Electronic music apparatus with data loading assist

• US 7,982,116 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2007
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Okamoto, Tetsuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Donels; Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Millikin; Andrew R
• Application Number:
  US11/748,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20070214181A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,527 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/3, 707/104.1, 707/200, 707/689, 846/04
• US Class Current: 84/604
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/145 Sound library, i.e. involving the specific use of a musical database as a sound bank or wavetable; indexing, interfacing, protocols or processing therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/185 Error prevention, detection or correction in files or streams for electrophonic musical instruments
• 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

An electronic music apparatus has a sound generator for generating a music sound signal according to music data. A storage medium stores music data files, each written with music data for generating the sound signal. An information retention section retains file information for displaying a name or an icon of the respective music data. A reading command section issues a command of reading a target music data file from the storage medium. A display control section controls a display device to display, when the target music data file is successfully read out, the name and the icon of the music data written in the read target music data file, and when the target music data file is not read, to display the name and the icon of the music data in a state different from the name and the icon displayed when the target music data file is successfully read.

Claims

1. An electronic music apparatus having a sound generator for generating a music sound signal according to a music data file, the electronic music apparatus comprising:

a data source storage that stores a guide information file;

a storage medium that stores a plurality of music data files, each being written with music data for generating a music sound signal, and that stores the guide information file, which is read from the data source storage and written with absolute path information and relative path information representing an absolute path and a relative path, respectively, for each of the music data files stored in the storage medium;

a first search section that searches a target music data file among the plurality of the music data files in the storage medium based on the absolute path information;

a path generation section that, when the first search section fails to locate the target music data file in the storage medium, generates another absolute path of the target music data file based on both of an absolute path of the guide information file and the relative path information of the target music data file;

a second search section that searches the target music data file based on the generated absolute path;

a rewriting section that rewrites the absolute path information of the target music data file written in the guide information file corresponding to the generated absolute path when the second search section locates the target music data file based on the generated absolute path;

an updating section that updates the guide information file stored in the data source storage based on the guide information file containing the absolute path information rewritten by the rewriting section; and

a display control section that generates display data representing a name of the music data and an icon corresponding to the music data for displaying the name and the icon on a display device,

wherein, when the second search section fails to locate the target music data file based on the generated absolute path, the display control section modifies the display data to change the name initially associated with the target music data file to a new name containing the initial name associated with the target music data file plus at least additional characters “

not found”

to distinguish from the name associated with the successfully read target music data file and to change the icon initially associated with the target music data file to a predetermined icon different from the icon initially associated with the target music data file.

2. A method of loading a music data file into an electronic music apparatus having a sound generator for generating a music sound signal according to a music data file, from a storage medium that stores a plurality of music data files, each being written with music data for use in generating a music sound signal, and that stores a guide information file, which is read from a data source storage and written with absolute path information and relative path information representing an absolute path and a relative path, respectively, for each of the music data files stored in the storage medium, the method comprising:

a first searching step of conducting a first search for searching a target music data file among the plurality of the music data files in the storage medium based on the absolute path information;

a path generating step of, when the first search fails to locate the target music data file in the storage medium, generating another absolute path of the target music data file based on both of an absolute path of the guide information file and the relative path information of the target music data file;

a second searching step of conducting a second search for searching the target music data file based on the generated absolute path for loading of the target music data file;

a rewriting step of rewriting the absolute path information of the target music data file written in the guide information file corresponding to the generated absolute path when the second searching step locates the target music data file based on the generated absolute path;

an updating step of that updates the guide information file stored in the data source storage based on the guide information file containing the absolute path information rewritten in the rewriting step; and

a display control step of generating, for each music data file, display data representing a name of the respective music data file and an icon corresponding to the respective music data file for displaying the name and the icon on a display device,

wherein, when the second searching step fails to locate the target music data file based on the generated absolute path, the display control step modifies the display data to change the name initially associated with the target music data file to a new name containing the initial name associated with the target music data file plus at least the characters “

not found”

to distinguish from the name associated with the successfully read target music data file and to change the icon initially associated with a predetermined icon different from the icon initially associated with the target music data file.

3. A non-transitory machine readable medium for an electronic music apparatus having a processor, a sound generator for generating a music sound signal according to a music data file, and a storage medium that stores a plurality of music data files, each being written with music data for generating a music sound signal, and that stores a guide information file, which is read from a data source storage and written with absolute path information and relative path information representing an absolute path and a relative path, respectively, for each of the music data files stored in the storage medium, the machine readable medium containing program instructions executable by the processor for carrying out:

a first searching instruction for conducting a first search for searching a target music data file among the plurality of the music data files in the storage medium based on the absolute path information;

a path generating instruction for, when the first search fails to locate the target music data file in the storage medium, generating another absolute path of the target music data file based on both of an absolute path of the guide information file and the relative path information of the target music data file;

a second searching instruction for conducting a second search for searching the target music data file based on the generated absolute path for loading of the target music data file;

a rewriting instruction that rewrites the absolute path information of the target music data file written in the guide information file corresponding to the generated absolute path when the second searching instruction locates the target music data file based on the generated absolute path;

an updating instruction that updates the guide information file stored in the data source storage based on the guide information file containing the absolute path information rewritten by the rewriting instruction; and

a display control instruction for generating, for each music data file, display data representing a name of the respective music data file and an icon corresponding to the respective music data file for displaying the name and the icon on a display device,

wherein, when the second searching instruction fails to locate the target music data file based on the generated absolute path, the display control instruction modifies the display data to change the name initially associated with the target music data file to a new name containing the initial name associated with the target music data file plus at least the characters “

not found”

to distinguish from the name associated with the successfully read target music data file and to change the icon initially associated with a predetermined icon different from the icon initially associated with the target music data file.