Audio buffers with audio effects

• US 7,865,257 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2008
• Issued: 01/04/2011
• 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): Flanders; Andrew C
• Application Number:
  US12/257,860
• Publication Number:
  US 20090048698A1
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• Field of Search: 700/94, 381/119, 369 1- 12
• 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 effect resources that modify audio data received from an audio data source. A first audio effect resource 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 effect resource(s) 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 can 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 generation system comprising:

one or more audio sources that provide audio data;

an application program, stored in a memory and configured to execute on a processor;

a performance manager component stored in the memory and configured to execute on the processor;

an audio rendition manager, stored in the memory and configured to execute on the processor;

a primary buffer coupled to the processor;

one or more audio rendering components, stored in the memory and configured to execute on the processor; and

wherein;

the application program is configured to interface with the performance manager component via a first application programming interface;

the application program is configured to interface with the audio rendition manager via a second application programming interface;

the application program is configured to cause at least one of the one or more audio sources to provide the audio data as input to the performance manager;

the performance manager is configured to, upon receiving the audio data as input, produce audio instructions for input to the audio rendition manager and store those instruction in the primary buffer;

the audio rendition manager is configured to, upon receiving the audio instructions, generate audio sound wave data from the contents of the primary buffer; and

one or more audio rendering components to render audio from the audio sound wave data.

2. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein audio instructions produced by the performance manager comprise one or more audio effects.

3. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the audio rendition manager is configured to apply three-dimensional audio spatialization processing to the contents of the primary buffer.

4. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the audio rendition manager is configured to apply an audio effect to contents of the primary buffer.

5. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the audio rendition manager is configured to alter the contents of the primary buffer in response to presentation of corresponding video.

6. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the audio rendition manager is configured to alter the rendering in response to a user interaction.

7. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the audio rendering components comprise a soundcard, or a speaker, or both.

8. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the performance manager is configured to receive audio content that is composed at run-time from different audio content components.

9. The audio generation system of claim 8, wherein the performance manager comprises:

a segment component that represents a linear interval of audio data and generates event instructions that contain information about timing and routing of audio data;

an instruction processor component configured to process event instructions; and

an output processor configured to convert the event instructions to audio instructions.

10. The audio generation system of claim 9, wherein the segment component comprises a plurality of tracks, wherein each track comprises a particular type of audio data.

11. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the performance manager is configured to receive the audio data as input via a third application programming interface.

12. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the audio rendition manager is configured to receive the audio instructions via a third application programming interface.

13. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein the audio rendition manager is configured to dynamically allocate audio buffers to render a plurality of sounds through a single hardware channel.

14. The audio generation system of claim 1, wherein:

each track, when first instantiated as a track object, contains non-audio data; and

each track object comprises a stream input/output interface method via which audio data for the track is specified.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform acts comprising:

receiving audio data in a first audio buffer from a first audio source in an application program via a first application programming interface;

modifying the audio data stored in the first audio buffer with a first audio effect and generating a first stream of audio data;

receiving audio data in a second audio buffer from a second audio source in the application program via a second application programming interface;

modifying the audio data stored in the second audio buffer with a second audio effect and generating a second stream of audio data;

mixing the first stream of audio data and the second stream of audio data in a primary buffer to form combined audio data;

receiving modification instructions for the combined audio data via a third application programming interface from the application program;

modifying the combined audio in response to the received modification instructions; and

rendering the modified combined audio data.

16. The computer readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein rendering further comprises spatializing the combined audio data to provide three-dimensional audio.

17. The computer readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein the audio effect is selected from a group of audio effects consisting of:

a chorus effect;

a compression effect;

a distortion effect;

a flange effect;

a gargle effect;

a parametric equalizer effect;

a waves reverberation effect;

a environmental reverberation effect; and

a echo effect.

18. The computer readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein the audio source comprises an audio buffer.

19. The computer readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein the rendering further comprises outputting the modified combined audio data via a speaker.

20. An audio buffer, comprising:

a processor and a memory configured to implement the audio buffer;

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

a second audio effect resource of the audio buffer configured to receive the modified audio data from the first audio effect resource and to 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,

wherein;

the second audio effect resource is further configured to communicate the modified audio data output to a third audio buffer;

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; and

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.