Patent No. 7060885 Music reproduction system, music editing system, music editing apparatus, music editing terminal unit, music reproduction terminal unit, method of controlling a music editing apparatus, and a program for executing the method

 

Patent No. 7060885

Music reproduction system, music editing system, music editing apparatus, music editing terminal unit, music reproduction terminal unit, method of controlling a music editing apparatus, and a program for executing the method (Ishida, et al., Jun 13, 2006) Yamaha Corporation, Shizuoa-ken, Japan 

Abstract

There is provided a music reproduction system which enables music editing and acoustic effect application by simple operations, for realizing a desired musical concept in an operator's mind. An operating terminal that can be carried by an operator generates motion information in response to motion of the operator carrying the operating terminal unit. Music data of a piece of music to be reproduced is edited based on the generated motion information. The motion information includes peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion. When a peak value indicated by the peak information exceeds predetermined first and second threshold values, music reproduction control information is generated based on the peak information, and when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first threshold value and smaller than the second threshold value, acoustic effect control information is generated based on the peak information. The music data is edited based on the music reproduction control information and the acoustic effect control information.

Notes:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a music reproduction system, a music editing system, a music editing apparatus, a music editing terminal unit, a music reproduction terminal unit, a method of controlling a music editing apparatus, and a program for executing the method, and more particularly to a music reproduction system, a music editing system, a music editing apparatus, a music editing terminal unit, a music reproduction terminal unit, and a method of controlling a music editing apparatus, which enable a user to realize a desired musical concept in his/her mind and apply various sound effects to music, by simple operations, as well as a program for executing the method.

2. Description of the Related Art

In general, some users who are fond of listening to musical performance desire to enjoy not only listening to performance tones generated by reproduction of music data (e.g. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data, but also editing the music data in accordance with a desired musical concept in his/her mind and listening to performance tones generated by reproduction of the music data of his own editing.

Conventionally, users having such a desire utilize various music data-editing software installed on personal computers of their own or the like, to edit the existing music data of a piece of music e.g. by changing performance tempo of the piece of music, or applying desired acoustic effects (such as a reverberation effect) thereto.

However, in the case of utilizing a personal computer or the like to edit music data as described above, it is necessary for the users to cause the computer to once read the existing music data, and then add or change control codes for realizing the musical concept in his/her mind and control codes for applying acoustic effects (e.g. a control code for applying a reverberation effect), on a tone-by-tone, measure-by-measure, or phrase-by-phrase basis, which inevitably takes the users a lot of labor and time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a music reproduction system, a music editing system, a music editing apparatus, a music editing terminal unit, a music reproduction terminal unit, and a method of controlling a music editing apparatus, which enable music editing and acoustic effect application by simple operations, for realization of a desired musical concept in his/her mind, as well as a program for executing the method.

To attain the above object, in a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music reproduction system comprising an operating terminal unit that can be carried by an operator, and generates motion information in response to motion of the operator carrying the operating terminal unit, a music editing apparatus that receives the motion information from the operating terminal unit and edits music data of a piece of music to be reproduced based on the received motion information, and a musical tone generating device that reproduces the edited music data supplied from the music editing apparatus to generate musical tones, wherein the music editing apparatus comprises a detector device that detects peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion of the operator from the received motion information, a control information generating device that generates music reproduction control information for controlling music reproduction of the piece of music, based on the peak information, when a peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than a first predetermined threshold value and a second predetermined threshold value, and generates acoustic effect control information for controlling at least one acoustic effect to be applied to the piece of music, based on the peak information, when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first predetermined threshold value and smaller than the second predetermined threshold value, a music data editing device that edits the music data based on the music reproduction control information and the acoustic effect control information generated by the control information generating device, and an output device that outputs the music data edited by the music data editing device to the musical tone-generating device.

With the above arrangement of the music reproduction system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the music editing apparatus analyzes motion information received from the operating terminal unit to detect peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion, and when a peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first threshold value and at the same time larger than the second threshold value, generates music reproduction control information for controlling music reproduction of the piece of music (for controlling e.g. performance tempo and volume), while when the peak value is larger than the first threshold value and at the same time smaller than the second threshold value, the music editing apparatus generates acoustic effect control information for controlling at least one acoustic effect to be applied to the piece of music (for controlling e.g. a reverberation effect or a tone extension effect). Then, the music editing apparatus edits existing data based on the generated information, and the edited music data is output to the musical tone-generating device, for being sounded as reproduced musical tones. Thus, the operator can control reproduction of the music data and acoustic effects to be applied to the music data, merely by simple operations of the operating terminal unit, thereby achieving realization of a musical concept in the operator's mind and application of acoustic effects to the piece of music as he desires. As a result, even a beginner having no knowledge of MIDI or the like can easily and institutively apply acoustic effects to the original piece of music.

To attain the above object, in a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music editing system comprising an operating terminal unit that can be carried by an operator, and generates motion information in response to motion of the operator carrying the operating terminal unit, and a music editing apparatus that receives the motion information from the operating terminal unit and edits music data of a piece of music to be reproduced based on the received motion information, wherein the music editing apparatus comprises a detector device that detects peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion of the operator from the received motion information, a control information generating device that generates music reproduction control information for controlling music reproduction of the piece of music, based on the peak information, when a peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than a first predetermined threshold value and a second predetermined threshold value, and generates acoustic effect control information for controlling at least one acoustic effect to be applied to the piece of music, based on the peak information, when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first predetermined threshold value and smaller than the second predetermined threshold value, and a music data editing device that edits the music data based on the music reproduction control information and the acoustic effect control information generated by the control information generating device.

To attain the above object, in a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music editing apparatus comprising a receiver device that receives, from an operating terminal unit that can be carried by an operator, motion information generated in response to motion of the operator carrying the operating terminal unit, a detector device that detects peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion of the operator from the motion information received by the receiver device, a music reproduction control information generating device that generates music reproduction control information for controlling music reproduction of a piece of music, based on the peak information, when a peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than a first predetermined threshold value and a second predetermined threshold value, an acoustic effect control information generating device that generates acoustic effect control information for controlling at least one acoustic effect to be applied to the piece of music, based on the peak information, when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first predetermined threshold value and smaller than the second predetermined threshold value, and a music data editing device that edits music data of the piece of music based on the music reproduction control information and the acoustic effect control information generated by the music reproduction control information generating device and the acoustic effect control information generating device, respectively.

Preferably, the music editing apparatus further comprises a locus shape identifying device that identifies a shape of a locus drawn by the operating terminal unit in accordance with the motion of the operator, based on the motion information, when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first predetermined threshold value and smaller than the second predetermined threshold value, and a first storage device that stores locus shape information indicative of shapes of loci to be drawn by the operating terminal unit and acoustic effect item information indicative of acoustic effects to be applied to the piece of music, in association with each other, and the acoustic effect control information generating device searches the first storage device using the shape of the locus identified by the locus shape identifying device, as a retrieval key, to obtain corresponding acoustic effect item information, and then generates the acoustic effect control information for controlling the acoustic effect indicated by the obtained acoustic effect item information, based on the peak information.

More preferably, the locus shape identifying device identifies not only the shape of the locus drawn by the operating terminal unit in accordance with the motion of the operator, but also a direction of the locus, based on the motion information, the first storage device storing the locus shape information, locus direction information indicative of directions of the loci, and the acoustic effect item information, in association with each other, and the acoustic effect control information generating device searching the first storage device using the shape of the locus and the direction of the locus identified by the locus shape identifying device, as retrieval keys, to obtain the corresponding acoustic effect item information from the stored acoustic effect item information, and then generates the acoustic effect control information for controlling the acoustic effect indicated by the obtained acoustic effect item information, based on the peak information.

More preferably, the music editing apparatus further comprises a second storage device that stores peaks values of the peak information and acoustic effect level values indicative of magnitude of each of acoustic effects to be applied to the piece of music, in association with each other, and the acoustic effect control information generating device searches the second storage device using the peak information detected by the detector device, as a retrieval key, to obtain a corresponding acoustic effect level value from the stored acoustic effect level values, and searches the first storage device using the shape of the locus and the direction of the locus identified by the locus shape identifying device, as retrieval keys, to obtain the corresponding acoustic effect item information from the stored acoustic effect item information, and then generates the acoustic effect control information based on the obtained acoustic effect level value and the obtained acoustic effect item information.

To attain the above object, in a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music editing terminal unit comprising a motion information generating device that can be carried by an operator, and generates motion information in response to motion of the operator, a music editing device that edits music data of a piece of music to be reproduced based on the motion information generated by the motion information generating device, a detector device that detects peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion of the operator from the motion information, and a control information generating device that generates music reproduction control information for controlling music reproduction of the piece of music, based on the peak information, when a peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than a first predetermined threshold value and a second predetermined threshold value, and generates acoustic effect control information for controlling at least one acoustic effect to be applied to the piece of music, based on the peak information, when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first predetermined threshold value and smaller than the second predetermined threshold value, wherein the music editing device edits the music data based on the music reproduction control information and the acoustic effect control information generated by the control information generating device.

To attain the above object, in a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a music reproduction terminal unit comprising a motion information generating device that can be carried by an operator, and generates motion information in response to motion of the operator, a music editing device that edits music data of a piece of music to be reproduced based on the motion information generated by the motion information generating device, a detector device that detects peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion of the operator from the motion information, and a control information generating device that generates music reproduction control information for controlling music reproduction of the piece of music, based on the peak information, when a peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than a first predetermined threshold value and a second predetermined threshold value, and generates acoustic effect control information for controlling at least one acoustic effect to be applied to the piece of music, based on the peak information, when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first predetermined threshold value and smaller than the second predetermined threshold value, wherein the music data editing device edits the music data based on the music reproduction control information and the acoustic effect control information generated by the control information generating device, and outputs the edited music data to the musical tone generating device.

To attain the above object, in a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a music editing apparatus that edits music data of a piece of music to be reproduced, comprising the steps of receiving, from an operating terminal unit that can be carried by an operator, motion information generated in response to motion of the operator carrying the operating terminal unit, detecting peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion of the operator from the received motion information, generating music reproduction control information for controlling music reproduction of the piece of music, based on the peak information, when a peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than a first predetermined threshold value and a second predetermined threshold value, generating acoustic effect control information for controlling at least one acoustic effect to be applied to the piece of music, based on the peak information, when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first predetermined threshold value and smaller than the second predetermined threshold value, and editing the music data based on the generated music reproduction control information and the generated acoustic effect control information.

To attain the above object, in a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for causing a computer to execute a method of controlling a music editing apparatus that edits music data of a piece of music to be reproduced, the program comprising a module for receiving, from an operating terminal unit that can be carried by an operator, motion information generated in response to motion of the operator carrying the operating terminal unit, a module for detecting peak information indicative of magnitude of the motion of the operator from the received motion information, a module for generating music reproduction control information for controlling music reproduction of the piece of music, based on the peak information, when a peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than a first predetermined threshold value and a second predetermined threshold value, a module for generating acoustic effect control information for controlling at least one acoustic effect to be applied to the piece of music, based on the peak information, when the peak value indicated by the peak information is larger than the first predetermined threshold value and smaller than the second predetermined threshold value, and a module for editing the music data based on the generated music reproduction control information and the generated acoustic effect control information.