JPH06124062A - Karaoke machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a musical performance of KARAOKE music to be rich in variation as a singer intends by giving a variation to the musical performance. CONSTITUTION:A variation switch 27 is a switch for selecting and switching the variation of the KARAOKE performance and provided at the grip part of a microphone 16 so as to enable the singer to easily operate it while singing. This variation switch 27 is properly operated and then respective parts of musical performance information which are prepared are selectively switched to easily select the variation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a so-called karaoke apparatus, and more particularly to a karaoke apparatus suitable for a system for driving a musical tone synthesizer as a sound source apparatus to play a karaoke accompaniment based on performance information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, using accompaniment music excluding the singing part of sung songs such as popular songs, so-called karaoke, a magnetic tape or an optical disk is used to reproduce accompaniment music while singing along with it. Karaoke devices are widely used. In many karaoke devices, the voice of a song is mixed with karaoke by adding a reverberation effect through a microphone (hereinafter, referred to as “microphone”), so that the song can be enjoyed as a richer one. Further, for example, in many karaoke devices using an optical disk, not only the accompaniment music reproduction performance but also the display device displays the lyrics information and further appropriate video information. The karaoke device used to enjoy such karaoke also has a variety of environments and situations in which karaoke can be enjoyed, types of accompaniment music, how to provide lyrics information, and how to set the environment according to the song. Is also diversifying.

In recent years, a musical sound synthesizer used in electronic musical instruments, computer music, etc., that is, a synthesizer is used as a sound source device, and such a sound source device is driven by performance information of the accompaniment music, and at the same time, the accompaniment music is reproduced. A karaoke device of the type in which the display is driven by the lyrics information together with the performance information to display the lyrics corresponding to the accompaniment music as characters is being developed. Unlike the conventional karaoke device, the karaoke device of this type has a relatively small amount of information data because the performance information is not voice information based on analog voice but information close to a score (score). It is also easy to handle performance information transmission and copying.

[0004]

By the way, the conventional karaoke apparatus is basically similar to an arrangement (arrangement) in a commercially available and well-known CD (compact disc) or record (analog record). It was designed to play the accompaniment music in the form of arrangement, only to play the accompaniment music in a single fixed arrangement. However, the performance of the accompaniment music, which is fixed and does not change in this way, causes little change and sometimes becomes tired when the singing by karaoke is repeated frequently. It is considered that such a monotonous problem will increase as the karaoke apparatus becomes more popular.

Therefore, if the singer can change the arrangement of the accompaniment music as desired, karaoke can be enjoyed more flexibly, which is considered to contribute to the expansion of the user group of karaoke. Performing with changing the accompaniment of a singing song is frequently performed by ordinary musicians to change the performance, and if such a change in performance is possible with a karaoke device, it is possible to enjoy karaoke. Should increase even more. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a karaoke device that enables variations in the performance of karaoke songs and that allows a singing performer to perform a variety of performances. It is an object.

[0006]

A karaoke apparatus according to the present invention is a performance in which at least a part of performance data of an accompaniment composed of a single or a plurality of performance parts includes different performance patterns selectively for the same performance part. The performance information supply means for supplying information, the variation selection means for switching and selecting different performance patterns for the same performance part supplied by the performance information supply means, and the variation selection means for the same part. Musical tone generating means for generating musical tone information of accompaniment music using the musical performance data of the selected musical performance pattern and the musical performance information supplied from the musical performance information supplying means for the other musical performance data. Is characterized by.

[0007]

In the karaoke apparatus of the present invention, performance information including a plurality of types of performance patterns for the same performance part is supplied to the performance data of at least a part of the accompaniment piece, and the plurality of types of performance patterns are switched and selected. , By generating musical tone information of the accompaniment music by using the performance data of a desired performance pattern from a plurality of types of performance patterns for the same part, it is possible to vary the performance of the karaoke piece, depending on the intention of the singer. It is possible to perform a variety of performances.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows the configuration of a karaoke device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, when the variation switch attached to the microphone is operated, the performance pattern is switched and selected according to the operation of the variation switch for a portion where a plurality of types of performance patterns are prepared in advance, and the karaoke music performance mode is changed. I am trying to change it.

The karaoke apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has a CPU (central processing unit) 11, a ROM (read-only memory) 12, and an R.
AM (readable and writable memory) 13, operation panel 14, tone synthesizer 15, microphone 16, mixer 17, speaker 1
8, a computer graphics device (hereinafter, referred to as “image creating device”) 19, an optical disk reproducing device (hereinafter,
"LD playback device") 20, image synthesizing device 21,
Display device (CRT) 22, hard disk device (HDD) 23, CD-ROM playback device (CD-RO)
M) 24, a floppy disk device (FDD) 25, a modem 26 and a variation switch 27. A modem 26 is used here as a network interface. CPU11, ROM1
2, RAM 13, operation panel 14, musical sound synthesizer 15,
The image creating device 19, the LD reproducing device 20, the hard disk device 23, the floppy disk device 25, the modem 26 and the variation switch 27 are connected to a common bus BL.

The CPU 11 controls and manages the operation of the entire karaoke apparatus. The ROM 12 is written with an operation program including a performance control program and the like. The performance control program is a program for karaoke performance, and in this case, includes a program for variation switching operation. RAM13 is, by CPU11,
It is a memory used when controlling and managing the operation of this karaoke apparatus. The operation program in the ROM 12 is
It is loaded into the RAM 13 under the control of the CPU 11 when the power of the karaoke apparatus is turned on. The operation panel 14 is provided with various operation units including switches and knobs for operating the karaoke apparatus.

The musical tone synthesizer 15 is a so-called music synthesizer which is driven by accompaniment performance information and generates a musical tone signal of accompaniment music, for example, MIDI (Musica).
l Instrument Digital Interface) A sound source unit such as a sound source and a control unit for controlling it. The microphone 16 is used to input the voice of a singer who sings using this karaoke device. The mixer 17 mixes the output of the musical sound synthesizer 15 and the output of the microphone 16. An echo device or a reverb device for adding a reverberant sound component to the output of the microphone 16 is attached to the mixer 17 portion as needed. The speaker 18 is driven by the output of the mixer 17 in which the accompaniment music from the musical sound synthesizer 15 and the voice from the microphone 16 are mixed, and emits the accompaniment music and singing voice.

The image creating device 19 processes character information such as lyrics and drawing information such as still images and moving images supplied together with accompaniment performance information to generate an image signal for display. LD
The playback device 20 functions when playing a karaoke piece specified to use the video information recorded on the optical disc, and the drawing information synchronizes the accompaniment performance information with the predetermined information of a predetermined frame of a predetermined disc. Video information including a still image or a moving image having a predetermined frame as a starting point is reproduced.
Therefore, it is desirable that the LD reproducing device 20 has an optical disc autochanger function. The image synthesizing device 21 outputs the output of the image creating device 19 and the LD reproducing device 20.
And the output of are combined to generate a combined video signal. The display device 22 displays the combined video signal combined by the image combining device 21.

The hard disk device 23 stores song data of karaoke songs including song name, singer name, release date, keyword, performance information, drawing information, bar line information, lyrics information and the like. In this case, the performance data in the song data is
At least in part, a normal performance pattern and one or more variation performance patterns different from the performance pattern are included for one or more specific parts. CP according to the music selection operation via the operation panel 14.
U11 loads the music data of the selected music into the RAM 13. Thereafter, under the control of the CPU 11, the music data including the accompaniment music data and the lyrics data is sequentially read from the RAM 13 and sent to the above-described musical tone synthesizer 15 and the image creating device 19 to be used for karaoke performance. The CD-ROM reproducing device 24 is used to read music data from a CD-ROM, which is a recording medium for music data, and download the music data to the hard disk device 23.

The floppy disk device 25 is provided to record and reproduce the music data, and the floppy disk device 25 writes the music data in the hard disk device 23 to the floppy disk or reads the music data from the floppy disk. And download it to the hard disk device 23. This floppy disk is used when exchanging music data between devices. The modem 26 is connected to another device or a host system by a communication line, and is used for transmitting / receiving data such as music data or performance data via the communication line.

The variation switch 27 is a switch for instructing selective switching of variations of the karaoke performance. In order to allow the singer to easily operate while singing, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, a microphone is used. It is provided in 16 grips. The variation switch 27 is, for example, as shown in FIG.
Power switch 16a so as not to be mistakenly operated with the power switch 16a of
It is composed of a plurality of push button switches provided at the base end of the microphone 16 away from the microphone 16. By selectively operating these switches, a variation can be easily selected.

In the karaoke apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the CD-RO is previously stored.
While the music data is downloaded from the CD-ROM to the hard disk device 23 by the M playback device 24,
The required optical disk is set in the LD reproducing device 20. The song data downloaded to the hard disk device 23 can be given from a floppy disk by the floppy disk device 25 or from a communication line by the modem 26. When the karaoke apparatus of FIG. 1 is turned on, the operation program written in the ROM 12 is loaded into the RAM 13 and the operation is started. The CPU 1 is operated by operating the operation panel 14.
1 operates according to the operation program of the RAM 13 to execute various functions such as the above-mentioned music data playing function. The download to the hard disk device 23 described above is also executed under the control of the CPU 11 by operating the operation panel 14 while the power is on.

When a music piece to be played is specified by operating the operation panel 14, the music piece data of the specified music piece is read from the hard disk device 23 and loaded in the RAM 13.
The karaoke performance is started in accordance with this song data. When playing karaoke, musical tone information is sequentially generated in the musical tone synthesizer 15 according to the musical piece data and reproduced from the speaker 18 via the mixer 17, and the lyrics information and bar lines also included in the musical piece data are reproduced. According to the information, the character image information of the lyrics is generated from the image creating device 19 in accordance with the progress of the song, for example, in units of measures, and is displayed on the display device 22 via the image combining device 21.

At this time, according to the coloring information in the music data, the character image information of the lyrics is sequentially colored in another color through the image creating device 19 in accordance with the progress of the singing, so that the singer can easily find the place to sing. You will be instructed to understand.
Further, according to the drawing information included in the music data, image information according to the progress of the music is generated from the image creating device 19 and is superimposed on the character image information of the lyrics, and the display device via the image synthesizing device 21. 22 is displayed. In the case of a karaoke song using an optical disc, a predetermined optical disc is selected at the start of the performance, the designated portion of the optical disc is reproduced according to the drawing information in the song data, and is displayed on the display device 22 via the image synthesizing device 21. Is displayed.

Therefore, the singer is the display device 2
Sing into the microphone 16 while watching the display of 2.
The variation performance operation in this embodiment is performed as follows. In this case, the performance data, which is the main part of the music data of each music that is transferred from the hard disk device 23 to the RAM 13 in accordance with the music selection, is sequentially read, and is used for performance, is configured as follows. As shown in FIG. 3, the performance data includes a plurality of tracks TK1, TK2, T.
K3 ... is provided. Performance information is stored in the first track TK1. This performance information is data for driving the musical tone synthesizer 15 to generate a musical tone signal of accompaniment music. The second track TK2 stores at least one of drawing information for causing the image creating device 19 to generate an image signal and drawing information for instructing the LD reproducing device 20 about the video data to be read from the optical disc. The third track TK3 stores bar line information indicating the bar line number (bar line No) of the accompaniment music. The fourth track TK4 stores the lyrics information for causing the image creating device 19 to generate the character image information of the lyrics and to form the display image signal.

If the drawing information includes drawing information for causing the image creating device 19 to create an image signal, the display image signal created by the image creating device 19 includes an image based on the drawing information. Both the signal and the character image information based on the lyrics information are included. The fifth track TK5 has a display 22 according to the lyrics information.
Coloring information for coloring the character image information of the lyrics displayed in is stored. The display image signal including at least the character image information of the lyrics generated by the image creating device 19 and the video signal read by the LD reproducing device 20 are combined into a combined video signal by the image combining device 21 and displayed on the display 22. .

Each of these pieces of information is set for each event such as one sound and one image, and time information Δt indicating the elapsed time between adjacent events is inserted. For example, taking performance information as an example, a predetermined performance is performed by giving performance information that starts a certain sound with the first performance information and ends the next sound after Δt has elapsed. Figure 3
In the above, the performance information is shown as a series of information on the first track TK1, but more specifically, it is composed of performance information for each note of each musical instrument. Also, information such as the tone color of each musical instrument is appropriately included. In this case, the time information Δt may be time information that changes from time to time, but as shown in FIG. 3, with Δt set in advance based on the minimum time unit of the performance as a basic unit, the time of 2Δt is 2 times Δt. It may be expressed by inserting it continuously. In this case, the performance information includes, as shown in FIG. 4, the guitar part G1 in addition to the respective part data of the normal performance including the piano part P1, the guitar part G1, the bass part B1 and the drums part D1.
Which may be replaced by a guitar part G2 different from the guitar part G1, a bass part B2 which also corresponds to the bass part B1, a drum part D2 which also corresponds to the drum part D1, and a bass part B3 which is also different from the bass parts B1 and B2. It has each part data of the variation consisting of. Each of these part data constitutes, for example, a different data track. Guitar, bass and drums parts with variation parts are respectively the first, second and third parts.
A desired part is alternatively selected by the pointers PT1, PT2, and PT3, and only the selected part is provided for performance by the musical sound synthesizer 15. The first, second and third pointers PT1, PT2 and PT3 are operated by the variation switch 27 via the CPU 11 to selectively designate a variation used for playing.

For example, when the variation switch 27 is operated and the first pointer PT1 is switched while each part of the normal performance is being played,
The guitar performance part is switched from the guitar part G1 to the guitar part G2, and the guitar performance part is changed to the variation part. Similarly, the variation switch 27 is operated to, for example, the second pointer PT2.
Is switched, the bass playing part is switched from the bass part B1 to the bass part B2 or B3, the bass playing part is changed to a variation part, and when the third pointer PT3 is switched, the drums playing part is changed. The drum part D1 is switched to the drum part D2, and the drum performance part is changed to a variation part.

Further, while the variation part, for example, the guitar part G2 is being played, by operating the variation switch 27, for example, the first pointer PT1 is switched to return the guitar playing part to the normal playing guitar part G1. it can. Therefore, in order to facilitate the selection of the variation by the variation switch 27, the configuration of the variation may be systematized, and the variation switch 27 may be configured by a large number of switches according to the system. A plurality of parts may be switched to a variation pattern such that the guitar part changes from G1 to G2, the bass part changes from B1 to B2, and so on. Each of the above-mentioned parts does not necessarily have to form an independent track, and may have a data structure of a form that can be actually selected and used.

As described above, by operating the variation switch 27 while singing, it is possible to arbitrarily select and switch the performance parts, and it is possible to enjoy the karaoke performance with a variety of changes. The variation switch 27 may be configured by a single switch, and the variation pointer and each part data may be distinguished by the number of operations thereof. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, an angle detector 31 that is attached to the joint part of the arm and detects the bending and extending motion angle of the arm is used for selection of the variation, and at least one of the bending and extending angle of the arm and the number of bending and expanding operations is used. Alternatively, the variation pointer and each part data may be switched. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 6, a glove 42 provided with an acceleration sensor 41 at the tip of each finger.
May be used for selecting a variation, and the pointer of the variation and each part data may be distinguished by detecting the movement of the finger. Alternatively, a part may be selected according to the angle indicated by the angle detection and determined by the variation switch 27 of the microphone.

Further, based on the image information obtained by capturing an image of the singer using a camera, a specific operation such as the movement of the singer's hand is detected by image processing technology, and accordingly, the pointer of the variation and each part data are detected. May be distinguished. Further, the variation part may be prepared not for the entire song but for only a part of the song, and the variation can be selected only for that part. In this case, the existence of the variation may be displayed in some form in the prepared portion of the variation together with the lyrics information.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Performance information including a plurality of different performance patterns for the same performance part is supplied to at least a part of the performance data of the accompaniment, and the plurality of types of performance patterns are switched and selected,
The musical tone information of the accompaniment music is generated by using the musical performance data of a desired musical performance pattern of a plurality of musical performance patterns of the same part, enabling the variation of the musical performance of the karaoke piece and changing according to the intention of the singer. It is possible to provide a karaoke device capable of performing a live performance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of an embodiment of a karaoke device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view schematically showing a configuration of a microphone provided with a variation switch in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data structure of performance data of music data in the embodiment of FIG.

4 is a diagram showing a data structure of each of a normal performance part and a variation part of the performance data in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining an angle detector that can be used for variation selection according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining an acceleration sensor that can be used for variation selection according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... CPU (Central Processing Unit), 12 ... ROM (Read Only Memory), 13 ... RAM (Read / Write Memory),
14 ... Operation panel, 15 ... Tone synthesizer, 16 ... Microphone, 17 ... Mixer, 18 ... Speaker, 19 ... Computer graphics device (image creating device), 20 ... Optical disc reproducing device (LD reproducing device), 21 ... Image combining apparatus,
22 ... Display device (CRT), 23 ... Hard disk device (HDD), 24 ... CD-ROM playback device (C
D-ROM, 25 ... Floppy disk device (FD
D), 26 ... modem, 27 ... variation switch,
31 ... Angle detector, 41 ... Acceleration sensor, 42 ... Gloves.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Performance information supply means for supplying performance information in which at least a part of performance data of an accompaniment composed of a single performance part or a plurality of performance parts includes different performance patterns selectively for the same performance part. Variation selection means for switching and selecting different performance patterns for the same performance part supplied by the performance information supply means, and performance data of the performance pattern selected by the variation selection means for the same part, For other performance data, the karaoke apparatus is provided with a musical tone generating means for generating musical tone information of accompaniment music using the musical performance information supplied from the musical performance information supplying means.