SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLED DYNAMICS ADAPTATION FOR MUSICAL CONTENT

• US 20140044268A1
• Filed: 08/12/2013
• Published: 02/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellevue Investments GmbH & Co. KGaA
• Original Assignee: Bellevue Investments GmbH & Co. KGaA
• Inventors: Herberger, Tilman, Tost, Titus, ENGEL, TONI
• Granted Patent: US 9,991,861 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/56
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 3/20 Automatic control H03G3/005 takes precedence; combined with volume compression or expansion H03G7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 7/007 of digital or coded signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/00 Monitoring arrangements; Testing arrangements for hearing aids H04R25/30; detection of loudspeaker connection H04R5/04; sound-field adaptation dependent on speaker detection H04S7/308

Abstract

According to a preferred aspect, there is provided a system and method for controlled dynamics adaptation of audio works. The dynamics complexity of the audio is adapted depending on the listening environment and its dynamics properties. The instant invention utilizes a function of stepwise linear and logarithmical sections, which describe individual points of a curve and which therefore with the use of a parameter can be utilized to calculate and control the target value of the loudness range. The curve points are stored and provided as metadata of the musical program, which allows the dynamics scaling functionality to be implemented dynamically and not tied to a certain time or place.

Claims

1. A method of performing a digital audio work, comprising the steps of:

(a) accessing said digital audio work;

(b) determining a plurality of change points within said audio work;

(c) using said plurality of change points to determine a piece wise continuous expansion curve;

(d) using said expansion curve to scale said digital audio work, thereby creating a scaled digital audio work;

(e) transmitting said scaled digital audio work and said expansion curve to a user;

(f) selecting a target loudness range.

(g) using said expansion curve and said selected target loudness range to at least approximately recover said digital audio work from said scaled digital audio work; and

,

(h) performing said at least approximately recovered digital audio work for the user.

2. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 1, wherein said expansion curve is determined either automatically, semi-automatically or manually.

3. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 1, wherein each of said change points has a location within said audio work and wherein each of said change points represents the amplitude of said expansion curve at that location.

4. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 1 wherein said audio work is selected from the group consisting of streamed audio material, an audio component of streamed video material, an audio file, and an audio component of a video file.

5. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

(b1) performing loudness measuring analysis on the audio work;

(b2) determining a plurality of change points from said analysis.

6. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

(b1) analyzing the audio work;

(b2) analyzing the inherent metadata of the audio work;

(b3) determining a plurality of change points from said analyzed audio work and inherent metadata.

7. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the steps of:

(b1) analyzing the audio work;

(b2) determining a plurality of change points from said analyzed audio work; and

,

(b3) manually modifying at least one of said determined plurality of change points.

8. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 6, wherein said inherent metadata of an audio work comprises at least one of a genre information, a title information, and, an artist information.

9. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 6, wherein the data values of the inherent metadata influence the change point determination for the compression curve.

10. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 9, wherein depending on the inherent metadata values the determination of individual change points will be adjusted by adapting the analysis window length.

11. A method of performing a digital audio work, comprising the steps of:

(a) determining a compression curve for said audio work;

(b) transmitting said audio work and said compression curve to a remote location;

(c) selecting a target loudness range;

(d) using said target loudness range and said compression curve to scale said digital audio work to obtain a modified audio work; and

,

e) performing at least a portion of said modified audio work at said remote location, thereby performing said audio work.

12. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 11, wherein said compression curve is determined either automatically, semi-automatically or manually.

13. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 11, wherein said remote location is a listening environment.

14. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 13, wherein said listening environment is selected from the group consisting of a radio, a car, a Walkman, an mp3-player, a movie theatre, and a home theatre.

15. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 11, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:

(a1) determining a plurality of change points from said analysis;

(a2) combining the individual change points to determine a compression curve for the audio work.

16. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 11, wherein said change points define an amplitude of the compression curve at that particular location.

17. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 11, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:

(a1) analyzing the audio work;

(a2) analyzing the inherent metadata of the audio work;

(a3) determining a plurality of change points from said analyzed audio work and inherent metadata; and

,

(a4) using said plurality of change points to determine a compression curve for said audio work.

18. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 11, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:

(a1) automatically determining a plurality of change points;

(a2) manually modifying at least one of said automatically determined change points;

(a3) using at least one manually modified change point and any automatically determined change points to determine a compression curve for the audio work.

19. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 18, wherein step (a2) comprises the further steps of

(a4) manually editing the determined individual change points of the compression curve.

20. A method of performing a digital audio work, according to claim 17, wherein the inherent metadata of an audio work comprises at least a genre information, a title information, an artist information.

21. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 17, wherein the data values of the inherent metadata influence the change point determination for the compression curve by adapting the analysis window length.

22. A method of performing a digital audio work according to claim 11 wherein said audio work might be selected from a group consisting of streamed audio material, the audio part of streamed video material, audio material, the audio part of video material.