Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-27
2002-03-26
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S662000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06362411
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to apparatus for and methods of inputting music-performance control data, and more particularly to a technique which can effectively improve and control the quality of performance tones generated on the basis of previously-provided automatic performance data of, for example, a piece of music by imparting control data, pertaining performance effects such as in tone pitch, volume and color, to the automatic performance data and editing the automatic performance data.
Techniques of inputting control data, such as pitch bend and volume control data continuously varying over time, and imparting the thus-input control data to automatic performance data have been known, one of which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI-9-6346. The disclosed technique is characterized primarily by prestoring, for each desired type of musical instrument, a plurality of control data templates each made up of a control data train that corresponds to a rise to fall of an instrument's tone and selecting and incorporating a desired one of these prestored control data templates into the automatic performance data.
Specifically, the conventionally-known techniques prestore control data templates corresponding to typical styles of rendition, for each of the musical instruments. However, each of these control data templates is arranged in such a simplified form as to merely express characteristics of the musical instrument to a certain degree and never provides for a faithful reproduction of characteristics of an actual performance tone of the musical instrument in question. Thus, even when a human operator or player believes that he or she has selected one of the control data templates fitting a desired style of rendition of guitar or the like and imparted it to automatic performance data, an actual reproduction of the automatic performance data would often prove to be unsatisfactory in that the style of rendition expressed in the reproduced performance is not what the human operator initially intended or far from the performance and style of rendition of a corresponding natural instrument. For these reasons, with the conventional techniques, it has been very difficult to impart control data which allow performance in various styles of rendition with high quality as afforded by the natural instruments.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for and method of inputting music-performance control data which can readily impart, to music performance data, high-quality performance expressions as afforded by natural instruments.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an apparatus for inputting music-performance control data which comprises: memory storing a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition; a supply device adapted to supply music performance data; an operator device; and a processor coupled with the memory, supply device and operator device. The processor in the present invention is arranged to: select a desired style of rendition in response to operation of the operator device and in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among the music performance data; and read out, from the memory, one or more of the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition, so that a characteristic of the selected style of rendition is imparted to the selected notes in the music performance data.
According to the present invention, there are prestored in the memory a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms obtained by actually playing acoustic musical instruments in various styles of rendition. Desired style of rendition is selected with respect to or in corresponding relation to desired one or more notes included in the music performance data, and one or more control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition are read out from the memory. When a tone is to be generated on the basis of the music performance data, the read-out control data are used to set and control characteristics of that tone. With such arrangements, the apparatus of the present invention readily achieves high-quality renditions as afforded by natural instruments.
For example, the music performance data may be automatic performance data. In such a case, the processor may be arranged to incorporate style-of-rendition designating information, indicative of the selected style of rendition, into a sequence of the music performance data, and the style-of-rendition designating information is used to read out, from the memory, the one or more control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition. The apparatus of the present invention may further comprise a storage for storing a performance sequence, in which case the sequence of the music performance data, having the style-of-rendition designating information incorporated therein, is stored in the storage.
As another example, the music performance data may be data generated by a real-time performance on a keyboard or other performance operator device. In this case, the processor may be arranged to: select a desired style of rendition in real time in response to operation of the operator device and in corresponding relation to the music performance data supplied in real time by the supply device; read out, from the memory, the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition; and control a characteristic of a tone corresponding to the supplied music performance data in real time in accordance with the read-out control data, to thereby generate the tone corresponding to the supplied music performance data. Of course, the selection and impartment of the desired style of rendition may be conducted in real time, during the course of an automatic performance, in corresponding relation to the music performance data supplied in real time.
Further, the plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to partial sounding segments of a tone, and each of the partial sounding segments may correspond to any one of a plurality of segmental states of the tone from the rise to fall thereof, such as in the segments commonly called “attack”, “body” and “release”. With such arrangements, an optimum style of rendition can be input and an optimum rendition can be realized on the basis of the thus-input style of rendition, for each of the partial sounding segments. In this way, the apparatus of the present invention readily achieves high-quality renditions as afforded by natural instruments.
The plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to a style of rendition that pertains to a plurality of notes to be performed in succession; examples of such a style of rendition include “crescendo”, “decrescendo” and the like which involve a plurality of notes, and, perhaps, grace note impartment. The plurality of control data stored in the memory may include control data corresponding to a style of rendition that pertains to a connection between two successive notes. Examples of such a style of rendition include “tie” and “slur”.
The memory may have stored therein, in association with each style of rendition, at least two of control data indicative of a pitch variation over time, control data indicative of an amplitude variation over time and control data indicative of a tone color variation over time. Use of the control data indicative of the timewise variations of these tonal factors allows optimum control to be performed on each individual style of rendition. Further, the memory may have stored therein control data corresponding to a plurality of different tonal factors, in association with each individual style of rendition. In this case, each selectable style of rendition may correspond to one partial sounding segment of a tone, and in response to selection of a particular one of t
Sakama Masao
Suzuki Hideo
Donels Jeffrey
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Yamaha Corporation
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