Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-02
2001-06-19
Nappi, Robert E. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S609000, C084S645000, C084S649000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06248945
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique, which causes a receiving end to produce a musical sound, and to perform a melody based on transmission and reception of music information.
2. Background Art
At present, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) have diffused and generation of musical sounds at receiving ends based on received music information has become widespread. To this end, musical sound generating apparatus such as an electronic musical instrument, a sound source, and a synthesizer generally include a music information transmitting-receiving apparatus (or one of a music information transmitting apparatus and a music information receiving apparatus).
The above mentioned musical information includes various kinds of musical information. Most of music information actually communicated between the transmitting and the receiving ends is data on an event such as “note on and off,” and its data quantity is comparatively small, for example, 2 or 3 bytes. A large quantity of data such as musical waveform data can be sometimes transmitted as musical information.
Transmission of data such as music information takes much time. The transmission time varies depending on generation of an error and the condition of the transmission path. Therefore, there is the problem that when waveform data is transmitted from the transmitting end to the receiving end and then reproduced immediately at the receiving end, the timing of reproducing the waveform (musical sound generating timing) undesirably changes depending on the required transmission time.
A discrepancy in performance or generation timing between melodies or musical sounds very often has such a great musical influence that an impression receiving from the performance of the melody will largely change. Therefore, in the past, waveform data was previously transmitted, and commands for processing the waveform data were transmitted as requested, which imposed substantially large restrictions on the utilization of the waveform data. Therefore, effective use of the waveform data has been strongly demanded.
Diffusion of MIDI has changed a style of playing a musical instrument, a music producing method, and a music style. There has been a long continuing demand for expanding a range of utilization of a musical sound generator and for improving facilities given to users.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to expand a range of using of waveform data to be transmitted and received while avoiding musical difficulties such as mentioned above, and also to expand a range of the method of using a musical sound generating apparatus through transmission-reception of music information.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music information transmitting apparatus comprising:
event data acquiring means for acquiring event data indicating the contents of a performance effected by a user;
event data transmitting means for transmitting music information obtained by adding first time data indicating a timing which a receiving end should process to the event data obtained by the event data acquiring means;
waveform data acquiring means for acquiring acoustic waveform data;
waveform data transmitting means for transmitting to the receiving end the music information acquired by the waveform data acquiring means; and
time data transmitting means for transmitting as music information second time data specifying a timing at which the receiving end should process the waveform data transmitted by the waveform data transmitting means.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music information receiving apparatus comprising:
receiving means for receiving music information;
a music data buffer, responsive to the receiving means receiving the event data and first time data as the music information, for storing the received event data and first time data;
a waveform buffer for storing the waveform data;
storage controlling means, responsive to the receiving means receiving the waveform data as the music information, for storing the received waveform data in the waveform buffer;
waveform processing means, responsive to the receiving means receiving the second time data as the music information, for processing the waveform data stored in the waveform buffer at a timing specified by the second time data;
a musical-sound generating time register for storing the received second time data as a musical-sound generating time;
incrementing means for incrementing the musical-sound generating time, stored in the musical-sound generating time register, at predetermined timings; and
event processing means for processing the event data stored in the music buffer at a timing determined on the basis of the musical sound generating time stored in the musical-sound generating time register and the first time data stored in the music data buffer.
According to this structure, the receiving end is capable of processing, for example, a large quantity of waveform data or the like at a appropriate timing irrespective of a transmission path.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music information editing apparatus comprising:
transmission requesting means for transmitting a transmission request to a plurality of external devices;
receiving means, responsive to the transmission request transmitted by the transmission requesting means, for receiving from the plurality of external devices music information which comprises event data representing the contents of an event in a performance and time data representing a timing for processing the event data added to the event data;
music information storing means for storing the music information received by the receiving means; and
music information editing means for rearranging the music information stored in the music information storing means in accordance with a processing sequence specified by the time data of the music information.
According to this structure, a user is able to freely combine various different music information strings, thereby enjoying a music in various ways.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is a music information transmitting apparatus comprising:
music information storing means for storing music information which comprises event data representing the contents of an event in a performance and first time data representing a timing for processing the event data added to the event data;
music information processing means for processing and reproducing an event of the music information stored in the music information storing means;
event data acquiring means for acquiring event data representing the contents of a performance effected by a user during the time when the music information stored in the music information storing means is processed by the music information processing means;
time data adding means for generating second time data representing a timing for processing the event data acquired by the event data acquiring means on the basis of the first time data of the music information stored in the music information storing means, and for adding the generated second time data to the event data acquired by the event data acquiring means;
first transmission means for transmitting as music information the event data and the second time data added to the event data by the time data adding means; and
second transmission means for transmitting the music information, stored in the music information storing means, at a timing based on the second time data added to the event data transmitted by the first transmission means.
According to this structure, a user is able to enjoy a session with another performer in a remote place.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music information transmitting-receiving apparatus comprising:
receiving means for receiving music information transmitted by a plurality of external devices;
music information storing means having a plur
Casio Computer Co. Ltd.
Fletcher Marlon
Frishauf, Holtz Goodman, Langer & Chick, P.C.
Nappi Robert E.
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