The present invention relates to automatic performance apparatus and computer programs for automatically performing music pieces with desired tone colors on the basis of predetermined automatic performance data. For example, the present invention relates to an automatic performance apparatus and computer program which, when a change is to be made between tone colors of different characteristics in accordance with a tone color change instruction given from another automatic performance apparatus, can avoid musical failure or nonconformity that may be caused in tones automatically performed with a new or changed-to tone color.
So far, there have been known various automatic performance apparatus which execute automatic performances by generating tones of appropriate tone colors on the basis of automatic performance data of desired music pieces. According to a typical conventional tone-color setting/changing scheme used in relation to automatic performance data of the MIDI format, program change data are incorporated into the performance data, in correspondence with tone-color setting or changing positions in a performance sequence, and tone colors are set or changed in accordance with the program change data.
Another type of automatic performance apparatus has also been known, which can previously store performance environments, often called “registration”, that comprises, for example, settings about tone colors and tone volumes for a manual performance by a user and settings about an accompaniment to be automatically performed in accordance with the manual performance and which can communicate, via an external storage medium, communication interface or the like, the thus-set performance environments or registration to an external other electronic musical instrument (automatic performance apparatus) etc. The settings about the automatic performance include one that instructs a change of a tone color to be used in the accompaniment performance. Namely, the conventionally-known automatic performance apparatus can not only execute an automatic performance of an accompaniment or the like in accordance with automatic performance data while merely changing part of a performance environment, such as a tone color, but also execute an automatic performance utilizing performance environments acquired from an external other electronic musical instrument or the like.
New technique for setting a tone color for an automatic performance is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-066486 that has not yet been laid open to the public at the time of the initial filing in Japan of the present invention. In this yet-to-be-laid-open patent application, there is proposed a tone generation apparatus that is equipped with special-type tone colors having different characteristics from ordinary-type tone colors, such as rendition-style-dependent tone colors corresponding to different rendition styles for a specific type of musical instrument like a steel guitar, electric bass guitar or the like. Unlike in the ordinary-type tone colors, different tone colors (rendition-style-dependent tone colors) are mapped in both a velocity direction and a note-number direction per mapping of a special-type tone color, so that a tone color change can be effected using the velocity and note number instead of using, for example, a program change in the performance data. Using such a special-type tone color scheme permits quicker tone color changes during an automatic performance, with the result that an automatic performance can be executed with a variety of tone colors through simple control.
Way of using the velocity and note number differs between the special-type tone color and the ordinary-type tone colors as noted above. Thus, in order to permit use of the special-type tone color in the automatic performance apparatus, it is necessary to prepare and incorporate automatic performance data for the special-type tone color, separate from automatic performance data for the ordinary-type tone colors, in conformity with such a different way of using the velocity and note number. Regarding the incorporated automatic performance data for the special-type tone color, a tone color change may be instructed on the basis environment setting data (also called “registration data”) acquired from another automatic performance apparatus. However, if, for example, environment setting data (registration data), including an instruction for changing a special-type tone color of a performance part to an ordinary-type tone color, is applied to a given performance part that is using a special-type tone color, then the automatic performance data of the given performance part, which are prepared in advance solely for the special-type tone color, will not all match the changed-to ordinary-type tone color. Namely, merely applying such environment setting data (registration data), including an instruction for changing a special-type tone color of a performance part to an ordinary-type tone color, to the given performance part using the special-type tone color may cause musical failure or nonconformity in tones performed on the basis of the performance data of the given performance part. Similar inconvenience may occur in a case where environment setting data (registration data), including an instruction for changing an ordinary-type tone color to a special-type tone color, is applied to a given performance part that is using an ordinary-type tone color.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved automatic performance apparatus and program which, in an application where performance data based on a special tone-color setting or designating format, different from an ordinary tone-color setting or designating format, are used, can reliably avoid musical failure or nonconformity in tones performed when a tone color change is instructed,. More specifically, the present invention seeks to provide an automatic performance apparatus and program which, in an application where a change is instructed between special- and ordinary-type tone colors of different characteristics, for example, in accordance with tone-color-change instructing information acquired from another automatic performance apparatus or in accordance with tone-color-change instructing information based on a user instruction or the like, can reliably avoid musical nonconformity in tones performed on the basis of performance data, by not reflecting such an instructed tone color change in the performance.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an improved automatic performance apparatus, which comprises: a performance data storage device storing performance data, the performance data including at least a particular type of control parameter and information indicative of a tone color, the tone color being of either a first type for which the particular type of control parameter presents a first variation characteristic or a second type for which the particular type of control parameter presents a second variation characteristic different from the first variation characteristic; a reception section that receives tone-color-change instructing information; and a performance control device that executes an automatic performance on the basis of the performance data stored in the performance data storage device, the performance control device executing the automatic performance based on the performance data by changing the tone color of the performance data to be automatically performed into a tone color corresponding to the tone-color-change instructing information received by the reception section. In this invention, the performance control device invalidates a tone color change instruction by the received tone-color-change instructing information, when the received tone-color-change instructing information instructs that the tone color of the performance data to be automatically performed be changed from a tone color of the first type to a tone color of the second type or from a tone color of the second type to a tone color of the first type.
In the case where the variation characteristic presented by the particular type of control parameter differs between tone colors of the first and second types, and when a tone color change is made from a tone color of the first type to a tone of the second type or vice versa, the particular type of control parameter in the performance data will have a greatly different meaning on the tone color changed from the original tone color (i.e., changed-to tone color), which is very likely to cause significant musical failure or nonconformity in the automatic performance. Thus, the present invention is arranged to invalidate a tone color change instruction by the tone-color-change instructing information when the information instructs that the tone color of the performance data be changed from a tone color of the first type to a tone color of the second type or from a tone color of the second type to a tone color of the first type, with the result that the present invention can reliably avoid musical failure or nonconformity in the automatic performance.
In an embodiment to be later described, the particular type of control parameter is velocity data. For the tone color of the first type, the velocity data indicates a velocity of a tone color for which only a single domain of values can be taken by the velocity data, while, for the tone color of the second type, the domain of values that can be taken by the velocity data is divided into a plurality of ranges and the velocity data represents a different tone color for each of the ranges and indicates a velocity of the different tone color.
The different tone colors for the individual ranges in the tone color of the second type belong to a same tone color of a predetermined type and present different tone color characteristics corresponding to different rendition styles
The present invention may be constructed and implemented not only as the apparatus invention as discussed above but also as a method invention. Also, the present invention may be arranged and implemented as a software program for execution by a processor such as a computer or DSP, as well as a storage medium storing such a software program. Further, the processor used in the present invention may comprise a dedicated processor with dedicated logic built in hardware, not to mention a computer or other general-purpose type processor capable of running a desired software program.
The following will describe embodiments of the present invention, but it should be appreciated that the present invention is not limited to the described embodiments and various modifications of the invention are possible without departing from the basic principles. The scope of the present invention is therefore to be determined solely by the appended claims.
For better understanding of the object and other features of the present invention, its preferred embodiments will be described hereinbelow in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The ROM 2 has prestored therein various programs to be executed by the CPU 1 and various data. The RAM 3 is used as a working memory for temporarily storing various data generated as the CPU 1 executes a predetermined program, as a memory for storing the currently-executed program and data related thereto, and for various other purposes. Predetermined address regions of the RAM 3 are allocated and used as registers, flags, tables, memories, etc. Performance operator unit 4A is, for example, a keyboard including a plurality of keys for designating pitches of tones and key switches corresponding to the keys. The performance operator unit 4A, such as a keyboard, can be used not only for a manual performance by a user, but also as an input means for entering automatic performance environments etc. into the apparatus. The detection circuit 4 is a performance operation detection means for detecting depression and release of the keys on the performance operator unit 4A to thereby produce performance detection outputs.
Setting operator unit 5A includes various switches and operators for inputting various information pertaining to an automatic performance. Specifically, the setting operator unit 5A includes a touch pad, jog shuttle and other operators operable by the user to select a music piece to be actually manually performed and enter various information pertaining to an automatic performance, such as accompaniment style data to be used for an accompaniment performance. In addition to the above-mentioned switches and operators, the setting operator unit 5A may include a numeric keypad for entry of numeric value data and a keyboard for entry of text and character data which are to be used for selecting, setting and controlling a tone pitch, tone color, effect, etc., and various other operators, such as a mouse for operating a predetermined pointing element displayed on the display device 6A that may be in the form of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and/or CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). The detection circuit 5 constantly detects respective operational states of the individual operators on the setting operator unit 5A and outputs switch information, corresponding to the detected operational states of the operators, to the CPU 1 via the data and address bus 1D. The display circuit 6 visually displays not only performance environments currently set on the display device 6A, but also various information pertaining to an automatic performance, such as memory-stored accompaniment style data, a controlling state of the CPU 1, etc. The user can, for example, select, enter and set various information pertaining to performance environments with reference to the various information displayed on the display device 6A.
The tone generator (T.G.) circuit 7, which is capable of simultaneously generating tone signals in a plurality of channels, receives, via the data and address bus 1D, various performance information generated in response to user's manipulation on the performance operator unit 4A or on the basis of accompaniment style data, and it generates tone signals based on the received performance information. Each of the tone signals thus generated by the tone generator circuit 7 is audibly reproduced or sounded by a sound system 9, including an amplifier and speaker, after being imparted with en effect via the effect circuit 8. The effect circuit 8 includes a plurality of effect units which impart various effects to the tone signals, generated by the tone generator circuit 7, in accordance with effect parameters. The tone generator circuit 7, effect circuit 8 and sound system 9 may be constructed in any conventionally known manner. For example, any desired known tone signal synthesis method may be used in the tone generator circuit 7, such as the FM, PCM, physical model or formant synthesis method. Further, the tone generator circuit 7 may be implemented by either dedicated hardware or software processing performed by the CPU 1.
The external storage device 10 is provided for storing various data, such as accompaniment style data, environment setting data and waveform data, as well as control-related data and various control programs executed by the CPU 1. The external storage device 10 may includes a waveform memory (waveform ROM) for storing a plurality of sets of waveform data corresponding to ordinary- and special-type tone colors. Where a particular control program is not prestored in the ROM 2, the control program may be prestored in the external storage device (e.g., hard disk device) 10, so that, by reading the control program from the external storage device 10 into the RAM 3, the CPU 1 is allowed to operate in exactly the same way as in the case where the particular control program is stored in the ROM 2. This arrangement greatly facilitates version upgrade of the control program, addition of a new control program, etc. The external storage device 10 may comprise any of various removable-type media other than the hard disk (HD), such as a flexible disk (FD), compact disk (CD-ROM or CD-RAM), magneto-optical disk (MO) and digital versatile disk (DVD). The external storage device 10 may comprise a semiconductor memory, such as a flash memory.
The MIDI interface (I/F) 11 is an interface provided for receiving or delivering automatic performance data of the MIDI format (i.e., MIDI data) from or to other MIDI equipment 11A or the like externally connected to the electronic musical instrument. Note that the other MIDI equipment 11A may be of any structural or operating type, such as the keyboard type, stringed instrument type, wind instrument type, percussion instrument type or body-attached type, as long as it can generate MIDI data in response to manipulations by the user. Also note that the MIDI interface 11 may be a general-purpose interface rather than a dedicated MIDI interface, such as RS-232C, USB (Universal Serial Bus) or IEEE1394, in which case other data than MIDI event data may be communicated at the same time. In the case where such a general-purpose interface as noted above is used as the MIDI interface 11, the other MIDI equipment 11A may be designed to be able to communicate other data than MIDI event data. Of course, the automatic performance data handled in the present invention may be of any other data format than the MIDI format, in which case the MIDI interface 11 and other MIDI equipment 11A are constructed in conformity to the data format used.
The communication interface 12 is connected to a wired or wireless communication network X, such as a LAN (Local Area Network), the Internet or telephone line network, via which it may be connected to a desired sever computer 12A so as to input a control program and various data to the electronic musical instrument from the sever computer 12A. Thus, in a situation where a particular control program and various data are not contained in the ROM 2 or external storage device (e.g., hard disk) 10, these control program and data can be downloaded from the server computer 12A via the communication interface 12. Such a communication interface 12 may be constructed to be capable of both wired and wireless communication rather than either one of the wired and wireless communication.
Further, in the above-described electronic musical instrument, the performance operator unit 4A may be of any other type than the keyboard instrument type, such as a stringed instrument type, wind instrument type or percussion instrument type. Furthermore, the electronic musical instrument is not limited to the type where the performance operator unit 4A, display device 6A, tone generator circuit 7, etc. are incorporated together as a unit within the musical instrument; for example, the electronic musical instrument may be constructed in such a manner that the above-mentioned sections are provided separately and interconnected via communication facilities such as a MIDI interface, various networks and/or the like. Moreover, the automatic performance apparatus of the present invention may be applied to any desired type of equipment other than electronic musical instrument, such as a personal computer, portable (hand-held) phone or other portable communication terminal, karaoke apparatus or game apparatus. In the case where the automatic performance apparatus of the present invention is applied to a portable communication terminal, the predetermined functions may be performed as a whole system, comprising the terminal and a server, by causing the server to perform part of the functions, rather than causing only the terminal performing all of the predetermined functions.
Now, a description will be given about a plurality of special-type tone colors prestored in the tone generator circuit 7, ROM 2, external storage device 10 or the like, which have different characteristics from ordinary-type tone colors that can be designated by bank select data and program change data included in automatic performance data. In the instant embodiment, for each musical instrument playable with various different rendition styles, sets of waveform data, corresponding to a plurality of rendition-style-dependent tone colors of the special-type tone color, are stored in association with various values of velocity data and note number data. Such a feature will be described below in relation to an instrument tone color of a steel guitar.
In the case of the steel guitar, eight types of rendition-style-dependent tone colors: “open-soft rendition style tone color”; “open-middle rendition style tone color”; “open-hard rendition style tone color”; “dead-note rendition style tone color”; “mute rendition style tone color”; “hammering rendition style tone color”; “slide rendition style tone color”; and “harmonics rendition style tone color”, are allocated over a pitch range of C-2-B6 that correspond to note numbers “0”-“95”, as illustratively shown in
Further, as seen in
Although a set of waveform data may be provided for each of the eight types of rendition-style-dependent tone colors allocated to the steel guitar pitch range of C-2-B6, a plurality of sets of sub waveform data are provided for each of the eight rendition-style-dependent tone colors in the instant embodiment. For example, one of the sets of sub waveform data is provided per predetermined pitch range, e.g. per half octave. In the instant embodiment, the same sets of sub waveform data are provided for shared use among individual velocity data values; however, different sets of such sub waveform data may be provided for the individual velocity data values, i.e. the sub waveform data may be differentiated among the velocity data values.
Further, in the instant embodiment, one set of waveform data is provided for each of the plurality of types of strumming rendition style tone colors and fret-noise rendition style tone colors allocated to the steel guitar pitch range of C6-G8. These sets of waveform data are also stored in the waveform memory. The same sets of waveform data corresponding to the plurality of types of strumming rendition style tone colors and fret-noise rendition style tone colors are provided for shared use among the individual velocity data values; however, different sets of waveform data may be provided for the individual velocity data values, i.e. the waveform data may be differentiated among the velocity data values.
Namely, for each instrument tone color having rendition-style-dependent tone colors, such as the above-mentioned steel guitar tone color, the velocity data values “1”-“127” are allocated to the pitch range of C-2-B6 as selection information for selecting any desired one of the plurality of types of rendition-style-dependent tone colors. Thus, in the instant embodiment, the velocity data values can not be used for tone volume control directly as they are. On the other hand, a predetermined range of velocity data, including a plurality of different velocity data values, is allocated to each of the types of rendition-style-dependent tone colors as tone volume control information. Therefore, if the velocity data values of the predetermined ranges allocated to the individual types of rendition-style-dependent tone colors (horizontal axis) are converted into tone volume control values (vertical axis) with characteristics as depicted in solid lines of
More specifically, in the case of the dead-note rendition style tone color of the steel guitar tone color shown in
Further, in the instant embodiment, the remaining three rendition-style-dependent tone colors, i.e. the open-soft rendition style tone color, open-middle rendition style tone color and open-hard rendition style tone color, are classified according to the intensity with which to play the steel guitar; that is, it may be considered that the classification of these three rendition-style-dependent tone colors is based on a difference in tone volume rather than tone color. These three rendition-style-dependent tone colors are very similar. Therefore, velocity data values in the “1”-“45” range, allocated to the three rendition-style-dependent tone colors, only have to be converted into tone volume control values that range from a relatively small predetermined value (e.g., about “30”) to a relatively great predetermined value (e.g., about “127”). Although, in the illustrated example of
This and following paragraphs describe accompaniment style data, one of a plurality of performance environments prestored, for example, in the external storage device 10 so as to be read out or set up for use when an automatic performance is to be executed.
Specific default or initially-set tone colors are allocated to the individual tracks of each of the styles (Style 1-Style N), and when the automatic performance data of any one of the tracks are to be reproduced, the specific default or initially-set tone color is used. In
Second automatic performance apparatus of
It should also be appreciated that the present invention is not limited to an electronic musical instrument where the panel operator unit 5, display device 6, tone generator 9, etc. are incorporated together in the same body of the instrument; for example, the basis principles of the present invention may also be applied to an electronic musical instrument where the above-mentioned components are interconnected via communication means, such as an external interface and/or various communication network.
It should also be understood that the automatic performance data to be used in the invention may be in any desired format, such as: the “event plus absolute time” format where the time of occurrence of each performance event is represented by an absolute time within the music piece or a measure thereof, the “event plus relative time” format where the time of occurrence of each performance event is represented by a time length from the immediately preceding event; the “pitch (rest) plus note length” format where each performance data is represented by a pitch and length of a note or a rest and a length of the rest; or the “solid” format where a memory region is reserved for each minimum resolution of a performance and each performance event is stored in one of the memory regions that corresponds to the time of occurrence of the performance event.
Next, with reference to
As seen from
In setting performance environments, having been set via another electronic musical instrument, in the electronic musical instrument of
Now, a description will be made about a sequence of operations for setting performance environments in the electronic musical instrument of
At step S1 of
Next, a description will be given about an “automatic accompaniment process” carried in the instant embodiment for automatically performing an accompaniment via the electronic musical instrument under performance environments corresponding to the environment setting data.
At step S11, a set of the accompaniment style data selected by user's musical-genre designating operation is loaded from the ROM 2, external storage device 10 or the like and then written, for example, into a predetermined area of the RAM 3. At next step S12, a tone color change is made on the basis of the accompaniment style setting data of the environment setting data stored in the predetermined area of the RAM 3 through execution of the above-described environment-setting-data load process. At that time, even when the environment setting data received from the first automatic accompaniment apparatus has instructed a tone color change for a track having a special-type tone color allocated thereto, the tone color change instruction is recorded as invalid in the environment setting data recorded in the RAM 3, so that, in this case, no tone color change is effected. At following step S13, the automatic performance data of the accompaniment style data are read out at a predetermined tempo, then converted in tone pitch in accordance with designated chords and reproduced with tone colors set (changed) in accordance with the environment setting data recorded in the RAM 3. Namely, when a tone color change from a special-type tone color to an ordinary-type tone color has been instructed for a given track by the environment setting data received from the first automatic performance apparatus, the tone color change is made invalid, so that the instant embodiment can reliably avoid musical failure or nonconformity due to the instructed tone color change and thereby achieve a musically-preferable performance although such a tone color change is not reflected in the performance.
Note that the instant embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the above-described arrangement that the tone-color-change setting information (i.e., tone-color-change presence/absence information, track information plus changed-to-color information) is stored for all of the styles in the accompaniment style setting data included in the environment setting data; instead, such tone-color-change setting information may be stored for only those styles where a tone color change has been instructed. Further, whereas the instant embodiment has been described as storing one tone-color-change presence/absence region and one track/changed-to color region per set of accompaniment style setting data, a region indicative of absence of a tone color change or a changed-to tone color may be stored for each of the tracks, or such information may be stored in any other desired manner.
Also, the accompaniment style setting data may include setting data for any other desired parameter than the tone color, such as the tone volume, effect or the like.
Furthermore, whereas the environment setting data have been described as also including the accompaniment style setting data and other data, the environment setting data may be arranged to include only the accompaniment style setting data. Moreover, the environment setting data and other data may be communicated via a communication interface rather than via an external storage medium. Further, the application of the present invention is not limited to the communication of the environment setting data between two or more automatic performance apparatus, and the present invention can also be applied to a case where the user manipulates predetermined setting operators of an automatic performance apparatus to change the contents of the environment setting data in only one automatic performance apparatus. In such a case, step S1 of
It should also be understood that both of the first and second automatic performance apparatus may either store all of similar accompaniment style data corresponding in a one-to-one relation between the two apparatus or store only some of the accompaniment style data. Where accompaniment style data are not stored, similar accompaniment styles may be stored instead. (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. HEI-08-272369). In such a case, the technique of the present invention may be applied to the similar accompaniment styles.
Whereas the preferred embodiment has been described above in relation to the automatic performance apparatus that executes an automatic performance on the basis of the accompaniment style data, the present invention is not so limited and may be constructed as an automatic performance apparatus that executes an automatic performance on the basis of ordinary automatic performance data (e.g., song data).
Further, whereas the preferred embodiment has been described above in relation to the case where different rendition-style-dependent tone colors of a special-type tone color are mapped in both of the velocity and note number directions, different rendition-style-dependent tone colors may be mapped in only one of the velocity and note number directions. Alternatively, the present invention may be applied to any special-type tone colors as long as performance data need to be prepared in accordance with characteristics of the special-type tone colors due to differences from characteristic from ordinary-type tone colors.
Moreover, the application of the present invention is not limited to the case where a tone color change for replacing a special-type tone color with an ordinary-type tone color is made invalid, and the present invention is of course also applicable to a case where a tone color change is made for replacing an ordinary-type tone color with a special-type tone color.
In the case of a tone generator based on the PCM method, it is only necessary that waveform data be prepared per rendition style, in order to provide a tone generator for special-type tone colors; in the case of a tone generator of the FM, physical model, formant method or the like, however, only tone synthesis parameters and algorithm have to be prepared, in order to provide a tone generator for special-type tone colors.
In summary, the present invention is characterized by invalidating a tone color change between special- and ordinary-type tone colors based on a tone color change instruction received from another automatic performance apparatus, with the result that the present invention can reliably avoid musical nonconformity in performed tones that may be undesirably produced with a changed-to new tone color.
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