Performance information making device and method based on
Contents
1. the CPU 1 allows various data correspond ing to user s operation of the keyboard 5 and the mouse 6 to be entered via the input output interface 4 Thus the CPU 1 controls the position of a mouse pointer cursor on the display device 8 and detects user s clicking operation on the mouse 6 The CPU 1 can also control the visual presentation on the display device via the video card 7 The sound board 9 constitutes a tone source or tone generator device which generates tone signals corresponding to data e g perfor mance information entered under the control of the CPU 1 The generated tone signals are audibly reproduced or sounded through a sound system B as well known in the art Further the CPU 1 communicates various data with the hard disk HD floppy disk FD CD Compact Disk ROM magneto optical disk MO or the like provided in the external storage device 11 and the CPU 1 also communi cates various data with an external MIDI instrument or external computer In the ROM 2 there are prestored basic programs such as a BIOS Basic Input Output System which are used for controlling basic input output operations of the CPU 1 According to the current embodiment melody data chord progression data and data representative of a plurality of accompaniment patterns are prestored as song data for a total of ten music pieces and the song data comprise song 1 song 10 corresponding to the ten music pieces Here let it be assu2. 1 this means that the stop switch SW3 has been actuated when reproduction of a song is under way so that the CPU 1 sets the reproduction flag PLAY to 0 at step S42 and then proceeds to step S43 If any tone is being generated this tone is deadened or muted at step S43 Then the CPU 1 returns to the preceding routine after having inhibited subsequent interruption for the song reproduction process at step S44 Thus in response to the user s operation of the stop switch SW3 when a song is being reproduced the song reproduction is stopped subsequent interruption for the song reproduction process is inhibited and thereafter the CPU 1 functions to accept user s operation of any of the other switches FIG 9 is a flowchart of the interrupt process for song reproduction which is triggered by each software based interrupt signal generated at timing corresponding to a currently set tempo This interrupt process is carried out only when the permission to the interruption is given in response to the user s operation of the play switch SW2 In this interrupt process there are employed a register for indicating a currently reproduced sequence ie one of sequences 1 8 of the clip sequence data and a counter for counting measures corresponding to the individual sequences These register and counter are allocated in the RAM 3 and various data on the melody chord progression accompaniment pattern and animation are read out at timing det
3. CLIP PARTS ON LEFT RIGHT 4 FRAMES OF SUB MONITOR HAS PREDETERMINED TIME PERIOD ELAPSED GENERATE 4 RANDOM NUMBERS R1 R4 VALUES RANGING FROM 1 TO 5 WRITE INDIVIDUAL VALUES INTO FORMER HALF LATTER HALF 4 CLIP SEQUENCE AREAS CORRE TO RANDOM NUMBERS R1 R4 DISPLAY ICONS OF CLIP PARTS CORRE TO INDIVIDUAL NUMERICAL VALUES ON LEFT RIGHT 4 FRAMES OF SUB MONITOR SCREEN CORRE TO RANDOM NUMBERS Ri R4 U S Patent Apr 3 2001 Sheet 6 of 10 US 6 211 453 B1 PLAY SWITCH PROCESS FIG T7 STOP SWITCH PROCESS INHIBIT INTERRUPT PROCESS U S Patent Apr 3 2001 Sheet 7 of 10 US 6 211 453 B1 INTERRUPT PROCESS START REPRODUCE MELODY S51 READ OUT CHORD FROM S52 CHORD PROGRRESION REPRODUCE ACCOM s53 PANIMENT PATTERN REPRODUCE ANIMATION 54 INCREMENT COUNTER S55 556 COUNTED NO TWO MEASURES ADVANCE CLIP SEQUENCE m U S Patent Apr 3 2001 Sheet 8 of 10 US 6 211 453 B1 SAVING SWITCH PROCESS SAVE MELODY PART SELECT ACCOM PATTERNS IN ORDER CORRE TO CLIP SEQUENCES MODIFY NOTES ON THE BASIS OF CHORD E SAVE ACCOM US 6 211 453 B1 Sheet 9 of 10 Apr 3 2001 U S Patent E T DIA DIT 3HL NO ON O dOo LZ dda dH EZ Tc 6c Ot oc DIAY SOVSLNI S9VHOLS aIL fidO WOY INVI NOLLVOINQWAOO INNSALXI sna LIMOYIO WALSAS LIMNI SOLVITHNSD LINIS LIfDHIO LIfDNIO QNYOS 8010243 NOL AV IdId oLa SOLOSLL3Q ec SG rc GS ect eTe omues eua ctc TE U S Patent Apr 3 2
4. for the melody the reproduced accompaniment information can become suitable for the melody even where the specific nature of the melody and accompaniment patterns are not taken into consideration Besides such a random selection easily provides various variations of accompaniment pat terns The accompaniment patterns may be reproduced after being converted in tone pitch on the basis of a chord progression accompanying the melody Such a tone pitch conversion permits shared use of a general purpose accom paniment pattern of a predetermined key such as C major BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For better understanding of the above and other features of the present invention the preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in greater detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings in which FIG 1 is a block diagram of a performance information making device according to a first embodiment of the present invention FIG 2 is a diagram showing an exemplary storage format of song data in the first embodiment FIG 3 is a diagram showing an exemplary storage format of clip sequence data in the first embodiment FIG 4 is a diagram illustrating a picture displayed during making of performance information FIG 5 is a flowchart of a song selecting switch process carried out by a CPU in the first embodiment FIG 6 is a flowchart of a clip selecting lever process carried out by the CPU in the first embodiment FIG 7
5. given music piece randomly selects a particular accompaniment pattern from among the plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for the given music piece so that accompaniment performance information for the given music piece is provided by combining the accompani ment patterns randomly selected for individual ones of the performance sections 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 2 A performance information making device as recited in claim 1 wherein said pattern selecting device includes an instructing device that instructs that a random selection of the accompaniment pattern should be made for a predetermined performance range covering a predeter mined number of the performance sections and a selection controlling device that when said instructing device instructs that the random selection should be made randomly selects a particular accompaniment pattern for each of the predetermined number of per formance sections within the predetermined perfor mance range 3 A performance information making device as recited in claim 1 wherein said storage device also has prestored therein melody information of the given music piece and which further comprises a reproducing device that repro ductively performs a melody and accompaniment of the given music piece on the basis of the melody information prestored in said storage device and accompaniment perfor mance information comprising a combination of t
6. is a flowchart of a play switch process carried out by the CPU in the first embodiment FIG 8 is a flowchart of a stop switch process carried out by the CPU in the first embodiment FIG 9 is a flowchart of an interrupt process carried out by the CPU in the first embodiment FIG 10 is a flowchart of a saving switch process carried out by the CPU in the first embodiment FIG 11 is a block diagram of a performance information making device according to a second embodiment of the present invention and FIG 12 is a diagram showing another example of the data storage format in a song data memory DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG 1 is a block diagram of a performance information making device according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention which generally comprises a personal computer and software executable by the personal computer The personal computer A includes a CPU 1 a ROM 2 a RAM 3 an input output interface 4 a keyboard 5 a mouse 6 a video card 7 a display device 8 a sound board 9 a communication interface 10 an external storage device 11 and an address and data bus 12 The CPU 1 performs overall control of the performance information making device using working areas of the RAM 3 under the control of an OS Operating System installed in a hard disk HD of the external storage device 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 11 Specifically
7. is not so limited Further whereas the preferred embodiments have been described in relation to the case where five clip parts are provided in advance for each song the number of clip parts per song may be less or more than five Further whereas the preferred embodiments have been described in relation to the case where each clip part comprises a set of an accompaniment pattern and animation the clip part may comprises only an accompaniment pattern Also one animation may be provided for each song rather 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 than for each clip part in this case some parameters of the animation e g parameters relating to the hair style and dress of a human figure background or the like may be varied each time one clip part changes to another Such parameter variations alone however will make an impres sion that the animation changes considerably depending on the clop part Further if the accompaniment pattern is only for a drum part then the chord progression data is of course unneces sary namely the accompaniment pattern may comprise data only of a melody and drum part Furthermore whereas the preferred embodiments have been described above as allowing clip sequences in the former half and latter half of a song to be randomly selected by operation of two clip selecting levers clip sequences in anentire music piece may be selected at random by only one clip selecting
8. ment patterns are saved in the standard MIDI file format well known in the art As described above the accompaniment patterns are saved as note codes at step S63 so that the saved data can be reproduced by any other equipment However informa tion representative of the clip sequence date and song data itself may be saved in the case where the data are handled in a device similar to that of the present embodiment The first embodiment which has been described as imple mented by a personal computer and software may be applied to an electronic musical instrument FIG 11 is a block diagram illustrating a second embodiment of the present invention as applied to an electronic musical instru ment In FIG 11 elements not shown in the first embodi ment of FIG 1 and functionally differing from the counter parts of the first embodiment are a keyboard 31 a switch 32 detector circuits 31a a timer 23 a tone generator circuit 24 and an effector circuit 25 Whereas the interrupt process for song reproduction is triggered by a software based interrupt signal in the first embodiment the second embodiment is designed to trigger the interrupt process via the timer 23 that is provided in the electronic musical instrument to execute an automatic per US 6 211 453 B1 9 formance or automatic accompaniment Namely the timer 23 generates interrupt signals at timing corresponding to a tempo set by the CPU 21 and in response to each of the gene
9. technique disclosed in the HEI 7 104744 publication has the advantage that it provides for easier editing operations to for example change the order of the performance patterns However the editing requires considerable musical knowledges which would limit the application of the disclosed technique to relatively experienced users Therefore with the disclosed technique it was difficult for inexperienced users to enjoy composing a music piece Further U S Pat No 5 406 024 discloses a technique which uses a bar code scanner to select performance patterns in correspondence with time varying phases of a perfor mance SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a performance information making device and method which are capable of generating various variations of accompaniment patterns well suitable for a a music piece melody and thereby allow even unexperienced users or beginners to fully enjoy composing a music piece In order to accomplish the above mentioned object the present invention provides a performance information mak ing device which comprises a storage device having pre stored therein information representative of a plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for a given music piece and a pattern selecting device that for each of predetermined performance sections of the given music piece randomly selects a particular accompaniment pattern from among the plurality of acco
10. the user actuating the right clip selecting lever SLR the icons in the right four frames sequentially change at random until they stop changing to be fixedly displayed upon lapse of a predetermined time period so that eight measures i e four accompaniment patterns in the latter half of the song are determined randomly Then once the play switch SW2 is actuated by the user the melody of the selected song is reproduced along with the selectively determined accompaniment patterns during which time an animation corresponding to the selected song and accompaniment patterns is displayed on the main screen MS To stop the reproduction the stop switch SW3 is actuated To change either the former half accompaniment patterns or the latter half accompaniment patterns it is only neces sary for the user to operate one of the left and right clip selecting levers SLL SLR Such operation of the clip selecting lever provides desired accompaniment patterns which can be saved for example in the floppy disk of the external storage device 11 by actuating the saving switch SWA FIGS 5 to 10 are flowcharts of performance information making controlling programs carried out by the CPU 1 of FIG 1 and a description will be made hereinafter about detailed control operations of the CPU 1 on the basis of these flowcharts Reproduction flag PLAY is allocated in the RAM 3 and this reproduction flag PLAY is set to 1 when reproduction of a song is under
11. way and set to 0 when reproduction of a song is not under way 10 15 20 25 30 45 50 55 60 65 6 Song selecting switch process of FIG 5 is triggered by user s operation of any one of the song selecting switches SW1 At first step SII a determination is made as to whether the reproduction flag PLAY is at the value of 0 or not If the reproduction flag PLAY is not at 0 this means that reproduction of a song is under way so that the CPU 1 returns to a preceding routine without executing any other operations Namely user s selection of a song is made valid only when no other song is being reproduced that is any new song can not be selected even when the user actuates any one of the song selecting switches SW1 during repro duction of another song If on the other hand the repro duction flag PLAY is at 0 this means that reproduction of a song is not under way so that the CPU 1 proceeds to next step S12 to load the song data corresponding to the operated switch from the hard disk of the external storage device 11 to the RAM 3 After step S12 the CPU 1 goes to step S13 where the clip sequences are all set to an initial value of 1 i e clip part number 1 After that the CPU 1 proceeds to step S14 in order to display on the sub monitor screen SS the icons corresponding to clip part 1 in the selected song data and then returns to the preceding routine FIG 6 is a flowchart o
12. 001 Sheet 10 of 10 US 6 211 453 B1 CHORD PROGRESSION CLIP PART 1 US 6 211 453 B1 1 PERFORMANCE INFORMATION MAKING DEVICE AND METHOD BASED ON RANDOM SELECTION OF ACCOMPANIMENT PATTERNS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a performance informa tion making device and method which are capable of easily creating various variations of accompaniment patterns well suitable for a music piece melody and thereby allow even unexperienced users or beginners to fully enjoy composing music piece There has been known a technique which in making music piece data performance information by combining automatic performance patterns on an automatic perfor mance device or the like greatly facilitates editing and modification of the music piece data Such a technique is disclosed in for example Japanese patent Laid open Pub lication No HEI 7 104744 that corresponds to U S patent application Ser No 08 312 776 The technique disclosed in the HEI 7 104744 publication is characterized primarily by visually displaying a plurality of display elements e g icons corresponding to a plurality of performance patterns as well as lines specifying order of the performance patterns to be played The disclosed technique allows a user to designate a desired combination of the visually displayed performance patterns and thereby facilitates user s editing of music piece data The performance information making
13. P movable in response to user s operation of the mouse 6 and user s clicking operation on the mouse 6 More specifically the displayed switches includes song selecting switches SW1 for selecting a desired song from among the ten different song data left and right clip selecting levers SLL SLR for instructing a start of clip part selection accompaniment pattern selection a play switch SW2 for instructing a start of reproduction of a song a stop switch SW3 for instructing a stop of reproduction of the song a saving switch SW4 for saving data of a song made a part setting switch SWS for setting a tone volume for each track performance part of the song a main setting switch SW6 for setting a main tone volume of the song and a tempo switch SW7 for setting a reproduction tempo of the song Typically user s operation on the screen takes place in the following manner First when any one of the song selecting switches SW1 corresponding to a desired song number is operated to select a song predetermined icons correspond ing to the selected song are displayed on eight frames of the sub monitor screen SS Then when the left clip selecting lever SLL is actuated the icons in the left four frames sequentially change at random until they stop changing to be fixedly displayed upon lapse of a predetermined time period This way eight measures ie four accompaniment patterns in the former half of the song are determined randomly Similarly by
14. US006211453B1 a United States Patent 10 Patent No US 6 211 453 B1 Kurakake 45 Date of Patent Apr 3 2001 54 PERFORMANCE INFORMATION MAKING 4 708 046 11 1987 Kozuki eee 84 610 DEVICE AND METHOD BASED ON 5 406 024 4 1995 Shioda RANDOM SELECTION OF 5 510 572 4 1996 Hayashi et al sss 84 609 5 623 112 4 1997 Ito et al 84 610 X ACCOMPANIMENT PATTERNS 5 679 913 10 1997 Bruti et al s 84 600 5 698 804 12 1997 Mizuno va 84 610 75 Inventor Yasushi Kurakake Hamamatsu JP 5 712 436 1 1998 Sakama et al 84 610 73 Assignee Yamaha Corporation JP Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 0 days 21 Appl No 08 948 307 22 Filed Oct 9 1997 30 Foreign Application Priority Data Oct 18 1996 JP iiiter terrier enn 8 276461 51 Int C sss G10H 1 26 G10H 1 36 52 U S CL ene 84 609 84 610 84 477 R 58 Field of Search 84 609 614 634 638 84 477 R 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 539 882 9 1985 Yuzawa sssseee 84 610 MELODY CHORD PROGRESSION FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 07104744 4 1905 JP cited by examiner Primary Examiner Stanley J Witkowski 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Rossi amp Associates 57 ABSTRACT In a memory there are prestored melody information of a given music piece and other information rep
15. ance data is expressed in a note pitch and note length or rest and rest length and the solid writing format where a storage location is provided in a memory for each minimum resolution of a performance for each clock pulse in the above described preferred embodiments and each performance event is stored in one of the memory locations corresponding to its occurrence time The song reproduction tempo may be varied in any of various ways such as by changing the frequency of tempo clock pulses interrupt signals changing the value of timing data in accordance with the tempo while maintaining the tempo clock frequency or changing a value e g subtract ing quantity with which to count the timing data in a single process Moreover the accompaniment pattern may comprise data of a plurality of channels and the data of each channel may be separated for each track In addition the tone generation in the tone generator or sound board may be by any of the known methods such as the waveform memory method FM method physical model method harmonic synthesis method formant synthesis method and analog synthesizer method based on VCO Voltage Controlled Oscillator VCF Voltage Controlled Filter and VCA Voltage Controlled Amplifier The tone generator circuit may be implemented by a combination of a DSP Digital Signal Processor and microprograms or by a combination of a CPU and software programs rather than by dedicated hardware Furth
16. at 0 this means that reproduction of a song is under way so that the CPU 1 returns to a preceding routine without executing any other operations If on the other hand the reproduction flag PLAY is at 0 this means that the play switch SW2 has been actuated when reproduction of a song is not under way so that the CPU 1 sets the reproduction flag PLAY to 1 at step S32 and then proceeds to next step S33 At step S33 the first clip part area of the clip sequence data is selected as an initial state for reproduction of a song A next step S34 the CPU 1 gives permission to carry out an interrupt process for song reproduction and then returns to the preceding routine Thus in response to the user s operation of the play switch SW2 when no song is being reproduced the CPU 1 behaves to reject user s subsequent operation of any other switch than the stop switch SW3 and permit a song repro duction process interrupt process as will be later described Stop switch process of FIG 8 is triggered by user s operation of the stop switch SW3 At first step S41 a determination is made as to whether the reproduction flag PLAY is at 1 or not If the reproduction flag PLAY is not at 1 this means that the stop switch SW3 has been actuated when reproduction of a song is not under way so that the CPU 1 returns to a preceding routine without executing any other operations If on the other hand the reproduction flag PLAY is at
17. control program executable by a computer The control program comprises a program code mechanism that for each of predetermined performance sections of the given music piece randomly selects a particular accompaniment pattern from among a plurality of accompaniment patterns provided in advance and suitable for the given music piece a program code mechanism that reads out from the data storage area the data representative of the accompaniment pattern randomly selected for each of the performance sections and a program code mechanism that reads out the data representative of the melody from the data storage area and a program code mechanism that reproductively per forms the melody and accompaniment of the given music piece on the basis of the read out data representative of the melody and accompaniment pattern According to the essential feature of the present invention accompaniment patterns corresponding to a plu rality of melody performance sections each having two measures of a music piece are randomly selected from among a plurality of predetermined accompaniment patterns suitable for the music piece and the randomly selected US 6 211 453 B1 3 accompaniment patterns are arranged in predetermined order e g the order of the performance sections to provide performance information which is reproduced along with the melody Because the randomly selected accompaniment patterns correspond to the patterns prestored as suitable
18. e pitch in accordance with chords specified by the chord progression data when it is to be actually reproduced The animation and icon data are used for visual presentation on the display device 8 during making of performance information as will be later described When one of the song data is selected during making of performance information clip part data for 16 measures corresponding to the length of the melody i e eight clip part data are selected at random for the selected song data More specifically as illustrated in FIG 3 every two mea sures from the start of the song comprising 16 measures to be reproduced is designated as a performance sequence sequence 1 sequence 8 and for each of these sequences one of the five clip parts clip part 1 clip part US 6 211 453 B1 5 5 is selected at random to allocate the clip part data to the sequence Then for each of the sequences the selected clip data number one of numbers 1 5 is stored as clip sequence data in association with that sequence FIG 4 is a diagram illustrating a picture displayed during making of performance information on which are shown a main screen section MS for presenting an animation corre sponding to a reproduced song and a sub monitor screen section SS for presenting icons corresponding to a selected clip part On another section there are also displayed various switches that can be operated through the mouse pointer
19. er a plurality of tone generat ing channels may be provided by using a single tone generator circuit on a time divisional basis or each tone generating channel may be provided by one tone generator circuit In summary the performance information making device and method and the performance information making con trolling programs having so far been described are charac terized in that accompaniment patterns corresponding to a plurality of melody performance sections of a music piece are randomly selected from among a plurality of predeter mined accompaniment patterns suitable for the music piece and the randomly selected accompaniment patterns are reproduced as performance information along with the melody Such an arrangement allows the reproduced accom paniment information to become suitable for the melody even where the nature of the melody and accompaniment patterns are not taken into consideration As a result the present invention can generate various variations of accom paniment patterns well suitable for a melody and thereby allows even unexperienced users or beginners to fully enjoy composing a music piece What is claimed is 1 A performance information making device comprising a storage device having prestored therein information representative of a plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for a given music piece and a pattern selecting device that for each of predetermined performance sections of a melody of the
20. ermined by current values of the register and counter so as to execute generation of tones and reproduction of animations The CPU 1 reproduces melody data corresponding to current timing of a song in the currently selected song data at step S51 and reads out a chord corresponding to current timing from the chord progression of the song data at step 52 Then the CPU 1 proceeds to step S53 where accom paniment data are read out from the clip part designated by current clop sequence data and individual note codes in the 10 15 20 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 accompaniment data are modified pitch converted on the basis of the current chord to thereby actually reproduce an accompaniment pattern At next step 54 animation data are read out from the same clip part so as to reproduce an animation After that the above mentioned counter is incremented by one at step S55 and a determination is made at next step S56 as to whether or not two measures have already been counted by the counter If two measures have not been counted as determined at step S56 the CPU 1 returns to a preceding routine however if two measures have been counted the CPU 1 updates the register to advance the clip sequence at step S57 Then the CPU 1 returns to the preceding routine after having cleared the counter at step S58 Once the clip sequence has advanced to sequence 8 as a result of the operation of step S57 the CPU 1 sets the clip
21. ern randomly selected for each of the perfor mance sections mance sections and 11 A machine readable recording medium containing a a program code mechanism that reads out the data rep control program executable by a computer said control resentative of the melody from said data storage area program comprising 55 and a program code mechanism that for each of predeter a program code mechanism that reproductively performs mined performance sections of a melody of a given the melody and accompaniment of the given music music piece randomly selects a particular accompani piece on the basis of the read out data representative of ment pattern from among a plurality of accompaniment the melody and accompaniment pattern patterns provided in advance and suitable for the given music piece and koe ko ko o
22. f a clip selecting lever process that is triggered by user s operation of the left or right clip selecting lever SLL or SLR In the flowchart both the processes triggered by the left and right clip selecting lever SLL and SLR are shown together for simplicity of illustration because they are different from each other only in that the process triggered by the left clip selecting lever SLL is performed on the left four frames i e former half of asong while the process triggered by the right clip selecting lever SLR is performed on the right four frames i e latter half of the song Specifically in the flowchart actions taken in response to operation of the left clip selecting lever SLR are depicted mainly with actions responsive to operation of the right clip selecting lever SLR depicted in brackets First at step S21 a determination is made as to whether the reproduction flag PLAY is at 0 or not If the repro duction flag PLAY is not at 0 this means that reproduction of a song is under way so that the CPU 1 returns to a preceding routine without executing any other operations If on the other hand the reproduction flag PLAY is at 0 this means that reproduction of a song is not under way so that the CPU 1 proceeds to next step S22 Namely selection of clipper parts by actuation of the clip selecting lever SLL or SLR is made valid only when no song is being reproduced At step S22 icons corresponding to the clip part
23. he accom paniment patterns selected by said pattern selecting device 4 A performance information making device as recited in claim 3 which further comprises a pattern change instructing device that instructs an accompaniment pattern change during a reproductive performance by said reproducing device and a controlling device that when a currently reproduced accompaniment pattern is to be changed to another accompaniment pattern in response to an instruction by said pattern change instructing device performs control such that a change to the other accompaniment pattern takes place at a predetermined position of the currently reproduced accompaniment pattern 5 A performance information making device as recited in claim 1 wherein said storage device has prestored therein for each of time varying performance phases of the given music piece information representative of a plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for the performance phase and wherein for each of the performance sections said pattern selecting device randomly selects a particular accompaniment pattern from among the plurality of accom paniment patterns suitable for the performance phase to which the performance section belongs 6 A performance information making device as recited in claim 1 which further comprises a device that displays in symbolized form contents of the accompaniment pattern randomly selected for each of the performance sections 7 A performa
24. ity of accompaniment an pee R ded b bini patterns suitable for the given music piece and also MAHOR LOL Me MUSIC piece s proviGedioy COMVININE T containing in a program storage area thereof a control the accompaniment patterns randomly selected for program executable by a computer said control program individual ones of the performance sections comprising 10 A performance information making method as recited in claim 9 which further comprises the steps of for each of predetermined performance sections of a melody of the given music piece randomly selecting a particular accompaniment pattern from among the plu rality of accompaniment patterns suitable for the given music piece so that accompaniment performance infor a program code mechanism that for each of predeter mined performance sections of a melody of the given prestoring melody information of the given music piece music piece randomly selects a particular accompani and ment pattern from among a plurality of accompaniment reproductively performing a melody and accompaniment patterns provided in advance and suitable for the given of the given music piece on the basis of the prestored music piece melody information and accompaniment performance a program code mechanism that reads out from said data information comprising a combination of the accom 20 storage area the data representative of the accompani paniment patterns selected for the individual perfor ment patt
25. lever Alternatively three or more clip select ing levers may be provided and a music piece may be divided into three or more sections accordingly The ran domly selected clip sequences may be changed partially through a user s manual selection In addition there may be additionally provided accom paniment patterns suitable for the introductory and ending sections of a music piece so that particular patterns can be selected from among the intro and ending accompaniment patterns for the beginning and ending sections of the music piece as shown in FIG 12 Also there may be provided accompaniment patterns suitable for a fill in performance and a fill in instructing switch so that a fill in pattern can be inserted at optional timing in response to user s operation of the switch Moreover whereas the preferred embodiments have been described above in relation to the case where the accompa niment pattern read out with reference to clip sequence data is sequentially changed during an accompaniment performance accompaniment patterns may be linked together with reference to clip sequence data prior to repro duction of a song so that the song can be reproduced by just sequentially reading out the previously linked accompani ment patterns Furthermore although the preferred embodiments have been described above in relation to the case where one clip part can not be changed to another during reproduction the present invention may be arranged t
26. ling programs from the hard disk into the RAM 3 and controls performance information making operations on the basis of the programs thus stored in the RAM 3 Operations performed in the second embodiment on the basis of the performance information making control ling programs are similar to those of FIGS 5 to 10 described earlier in relation to the first embodiment In a ROM 29 there may be prestored the performance information making control programs and song data as well as a dedicated control program for the electronic musical instrument Note that the present invention may be applied to any other forms of musical instrument than the keyboard instru ment as in the second embodiment such as stringed instruments wind instruments and percussion instruments Further the present invention may be applied to electronic musical instruments where the tone generator sequencer effector etc are separate components interconnected via a MIDI or communication means such as a communication network rather than those which incorporate therein a tone generator and automatic performance function The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above in relation to the case where the song data has a length of 16 measures specifically both the melody and chord progression have a length of 16 measures and the accompaniment pattern has a length of two measure clip part x eight clip sequences however the present invention
27. med that these song data have been supplied along with performance information making controlling programs from the floppy disk FD CD ROM or magneto optical disk MO of the external storage device 11 and then prestored in the hard disk HD The CPU 1 stores the performance information making controlling programs from the hard disk into the RAM 3 so as to control performance information making operations on the basis of the programs thus stored in the RAM 3 as will be later described in detail FIG 2 is a diagram showing an exemplary storage format of the song data prestored in the hard disk in the current embodiment As shown each of the song data song 1 to song 10 comprises a set of melody data for 16 measures chord progression data for 16 measures and five different kinds of clip part data clip part 1 clip part 5 Each of the clip part data comprises a set of accompaniment pattern data for two measures animation data for two measures and icon data Namely in the hard disk there are prestored ten different melodies chord progressions suitable for the respective melodies one chord progression per melody and accompaniment patterns suitable for the respective melodies five different accompaniment patterns per melody Further each of the accompaniment patterns comprises tone pitch information note codes in a predetermined musical key such as C major and tone generation timing information and is converted in ton
28. mpaniment patterns suitable for the given music piece so that accompaniment performance informa tion for the given music piece is provided by combining the accompaniment patterns randomly selected for individual ones of the performance sections In the performance information making device the stor age device may also has prestored therein melody informa tion of the given music piece and there may be further 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 provided a reproducing device that reproductively performs a melody and accompaniment of the given music piece on the basis of the melody information prestored in the storage device and accompaniment performance information com prising a combination of the accompaniment patterns selected by the pattern selecting device According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a performance information making method which comprises the steps of prestoring information repre sentative of a plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for a given music piece and for each of predetermined performance sections of the given music piece randomly selecting a particular accompaniment pattern from among the plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for the given music piece so that accompaniment performance information for the music piece is provided by combining the accompaniment patterns randomly selected for indi vidual ones of the performance
29. nce information making device as recited in claim 1 wherein said pattern selecting device includes an instructing device that instructs whenever necessary that a random selection of the accompaniment pattern should be made 8 A performance information making device comprising storage means for prestoring therein information repre sentative of a plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for a given music piece and pattern selecting means for for each of predetermined performance sections of a melody of the given music piece randomly selecting a particular accompaniment pattern from among the plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for the given music piece so that accompaniment performance information for the given music piece is provided by combining the accompani ment patterns randomly selected for individual ones of the performance sections 9 A performance information making method comprising the steps of US 6 211 453 B1 13 14 prestoring information representative of a plurality of a program code mechanism that generates a series of accompaniment patterns suitable for a given music pieces of accompaniment performance information for piece and the given music piece by combining the accompani ment patterns selected for individual ones of the per formance sections 12 A machine readable recording medium containing in a data storage area thereof data representative of a melody of a given music piece and a plural
30. o accept a shift to another clip part In this case such a shift to a new clip part may be executed upon arrival at a predetermined point such as a measure line or end of two measures of the current clip part Moreover whereas the preferred embodiments have been described above in relation to the case where performance information making controlling programs and song data are supplied from the external storage device 11 26 or pre written in the ROM 29 such programs and song data may be downloaded using the communication interface 10 27 In this case the communication interface 10 27 is connected to a communication network such as a LAN Internet or telephone line network by way of which the performance information making controlling programs and song data are supplied The supplied programs and song data are then recorded on the hard disk for completion of the download ing Data of the melody and accompaniment part may be recorded in any of the known formats such as the event plus relative time format where the occurrence time of each performance event is expressed in an elapsed time i e timing represented by the number of clock pulses from a US 6 211 453 B1 11 preceding performance event the event plus absolute time format where the occurrence time of each performance event is expressed in an absolute time within a music piece or within a measure the pitch rest plus note length format where each perform
31. rated interrupt signals the CPU 21 carries out an interrupt process similar to that of the first embodiment so as to execute reproduction of a selected song Display circuit 22 comprises a liquid crystal display LCD panel to visually display various information of the electronic musical instrument in animations and icons as in the first embodiment In the second embodiment data input output operation is performed by the user via a switch 42 in stead of the mouse in the first embodiment which is operated to move a cursor on the screen A dedicated screen switch may be provided or alternatively a particular existing switch may be used also as the screen switch Tone signals are generated by the tone generator circuit 24 on the basis of tone control data supplied from the CPU 21 The effector circuit 25 imparts particular effects to the generated tone signals which are then audibly reproduced via a sound system 28 Namely the tone generator circuit 24 and effector circuit 25 functionally correspond to the sound board 9 of the first embodiment External storage device 26 and communication interface 27 are similar to the counterparts in the first embodiment For example song data are supplied along with performance information making controlling programs from a floppy disk CD ROM or magneto optical disk MO of the external storage device 26 and then prestored in a hard disk The CPU 21 stores the performance information making control
32. resentative of a plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for the music piece For every predetermined performance section composed of for example two measures of the music piece a particular accompaniment pattern is randomly selected from among the prestored accompaniment patterns suitable for the music piece Accompaniment performance information for the music piece is provided by combining the accompaniment patterns randomly selected for the indi vidual performance sections 12 Claims 10 Drawing Sheets US 6 211 453 B1 Sheet 1 of 10 Apr 3 2001 U S Patent DIT HL YO OIN Wou dod dai dH ol SOVINSINI IAdINO INNI T 9 S US 6 211 453 B1 Sheet 2 of 10 Apr 3 2001 U S Patent S d dTD P Ryd drD 01 DNOS amar SRUNSVEN Z YO Z d dD Y DNOS 1 DNd dip DNOS NOISSmDONd MOD 2 ONOS IVd m 1 ONOS Iyd Ssva Did NOD VLVG DNOS U S Patent Apr 3 2001 Sheet 3 of 10 US 6 211 453 B1 MEASURE CLIP SEQUENCE DATA CLIP PART NO FIG 3 SONG SELECTING SWITCH PROCESS LORD SONG DATA CORRE TO S12 ACTUATED SWITCH FROM HARD DISK TO RAM 513 INITIALIZE E d SEQUENCES S14 DISPLAY ICON CORRE TO CLIP PART 1 ON ALL FRAMES OF SUB MONITOR SCREEN FIG 5 U S Patent Apr 3 2001 Sheet 4 of 10 US 6 211 453 B1 U S Patent Apr 3 2001 Sheet 5 of 10 US 6 211 453 B1 CLIP SELECTING LEVER PROCESS DISPLAY SEQUENTIALLY CHANGING ICONS OF INDIVIDUAL
33. s are displayed on the left or right four frames of the sub monitor screen SS while being sequentially changed At next step S23 it is determined whether a predetermined time period i e 1 2 seconds has elapsed or not If the prede termined time period has not yet elapsed the CPU 1 reverts to step S22 while if the predetermined time period has elapsed the CPU 1 proceeds to next step S24 Four random numbers R1 R4 numerical values ranging from 1 to 5 are generated at step S24 and at step S25 these values are written as clip part numbers into the former half latter half four clip sequence areas corresponding to the random numbers R1 R4 At next step S26 clipper part icons corresponding to the numerical values are displayed on the left right four frames of the sub monitor screen SS which correspond to the random numbers R1 R4 and then the CPU 1 returns to the preceding routine Thus in response to the user s operation of the left or right clip selecting lever SLL or SLR clipper parts in the former or latter half of the song are randomly selected from among the five different clipper parts Accordingly accompaniment data are selected randomly and stored as clip sequence data US 6 211 453 B1 7 Play switch process of FIG 7 is triggered by user s operation of the play switch SW2 At first step S31 a determination is made as to whether the reproduction flag PLAY is at 0 or not If the reproduction flag PLAY is not
34. sections The performance information making method may further comprise the steps of prestoring melody information of the given music piece and reproductively performing a melody and accompaniment of the given music piece on the basis of the prestored melody information and accompaniment per formance information comprising a combination of the accompaniment patterns selected for the individual perfor mance sections According to still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a machine readable recording medium containing a control program executable by a computer The control program comprises a program code mechanism that for each of predetermined performance sections of a given music piece randomly selects a particular accompaniment pattern from among a plurality of accompaniment patterns provided in advance and suitable for the given music piece and a program code mechanism that generates a series of pieces of accompaniment performance information for the given music piece by combining the accompaniment pat terns selected for individual ones of the performance sec tions According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a machine readable recording medium containing in a data storage area thereof data representative of a melody of a given music piece and a plurality of accompaniment patterns suitable for the given music piece and also containing in a program storage area thereof a
35. sequence back to sequence 1 Thus the 16 measure song will be repetitively reproduced until the stop switch SW3 is actuated In the above mentioned manner accompaniment patterns corresponding to randomly selected clipper parts in sequences 1 8 of the clip sequence data are sequentially reproduced along with the melody Simultaneously anima tions corresponding to the accompaniment patterns are also reproduced Saving switch process of FIG 10 is triggered by user s operation of the saving switch SW4 At first step S61 a determination is made as to whether the reproduction flag PLAY is at 0 or not If the reproduction flag PLAY is not at 0 this means that the saving switch SW4 has been actuated when reproduction of a song is under way so that the CPU 1 returns to a preceding routine without executing any other operations If on the other hand the reproduction flag PLAY is at 0 this means that the saving switch SW4 has been actuated when reproduction of a song is not under way so that the CPU 1 proceeds to next step S62 At step S62 the melody melody part data in currently selected song data are saved At next step S63 accompaniment patterns are selectively read out sequentially in such order corresponding to the clip sequences and individual note codes in the accompaniment patterns are modified on the basis of the chord progression so as to be saved as an accompaniment part Note that the melody and accompani
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