Publications
Tian Jinqin has written 12 academic publications, listed in the table below.
Link to the digital repository (access only with permission – contact Enrique Tomás).
| 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1974.3 | 浅论电子乐器及其前景 (1974.3) | A Brief discussion on electronic musical instruments and their prospects (March 1974) | Unpublished.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 | Signed with his name and position at the Radio Factory No.2 Taiyuan, it is still unpublished, This article describes the main differences between acoustic and electronic instruments, in the ways of generating sound and in the ways of performing with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, listed in the table below.
Link to the digital repository (access only with permission – contact Enrique Tomás).
| YEAR | ORIGINAL TITLE | TRANSLATED | ARCHIVE REFERENCE | 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 |
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.