introduces the working principles to meet the requirements of beginners.
1996.7-1	CMOS触发器功能及典型应用电路	CMOS trigger function and typical application circuit	In CMOS integrated circuits, the trigger circuit is a very versatile circuit. According to its circuit characteristics, there are several types: 1. D trigger; 2. JK trigger; 3. Latch trigger; 4. Schmitt trigger. Below we focus on D trigger and Schmitt trigger to talk about the main characteristics of the trigger and its typical application circuit.
1996.7-2	常用CMOS触发器电路功能及引脚排列表	Commonly used CMOS trigger circuit functions and pin arrangement table	With pseudonym 佳力. Only a figure after the title.
1996.8	CMOS模拟开关的典型应用	Typical Applications of CMOS Analog Switches	As we all know, electronic switches have incomparable advantages over mechanical switches, such as high switching speed, no switching noise, no sparks (this is particularly important in environments with flammable substances), long life, small size, and can be simply set up in automatic monitoring circuits, etc. However, in addition to the above characteristics, analog switches and converters in CMOS integrated circuits can also be used flexibly to design some circuits that are not used for switching. In some cases, they can even be used to fill in the gaps. Compared with transistor or diode switching circuits, CMOS switching circuits are bidirectional, so they allow signals to be transmitted in both directions.
1997.4	用WINDOWS绘制电路图	DRAW A CIRCUIT DIAGRAM WITH WINDOWS
1997.6	巧用WORD6.0作文摘目录排序	USE WORD6.0 TO SORT THE COMPOSITION ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS
1997.7	CD4013入门应用两例	Two examples of CD4013 introductory applications
1997.8	模拟开关4066的应用	Application of analog switch 4066
1997.10	运算放大器在混音电路中的应用	Operational amplifiers in mixing circuits
1997.11	开机自复位的安全电源	A safe power supply that self-resets at power-on
1998.9	怪事：1+1<2？——电压测量中的困惑	Oddities: 1+1<2? – Confusion in voltage measurement	with pseudonym 顾亭
1999.10	声光兼具的电子节拍器	An electronic metronome with both sound and light
2000.11	有自动掉闸功能的停电来电告知器	There is a power failure call notification with automatic drop function
2002.2	Cool Edit 2000 让电脑成为信号发生器（上）	Cool Edit 2000 Turns your computer into a Signal Generator (Part I)
2002.3	Cool Edit 2000 让电脑成为信号发生器（下）	Cool Edit 2000 Turns your computer into a Signal Generator (Part II)
2002.4	COOL EDIT 2000让电脑成为示波器	COOL EDIT 2000 TURNS YOUR COMPUTER INTO AN OSCILLOSCOPE
2002.9	用Flash5.0设计音频信号发生器	Design the audio signal generator with Flash 5.0
2003.11	用Flash5.0制作门电路演示课件	Use Flash 5.0 to make gate circuit demonstration courseware
2003.12	用Flash设计与门演示课件	Use Flash to design and demonstrate courseware with gates

List of instruments

This list includes 21 instruments plus two add-ons to a keyboard. Certainly, Mr Tian Jinqin has created more instruments, prototypes, unfinished tests, etc. Here we are only listing the ones Tian Jinqin considered to be of considerable importance.

YEAR	NAME	DESCRIPTION	LINK TO PHOTO	NOTES
1958	Electric Guzheng (modified DaZhengQin)	“In 1958, I bought a second-hand DaZhengQin with the intention of modifying it into a small guzheng. To address the low volume, I used a homemade electronic tube amplifier to amplify the sound. However, after amplifying the sound, there were significant distortions in both sound quality and timbre. To correct this, I started using various filters. It was at this point that I discovered: using different forms of filters could greatly alter the sound and timbre of the guzheng, making it delicate like “spider silk” or deep and resonant like a grand bell!	N/A	It has not been conserved
1958-1978	Electronic Keyboard Instruments (self made)	Self made electronic keyboards with tubes, metal keys, very primitive made of iron and springs. Because the sounds they produced could not imitate the traditional Chinese musical instruments, Tian Jinqin decided to create the string controlled instruments. In any case, he used these keyboards from 1960 to 1964 as accompaniment in several stage performances of traditional Chinese music.		It has not been conserved. We only have photos.
1971	Singing-Playing Electronic Instruments	Tian Jinqin tried to develop an electronic musical instrument controlled by voice. Due to the difficulties. The process is explained in the publication “Singing-Playing Electronic Instruments” [June 3, 1987]		Tian Jinqin first thought that he had developed this in the decade of the 80s, but after revising his records and notebooks after our inquiry he conformed that he worked between June and September 1971 on this project.
1978	XK Ancestor (Prototype)	Prototype of the XK instrument.		The instrument was created for himself but it was the one he showed to the authorities in Beijing, allowing him to receive support to develop the XK instrument. After our visit in 2024 he decided to work again on the instrument and he remodelled various parts from the circuit and from the interface. We have photos from the original and from the new version.
1979	XK-1	Four electronic ribbon strings with independent continuous control of pitch and volume. The instrument was polyphonic, with one tone generator per string control. The XK instruments did not incorporate any type of effects like reverb, delays, distorsion, etc. It was only the tone generators, filters, dividers, voltage controlled amplifiers, etc. The performer could control a dynamic filter with the right knee.		At least 21 units were sold but none has been discovered.
1980	电子音声合成器Electronic Sound Synthesizer	Modular and patchable synthetizer without keyboard. It could synthesize a variety of realistic scenes and natural sound effects, such as wind, rain, thunder, vehicles, honking, airplanes, guns, explosions, factory noise, crickets, birds, cows, horses and so on. It can also synthesize a variety of unnatural sound effects, such as “through time and space”, “cosmic chorus”, “interstellar travel” and so on.		It was used as a workbench synthetizer to experiment and prototype sounds
1981	DH-CC1电子音声合成器 DH-CC1 Electronic Sound Compress Synthesizer	This is the same electronic sound synthesizer as 电子音声合成器 (1980), and the reasons for the different times may be as follows: 1980 is the time when the synthesizer was developed. 1981 was his defining moment. The identification time is stated in the article “Sound Palette – Electronic Synthesizer” in the magazine “Scientific Experiments” in March 1982.13.		It was used as a workbench synthetizer to experiment and prototype sounds
1982	XK-2	Extended and improved XK-1		Never went into production
1982	战地电子声模器 Electronic Battlefield Acoustic Simulators (1982.6)	An instrument which can simulate the sound effects of a variety of battlefield equipment and guns. For military training.	Because this is for the artillery unit, there are no public photos.	It was produced and tested by the Chinese Army.
1984.9	PD-1型普及多功能键盘电子琴 PD1 Universal Multifunctional Electronic Instrument	It is a popular multi-functional keyboard electronic keyboard developed based on the M208 chip produced in Italy. It has a variety of musical instrument sound effects simulation and automatic rhythm accompaniment (percussion accompaniment and chord accompaniment) functions.		It went into production
1984.12.3	二音色电子胡琴 Two-tone Electronic Huqin	This electronic huqin has two sounds, one is the (ordinary) erhu and the other is the gaohu (treble erhu). There are two independent electric strings that can play two-note harmonies.		Never went into production
1986.5.24)	3D1多音色多功能电子琴 3D1 multi-timbre multi-function electronic instrument	Children and amateur electronic keyboard. Use filter combinations to produce a variety of dynamic sounds. It is easy to arouse children’s interest in playing piano.		It went into production and it was sold in different countries
1986.10.20	. 3D-2型多种动态音色少儿琴 3D-2 Multiple Dynamic Tone Children’s Piano	Using the Chinese patented technology to produce a variety of dynamic tones of theprevious children’s electronic piano, so that the monophonic electronic piano can play magnificent musical effects. Adopts an integrated flat membrane keyboard to realize easy scratch playing.		It went into production
1990.2.15	DSP1型动态声效处理器 DSP1 Dynamic Sound Processing Unit (Electronic Music Processing Unit)	An automated analog effects pedal that allows any music input (whether from tape, CDs, microphones, or electronic instruments) to automatically produce strange rhythmic timbral variations.
1990 –	力敏电子钢琴 Force-sensitive electronic piano	It’s an 88-key electronic piano, featuring a key strength response that is continuously and infinitely layered (as opposed to the kind that usually only plays about 7-12 layers).		It never went into production
199x	自动报时钟音乐发生器 Automatic clock music generator	This is a chime music generator add-on. It is designed to produce a preset musical chime when a chime pulse signal is received from the host computer. There are no photos available as this is an add-on for the organ, not a whole unit.
199x	自动打击乐节奏器 Automatic Percussion Rhythmizer	It consists of a rhythmic beat point generator, a rhythmic content programming matrix, and various percussion unit circuits. More than ten typical rhythms such as tango, rumba, waltz, etc. can be generated. Again, since this is the unit mounted in the organ, there are no separate photos.
1986.6.16	便携式弦控电子琴 Portable string-controlled electronic instrument	Portable string-controlled piano is one of my amateur design and production of electronic musical instruments. It is designed to be easy to carry around for performance or personal entertainment, so whether in terms of form factor or circuit conceptualization, it adopts the design principle of being light and small, beautiful and taking into account the performance of the instrument. The shape of the instrument is like a pentatonic note, and there is only one electric string for playing, but it can be used as four strings (GDAE), and it can also have the ability to harmonize in fifths. Therefore, it can be played like a violin instrument. This instrument has been continously updated and upgraded by Mr Tian, with new sensors and the fingerboard, a bow add-on, and a battery.
1987.5.4	HT-22弦控琴 Chord Control Instrument	HT-22 was the name of a small chip that Tian Jinqin wanted to use for developing a miniature simple string-controlled instrument. But it was never finished.	Never finished
1989.1.9	电子吉他 Electronic guitar	It is a kind of Hawaiian electronic guitar, later changed to force sensitive resistor diaphragm to replace the original electric string after the structure of practicality there are some problems to be overcome to improve.
1991	电子扬琴 Electronic dulcimer	Electronic dulcimer by circuit bending the interface of an existing Yamaha keyboard
1992.1	波形存储式弦控琴 Waveform Memory String Controlled Piano	This is a program that was started in 1994. The aim was to use the method of recording and storing the sound of an instrument as a sound source for performance in order to obtain a very realistic sound effect. Some results were achieved, but the research was discontinued because the “Mickey Mouse effect” (i.e., the resonance peak problem) could not be solved.
1996-2001	电脑民乐琴（华琴）（软件） Computer Chinese Musical Instrument (Hua Qin) (Software)	The Computer Folk Music Piano, also known as Huaqin, is a musical instrument software that can be played on Windows systems. It can colorfully play the musical effects of five traditional Chinese folk instruments: flute, erhu, pipa, guzheng and guqin using the computer keyboard. Simple ensemble effects can also be played with optional midi accompaniment. Developed during Tian’s period in Shenzhen when he approached digital technologies.
2015 –	电子古筝 Electronic Guzheng	Sample-based instrument.1. Pentatonic scale rows (12356), with 4 or 7 obtainable with additional lifting keys.2. With a slice-playing keyboard.3. The main timbre is the guzheng (quadruple polyphony).4. There are eight non-guzheng timbres (e.g., guzheng shaking fingers, erhu, dongxiao, flute, violin, guqin, etc.) that can be used for soloing or ensemble work with the guzheng.5. The volume of the lead instrument guzheng and concertina instruments can be used for playing on any scale with a minor second, a major second, or a minor The volume of the lead instrument guzheng and the concertina can be controlled continuously with the left hand.7. It can be played by scraping the strings quickly in the pentatonic scale.8. When the guzheng is scraped, the slide is realized only in the last scale, so it will not produce the undesirable sound of the group slides.9. One of the particularly valuable ways of playing is that it can be realized by using the right wrist or the thumb to easily play slides or vibrato, the right wrist to play the upper slide, the right thumb to play the upper slide, the right thumb to play the lower slide, and the right wrist to play the upper slide, the right thumb to play the upper slide, and the right wrist to play the upper slide. The right wrist plays the upper slides and the right thumb plays the lower slides. This not only facilitates playing, but also frees up the left hand for more auxiliary operations, such as volume control, switching timbres, and so on.
2016	Electronic Ukelele	Sample-based instrument in the form of a one-string ukelele. It has one metallic string connected to a physical mechanism controlling the envelope. Pitches are picked pressing the string between metallic self-made frets, which serve as a button array to decide the notes.

Other Inventions

YEAR	NAME	REFERENCE ARCHIVE
1991.6.29	一人合唱团 One Man Choir	This is a design intended to transform a person’s singing into a choir effect by means of electronic processing. An article entitled “A Choir Test Circuit” was published in the journal Practical Electronics Digest, but no prototype was made.
1992	电子混响器 Electronic reverb	This is an electronic reverb realized with an electronic bucket chain BBD integrated circuit, successfully used in a portable string-controlled piano.
1993	无线话筒混响器 Wireless Microphone Reverberator	It is the addition of a wireless transmitter circuit to the Bucket Chain Reverberator, which transmits a frequency that can be picked up by a receiver next to the mixing console.
1994	手绘波形产生器 Hand-drawn waveform generator	This is an experimental device developed to quickly study the dependence of timbre on waveform. Any waveform can be drawn manually and then immediately pronounced while listening to its timbre effect. The waveform is stored in an EEPROM, which can be written and erased many times
1995.7.10	电子节拍器 Electronic metronome	This is an electronic metronome with sound and light indicators to train players or singers to recognize the isochronous nature of the beat. The metronome offers the most commonly used types of beats: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and can be used for training with the sound indicator on, and for recording with the light indicator to ensure that the metronome sound is not recorded.
2009.3	二胡扩律器Mechanical Tranformation of Erhu	The erhu expander is a method of expanding the erhu without changing its original structure and form by attaching external parts, so as to increase the interval of a pure fourth in the direction of the lowest note on the original basis. The result is equivalent to adding a bass string. The erhu expander is this attachment. It is purely a mechanical design.

External Referecences used by Tian Jinqin

Due to limitations in resources, obtaining reference materials was quite challenging. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, I relied on self-funded subscriptions to domestic and international magazines, as well as the purchase of relevant Chinese and foreign books for reference. Due to my limited financial budget, the pool of available scientific and technological literature for reference was quite meager. Consequently, I had to tread a solitary path, exploring and experimenting on my own.

YEAR	NAME	ARCHIVE LINK	CONTENTS	NOTES
1962-2019	Publications	https://tamcloud.kunstuni-linz.at/s/DNikPYMY6DTzc	Academic, Radio Amateur, Scientific Experiments and notebook publications	This archive of publications is complete. Some files are PDF, many are photos from the publications, some are scans from the original. Still this has to be compiled and OCR.