System for producing sound through blocks and modifiers

Details System for producing sound through blocks and modifiers System for producing sound through blocks and modifiers

1997-11-21

2003-12-02

Isen, Forester W. (Department: 2644)

Data processing: generic control systems or specific application

Specific application, apparatus or process

Digital audio data processing system

C084S609000, C084S645000, C084S649000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06658309

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a system and method for composing sound.
INTRODUCTION TO THE INVENTION
Creating music with computers began in the early 1960s with Max Mathews of Bell Labs. He devised a family of computer programs to compose music, of which the best known is MUSIC V. This program consisted of two main components: an Orchestra and a Score. The Orchestra comprised a collection of synthesis algorithms that were used to obtain different sounds, such as flute, violin, or drums. The Score was a list of time-tagged parameters that specified each note to be played by each instrument. The MUSIC V Score modeled a conventionally-notated musical score—in fact, in many cases a conventional score was automatically translated into a MUSIC V score. MUSIC V scores were not graphical and were created using a text editor. Because the underlying representation was as general as conventional musical notation, the assumption was that MUSIC V-type programs could be used to generate almost any type of music. However, these programs were available only on large and expensive mainframe computers, to which few people had access. Also, just as it requires a professional musician to compose music using musical notation, it required a professional musician to create a MUSIC V score.
Recent technological advances provide anyone who has access to a computer with the potential for high-end music composition and sound production. These technologies include MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), inexpensive commercial synthesizers, standard multimedia sound cards, and real-time software engines for sound synthesis and audio processing. Work on new technologies and standards, such as DLS (DownLoadable Sounds), high speed networks, the Internet, and computer game technologies, suggests that this potential will continue to expand on a rapid scale. In the near future, these new technologies will bring to the consumer market a potential for high-end state of the art composing and sound production that today is available only to professionals.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Despite the fact that there has been a significant advance in technology, it is still very difficult for a person not highly skilled as a musician to compose music using computers. The present invention enables non-musicians to effectively compose music using a computer, and provides them with the means to have complete control of the compositional process and the musical outcome. This result is accomplished through the interaction of what we call blocks and modifiers.
The present invention may be described as a computer system adapted for composing sound. Sound is composed via a combination of blocks and modifiers, where a block is an abstraction of a collection of data that, when processed by appropriate algorithms and hardware, produces sound. Further, the current invention also comprises one or more modifiers, each of which, when applied to a block, alters the sound produced by that block.
The invention falls into two overlapping domains: music composition and sound editing. The invention is a computer software application that uses models of sound events, such as musical notes or digital representations of sounds (e.g., WAV files). A collection of these sound events models a complex event, such as a musical phrase. Further nesting of these events into hierarchies can indicate the structure of the sound event, such as sections or movements of a piece of music. Each of these collections, in our system, is referred to as a block. One unique aspect of our system is that these blocks are modeled as software objects that can be manipulated by the computer system in the same manner as basic events in other systems. Further, blocks can be grouped together and nested in arbitrary hierarchies. Any such grouping of blocks can be manipulated in the same manner as an individual block. A further unique aspect of our system is the capability to apply modifiers to blocks. These modifiers are also modeled as software objects that can be applied to a block, thereby changing the sound ultimately produced by that block.
In one aspect, the present invention comprises a computer system adapted for sound applications including:
1) two or more blocks, each of which blocks comprise a collection of data, each of the blocks independently referenced to a common temporal framework;
2) means for containing a block in an arbitrary number of nested aggregates of blocks;
3) means comprising an algorithm and hardware for processing the data contained within a block for generating a corresponding sound;
and
4) one or more modifiers, each of which modifiers can be applied to a block, causing a modification to the corresponding sound.


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Cointe, Pierre; Rodet, Xavier, “Formes: an Object & Time Oriented System for Music Composition and Synthesis”, 1984, pp. 85-95.*
Oppenheim, Daniel V. “DMIX—A Mutli Faceted Environment for Composing and Performing Computer Music: its Design, Philosophy, and Implementation”.

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