Systems and methods for the creation and playback of animated, interpretive, musical notation and audio synchronized with the recorded performance of an original artist

• US 7,851,689 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2009
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fiver LLC
• Original Assignee: Family Systems, Ltd.
• Inventors: Reynolds, Brian, Hudak, William B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fletcher, Marlon T
• Application Number:
  US12/405,013
• Publication Number:
  US 20090178544A1
• Time in Patent Office: 638 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 84/610
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 15/00 Teaching music metronomes G04F5/02
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 15/02 Boards or like means for providing an indication of notes
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/368 displaying animated or moving pictures synchronized with the music or audio part
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/381 Manual tempo setting or adjustment tempo setting by interpretation of conducting movements G10H2220/206
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/015 Musical staff, tablature or score displays, e.g. for score reading during a performance. graphical musical score editing G10H2220/121; musical score displays resulting from a transcription G10H2210/086
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/101 for graphical creation, edition or control of musical data or parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/056 MIDI or other note-oriented file format

Abstract

A music application guides a user with some musical experience through the steps of creating and editing a musical enhancement file that enhances and plays in synchronicity with an audio signal of an original artist'"'"'s recorded performance. This enables others, perhaps with lesser musical ability than the original artist, to play-along with the original artist by following melodic, chordal, rhythmic, and verbal prompts. The music application accounts for differences in the timing of the performance from a standard tempo by guiding the user through the process of creating a tempo map for the performance and by associating the tempo map with MIDI information of the enhancement file. Enhancements may contain MIDI information, audio signal information, and/or video signal information which may be played back in synchronicity with the recorded performance to provide an aural and visual aid to others playing-along who may have less musical experience.

Claims

1. A system for enabling a user to accompany an audio recording, the system being configured to:

generating enhancement data that is temporally associated with the audio content of the audio recording;

synchronize the enhancement data with the audio recording;

use the synchronized enhancement data to prompt the user to play along with the audio recording;

receive input data from a musical input device;

data

compare the input data and the synchronized enhancement data; and

generate tutorial data based on the comparison, wherein at least a portion of the tutorial data indicates correctly and incorrectly played elements of the synchronized enhancement data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to synchronize the enhancement data to a time relative to the start of the audio recording.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to:

store information in accordance with the tempo of the contents of the audio recording in a tempo track; and

synchronize the enhancement data to a time relative to a musical beat of the tempo track.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the system is further configured to display a highlight region on a visual portion of the synchronized enhancement data based at least in part on a musical beat of the tempo track.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the system is further configured to scroll the highlight region along the visual portion of the synchronized enhancement data.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to present the tutorial data to the user.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to use the synchronized enhancement data to prompt the user to play along with the recorded performance further comprises by displaying a visual portion of the synchronized enhancement data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the visual portion of the synchronized enhancement data comprises at least one of chord tablature, chord shape, chord symbols, alphanumeric representations, or a visual representation of chord fingering.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the visual portion of the synchronized enhancement data comprises notes on at least one of a musical stave, piano roll, tablature, or alphanumeric representations that represent the melody of the audio recording.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the visual portion of the synchronized enhancement data is divided into measures.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the system is further configured to scroll a visible portion of the visual portion of the synchronized enhancement data.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to use the synchronized enhancement data to prompt the user to play along with the recorded performance further comprises by playing an aural portion of the synchronized enhancement data.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to use a time-stable pitch variation of the synchronized enhancement data to prompt the user to play-along with the recorded performance.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the pitch of the time-stable pitch variation is selected by the user .

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the system is further configured to apply a time-stable pitch variation to the audio recording that is the same as the time-stable pitch variation of the synchronized enhancement data.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the system is further configured to use a pitch-stable speed variation of the synchronized enhancement data to prompt the user to play along with the audio recording.

17. The system of claim 16, where the speed of the pitch-stable speed variation is selected by the user.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the system is further configured to apply a pitch-stable speed variation to the audio recording that is the same as the pitch-stable speed variation of the synchronized enhancement data.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to provide the user with the opportunity to navigate to at least one of a moment of the audio recording or element of the synchronized enhancement data.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the system is further configured to repeat a portion of the synchronized enhancement data at least one of before or after the at least one moment or element.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the system is further configured to repeat a portion of the audio recording that corresponds to the repeated portion of the synchronized enhancement data.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronized enhancement data comprises at least one chord representation associated with the audio recording.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the system is further configured to adjust the at least one chord representation based on at least one chord shape, chord fingering, alternative tuning, or musical instrument.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronized enhancement data comprises lyrical data.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the lyrical data is audible.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the lyrical data is visual.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronized enhancement data further comprises melodic data.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the melodic data is audible.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the melodic data is visual.

30. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the synchronized enhancement data comprises MIDI information.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the synchronized enhancement data comprises audio/video.

32. The system of claim 1, further configured to generate at least a portion the enhancement data by prompting a user to rhythmically tap out a beat in accordance with the audio content of the audio recording.

33. The system of claim 1, further configured to generate at least a portion the enhancement data by automatically sensing peaks in the audio content of the audio recording.

34. The system of claim 1, further configured to generate at least a portion the enhancement data by enabling the user to designate that a musical enhancement starts playing a set time from a start of the playback of the audio recording.

35. The system of claim 22, wherein the chord representation is audible.

36. The system of claim 1, further configured to store at least one of the synchronized enhancement data, the input data, or the tutorial data.

37. A method for enabling a user to accompany an audio recording, the method comprising:

generating enhancement data that is temporally associated with the audio content of the audio recording;

synchronizing the enhancement data with the audio recording;

using the synchronized enhancement data to prompt the user to play along with the audio recording;

receiving input data from a musical input device;

data

comparing the input data and the synchronized enhancement data; and

generating tutorial data based on the comparison, wherein at least a portion of the tutorial data indicates correctly and incorrectly played elements of the synchronized enhancement data.