Audio buffers with audio effects

• US 7,107,110 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2002
• Issued: 09/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Schmidt, Brian L., Geist, James F. Jr., Porter, Dugan O., Fay, Todor J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Sinh
• Assistant Examiner(s): FLANDERS, ANDREW C
• Application Number:
  US10/092,740
• Publication Number:
  US 20020122559A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,652 Days
• Field of Search: 381/119, 381/61, 710/52, 710/56, 700/94
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0041 in coded form
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0091 Means for obtaining special acoustic effects combined with modulation G10H1/043
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/235 Flanging or phasing effects, i.e. creating time and frequency dependent constructive and destructive interferences, obtained, e.g. by using swept comb filters or a feedback loop around all-pass filters with gradually changing non-linear phase response or delays
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/291 Reverberator using both direct, i.e. dry, and indirect, i.e. wet, signals or waveforms, indirect signals having sustained one or more virtual reflections
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/056 MIDI or other note-oriented file format
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/04 Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 1/007 in which the audio signals are in digital form data reduction aspects thereof based on psychoacoustics G10L19/02

Abstract

An audio buffer includes one or more audio effects that modify audio data received from an audio data source. A first audio effect in the audio buffer receives audio data from the audio data source and modifies the audio data to generate a stream of audio data. Subsequent audio effects in the audio buffer receives the stream of audio data from the first audio effect and further modifies the audio data to generate a stream of modified audio data. The stream of modified audio data is then routed from the audio buffer to a second audio buffer, or communicated to an audio rendering component that produces an audio rendition corresponding to the modified audio data.

Claims

1. An audio buffer, comprising:

a first audio effect resource configured to receive audio data from an audio data source and modify the audio data to generate modified audio data that is routed to at least one additional audio buffer; and

at least a second audio effect resource configured to receive the modified audio data from the first audio effect resource and further modify the modified audio data to generate a modified audio data output of the audio buffer the modified audio data output and an additional modified audio data output of the additional audio buffer being combined in an output mixing component that streams the combined modified audio data to an audio rendering component.

2. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the second audio effect resource is further configured to communicate the modified audio data output to at least a third audio buffer.

3. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource is further configured to digitally modify the audio data, and wherein the second audio effect resource is further configured to digitally modify the modified audio data received from the first audio effect resource.

4. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, further comprising an audio data input mixer configured to combine the audio data received from the audio data source with additional audio data received from a second audio data source to generate a stream of combined audio data, the audio data input mixer further configured to route the stream of combined audio data to the first audio effect resource.

5. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, further comprising an audio data input mixer configured to combine one or more streams of audio data received from multiple audio buffers to generate a stream of combined audio data, the audio data input mixer further configured to route the stream of combined audio data to the first audio effect resource.

6. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource is instantiated as a programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the programming object configured to implement software resources to modify the audio data.

7. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource is instantiated as a programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the programming object configured to manage hardware resources to modify the audio data.

8. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the first audio effect resource is instantiated as a first programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the first programming object configured to implement software resources to modify the audio data; and

the second audio effect resource is instantiated as a second programming object having an interface that is callable by the software component, the second programming object configured to manage hardware resources to modify the modified audio data.

9. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources.

10. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources.

11. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a first resource component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources, and wherein the second audio effect resource includes a second resource component identifier that indicates the second audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources.

12. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources, and if the hardware resources are not available, the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources.

13. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources, and if the software resources are not available, the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources.

14. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources, and if the hardware resources that implement the first audio effect resource become unavailable after the audio effect resource has been implemented, the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources.

15. An audio buffer as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect is to be implemented with hardware resources, and if the hardware resources are not available;

the first audio effect resource is not implemented; and

the second audio effect resource is further configured to receive the audio from the audio data source and modify the audio data to generate the modified audio data.

16. An audio generation system, comprising:

an audio data source configured to generate a stream of audio data;

an audio buffer that includes a first audio effect resource and at least a second audio effect resource, the first audio effect resource configured to receive the stream of audio data from the audio data source and modify the audio data to generate a modified audio data, the second audio effect resource configured to receive the modified audio data and further modify the modified audio data to generate a modified audio data output of the audio buffer;

at least an additional audio buffer configured to receive the modified audio data from the first audio effect resource and generate an additional modified audio data output of the additional audio buffer; and

an audio component configured to receive and combine the modified audio data output from the audio buffer and the additional modified audio data output from the additional audio buffer, and produce an audio rendition corresponding to the combined modified audio data.

17. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource is further configured to communicate the modified audio data to the at least additional audio buffer.

18. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource is further configured to digitally modify the audio data.

19. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, further comprising an audio data input mixer implemented as a component of the audio buffer, the audio data input mixer configured to combine the stream of audio data received from the audio data source with a second stream of audio data received from a second audio data source to generate a stream of combined audio data, the audio data input mixer further configured to route the stream of combined audio data to the first audio effect resource.

20. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, further comprising an audio data input mixer implemented as a component of the audio buffer, the audio data input mixer configured to combine one or more streams of audio data received from multiple audio buffers to generate a stream of combined audio data, the audio data input mixer further configured to route the stream of combined audio data to the first audio effect resource.

21. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource is instantiated as a programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the programming object configured to implement software resources to modify the audio data.

22. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource is instantiated as a programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the to programming object configured to manage hardware resources to modify the audio data.

23. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources.

24. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources.

25. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources, and if the hardware resources are not available, the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources.

26. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources, and if the software resources are not available, the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources.

27. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources, and if the hardware resources that implement the first audio effect resource become unavailable, the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources.

28. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein:

the first audio effect resource is instantiated as a first programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the first programming object configured to implement software resources to modify the audio data; and

the second audio effect resource is instantiated as a second programming object having an interface that is callable by the software component, the second programming object configured to manage hardware resources to modify the modified audio data received from the first audio effect resource.

29. An audio generation system as recited in claim 16, wherein the first audio effect resource includes a first resource component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with software resources, and wherein the second audio effect resource includes a second resource component identifier that indicates the second audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources.

30. An audio generation system, comprising:

a first audio effect resource implemented as a component of an audio buffer, the first audio effect resource configured to receive a stream of audio data generated by an audio data source;

at least a second audio effect resource implemented as a component of the audio buffer, the first and second audio effect resources forming an audio effect resources chain configured to modify the audio data and generate a modified audio data output of the audio buffer;

an additional audio effect resource implemented as a component of an additional audio buffer, the additional audio effect resource configured to receive the modified audio data output from the audio buffer and generate an additional modified audio data output from the additional audio buffer; and

an audio rendering component configured to receive and combine the modified audio data output from the audio buffer and the additional modified audio data output from the additional audio buffer to produce an audio rendition corresponding to the combined modified audio data outputs.

31. An audio generation system as recited in claim 30, further comprising an audio data input mixer implemented as a component of the audio buffer, the audio data input mixer configured to combine the stream of audio data received from the audio data source with a second stream of audio data received from a second audio data source to generate a stream of combined audio data, the audio data input mixer further configured to route the stream of combined audio data to the first audio effect resource.

32. An audio generation system as recited in claim 30, further comprising an audio data input mixer implemented as a component of the audio buffer, the audio data input mixer configured to combine one or more streams of audio data received from multiple audio buffers to generate a stream of combined audio data, the audio data input mixer further configured to route the stream of combined audio data to the first audio effect resource.

33. An audio generation system as recited in claim 30, wherein:

the first audio effect resource is instantiated as a first programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the first programming object configured to implement software resources to modify the audio data; and

the second audio effect resource is instantiated as a second programming object having an interface that is callable by the software component, the second programming object configured to manage hardware resources to modify the audio data.

34. An audio generation system as recited in claim 30, wherein the first audio effect resource and the second audio effect resource each include a component identifier that indicates the audio effect resources are to be implemented with software resources.

35. An audio generation system as recited in claim 30, wherein the first audio effect resource and the second audio effect resource each include a component identifier that indicates the audio effect resources are to be implemented with hardware resources.

36. An audio generation system as recited in claim 30, wherein the first audio effect resource and the second audio effect resource each include a component identifier that indicates the audio effect resources are to be implemented with hardware resources, and if the hardware resources that implement the audio effect resources become unavailable, the audio effect resources are to be implemented with software resources.

37. An audio generation system as recited in claim 30, wherein:

the first audio effect resource includes a component identifier that indicates the first audio effect resource is to be implemented with hardware resources, and if the hardware resources are not available;

the first audio effect resource is not implemented; and

the second audio effect resource is configured to receive the stream of audio data from the audio data source and modify the audio data to generate the modified audio data output of the audio buffer.

38. A method for processing audio data, comprising:

receiving a stream of audio data from an audio data source;

modifying the audio data with an audio effect resource in an audio buffer to generate modified audio data;

routing the modified audio data to at least an additional audio effect resource in the audio buffer to further modify the modified audio data to generate a modified audio data output of the audio buffer;

routing the modified audio data from the audio effect resource to an additional audio buffer that generates an additional modified audio data output;

combining the modified audio data output from the audio buffer with the additional modified audio data output from the additional audio buffer in an output mixing component that generates a stream of combined modified audio data; and

communicating the stream of combined modified audio data to an audio rendering component that produces an audio rendition corresponding to the stream of combined modified audio data.

39. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, wherein modifying the audio data includes digitally modifying the audio data with the audio effect resource.

40. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising mixing the stream of audio data received from the audio data source with a second stream of audio data received from a second audio data source to generate a stream of combined audio data, and routing the stream of combined audio data to the audio effect resource.

41. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising mixing one or more streams of audio data received from multiple audio buffers to generate a stream of combined audio data, and routing the stream of combined audio data to the audio effect resource.

42. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising instantiating the audio effect resource as a programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the programming object implementing software resources for modifying the audio data.

43. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising instantiating the audio effect resource as a programming object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the programming object managing hardware resources for modifying the audio data.

44. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising implementing the audio effect resource with software resources according to a component identifier of the audio effect resource.

45. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising implementing the audio effect resource with hardware resources according to a component identifier of the audio effect resource.

46. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising determining that hardware resources are not available to implement the audio effect resource, and implementing the audio effect resource with software resources.

47. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising determining that software resources are not available to implement the audio effect resource, and implementing the audio effect resource with hardware resources.

48. A method for processing audio data as recited in claim 38, further comprising:

implementing the audio effect resource with hardware resources;

determining that the hardware resources have become unavailable; and

implementing the audio effect resource with software resources.