System and method for representing a musical event and for converting the musical event into a series of discrete events

A method of representing a change in the magnitude of a parameter of a musical signal over time, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a time-span that identifies the time period over which the musical signal occurs relative to the start of a musical track;
• receiving a magnitude-span that identifies the maximum and minimum values of the parameter of the musical signal within said time-span;
• receiving a curve-shape that identifies the contour in the change of the parameter of said musical signal within said time-span while traversing between said maximum value and said minimum value;
• and
• creating a single curve event based on said time-span, magnitude-span, and curve-shape.

A system for editing musical data, comprising:

• a processing unit;
• a memory storage device;
• a data interface for receiving and transmitting musical data;
• a program module, stored in said memory storage device for providing instructions to said processing unit;
• said processing unit, responsive to the instruction of said program module, being operative to:
• receive a plurality of original MIDI events from a source, the source being one of at least two possible sources including said memory storage device and said data interface;
• and
• convert the plurality of original MIDI events into a single curve event.

A computer-readable medium having a plurality of data fields stored on the medium and representing a musical event in the form of a data structure, said musical event including a change in the magnitude of a parameter of a signal over a period of time and being associated with a musical track, said data structure comprising:

• a first data field containing data that defines a time-offset corresponding to the start of said musical event relative to the start of said musical track;
• a second data field containing data that identifies said parameter of said signal that changes during said musical event;
• and
• a third data field containing data that represents the changes in the parameter of the signal over said period of time by describing a contour.

A method for representing a series of MIDI events as a single curve event data structure, the series of MIDI events defining a change in the magnitude of a parameter of a signal over a period of time and being associated with a track, each of the MIDI events having a time-stamp relative to the beginning of the track, comprising the steps of:

• equating a time-offset data field of the curve event data structure to the time-stamp of the first MIDI event in the series of MIDI events;
• equating an event-type data field to the type of MIDI event in the series of MIDI events;
• dividing the series of MIDI events into one or more sub-series of MIDI events, each sub-series of MIDI events containing the maximum number of consecutive MIDI events for which the contour of the change of the parameter of the signal over the time represented by the MIDI events can be represented by a predefined curve selected from a plurality of predefined curves;
• and
• for each sub-series, creating a data structure by:
• defining a curve-shape data field containing data identifying a predefined curve, selected from the plurality of predefined curves, to represent the sub-series, and
• defining a start-time data field containing data that identifies the start of the sub-series of MIDI events relative to the start of the track.

A method for generating a series of MIDI events from a curve event associated with a musical track, the curve event defining a change in the magnitude of a parameter of a signal over a period of time and including a time-offset defining a start time relative to the start of the musical track, an event-type, and an ordered list of curve-shapes, each of the curve-shapes in the ordered list defining a minimum time, a maximum time, a minimum value and a maximum value, comprising the steps of:

• selecting a curve-shape from the ordered list of curve-shapes;
• determining a start-time for the selected curve-shape based on the time-offset of the curve event and the minimum time of the selected curve-shape;
• determining an end-time for the selected curve-shape based on the time-offset of the curve event and the maximum and minimum time of the selected curve-shape;
• defining a first MIDI event for the selected curve-shape based on the start-time of the selected curve-shape, the event-type, and the maximum and minimum values;
• defining a last MIDI event for the selected curve-shape based on the end-time of the selected curve-shape, the event-type, and the maximum and minimum values;
• and
• defining a plurality of interim MIDI events by:
• assigning time-stamps to each of the plurality of interim MIDI events, each of the time-stamps being distributed in a substantially uniform manner at points of time between the first MIDI event and the last MIDI event of the selected curve-shape, and
• assigning values that proportionately track the contour of the curve-shape actualized to the maximum and minimum values of the selected curve-shape.