Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-30
2002-08-27
Fletcher, Marlon T. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S604000, C084S605000, C084S606000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06441290
ABSTRACT:
TITLE OF THE INVENTION
Apparatus and Method for Reproducing or Recording, via Buffer Memory, Sample Data Supplied from Storage Device
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improved apparatus and method for reproducing, or recording and reproducing sample data (i.e., data sampled at an appropriate sampling frequency) recorded in a storage device, such as a hard disk.
Among the conventionally-known digital mixing recorders is the so-called hard disk recorder which uses a hard disk device (hereinafter also referred as an “HDD”) to perform recording, reproduction, mixing, etc. of sound signals of a plurality of tracks. In such a hard disk recorder, sound signals input from an external source are written via a buffer memory into the HDD for recording of the sound signals, and the thus-recorded sound signals are reproduced by reading out the sound signals from the HDD and outputting them via the buffer memory to the outside. More specifically, in the hard disk recorder, sound data are recorded in predetermined unit performance segments (e.g., data of clusters) dispersedly at appropriate address locations of a memory. To reproduce these recorded sound data, a series of the sound data is retrieved by sequentially accessing the address locations on the basis of information indicative of a linkage of the recorded locations of the sound data which is contained in separately-recorded management data, then sequentially storing the retrieved sound data into the buffer memory, and then sequentially reading out the sound data from the buffer memory, one sample per sampling period.
The conventional hard disk recorder is arranged to continue recording silent data even for a quiescent or performance part temporarily disengaged from performance, which would thus result in an inefficient use of the HDD. Further, in reproduction, the conventional hard disk recorder has to perform the needless operation of sequentially accessing the recorded positions of the silent data and then storing the silent data into the buffer memory, which would needlessly impose great loads on the HDD and control device. Generally, where a user or human operator designates a desired performance section to be automatically reproduced or played back in a repetitive fashion for the purpose of so-called punch-in/punch-out or the like, it is necessary to repetitively retrieve the sound data of the individual unit performance segments by sequentially and repetitively accessing the recorded locations, on the HDD, of the sound data included in the designated performance section. For example, where, as shown in
FIG. 2
, a performance section, ranging from a time point immediately before the end of a given unit performance segment (unit performance segment
1
in the illustrated example) to a time point immediately after the beginning of another unit performance segment (unit performance segment
5
), is designated as a repetitive reproduction section, there is a need to sequentially access, within a very short time after reproduction of unit performance segment
4
, unit performance segments
5
,
1
and
2
in order to reproduce short leading and trailing portions of unit performance segments
5
and
1
and then an entire portion of unit performance segment
2
. However, in the past, such access to unit performance segments
5
,
1
and
2
sometimes could not be made in time, with the result that there occurred an undesired break in reproduced tones halfway through the music piece reproduction. Particularly, such an undesired break in reproduced tones would occur where the number of tracks is relatively great. To avoid the undesired break in reproduced tones halfway through the music piece reproduction, it is necessary to make appropriate time adjustment such that the reproduction of unit performance segment
1
is initiated with a sufficient time margin after completion of the reproduction of unit performance segment
5
(i.e., after the sound data of unit performance segments
1
and
2
have been completely stored into the buffer memory); however, this approach would take a long waiting time in the case where the number of tracks is relatively great.
Further, with the hard disk recorder, there is a need to, within one sampling period, 1) time-divisionally write an input sound signal for each recording track (i.e., track for which data recording has been recorded) into the buffer memory, 2) read out an output sound signal for each reproduction track (i.e., track for which data reproduction has been recorded) from the buffer memory, and 3) transfer the input sound signal for each recording track from the buffer memory to the HDD or transfer the output sound signal for each reproduction track from the HDD to the buffer memory. Thus, as the number of channels increases, the greater number of samples have to be read out and written and transferred from or to the buffer memory, so that the conventional buffer memory can simultaneously deal with a relatively small number of channels.
Further, among various known electronic musical instruments is one equipped with a function of generating metronome tones, which allows a human player to perform a music piece while listening to the metronome tones. In recording a performance via a multi-track recorder or the like, it would be very convenient if the human player could perform a desired music piece while listening the electronically-generated metronome tones and record the music piece performance for subsequent reproduction. It would be more convenient if the metronome tones would be generated during reproduction of the recorded performance to allow the human player or human mixer to identify possible tempo deviation and the like. Generally, the metronome tone generator device is arranged to electronically generate metronome tones by repetitively reading out, at a frequency corresponding a selected performance tempo, basic waveform data of a metronome tone prestored in memory. It would be even more convenient if such a metronome tone generator device would have an extra function to adjust the tone pitch in accordance with a preference of the human player. The pitch adjustment would necessitate waveform editing processing such as a pitch shift process and envelope modification of any of an attack, release and other portions for modifying a waveform stretch/contraction resulting from the pitch shift.
FIG. 27
is a block diagram showing an exemplary setup of the conventional metronome tone generator device equipped with the pitch adjustment function. This metronome tone generator device includes a waveform memory
1
which is in the form of a non-volatile memory such as a ROM or flash ROM and which has prestored therein basic waveform data of a metronome tone (i.e., waveform data of a first metronome tick in a measure and waveform data to be shared between second and subsequent metronome ticks in the measure). Phase generator
2
generates sampling clock pulses corresponding to a sample readout rate of the waveform memory
1
for realizing a tone pitch designated by the human player, as well as divided clock pulses obtained by dividing the period of each sampling clock pulse into a plurality of sampling points; note that as the sample readout rate is increased, the tone pitch becomes higher, while as the sample readout rate is decreased, the tone pitch becomes lower. Address generator
3
counts the sampling clock pulses to create read addresses to be applied to the waveform memory
1
. In accordance with the read addresses from the address generator
3
, the samples of the metronome tone are sequentially read out from the waveform memory
1
. Interpolation circuit
4
is supplied with the samples of the metronome tone and divided clock pulses, and interpolates between the sample values at a plurality of timings of the metronome tone in order to generate metronome tone samples in predetermined sampling periods and thereby determine metronome tone sample values at individual timings for generating the metronome tone. Envelope generator
5
outputs a time-varying c
Fujita Yoshio
Mikata Keisuke
Fletcher Marlon T.
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Yamaha Corporation
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