Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-28
2003-05-27
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S645000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06570082
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a tone color selection apparatus and method which can take in or load, from any desired external sources, loadable tone color data, such as data of DLS (DownLoadable Sounds) or Sound Font, to thereby add the loaded tone color data to a group of tone color data of a predetermined tone color standard, such as that of the MIDI, in such a manner that the added tone color data can be selected from among the group of tone color data whenever necessary. The present invention also relates to a storage medium to be used for the tone color selection.
MIDI, which is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface and a registered trademark, is one of the known digital signal interface standards for connecting an electronic musical instrument to another electronic musical instrument or computer. Tone generation apparatus, such as communication karaoke apparatus and DTM (Desk Top Music) apparatus, synthesize waveform data for generation of tones on the basis of music piece data of the standard format prescribed for the MIDI. In such tone generation apparatus, there are prestored, in memory, waveform data necessary for producing tones colors of standard musical instruments such as a piano and guitar. Generally, a tone color is selected in such MIDI tone generators using a program change message. In a case where each program change message is in the form of 7-bit data, only 128 (seventh power of 2) different kinds of tone colors are selectable by program change messages in principle. However, today's sophisticated MIDI tone generators are constructed to permit selection of more than 128 different kinds of tone colors, and they employ the co-called “bank approach” in order to control the selection of more than 128 different kinds of tone colors. In such MIDI tone generators, a given bank is selected from among a plurality of banks, each capable of storing up to 128 kinds of tone colors, in accordance with control change data, and then a given tone color is designated from among the tone colors stored in the selected bank in accordance with a program change number. Typical example of the bank selection scheme uses a combination of bank MSB and LSB. The use of the bank MSB data permits selection of 128 (seventh power of 2) banks and the use of the bank LSB data permits selection of another 128 (seventh power of 2) banks, in which case the selectable tone colors total to the second power of 128.
Tone color selection information for selecting tone color data stored in memory comprises mapping information so as to select a location of desired tone color data in a virtual tone color selecting space called a tone color map. Given tone color selecting space is mapped in accordance with a given tone color standard, so that any tone color selection information (mapping information) compliant with the given tone color standard can accurately select a desired tone color in the given tone color selecting space. Although pieces of tone-related information are unified or standardized today with respect to their fundamental aspects just as in the case of the MIDI standard, details and various extended functions of the tone-related information differ variously among musical instrument makers. Particularly, regarding the tone color selecting space, the musical instrument makers have been building systems on the basis of their own specifications while the specifications are fundamentally based on the data format of the MIDI standard. Accordingly, in some cases, tone color data in a tone color selecting space compliant with a given tone color standard can not be accurately selected with tone color selection information compliant with another standard different from the given tone color standard.
Typically, the MIDI tone generator systems are based on the scheme of prestoring a multiplicity of tone color data (waveform data) in a ROM (Read-Only Memory) and reading out desired ones of the prestored tone color data for desired use. In recent years, some of the MIDI tone generator systems are designed to receive desired tone color data (waveform data) from external sources and store the received tone color data in a writable memory, such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) or hard disk. For example, in the above-mentioned type of tone color selecting space where the selectable banks amount to as many as the “second power of 128”, all of the banks are not used for the tone color data prestored in the ROM, so that a considerable number of the banks would remain vacant or unused.
Today, as loadable sound color data sets, there are used the DLS (which is a registered trademark and an acronym for DownLoadable Sounds) and Sound Font (also a registered trademark). However, according to the conventional way of using such loadable tone color sets, a desired tone color set is installed exclusively in a user's electronic musical instrument, and it has never been considered to allocate a separate loadable tone color set to a part of a tone color selecting space storing tone color sets of the MIDI or other standard.
In the case where loadable tone color data, such as DLS, are loaded from an external source and used for tone generation, the conventional tone generation apparatus, in principle, allocate (or map) the loadable tone color data to predetermined addressable locations of a tone color selecting space (i.e., tone color map) compliant with the standard of the loadable tone color data; the predetermined addressable locations are specified by mapping information included in the tone color data to be loaded from the external source. In case other tone color data are already present in the predetermined addressable locations of the tone color selecting space specified by the mapping information of the loadable tone color data, the conventional tone generation apparatus allocate, by way of an exception, the loadable tone color data to other vacant addressable locations of the tone color selecting space. Namely, no particular consideration has heretofore been paid to the standard of the tone color selecting space in the tone generator apparatus receiving the loadable tone color data.
Further, depending on a predetermined tone color standard (e.g., MIDI-GM standard or MIDI-XG standard; these MIDI-based GM standard and XG standard are each a registered trademark) used in the tone color selecting space of a data-receiving tone generator system, even when the tone color selecting space has vacant addressable locations, such vacant addressable locations are sometimes predetermined to be dedicated to allocation thereto of substitute tone color data of a predetermined tone color. Therefore, if tone color data received from an external source is allocated (mapped) to such a dedicated addressable location set aside for the predetermined substitute tone color, and if the externally-received tone color data has no relation to the predetermined substitute tone color, using the externally-received tone color data for tone reproduction would undesirably result in generation of a tone having an inconvenient tone color. In other words, the loadable tone color data would be loaded and allocated to an addressable location deviating from the predetermined tone color standard of the tone color selecting space in the data-receiving tone generator system, with the result that there would be encountered extreme inconveniences when the tone color is reproduced in accordance with tone color selection information compliant with the predetermined tone color standard, e.g. when an automatic performance is executed in accordance with performance data including tone color selection information compliant with the predetermined tone color standard.
If, on the other hand, particular loadable tone color data is loaded and allocated to a vacant addressable location of the tone color selecting space in the data-receiving tone generator system which does not agree with mapping information compliant with the standard of the loadable tone color data, and when the tone color is reproduced in accor
Fukada Atsushi
Hiramatsu Mikihiro
Mukaino Hirofumi
Shimizu Hiroshi
Donels Jeffrey
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Yamaha Corporation
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