Patent Application
20150013532
1. Technical Field
The disclosed technology relates generally to virtual musical instruments.
2. Introduction
Virtual musical instruments, such as MIDI-based or software-based keyboards, guitars, strings, or horn ensembles can include an arpeggiator that allows a user to create an arpeggio by entering multiple notes (e.g. a chord) on a MIDI-based instrument, such as a keyboard, in a particular sequence or pattern. For simplification of explanation, a MIDI keyboard will be used as an example in the following disclosure. However, it will be understood that the following disclosure may be applied to any MIDI- or software-based instrument, such as a guitar, other string instrument, horn, woodwind, etc. The arpeggiator then arpeggiates the entered chord, by continuing to play the notes in the order that they were entered on the keyboard for as long as the notes are held by the user. As a note is released from the keyboard, it is removed from the played arpeggio. Similarly, as a note is entered on the keyboard, it is added to the played arpeggio. The resulting arpeggio continues to play the currently held notes in the order that they were entered.
However, once the user releases all notes, the arpeggiation ends. Thus, for example, if a user wishes to arpeggiate a completely different set of notes (i.e. a different chord) in same pattern, the user must enter those notes in the desired sequence and hold them for the arpeggiator to play the arpeggio. Therefore, a need exists to generate a customized arpeggio according to user's input. More specifically, a need exists to memorize a custom note order entered by a user, which can be then applied to a different set of notes.
Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for generating customized arpeggios. An exemplary method includes providing a storage medium, including a database storing data corresponding to an arpeggio or note order pattern to be played by a virtual instrument. The method further includes receiving a plurality of user inputs that enable a user to select a desired set of musical notes (e.g. a chord) other than the notes (e.g. chord) used to create the arpeggio stored in the database, without having to re-enter the note sequence. The method then includes creating the desired arpeggio for the selected set of notes by applying the stored arpeggio note order data from the database to the entered notes, and playing the created desired arpeggio.
Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosed principles. The features and advantages of the disclosure can be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or can be learned by the practice of the principles set forth herein.
In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a more particular description of the principles briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principles herein are described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
A brief introductory description of a basic general purpose system or computing device in
With reference to
The system bus 110 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. A basic input/output system (BIOS) stored in ROM 140 or the like, may provide the basic routine that helps to transfer information between elements within the computing device 100, such as during start-up. The computing device 100 further includes storage devices 160 such as a hard disk drive, a magnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive, tape drive or the like. The storage device 160 can include software modules 162, 164, 166 for controlling the processor 120. Other hardware or software modules are contemplated. The storage device 160 is connected to the system bus 110 by a drive interface. The drives and the associated computer readable storage media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computing device 100. In one aspect, a hardware module that performs a particular function includes the software component stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium in connection with the necessary hardware components, such as the processor 120, bus 110, display 170, and so forth, to carry out the function. The basic components are known to those of skill in the art and appropriate variations are contemplated depending on the type of device, such as whether the device 100 is a small, handheld computing device, a desktop computer, or a computer server.
Although the exemplary embodiment described herein can employ the hard disk 160, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable media which can store data that are accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, cartridges, random access memories (RAMs) 150, read only memory (ROM) 140, a cable or wireless signal containing a bit stream and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operating environment. Non-transitory computer-readable storage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.
To enable user interaction with the computing device 100, an input device 190 represents any number of input mechanisms, such as a microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphical input, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth. An output device 170 can also be one or more of a number of output mechanisms known to those of skill in the art. In some instances, multimodal systems enable a user to provide multiple types of input to communicate with the computing device 100. The communications interface 180 generally governs and manages the user input and system output. There is no restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement and therefore the basic features here may easily be substituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.
For clarity of explanation, the illustrative system embodiment is presented as including individual functional blocks including functional blocks labeled as a “processor” or processor 120. The functions these blocks represent may be provided through the use of either shared or dedicated hardware, including, but not limited to, hardware capable of executing software and hardware, such as a processor 120, that is purpose-built to operate as an equivalent to software executing on a general purpose processor. For example the functions of one or more processors presented in
The logical operations of the various embodiments are implemented as: (1) a sequence of computer implemented steps, operations, or procedures running on a programmable circuit within a general use computer, (2) a sequence of computer implemented steps, operations, or procedures running on a specific-use programmable circuit; and/or (3) interconnected machine modules or program engines within the programmable circuits. The system 100 shown in
To preserve the current note order (e.g., pitch order), at step 205 the user clicks on the Lock symbol icon 402 (see
As an example, after activating the As Played mode button 301 the user plays a C major dominant 7th chord in the order: C-G-E-Bb. These notes are stored in sequence in memory, and the arpeggiator repeatedly plays the notes in the order they were entered, so long as the notes are held by the user.
At step 205 the user activates the Lock button 402; the arpeggiator then advances to step 207, wherein it analyzes the pitch or scale relationships among the notes to derive and memorize a series of playing instructions. Thus, using the notes entered, the arpeggiator generates instructions, with respect to any set of four notes later entered, to first play the lowest of the four notes, second play the third lowest (second highest) note of the four notes, third play the second lowest (third highest) note of the four notes, and fourth play the highest note of the four notes. In short, the custom note order is: 1, 3, 2, 4. This pitch or scale order or sequence is then stored in memory at step 208.
At step 209, the note order instructions are applied to all subsequently notes entered by the user. For example, if the user next plays an A Minor7 chord by entering in any order the notes A-C-E-G. According to the memorized playing instructions the notes are arpeggiated in the following order: A, E, C, G.
When generating a custom arpeggio by using note order ‘As Played’ in combination with the Latch mode, it is quite likely that only a few different notes are played, but in a specific pattern or sequence. For example, the intro theme of the song Tubular Bells contains the following note ‘MIDI Note Name’ terms: E4, A4, E4, H4, E4, G4, A4, E4, C5, E4, D5, E4, H4, C5, E4, A4, E4, H4, E4, G4, A4, E4, C5, E4, D5, E4, H4, C5, E4, H4. This is a pattern of 30 steps, but with only 6 different notes (E4, G4, A4, H4, C5, D5). The custom playing order instructions that are generated and stored after activating the Lock function are: 1,3, 1,4, 1,2, 3, 1,5, 1,6, 1,4,5, 1,3, 1, 4, 1,2,3, 1,5, 1,6, 1,4,5, 1,4.
If the user thereafter plays a different set of six notes (regardless of sequence of entry), the melodic progression of the Tubular Bells intro would be retained, but using the different set of notes played.
Another embodiment of the present disclosure is now explained with respect to
According to this aspect, it is possible to ‘capture’ the performance data of an arpeggio that was created by the live playing on a MIDI keyboard. The ‘captured’ performance data (e.g. velocity data) is written into a pattern grid 501 for subsequent graphical step editing. Using the pattern grid the user can change the velocities per step, turn arpeggiator steps into rests and ties and even adding steps to the arpeggio. In addition the user may save and load patterns. Thus, a pattern consists of the velocity data per step and the information of whether a step is played as a note, rest or tie. This information is used to articulate the currently held MIDI notes that are being arpeggiated. As an example, say the user plays a C Major7 chord hitting the MIDI keyboard with different velocities for each note of the chord, playing [C1, vel=112], [E1, vel=80], [G1,vel=50], [B1, vel=90]. The chord notes are sorted and repeated according to the selected Note Order mode. In this case the user chooses the simple As Played Mode. The Arpeggiator plays [C1,vel=112], [E1,vel=80], [G1,vel=50], [B1, vel=90]. While the arpeggio is playing the user clicks on a ‘capture’ icon (such an arrow glyph pointing at the grid).
The played velocities are captured: [Step1, vel=112], [Step2, vel=80], [Step3, vel=50], [Step4, vel=90]- - - The user now edits the captured grid pattern (502): [Step1, vel=100], [Step2, vel=70], [Step3,rest], [Step4,vel=90]. Now the user plays an A Minor7 chord with varying velocities. The arpeggiator ignores the velocities played by the user, instead using the data in the grid. The A Minor7 chord is arpeggiated as follows [A1, vel=100], [C2,vel=70], [rest], [G2,vel=90].
Embodiments within the scope of the present disclosure may also include tangible and/or non-transitory computer-readable storage media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such non-transitory computer-readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer, including the functional design of any special purpose processor as discussed above. By way of example, and not limitation, such non-transitory computer-readable media can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions, data structures, or processor chip design. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of the computer-readable media.
Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Computer-executable instructions also include program modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or network environments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, objects, and the functions inherent in the design of special-purpose processors, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of the program code means for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps.
Those of skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced in network computing environments with many types of computer system configurations, including personal computers, hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications and changes that may be made to the principles described herein without following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein, and without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
