Apparatus for and method of inputting music-performance control data

• US 6,362,411 B1
• Filed: 01/27/2000
• Issued: 03/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Suzuki, Hideo, Sakama, Masao
• Primary Examiner(s): Donels, Jeffrey
• Application Number:
  US09/492,435
• Time in Patent Office: 789 Days
• Field of Search: 846/15, 846/53, 846/26, 846/62
• US Class Current: 84/626
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/02 Means for controlling the tone frequencies, e.g. attack or decay; Means for producing special musical effects, e.g. vibratos or glissandos
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 7/02 in which amplitudes at successive sample points of a tone waveform are stored in one or more memories

Abstract

Control data are extracted from tone waveforms obtained by actually playing acoustic musical instruments in various styles of rendition, and a plurality of these control data are stored in memory to provide databases. Automatic or manual music performance data are supplied in real or non-real time. Desired one or more notes are selected from among the supplied music performance data, and a desired style of rendition is selected in corresponding relation to the selected notes. Then, one or more control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition are read out from the memory so that generation of a tone corresponding to the selected notes can be controlled in accordance with the read-out control data. In this way, characteristics of the selected style of rendition can be imparted to any particular note or notes included in the music performance data. The control data are stored in the memory in association with partial sounding segments such as an attack, body and release. The partial sounding segments are subjected to tone generation control based on the control data, in accordance with the selected style of rendition.

Claims

1. An apparatus for inputting music-performance control data comprising:

memory storing a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition;

a supply device adapted to supply music performance data;

an operator device; and

a processor coupled with said memory, said supply device and said operator device, and adapted to;

select a desired style of rendition in response to operation of said operator device and in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among the music performance data; and

read out, from said memory, one or more of the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition, whereby a characteristic of the selected style of rendition is imparted to the selected notes in the music performance data.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said processor is adapted to incorporate style-of-rendition designating information indicative of the selected style of rendition into a sequence of the music performance data, and the style-of-rendition designating information is used to read out, from said memory, the one or more control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 which further comprises a storage for storing a performance sequence and wherein the sequence of the music performance data having the style-of-rendition designating information incorporated therein is stored in said storage.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein, said processor is adapted to:

select a desired style of rendition in real time in response to operation of said operator device and in corresponding relation to the music performance data supplied in real time by said supply device;

read out, from said memory, the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition; and

control a characteristic of a tone corresponding to the supplied music performance data in real time in accordance with the read-out control data, to thereby generate the controlled tone corresponding to the supplied music performance data.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said plurality of control data stored in said memory include control data corresponding to partial sounding segments of a tone, and each of said partial sounding segments corresponds to any one of a plurality of segmental states of the tone from a rise to fall thereof.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said plurality of control data stored in said memory include control data corresponding to a style of rendition that pertains to a plurality of notes to be performed in succession.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein said plurality of control data stored in said memory include control data corresponding to a style of rendition that pertains to a connection between tow successive notes.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said memory has stored therein, in association with a style of rendition, at least two of control data indicative of a pitch variation over time, control data indicative of an amplitude variation over time and control data indicative of a tone color variation over time.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said memory has stored therein control data corresponding to a plurality of different tonal factors, in association with each individual style of rendition, and

wherein each selectable style of rendition corresponds to one partial sounding segment of a tone, and in response to selection of a particular one of the styles of rendition, a plurality of the control data corresponding to the tonal factors of the partial sounding segment associated with the particular style of rendition are read out from said memory.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said memory has stored therein a plurality of control data different from each other in degree of control, in association with each group nominally similar styles of rendition, and

wherein said processor is adapted to select the desired style of rendition by performing a combination of operations of selecting a group of nominally similar styles of rendition and selecting one of the degrees of control represented by the selected group of styles of rendition.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said plurality of control data stored in said memory include control data corresponding to at least one of a plurality of styles of rendition performable on wind instruments including bend-up, bend-down, bend-downup, grace-up, grace-down, chromatic-up, chromatic-down, gliss-up, gliss-down, staccato, vibrato, shortcut, tenuto, slur, crescendo and decrescendo renditions.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11 wherein the control data corresponding to one style of rendition which is stored in said memory includes a plurality of variations pertaining to at least one of a plurality of rendition control factors including a depth and speed of the rendition and a specific number of tones involved in the rendition.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said processor is further adapted to generate a parameter for controlling the selected style of rendition and use the parameter to modify the control data read out from said memory in response to the selected style of rendition.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said plurality of control data stored in said memory include control data corresponding to at least one of a plurality of styles of rendition performable on rubbed string instruments, such as a guitar and bass, including choking, gliss-up, gliss-down, vibrato, bend-downup, shortcut, mute, hammer-on, pull-off, slide-up, slide-down, crescendo and decrescendo renditions.

15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 14 wherein the control data corresponding to one style of rendition which is stored in said memory includes a plurality of variations pertaining to at least one of a plurality of rendition control factors including a depth, speed and pitch of the rendition.

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said plurality of control data stored in said memory include control data corresponding to at least one of a plurality of styles of rendition performable on wind instruments, such as a violin, including bend-up, grace-up, grace-down, staccato, detache, vibrato, bend-downup, shortcut, mute, chromatic-up, chromatic-down, gliss-up, gliss-down, tenuto, slur, crescendo and decrescendo renditions.

17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 16 wherein the control data corresponding to one style of rendition which is stored in said memory includes a plurality of variations pertaining to at least one of a plurality of rendition control factors including a depth and speed of the rendition and a specific number of tones involved in the rendition.

18. An electronic music apparatus comprising:

memory storing a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition;

a supply device adapted to supply music performance data;

an operator device; and

a processor coupled with said memory, said supply device and said operator device, and adapted to;

select a desired style of rendition in response to operation of said operator device and in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among the music performance data;

read out, from said memory, one or more of the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition; and

generate a tone corresponding to the music performance data with a characteristic controlled in accordance with the read-out control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition.

19. An electronic music apparatus comprising:

memory storing a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition;

a supply device adapted to supply a performance sequence including music performance data and style-of-rendition designating information indicative of a style of rendition selected in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among the music performance data, said style-of-rendition designating information being used to read out, from said memory, one or more of the control data which correspond to the selected style of rendition; and

a processor coupled with said memory and said supply device, and adapted to;

read out the control data corresponding to the style-of-rendition designating information from said memory, in accordance with the music performance data and style-of-rendition designating information of the performance sequence; and

generate a tone corresponding to the music performance data with a characteristic controlled in accordance with the control data read out from said memory.

20. A method of inputting music-performance control data comprising the steps of:

storing in memory a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition;

supplying music performance data;

selecting a desired style of rendition in response to operation of an operator device and in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among the music performance data; and

reading out, from said memory, one or more of the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition, whereby a characteristic of the selected style of rendition is imparted to the selected notes in the music performance data.

21. A machine-readable storage medium containing a group of instructions of a program executable by a processor for inputting music-performance control data, said processor being coupled with a memory storing a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition and a supply device adapted to supply music performance data;

said program comprising the steps of;

selecting a desired style of rendition in response to operation of an operator device and in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among the music performance data; and

reading out, from said memory, one or more of the control data corresponding to the selected style of rendition, whereby a characteristic of the selected style of rendition is imparted to the selected notes in the music performance data.

22. A machine-readable storage medium containing data comprising:

music performance data, said music performance data includes note information arranged in a time-serial manner; and

a plurality of control data extracted from tone waveforms of acoustic musical instruments actually played in various styles of rendition, said control data being used to control a processor to perform a step of imparting a characteristic of a desired style of rendition in corresponding relation to one or more notes selected from among music performance data.