MUSIC ENSEMBLE SYSTEM, CONTROLLER USED THEREFOR, AND PROGRAM

Abstract

A music ensemble system that enables changing the assignment of playing parts to performance terminals with a simpler operation. The music ensemble system comprising a plurality of performance terminals and a controller capable of communicating with the performance terminals to control playing of the performance terminals. Each of the performance terminals comprises a playing operation unit adapted to receive a player's playing operation and generates operation information, a terminal communication unit adapted to communicate with the controller to transmit the operation information to the controller, and a tone generator adapted to produce musical sounds based on sound instruction data received by the terminal communication unit. The controller comprises a controller communication unit adapted to communicate with each of the performance terminals, a music data storage unit adapted to contain music data including a plurality of playing parts, a playing control unit adapted to, upon reception of the operation information by the controller communication unit from the performance terminal, read out a playing part assigned to the performance terminal from the music data storage unit based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to the performance terminals, and transmit sound instruction data for sounding the playing part to the performance terminal via the controller communication unit, an operation unit having a part change operator, and a playing part changing unit adapted to modify the part assignment information according to a predetermined change pattern upon operating of the part change operator.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a music ensemble system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are views which are useful in illustrating an example of forward or backward shift;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are views are useful in illustrating an example of a random change pattern;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are views which are useful in illustrating an example of a balanced change pattern;

FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of a main operation window;

FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of a manual assignment window displayed when a connection failure occurs;

FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of the manual assignment window;

FIG. 8 is a view showing a MIDI port selection window;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a controller;

FIG. 10 is a view showing an example of music data;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a performance terminal;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the procedure of an example of a playing part assignment process;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the procedure of another example of a playing part assignment process;

FIG. 14 is a view showing an example of a part assignment table.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the procedure of an example of balanced assignment change process.

Claims

1. A music ensemble system comprising a plurality of performance terminals and a controller capable of communicating with said performance terminals to control playing of said performance terminals, each of said performance terminals comprising:a playing operation unit adapted to receive a player's playing operation and generate operation information;a terminal communication unit adapted to communicate with said controller to transmit the operation information to said controller; anda tone generator adapted to produce musical sounds based on sound instruction data received by said terminal communication unit, andsaid controller comprising:a controller communication unit adapted to communicate with each of said performance terminals;a music data storage unit adapted to contain music data including a plurality of playing parts;a playing control unit adapted to, upon reception of the operation information by said controller communication unit from said performance terminal, read out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal from said music data storage unit based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, and transmit sound instruction data for sounding the playing part to said performance terminal via said controller communication unit;an operation unit having a part change operator; anda playing part changing unit adapted to modify the part assignment information according to a predetermined change pattern upon operation of the part change operator.

2. A controller capable of communicating with a plurality of performance terminals to control performance of said performance terminals, each of said performance terminals having a function of receiving a player's playing operation, generating operation information, and transmitting the operation information to said controller, and a function of producing musical sounds based on sound instruction data, said controller comprising: a communication unit adapted to communicate with each of said performance terminals;a music data storage unit adapted to contain music data including a plurality of playing parts;a playing control unit adapted to, upon reception of the operation information by said communication unit from said performance terminal, read out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal from said music data storage unit based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, and transmit sound instruction data for sounding the playing part to said performance terminal via said communication unit;an operation unit having a part change operator; anda playing part changing unit adapted to modify the part assignment information according to a predetermined change pattern upon operation of the part change operator.

3. A controller according to claim 2, wherein said playing control unit stores, as the part assignment information, information associating IDs indicating the order of said performance terminals with corresponding playing parts, andsaid playing part changing unit modifies the part assignment information by shifting the correspondence between the playing parts and the IDs by a predetermined number in the order indicated by the IDs or in the reverse order thereof.

4. A controller according to claim 2, wherein said playing control unit stores, as the part assignment information, information associating IDs of said performance terminals with corresponding playing parts, andsaid playing part changing unit modifies the part assignment information by randomly changing the correspondence between the playing parts and the IDs.

5. A program for causing a controller of controlling playing of a plurality of performance terminals to execute: a receiving process of receiving operation information generating, upon reception of a player's playing operation, by said performance terminal;a playing control process of, upon reception of the operation information in said receiving process, reading out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, among music data including playing parts, each of the playing parts including a plurality of sound data items, transmitting sound data items of the playing part to said performance terminal via said controller communication unit, and causing said performance terminal to produce musical sounds based on sound data; anda playing part change process of, upon reception of a changing operation of changing the playing part, modifying the part assignment information according to a predetermined change pattern.

6. A music ensemble system comprising a plurality of performance terminals and a controller capable of communicating with said performance terminals to control playing of said performance terminals, each of said performance terminals comprising:a playing operation unit adapted to receive a player's playing operation and generate operation information;a terminal communication unit adapted to communicate with said controller to transmit the operation information to said controller; anda tone generator adapted to produce musical sounds based on sound data items received by said terminal communication unit, andsaid controller comprising:a controller communication unit adapted to communicate with each of said performance terminals;a music data storage unit adapted to contain music data including a plurality of playing parts, each of the playing parts including a plurality of sound data items;a playing control unit adapted to, upon reception of the operation information by said controller communication unit from said performance terminal, read out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal from said music data storage unit based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, and transmit sound data items of the playing part to said performance terminal via said controller communication unit;an operation unit including a playing part changing operator adapted to receive a changing operation of changing the playing part; anda playing part assignment unit adapted to, upon reception of the changing operation by said operation unit, compute the number of sound data items of each playing part and set the playing part assignment information in said playing control unit based on the computed number so that sound data items assigned to said performance terminals approximate one another in number.

7. A music ensemble system comprising a plurality of performance terminals and a controller capable of communicating with said performance terminals to control playing of said performance terminals, each of said performance terminals comprising:a playing operation unit adapted to receive a player's playing operation and generate operation information;a terminal communication unit adapted to communicate with said controller to transmit the operation information to said controller; anda tone generator adapted to produce musical sounds based on sound data items received by said terminal communication unit, andsaid controller comprising:a controller communication unit adapted to communicate with each of said performance terminals;a music data storage unit adapted to contain music data including a plurality of playing parts, each of the playing parts including a plurality of sound data items;a playing control unit adapted to, upon reception of the operation information by said controller communication unit from said performance terminal, read out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal from said music data storage unit based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, and transmit sound data items of the playing part to said performance terminal via said controller communication unit;an operation unit including a readout operator adapted to receive a readout operation of reading out the music data; anda playing part assignment unit adapted to, upon reception of the readout operation by said operation unit, compute the number of sound data items of each playing part and set the playing part assignment information in said playing control unit based on the computed number so that sound data items assigned to said performance terminals approximate one another in number.

8. A controller connected with a plurality of performance terminals to control playing of said performance terminals, each of said performance terminals having a function of receiving a player's playing operation, generate operation information, and a function of producing musical sounds based on sound data, said controller comprising: a controller communication unit adapted to communicate with each of said performance terminals;a music data storage unit adapted to contain music data including a plurality of playing parts, each of the playing parts including a plurality of sound data items;a playing control unit adapted to receive the operation information generated by said performance terminal via said controller communication unit, read out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal from said music data storage unit based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, and transmit sound data items of the playing part to said performance terminal via said controller communication unit;an operation unit including a playing part changing operator adapted to receive a changing operation of changing the playing part; anda playing part assignment unit adapted to, upon reception of the changing operation by said operation unit, compute the number of sound data items of each playing part and set the playing part assignment information in said playing control unit based on the computed number so that the number of sound data items assigned to each of the performance terminals approximates the number of sound data items assigned to the other performance terminals.

9. A controller according to claim 8, wherein when the number of the playing parts is not less than twice the number of said performance terminals to which the playing parts are to be assigned, said playing part assignment unit sets the playing part assignment information in said playing control unit so that playing parts in decreasing order of the number of sounds are paired with playing parts in increasing order of the number of sounds respectively and assigned to each of said performance terminals.

10. A controller connected with a plurality of performance terminals to control playing of said performance terminals, each of said performance terminals having a function of receiving a player's playing operation to generate operation information, and a function of producing musical sounds based on sound data, said controller comprising: a controller communication unit adapted to communicate with each of said performance terminals;a music data storage unit adapted to contain music data including a plurality of playing parts, each of the playing parts including a plurality of sound data items;a playing control unit adapted to receive the operation information generated by said performance terminal via said controller communication unit, read out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal from said music data storage unit based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, and transmit sound data items of the playing part to said performance terminal via said controller communication unit;an operation unit including a readout operator adapted to receive a readout operation of reading out the music data; anda playing part assignment unit adapted to, upon reception of the readout operation by said operation unit, compute the number of sound data items of each playing part and set the playing part assignment information in said playing control unit based on the computed number so that sound data items assigned to said performance terminals approximate one another in number.

11. A controller according to claim 10, wherein when the number of the playing parts is more than twice the number of said performance terminals to which the playing parts are to be assigned, said playing part assignment unit sets the playing part assignment information in said playing control unit so that playing parts in decreasing order of the number of sounds are paired with playing parts in increasing order of the number of sounds respectively and assigned to each of said performance terminals.

12. A program for causing a controller of controlling playing of a plurality of performance terminals to execute: a receiving process of receiving operation information generating, upon reception of a player's playing operation, by said performance terminal;a playing control process of, upon reception of the operation information in said receiving process, reading out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, among music data including playing parts, each of the playing parts including a plurality of sound data items, transmitting sound data items of the playing part to said performance terminal via said controller communication unit, and causing said performance terminal to produce musical sounds based on sound data; anda playing part assignment of, upon reception of a changing operation of changing the playing part, computing the number of sound data items of each of the playing parts and setting the playing part assignment information in said playing control unit based on the computed number so that sound data items assigned to the performance terminals approximate one another in number.

13. A program for causing a controller of controlling playing of a plurality of performance terminals to execute: a receiving process of receiving operation information generating, upon reception of a player's playing operation, by said performance terminal;a playing control process of, upon reception of the operation information in said receiving process, reading out a playing part assigned to said performance terminal based on part assignment information indicating the assignment of the playing parts to said performance terminals, among music data including playing parts, each of the playing parts including a plurality of sound data items, transmitting sound data items of the playing part to said performance terminal via said controller communication unit, and causing said performance terminal to produce musical sounds based on sound data; anda playing part assignment of, upon reception of a read out operation of reading out the music data, computing the number of sound data items of each of the playing parts and setting the playing part assignment information in said playing control unit based on the computed number so that sound data items assigned to the performance terminals approximate one another in number.