Audio generation system manager

• US 7,305,273 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2001
• Issued: 12/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Schmidt, Brian L., Fay, Todor J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Sinh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sellers; Daniel R
• Application Number:
  US09/801,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20020143413A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,463 Days
• Field of Search: 700/94, 846/45
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 1/00 Two-channel systems H04S5/00, H04S7/00 take precedence

Abstract

An audio generation system includes a performance manager, which is an audio source manager, and an audio rendition manager to produce a rendition corresponding to an audio source. An application program provides the audio source manager and the audio rendition manager. The audio source manager receives audio content from an audio source, provides one or more audio content components that generate event instructions from the received audio content, and processes the event instructions to produce audio instructions that are provided to the audio rendition manager. The audio rendition manager provides processing components to process the audio instructions, including a synthesizer component that receives the audio instructions and generates audio sound wave data, and audio buffers that process the audio sound wave data.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving audio content from one or more sources;

providing an audio content component for each source of audio content, each audio content component generating event instructions from the received audio content;

processing the event instructions to produce audio instructions;

dynamically generating audio rendition managers that each correspond to an audio rendition, an audio rendition manager including dynamically allocated components that include a synthesizer component, audio buffers, and logical buses that each correspond to one of the audio buffers;

routing the audio instructions to the audio rendition managers that process the audio instructions to render the corresponding audio renditions;

processing the audio instructions with the synthesizer component to generate multiple streams of audio wave data;

assigning at least one of the multiple streams of audio wave data to more than one of the logical buses where the logical buses receive the at least one stream of audio wave data from the synthesizer component; and

routing audio wave data streams assigned to a particular logical bus to the audio buffer corresponding to said particular logical bus.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each audio content component is a component object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the software component directing said generating the event instructions.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each audio rendition manager is a component object having an interface that is callable by a software component, the software component performing said routing the audio instructions to the audio rendition managers.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising providing a software component, wherein each audio content component is a component object having an interface that is callable by the software component, the software component directing said generating the event instructions, and wherein each audio rendition manager is a component object having an interface that is callable by the software component, the software component performing said routing the audio instructions to the one or more audio rendition managers.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising dynamically a performance manager that performs said providing an audio content component for each source of audio content, and performs said dynamically generating the audio rendition managers that each correspond to an audio rendition.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, the method further comprising dynamically generating a performance manager as a component object that performs said providing an audio content component for each source of audio content, and performs said dynamically generating the audio rendition managers.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising dynamically generating a performance manager as a component object, wherein each audio content component is a component object having an interface that is callable by the performance manager, the performance manager directing said generating the event instructions, and wherein each audio rendition manager is a component object having an interface that is callable by the performance manager, the performance manager performing said routing the audio instructions to the audio rendition managers.

8. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform the method of claim 7.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising dynamically generating a performance manager that performs said receiving the audio content, providing an audio content component for each source of audio content, processing the event instructions, and routing the audio instructions.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising providing a performance manager that performs said receiving the audio content, providing an audio content component for each source of audio content, processing the event instructions, dynamically generating the audio rendition managers, and routing the audio instructions.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the audio content includes digital audio samples.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the audio content includes MIDI data.

13. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each audio content component has one or more event instruction components that perform said generating the event instructions.

14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each audio content component has one or more event instruction components that perform said generating the event instructions, each event instruction component corresponding to part of the received audio content.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising each audio content component generating event instructions and routing the event instructions to the audio rendition managers before said processing the event instructions.

16. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the audio rendition managers receive audio instructions originating as event instructions from one or more of the audio content components.

17. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein one audio rendition manager receives audio instructions originating as event instructions from one or more of the audio content components.

18. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the synthesizer component includes multiple channel groups, each channel group having a plurality of synthesizer channels to receive the audio instructions, and wherein the audio rendition manager includes a mapping component having mapping channels corresponding to the plurality of synthesizer channels;

the method further comprising;

assigning the mapping channels to receive the audio instructions; and

routing the audio instructions to a particular synthesizer channel in accordance with the mapping channel assignments.

19. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform the method of claim 18.

20. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform the method of claim 1.

21. A method, comprising:

dynamically generating a performance manager that performs acts comprising;

receiving audio content from one or more sources;

providing an audio content component for each source of audio content, each audio content component generating event instructions from the received audio content;

processing the event instructions to produce audio instructions;

dynamically generating audio rendition managers that each correspond to an audio rendition, each audio rendition manager including dynamically allocated components that include a synthesizer component that receives the audio instructions and generates audio wave data, one or more audio buffers that process the audio wave data, and logical buses that each correspond to one of the audio buffers, each audio rendition manager;

assigning the audio wave data to one or more of the logical buses that each receive one or more streams of audio wave data from the synthesizer component, where at least one stream of audio wave data is assigned to more than one of the logical buses; and

routing the audio wave data assigned to a particular logical bus to the audio buffer corresponding to said particular logical bus to render the corresponding audio renditions.

22. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the performance manager is a component object having an interface that is callable by a software component.

23. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the performance manager is a component object, and wherein each audio content component is a component object having an interface that is callable by the performance manager, the performance manager directing said generating the event instructions.

24. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein each audio rendition manager is a component object having an interface that is callable by a software component.

25. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the performance manager is a component object, and wherein each audio rendition manager is a programming object having an interface that is callable by the performance manager.

26. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the performance manager is a component object that performs said dynamically generating the audio rendition managers, and wherein each audio rendition manager is a component object having an interface that is callable by the performance manager.

27. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform the method of claim 26.

28. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the audio content includes digital audio samples.

29. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the audio content includes MIDI data.

30. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein each audio content component has one or more event instruction components that perform said generating the event instructions.

31. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein each audio content component is a component object having an interface that is callable by the performance manager, and wherein each audio content component has one or more event instruction components that are component objects having an interface that is callable by the audio content component, the one or more event instruction components performing said generating the event instructions.

32. A method as recited in claim 21, further comprising each audio content component generating event instructions, and routing the event instructions to the audio rendition managers before said processing the event instructions.

33. A method as recited in claim 21, further comprising a particular audio content component generating event instructions, said processing the event instructions to produce audio instructions, and routing the audio instructions resulting from the particular audio content component to the audio rendition managers.

34. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the audio rendition managers receive audio instructions originating as event instructions from one or more of the audio content components.

35. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein one audio rendition manager receives audio instructions originating as event instructions from one or more of the audio content components.

36. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the synthesizer component is a component object having an interface that is callable by a software component.

37. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein each audio rendition manager is a component object, and wherein the synthesizer component is a component object having an interface that is callable by the audio rendition manager providing the synthesizer component.

38. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the one or more audio buffers are component objects, each audio buffer having an interface that is callable by a software component.

39. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein each audio rendition manager is a component object, and wherein the one or more audio buffers are component objects, each audio buffer having an interface that is callable by the audio rendition manager providing the audio buffer.

40. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein the synthesizer component includes multiple channel groups, each channel group having a plurality of synthesizer channels that receive the audio instructions, and wherein each audio rendition manager includes a mapping component having mapping channels corresponding to the plurality of synthesizer channels, each audio rendition manager;

assigning the mapping channels to receive the audio instructions; and

routing the audio instructions to the synthesizer channels in accordance with the mapping channel assignments.

41. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform the method of claim 40.

42. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computing system to perform the method of claim 21.

43. An audio generation system, comprising:

a performance manager having an audio content component that generates event instructions from audio content received from one or more sources, the performance manager being dynamically generated and configured to process the event instructions to produce audio instructions;

audio rendition managers that are dynamically generated and that each correspond to an audio rendition, an audio rendition manager configured to receive the audio instructions and process the audio instructions to render the corresponding audio rendition, the audio rendition manager having dynamically allocated processing components including;

a synthesizer component having multiple channel groups, each channel group having a plurality of synthesizer channels configured to process the audio instructions to generate audio wave data;

a mapping component having mapping channels corresponding to the plurality of synthesizer channels, the mapping component configured to designate the synthesizer channels that receive the audio instructions via the respective mapping channels;

one or more audio buffers configured to process the audio wave data; and

a multi-bus component that defines logical buses corresponding respectively to the one or more audio buffers, the multi-bus component configured to receive the audio wave data at the defined logical buses where at least one stream of audio wave data is assigned to more than one of the logical buses, and the multi-bus component further configured to route audio wave data that is received at a particular logical bus to the audio buffer corresponding to the particular logical bus.

44. An audio generation system as recited in claim 43, further comprising a second audio rendition manager that corresponds to a second audio rendition, the second audio rendition manager configured to receive the audio instructions and process the audio instructions to render the corresponding second audio rendition.

45. An audio generation system as recited in claim 43, further comprising a second audio rendition manager that corresponds to a second audio rendition, the second audio rendition manager configured to receive the audio instructions and process the audio instructions to render the corresponding second audio rendition, wherein the audio rendition and the second audio rendition are rendered together.

46. An audio generation system as recited in claim 43, wherein the performance manager is a component object having an interface that is callable by a software component.

47. An audio generation system as recited in claim 43, wherein the audio rendition manager is a component object having an interface that is callable by a software component.

48. An audio generation system as recited in claim 43, wherein the performance manager is a component object, and wherein the audio content component is a component object having an interface that is callable by the performance manager.

49. An audio generation system as recited in claim 43, wherein the performance manager is a component object, and wherein the audio rendition manager is a component object provided by the performance manager, the audio rendition manager having an interface that is callable by the performance manager.

50. An audio rendition manager, comprising:

a dynamically allocated synthesizer component having channel groups that each have synthesizer channels configured to receive audio instructions and produce one or more streams of audio wave data from the received audio instructions;

an additional dynamically allocated synthesizer component having additional channel groups that each have additional synthesizer channels configured to receive the audio instructions and produce the one or more streams of audio wave data from the received audio instructions;

a dynamically allocated mapping component having mapping channels corresponding to the synthesizer channels and the additional synthesizer channels, the mapping component configured to receive the audio instructions from one or more sources, designate the synthesizer channels and the additional synthesizer channels that receive the audio instructions via the respective mapping channels, and route the audio instructions to the synthesizer channels and to the additional synthesizer channels;

a plurality of dynamically allocated audio buffers that receive one or more of the streams of audio wave data; and

a dynamically allocated multi-bus component that defines logical buses corresponding respectively to the plurality of audio buffers, the multi-bus component configured to receive the one or more streams of audio wave data at the defined logical buses and route one or more of the streams of audio wave data received at a particular logical bus to the audio buffer corresponding to the particular logical bus, and wherein at least one stream of audio wave data is assigned to more than one of the defined logical buses.

51. An audio rendition manager as recited in claim 50, further comprising a dynamically allocated performance manager that receives audio content from one or more sources, the performance manager configured to instantiate an audio content component for each source of audio content, each audio content component generating event instructions from the received audio content, and wherein the performance manager is configured process the event instructions to produce the audio instructions.