Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-25
2004-05-18
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S645000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06737571
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a music recorder and a music player and, more particularly, to a music recorder and music player for ensemble between different sorts of sound sources.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Pieces of music are stored in information storage media on the basis of different formulae. Compact discs are a typical example of the music data information storage media. However, the meaning of the pieces of data is not same. Binary codes in a compact disc are representative of the amplitude of an analog signal representative of music sound. The analog signal is periodically sampled at 44.1 kHz, and binary codes are successively assigned to the discrete values. Thus, the analog signal is quantized, and the discrete values of the amplitude are stored in the compact discs in the form of digital codes. The discrete values of the amplitude are hereinbelow referred to as “time series audio data”, and the digital codes representative of the time series audio data are referred to as “audio data codes”.
The MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standards give another formula to digital codes stored in compact discs or floppy discs. The digital codes represent events at which each tone is generated or decayed and time intervals between the events. The digital codes thus formulated are hereinbelow referred to as “MIDI codes”. Pieces of information relating to the events and pieces of information relating to the time intervals are referred to as “event data” and “duration data”, respectively, and the digital codes representative of the event data and the digital codes representative of the duration data are referred to as “event codes” and “delta-time codes”, respectively.
Music players try to make ensembles with pieces of music reproduced from the time series audio data recorded in the compact discs. Other music players want to record his or her performance in the form of MIDI codes together with the time series audio data.
FIG. 1
shows a prior art music recorder/player
100
, and the prior art music recorder/player
100
comprises a compact disc player
200
, a MIDI code generator
400
and a recorder/reproducer
500
. A compact disc CD is to be loaded in the compact disc player
200
, and the MIDI code generator
400
is incorporated in a musical instrument
300
such as a piano.
The compact disc player
200
is equipped with an optical head, and reads out the audio data codes from the compact disc CD. Pieces of music are usually stored in compact discs in a digital stereo signal. The compact disc player converts the digital stereo signal to a digital monoral audio signal, and supplies the digital monoral audio signal representative of the time series audio data to the recorder/reproducer
500
as a signal to be stored in the left channel L. On the other hand, while the user is playing the musical instrument
300
, the MIDI code generator
400
monitors the fingering on the musical instrument, and discriminates depressed/released keys from the other keys. The MIDI code generator
400
determines the events, and produces the event codes and delta-time codes representative of the performance. The MIDI code generator
400
supplies a digital MIDI data signal to the recorder/reproducer
500
as a signal to the stored in the right channel R.
The recorder
500
writes the monoral audio data codes and the MIDI codes in the left and right channels of an information storage medium such as a compact disc-recordable. When the user wants to reproduce the performance, the user instructs the prior art music recorder/player to reproduce the ensemble, the recorder/reproducer
500
concurrently reads out the digital monoral audio data codes from the left channel and the MIDI codes from the right channel, and supplies the digital monoral audio data codes and the MIDI codes to the compact disc player
200
and a tone generator/sound system (not shown), respectively. The compact disc player
200
produces monoral sound from the digital monoral audio data codes, and the tone generator/sound system produces electronic tones from the MIDI codes. Thus, the electronic tones and monoral sound are reproduced asynchronously with each other.
The first problem inherent in the prior art music recorder/player is the asynchronously recorded digital codes. If the user temporarily fingers his or her part out of rhythm with the compact disc player
200
, the prior art music recorder/player faithfully records and reproduces his or her part out of the rhythm with the other part.
Another problem is the monoral sound. Even though the other part was recorded in the compact disc as the stereo sound, the other part is reproduced as the monoral sound. Thus, the sound quality is degraded through the prior art music recorder/player.
In case where a user wants to make a compact disc player perform ensemble with a MIDI sound reproducer, which reads out MIDI codes from a floppy disc, there is no way to make electronic tones reproduced synchronously with the stereo sound. In detail, the time series audio data are expressed with the audio data codes D
1
and time codes D
2
(see FIG.
2
A), and the MIDI data are expressed with the event codes D
3
and delta-time codes D
4
as shown in FIG.
2
B. An example of the event codes is shown in
FIG. 2C
, and represents a note-on or note-off, a note number assigned to the tone to be generated or decayed and a velocity of the tone. The time codes D
2
represent a lapse of time from the initiation of the performance recorded in the compact disc. A time code D
2
is always larger in value than the time code D
2
on the left side thereof. On the other hand, the delta time codes D
4
, i.e., &Dgr;t codes, are representative of time interval between two events. The leftmost delta time code D
4
is indicative of the time interval between the event expressed by the leftmost event data codes D
3
and the next event expressed by the event codes D
3
on the right side thereof. When two events concurrently take place, the event codes D
3
are followed by other event codes D
3
as indicated by the middle two boxes in FIG.
2
B.
Although both of the time series audio data and the MIDI data contain pieces of timing information for the tones to be produced, the pieces of timing data are different in meaning between the time series audio data and the MIDI data. For this reason, even if the time codes D
2
are compared with the corresponding delta time codes D
4
, the comparison is nonsense, and any synchronization is hardly established between the compact disc player and the tone generator/sound system.
A controller is assumed to process the time series audio data codes and the MIDI codes in parallel. The events, i.e., the note-on events and note-off events tend to take place ahead of or late for the tones to be concurrently generated. This is because of the fact that it is impossible to make the clock signal used in the controller strictly equal to the sampling clock frequency, i.e., 44.1 kHz as well as the clock signal used in the MIDI code generator.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a synchronous music player, which establishes synchronization between plural sound sources for ensemble in a real time fashion on the basis of plural sorts of music data.
It is also an important object of the present invention to provide a synchronous music recorder, which records a sort of music data produced synchronously with another sort of music data in a real time fashion.
To accomplish the object, the present invention proposes to measure a reference lapse of time on which time intervals are defined, comparing the reference lapse of time with a lapse of time to see whether or not the difference is ignoreable and varying the time intervals for regulating timing at which the corresponding pieces of first musical data information are supplied to a destination such as, for example, a first sound source or a recording system.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music player for produci
Donels Jeffrey
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Yamaha Corporation
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