Audio content production, audio sequencing, and audio blending system and method

• US 10,409,546 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2016
• Issued: 09/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Super Hi-Fi, LLC
• Original Assignee: Super Hi-Fi, LLC
• Inventors: Zalon, Zack J., Cassidy, Brendon Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Hemant S
• Application Number:
  US15/336,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20170115955A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,048 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416, 700 94, 709201-207, 709217-248
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/036 Insert-editing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide an audio blending system with a computing device that processes operations including receiving a transition request from a user including an out element and/or an in element of at least one transition between at least one content item of at least one recipe. The recipe includes a sequence of a plurality of elements of content of a break, where at least one content item includes audio content and/or video content. The operations include causing a track server to couple to a metadata file of the audio file using a wired or wireless link. The metadata file includes audio content parameters measured or calculated from the audio file. The operations include calculating a transition between the out element and the in element, selecting, assembling and scheduling the sequence of plurality of elements for the transition, and adding the out element to the at least one recipe.

Claims

1. An audio blending system comprising:

a computing device comprising at least one processor;

a non-transitory computer readable medium, having stored thereon, instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

receiving a transition request from a user relating to at least one audio transition to or from at least one audio content item of at least one recipe, the at least one recipe comprising a plurality of audio elements including at least one in element and at least one out element;

causing a track server to couple to at least one metadata file of at least one audio file using a wired or wireless link, the at least one metadata file comprising audio content parameters measured or calculated from the at least one audio file;

using at least a portion of the audio content parameters, performing a comparative analysis of the rhythmic profiles, melody, harmonic structure, amplitude, or a combination thereof of at least a portion of a first audio file of the in element and at least a portion of a second audio file of the out element, and without altering the tempo or key of either of the first audio file and the second audio file, calculating an audio transition portion between the first and second audio files, and optionally adjusting at least one of temporal amplitude and placement of at least one of the first audio file and the second audio file; and

selecting, assembling, and scheduling at least a portion of the audio transition portion and the first and second audio files as an audio sequence of the plurality of audio elements; and

adding the out element to the at least one recipe.

2. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the transition request includes at least one rule at least partially governing the at least one transition.

3. The audio blending system of claim 2, wherein the position of any one of the audio elements in the plurality of audio elements is calculated by the track server based at least in part on the at least one rule.

4. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining a volume adjustment between the out element and in preparation for calculating the transition.

5. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the calculating a transition between the out element and the in element is based at least in part on at least one of a fade profile, rhythms of the out element and the in element, differences in mood between the out element and the in element, differences in genre between the out element and the in element, type and duration of overlay space on the in element, and type of available content.

6. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the at least one metadata file is derived from at least one audio feature database.

7. The audio blending system of claim 6, wherein audio feature database is at least one of a third-party source and an internal database of the audio blending system.

8. The audio blending system of claim 7, wherein the at least one third-party source includes at least one of AcousticBrainz (https:

/acousticbrainz.org) and Echonest.com (the.Echonest.com).

9. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the at least one metadata file includes mood content of at least a portion of the at least one audio file, the mood content calculated by the computing device based on instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium, that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to calculate the mood content based at least in part on at least one of a measurement of tempo, danceability, beat loudness and general loudness of the portion.

10. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determining an inset and outset of content of the at least one audio file based on amplitude.

12. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determining fade out content of the at least one audio file based on amplitude.

14. The audio blending system of claim 2, wherein the at least one rule specifies at least one of type of pool of content, voiceover branding, extending content, voiceover content, content style, content or features used, metadata file origin or creation, a level of trust for song overlay, album protection parameters, frequency and separation of content, transition quality sensitivity, and gapless genre.

15. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the content includes at least one of voiceovers, music beds, sound effects, interviews, quotes, trivia, features, listener call-ins, news, a news article, a news brief, a news event, a news break, a news announcement, a current news event, and a past or historical news event, an article or event, a commercial or ad, announcer information, DJ information, at least a portion of a song, music, trivia information, weather information, and interviewer or interviewee information.

16. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the content comprises at least one attribute, the at least one attribute include at least one of a frequency of play rule, a when to schedule rule, and a minimum time to exhaust the content once played.

17. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising scheduling a music bed into the at least one recipe.

18. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising optionally including the in element into the at least one recipe.

19. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising adding expanded formatting content associated with any content item into the at least one recipe.

20. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising including an announcer element into the at least one recipe.

21. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the selecting, assembling and scheduling of at least a portion of the audio transition portion and the first and second audio files is based at least on an announcer.

22. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the selecting, assembling and scheduling of at least a portion of the audio transition portion and the first and second audio files is based at least in part on a type of message information provided in the transition request from the user.

23. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the selecting, assembling and scheduling of at least a portion of the audio transition portion and the first and second audio files is based at least on an energy level of any one of the audio elements.

24. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the selecting, assembling and scheduling of at least a portion of the audio transition portion and the first and second audio files is based at least on a play length of any one of the audio elements.

25. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the selecting, assembling and scheduling of at least a portion of the audio transition portion and the first and second audio files includes adding at least one glue element between any two audio elements of the plurality of audio elements.

26. The audio blending system of claim 25, wherein at least one glue element comprises at least one of a sound effect, voice overlay, music beds, music, at least a portion of a song, and an announcement.

27. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the scheduling of at least a portion of the audio transition portion and the first and second audio files is based on overlaps calculated by the computing device wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determining one or more overlaps of audio elements based at least in part on at least one of central keys, types of fade in, and types of fade out.

28. The audio blending system of claim 27, wherein the amplitude of any one of the audio elements is adjusted by the computing device based on a determination of the one or more overlaps.

29. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determining a requirement for gapless playback of at least some content of the at least one recipe; and

wherein the assembling and scheduling of the sequence of the plurality of audio elements for the transition includes at least one non-audible gap between at least two audio elements.

30. The audio blending system of claim 1, wherein the sequence of the plurality of audio elements includes added control messages calculated by the computing device wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determining one or more amplitude adjustments over time as the control messages.

11. An audio blending system comprising:

a computing device comprising at least one processor;

a non-transitory computer readable medium, having stored thereon, instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

receiving a transition request from a user, the transition request including at least one of an out element and an in element of at least one audio transition between at least one audio content item of at least one recipe, the at least one recipe comprising a sequence of a plurality of audio elements including at least one in element and at least one out element of content of a break, and the at least one content item including at least one of audio content and video content;

causing a track server to couple to at least one metadata file of at least one audio file using a wired or wireless link, the metadata file comprising audio content parameters measured or calculated from the at least one audio file;

calculating a transition between the out element and the in element of the transition request;

selecting, assembling and scheduling the sequence of the plurality of elements for the transition;

adding the out element to the at least one recipe; and

wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

determining the existence of a hidden track of the at least one audio file and removing if found.

13. An audio blending system comprising:

a computing device comprising at least one processor;

a non-transitory computer readable medium, having stored thereon, instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

receiving a transition request from a user, the transition request including at least one of an out element and an in element of at least one transition between at least one content item of at least one recipe, the at least one recipe comprising a sequence of a plurality of elements of content of a break, and the at least one content item including at least one of audio content and video content;

causing a track server to couple to at least one metadata file of at least one audio file using a wired or wireless link, the metadata file comprising audio content parameters measured or calculated from the at least one audio file;

calculating a transition between the out element and the in element of the transition request;

selecting, assembling and scheduling the sequence of the plurality of elements for the transition;

adding the out element to the at least one recipe; and

wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising;

determining fade out content of the at least one audio file based on amplitude; and

further comprising the operations identifying type of fade as smooth or rhythmic based at least in part on at least one of duration and amplitude.