Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-26
2001-11-06
Witkowski, Stanley J. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S637000, C084S666000, C084S669000, C084SDIG002
Reexamination Certificate
active
06313389
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automatic accompaniment apparatus, particularly to automatic accompaniment apparatus having an automatic accompaniment function of various insert patterns such as an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, and an ending pattern, in addition to a basic pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
Normally, an automatic accompaniment apparatus of an electronic musical instrument obtains accompaniment tones on the basis of accompaniment pattern data prepared in advance. Some conventional automatic accompaniment apparatus have a function capable of inserting various patterns such as an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, and an ending pattern, in addition to a basic pattern as accompaniment pattern data. Also, some other apparatus can provide variations of a basic pattern, and can individually mute, e.g., a drum part, a bass part, a chord part, etc., in each variation pattern.
More specifically, an automatic accompaniment apparatus of this type has operation members for respectively muting drum, bass, and chord parts in the basic pattern, and can individually set the individual part in a tone generation or mute state. Also, upon playing the basic pattern in which mute setup states are set by these operation members in units of parts, accompaniment tones can be produced in various expressions by designating an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, an ending pattern, etc.
However, in the conventional automatic accompaniment apparatus, even when a mute state is set for a given part in a certain variation pattern, if a pattern such as an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, an ending pattern, is inserted in such a state, the mute setup of the variation pattern is not reflected in the play of such an insert pattern, and preset accompaniment pattern data are played.
For this reason, even though drum tones are muted and not produced while playing a variation pattern, drum tones begin to be produced as soon as a pattern such as a fill-in pattern is inserted. Upon completion of the play of a fill-in pattern, the variation pattern restarts to mute drum tones, thus disturbing a natural play.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to attain a smooth play by preventing the mute setup states of respective parts from changing upon switching between a basic pattern (variation pattern), and an insert pattern such as an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, and an ending pattern.
An automatic accompaniment apparatus according to the present invention having a function of making automatic accompaniment of an insert pattern in addition to a basic pattern, comprises variation selection means for selecting desired one out of variation patterns prepared as said basic pattern; mute setting means for individually setting a mute setup state of each part for each of said variation patterns; instruction means for giving instructions to play said insert pattern; and control means for controlling to make each part in a tone generation state or a mute state in accordance with the mute setup state of the part of the selected variation pattern in playing said insert pattern.
The apparatus may further comprise storage means for storing at least information on the selection state of said variation patterns and the mute setup state of each part, wherein said control means may control tone generation of each part with reference to information stored in said storage means in receiving instructions to play said insert pattern.
According to the present invention with the above arrangement, even when a pattern such as an introduction pattern, a fill-in pattern, and an ending pattern, is inserted during an automatic accompaniment while a given part in a certain variation pattern is muted, the mute setup state of each part in the variation pattern so far is reflected in the insert pattern in the actual play. Besides, when the play of the insert pattern comes to an end, and the variation pattern restarts, the play can be switched without changing the mute setup states of parts. In this manner, the mute setup state of each part can be prevented from changing upon switching between the variation pattern and the insert pattern, and the user can enjoy a smoother automatic accompaniment.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5831195 (1998-11-01), Nakata
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Kabushiki Kaisha Kawai Gakki Seisakusho
Witkowski Stanley J.
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