US 8,138,407 B2Granted

Synchronizer for ensemble on different sorts of music data, automatic player musical instrument and method of synchronization

AssigneeYamaha Corporation

InventorsKenji Matahira, Haruki Uehara

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Abstract

In order to establish an automatic player piano and a home theater system in synchronization for ensemble, a set of playback pattern data expresses a series of pitch names, and is stored in a memory system independent of an audio data file and a music data file; while an audio signal is being supplied from a playback system to a synchronizer of the automatic player piano, the synchronizer extracts samples from the audio signal, and determines a series of pitch names through an FFT and a quantization; the series of pitch names of the samples is compared with the playback pattern data what part of the playback pattern data expresses the series of pitch name; since the each sample appears over an extremely short time period, the synchronizer accurately determines a lapse of time, and selects a note event data code to be processed from the music data file.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A synchronizer for an ensemble between a sound generating system producing sound from an audio signal and an automatic player musical instrument producing tones on the basis of music data codes, comprising:

a memory system storing said music data codes expressing at least pitch of said tones and playback pattern data codes expressing prepared features of said sound correlated with lapse of time, each of said prepared features appearing over a time period determined on another time unit;
and
an information processor having information processing capability, a computer program running on said information processor so as to realize
a measure for said lapse of time from an initiation of the generation of said sound determined on a time unit, said another time unit being shorter than said time unit;
a feature extractor extracting actual features of said sound from said audio signal, each of said actual features appearing over said time period;
a pointer connected to said memory system and said feature extractor, comparing said actual features with said prepared features so as to determine a group of prepared features identical with a group of actual features, and determining an accurate lapse of time from said initiation on said another time unit on the basis of said group of prepared features;
a designator connected to said memory system and said pointer, and designating at least one music data code expressing the tone to be timely produced together with said sound for supplying said at least one music data code to said automatic player musical instrument and
a sampler connected between a signal input assigned to said audio signal and said feature extractor, and producing said samples from said audio signal through a sampling, each of said actual features being determined on the basis of a predetermined number of samples,
wherein said another time unit being equal to another time period occupied by said predetermined number of samples.

6 more elements

An automatic player musical instrument performing a music tune in ensemble with a sound generating system, comprising:

an acoustic musical instrument including
plural manipulators moved for specifying pitch of tones to be produced, and
a tone generator connected to said plural manipulators, and producing tones at the specified pitch;
an automatic playing system provided in association with said plural manipulators, and analyzing music data codes expressing at least pitch of said tones so as selectively to give rise to the movements of said plural manipulators without any fingering of a human player;
and
a synchronizer for an ensemble between said sound generating system producing sound from an audio signal and said acoustic musical instrument through said automatic playing system,
said synchronizer including
a memory system storing said music data codes and playback pattern data codes expressing prepared features of said sound correlated with lapse of time, each of said prepared features appearing over a time period determined on another time unit and
an information processor having information processing capability, a computer program running on said information processor so as to realize
a measure for said lapse of time from an initiation of the generation of said sound determined on a time unit, said another time unit being shorter than said time unit,
a feature extractor extracting actual features of said sound from samples of said audio signal, each of said actual features appearing over said time period;
a pointer connected to said memory system and said feature extractor, comparing said actual features with said prepared features so as to determine a group of prepared features identical with a group of actual features and determining an accurate lapse of time from said initiation on said another time unit on the basis of said group of prepared features and
a designator connected to said memory system and said pointer, and designating at least one music data code expressing the tone to be timely produced together with said sound for supplying said at least one music data code to said automatic playing system, and
a sampler connected between a signal input assigned to said audio signal and said feature extractor, and producing said samples from said audio signal through a sampling, each of said actual features being determined on the basis of a predetermined number of samples,
wherein said another time unit being equal to another time period occupied by said predetermined number of samples.

12 more elements

A method for establishing a sound generating system and an automatic player musical instrument in synchronization for ensemble, comprising the steps of:

a) preparing playback pattern data codes expressing prepared features of sound to be produced through said sound generating system in correlation with a lapse of time determined on a time unit, each of said prepared features appearing over a time period determined on another time unit shorter than said time unit;
b) extracting actual features of said sound from an audio signal, each of said actual features appearing over said time period, each of said actual features being determined on the basis of a predetermined number of samples of an audio signal expressing said sound, said another time unit being equal to another time period occupied by a predetermined number of said samples;
c) comparing said actual features with said prepared features so as to determine a group of prepared features identical with a group of actual features;
d) determining an accurate lapse of time from said initiation on said another time unit on the basis of said group of prepared features;
e) specifying at least one music data code to be processed for generating a tone together with said sound generated through said sound generating system on the basis of said group of prepared features;
and
f) supplying said at least one music data code to said automatic player musical instrument.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.