JP3043591B2 - Audio recording and playback device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention comprises a data processing device such as a personal computer, and an audio compression recording / reproducing device such as an MD (Mini Disc) device, in which an audio signal is compressed and recorded in a predetermined format. The present invention relates to an audio recording / reproducing apparatus that records and reproduces an audio signal synthesized by the data processing apparatus using a recording medium such as an MD.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as one type of audio recording and reproducing apparatus,
Using a so-called mini-disc (Mini Disc: hereinafter referred to as MD) magneto-optical disc having a diameter of 64 mm, an audio signal such as music corresponding to a maximum reproduction time of about 74 minutes is recorded on the MD, An MD device that reproduces an audio signal recorded on the MD is known.

An audio MD device has a configuration shown in FIG. 7, and an audio signal inputted from an audio input / output terminal 66 is converted into a digital signal by a converter 63 capable of A / D conversion and D / A conversion. The data is converted and compressed by the compression / decompression circuit 62. Here, ATR which is a compression method of MD is used.
The data amount is compressed to about 1/5 by an AC (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding) method. The signal compressed by the compression / expansion circuit 62 is converted into a digital signal processing circuit 54
Are input to the magnetic head 65 via the head drive circuit 64 and input to the optical pickup 52 via the analog signal processing circuit 53, and are recorded on the MD 51 by the magnetic head 65 and the optical pickup 52.

In recent years, for example, personal computers (hereinafter abbreviated as personal computers) having a voice synthesizing function have been developed. This personal computer can output data as an audio signal, and this audio signal can be recorded in an MD device as an external storage device. In this case, an analog audio signal is output from the personal computer, and this signal is input to the audio input / output terminal 66 as in the case of other audio signals.

FIG. 8 shows the configuration in this case. The personal computer 71 and the MD device 72 are connected by a cable 75.
Are connected to each other, and these constitute an audio recording / reproducing device 70. The personal computer 71 includes a voice synthesizing unit 73 that converts text data into a voice signal. The voice signal generated here is output from a voice output terminal 74 as an analog signal. This audio signal is input to the audio input / output terminal 66 of the MD device 72 via the cable 75.

On the other hand, the above MD device for audio uses SC
SI (Small Computer System Interface) and IDE (Int
There is known an MD device which is provided with a data interface such as egrated Device Electronics) and can be connected to a personal computer. This device is generally called a minidisk data device. If this MD device is used, there is no need to convert a voice signal into an analog signal and output it from the personal computer to the MD device, and the voice signal can be output as a digital signal by the data interface.

The above-mentioned MD apparatus has, for example, the configuration shown in FIG. 9. A digital audio signal output from a personal computer is transferred to a compression / expansion circuit 62 through an interface section 56, and then transmitted through a path similar to that of ordinary audio recording. In MD51
Will be recorded.

The means shown in FIGS. 7 and 9 correspond to the means having the same names as shown in FIG. 2 and have the same functions as those shown in FIG.

[0009]

When the above-described MD device is used as an external storage device of a personal computer, for example, text data taken into the personal computer is converted into a voice signal and recorded on the MD device. It is required to use the portable device separately from the personal computer, and to easily check the recorded contents by voice regardless of the location. In many cases, the MD device is used for such purposes when going out or when there is a demand that another person wants to use the personal computer for other processing. It is desirable that this be done.

However, the above-described conventional configuration has a problem in that it is not possible to record an audio signal on the MD device in a short time.

That is, when an analog audio signal is recorded by an MD device, the audio signal to be recorded is transmitted from a personal computer as a real-time signal, and sampling is performed by a converter 63. Due to the compression, the recording of data on the MD 51 after compression becomes intermittent recording as shown in FIG. For this reason, although the recording of each data itself is performed at a sufficiently high speed as compared with the compression of the data,
The time required for recording the entire audio signal cannot be reduced.

That is, for example, an analog signal input from a personal computer from time t ₁ to time t ₂ is A / D converted and compressed from time t ₂ to time t ₃ , for example. Data after this that has been compressed, from the time t ₃ MD5
1 and the recording is completed in a relatively short time. However, this of the next data recording is started, next from the time t ₄ when corresponding to the time at which the compression of the data is completed, the data recording is time t ₅ is to exit.

Further, in the recording by the mini disk data device, the compression time in the compression / expansion circuit 62 does not change even if the transfer between the personal computer and the mini disk data device is performed at high speed. Therefore, conversely, the time between signal transfer operations of each unit, that is, the time during which transfer is not performed, becomes longer, and similarly, the recording time cannot be shortened.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-176431 discloses an MD device for recording a digital audio signal transmitted from a computer without compression. However, in the configuration in which the compression of the signal is simply omitted, the amount of recordable information is reduced, and the feature of the MD apparatus is that a large amount of information is recorded on the small-diameter MD by compressing and recording the signal. Can not take advantage of.

[0015]

[0016]

Means for Solving the Problems To solve the above problems,
For this purpose, the audio recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a data processing device for generating an audio signal, a conversion unit for converting the audio signal from analog to digital, and a first compression unit for compressing the audio signal into a predetermined form. And an audio compression recording / reproducing device for recording the audio signal processed by these units on a recording medium, wherein the data processing device compresses the generated audio signal. The audio compression recording / reproducing device is configured to process the audio signal processed by the second compression unit and transmitted from the data processing device by the first compression unit, and then to the recording medium. It is characterized by recording.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a voice recording / reproducing apparatus for generating a voice signal from character data, a voice signal from a device other than the data processing device, and a voice signal from the data processing device. It has a conversion unit that can be input and converts these audio signals from analog to digital, and a compression unit that compresses the audio signal processed by the conversion unit into a predetermined form. In the audio recording / reproducing device including an audio compression recording / reproducing device for recording on a recording medium, the conversion unit is configured to receive an audio signal input from the data processing device and input the audio signal from a device other than the data processing device. It is characterized in that sampling is performed at a sampling frequency lower than that of an audio signal.

[0018]

[0019]

[0020]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the audio signal generated by the data processing device is transmitted to the audio compression recording / reproducing device after being compressed by the second compression unit. Thereby, the audio signal is transmitted as a compressed digital signal from the data processing device to the audio compression recording / reproducing device, so that the transmission time can be reduced.

The audio signal input to the audio compression recording / reproducing apparatus is further compressed to a predetermined form by the first compression section, and then recorded on a recording medium. In this case, the first
The compression operation in the compression unit is performed at high speed because the audio signal is compressed in advance by the second compression unit and the data amount is reduced. Therefore, after the audio signal is transmitted from the data processing device, processing until the audio signal is recorded on the recording medium of the audio compression recording / reproducing device can be performed at high speed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the analog audio signal generated by the data processing device and transmitted to the audio compression / recording / reproducing device is subjected to analog / digital conversion by the conversion unit, and is converted into a predetermined form by the compression unit. After being compressed, it is recorded on a recording medium. In this case, the conversion unit samples the audio signal input from the data processing device at a lower sampling frequency than the audio signal input from a device other than the data processing device. Therefore, the data amount of the audio signal input from the data processing device is reduced, and the audio signal can be compressed by the compression unit at a high speed. Thus, after the audio signal is transmitted from the data processing device, processing until the audio signal is recorded on the recording medium of the audio compression recording / reproducing device can be performed at high speed.

[0023]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, a premise of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, the audio recording / reproducing apparatus in the present premise example includes a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as a personal computer) 1 as a data processing apparatus and an MD as a magneto-optical recording medium.
(Mini Disc) and an MD device 2 as an audio compression recording / reproducing device. As will be described later in detail, the MD device 2 can perform recording / reproduction on an MD as a data disk for recording data such as texts and numerical values.

The personal computer 1 includes software for processing data such as text and numerical values, software for performing voice synthesis from text data, and software (device driver) for controlling and managing the MD device 2. Is installed. Using these software, for example, when an e-mail is received but there is no time to display it on the screen and confirm it, if the text of this e-mail is converted into voice by voice synthesis and recorded on the MD Since the MD device 2 is a portable device, the content of the e-mail can be confirmed later regardless of the location.

The connection between the personal computer 1 and the MD device 2 is through a well-known interface such as IDE or SCSI. Hereinafter, a configuration employing SCSI as the interface will be described. That is,
The personal computer 1 and the MD device 2 include interface units 3 and 4 each including an interface board on which a SCSI controller chip provided as an IC or an LSI is mounted. Connectors 5 and 6 provided on each interface board are provided. Cable 7
, Data can be transmitted and received between the personal computer 1 and the MD device 2.

First, the schematic configuration of the personal computer 1 will be described. The personal computer 1 has a CPU as hardware.
Also, the CPU is provided with a main memory which is a RAM used for a purpose such as a work memory, a hard disk drive for recording various programs and data, and the like. In addition, as described above, the MD device 2 of the premise example
It has an interface unit 3 for inputting and outputting data to and from an external device such as the above.

As software, for example, MS
An OS (Operating System) such as DOS is installed. Examples of application programs that operate under the control of the OS include a document editing program for editing text data, a calculation program for performing numerical calculations, and the like. And a speech synthesis program for converting text data into speech. This speech synthesis program constitutes the speech synthesis unit 9. Further, a data compression unit 10 as a second compression unit, which will be described later, for compressing digital data is provided.

Next, an outline of the configuration and operation of the MD device 2 will be described. The MD device 2 of this premise example has almost the same outer shape as a well-known audio MD device, and receives analog signals such as audio signals as terminals for input / output with external devices as shown in FIG. An audio input / output terminal 26 for output and an interface unit 4 and a connector 6 for transmitting and receiving digital signals to and from the personal computer 1 as described above are provided. The data received via the interface unit 4 and the connector 6 is recorded on an MD (not shown).
Recording / reproducing unit 8 for reading and reproducing data from
It has.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system of the MD device 2. As shown in FIG.
The optical pickup 12 irradiates a laser beam to the MD 11, an analog signal processing circuit 13, and a digital signal processing circuit 14 as the recording / reproducing unit 8 that performs recording / reproduction on the MD 11 mounted as a recording medium. A system control microcomputer 17, a servo circuit 18, a mechanical unit 19 including a motor drive circuit, and an optical pickup 12
, A spindle motor 21 for rotationally driving the MD 11, and a compression / expansion circuit 2 as a first compression unit for compressing and expanding digital data.
2, a converter 23 as a conversion unit for performing A / D conversion and D / A conversion, a magnetic head 25 for applying a magnetic field when performing magneto-optical recording on the MD 11, and drive control of the magnetic head 25. A head drive circuit 24 is provided. The buffer memory 15 and the interface unit 16 constitute the interface unit 4 shown in FIG.

The operation of each unit of the MD device 2 is controlled based on a control signal output from the system control microcomputer 17. Here, the operation of each unit when reproducing a signal recorded on the MD 11 will be described below. Note that signals are recorded on the MD 11 in a state of being compressed by the ATRAC method.

In the above configuration, when reproducing a signal recorded in the MD 11, an operator inputs a reproduction instruction from an operation panel (not shown) provided in the main body of the MD device 2 or the personal computer 1. When the reproduction instruction is input to the system control microcomputer 17, the motor drive circuit of the mechanical section 19 outputs a control signal to each motor based on the control of the system control microcomputer 17, whereby the feed motor 20 and the spindle The motor 21 is driven. The spindle motor 21 drives the MD 11 to rotate, and the feed motor 20 drives the optical pickup 12 in the radial direction of the MD 11. At this time, the optical pickup 12 irradiates the MD 11 with a laser beam and receives the reflected light, thereby obtaining the MD.
The signal recorded in 11 is read.

With this optical pickup 12, the MD1
The signal recorded in 1 is read as an analog signal. The read signal is supplied to the analog signal processing circuit 1
The signal is sent to the digital signal processing circuit 14 and amplified. At the same time, the analog signal processing circuit 13 generates a servo control signal such as a focus error signal or a tracking error signal from the signal read by the optical pickup 12 and outputs the servo control signal to the servo circuit 18. The servo circuit 18 outputs a feedback signal for performing focus control, tracking control, and spin control to the mechanical unit 19 based on the servo control signal and a control signal from the system control microcomputer 17.

The analog signal output to the digital signal processing circuit 14 is demodulated into a digital signal by A / D conversion, and further subjected to processing such as error correction. Thereafter, if the reproduction instruction is an audio reproduction instruction, the digital signal is supplied to the digital signal processing circuit 1 based on the control of the system control microcomputer 17.
4 is output to the compression / expansion circuit 22. On the other hand, if the reproduction instruction is an instruction to output a reproduction signal to the personal computer 1, the digital signal is controlled based on the control of the system control microcomputer 17 as described above. The signal is output from the digital signal processing circuit 14 to the interface unit 16.

When the reproduction instruction is an audio reproduction instruction, the digital signal output to the compression / expansion circuit 22 is compressed by the ATRAC method as described above. After being decompressed at 22, the signal is output to the converter 23 and converted into an audio signal which is an analog signal. The audio signal is output from the audio input / output terminal 26 to a speaker or the like via, for example, an amplifier, whereby the reproduction process of the audio signal recorded on the MD 11 is completed.

Alternatively, as described above, when the reproduction instruction is an instruction to output a reproduction signal to the personal computer 1, the digital signal output from the digital signal processing circuit 14 to the interface 16 is At 16, the data is converted into a predetermined data format specified by the data interface while being compressed by the ATRAC method, and transmitted to the personal computer 1 via the cable 7. Thereby, the reproduction of the signal from the MD 11 and the transmission processing to the personal computer 1 are completed.

Next, the recording process on the MD 11 will be described. The audio signal to be recorded is sent to the audio input / output terminal 26.
The input audio signal is sampled at a sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz in the converter 23 and is converted into a digital signal. The digital signal is compressed by the ATRAC method in the compression / expansion circuit 22 and then output to the digital signal processing circuit 14.

The digital signal processing circuit 14 applies EFM (Eight to Fourt) to the compressed digital signal.
een Modulation), and by adding CIRC (Cross Interleave Reed-solomon Code) as an error correction code, record data in a format suitable for recording on the MD 11 is generated.

Subsequently, the system control microcomputer 1
7, the MD 11 is irradiated with laser light from the optical pickup 2 and the head drive circuit 24
Drives the magnetic head 25 and applies a magnetic field modulated based on the recording data to the MD 11,
The above recording data is magneto-optically recorded on the MD 11.

Next, processing for recording data such as texts and numerical values created by the personal computer 1 will be described. In this case, the data is processed as digital data inside the personal computer 1, and in the above-described SCSI interface board of the personal computer 1,
More precisely, in the SCSI controller chip mounted on the interface board, after being divided into transmission units in accordance with the SCSI standard and adding various transmission control bits and the like, the MD device 2 is connected via the cable 7. Sent to

The interface unit 16 of the MD device 2
Receives the digital data sent from the personal computer 1 as described above, removes the transmission control bits and the like, restores the original data, and outputs the data to the digital signal processing circuit 14. Thereafter, the digital signal processing circuit 14
The processing up to the digital data output to the MD 11 being magneto-optically recorded on the MD 11 is the same as described above, and therefore the description is omitted.

Next, a description will be given of a process in which a voice synthesized by the data compression section 10 of the personal computer 1 based on text data is recorded in the MD 11.

The data compression section 10 receives text data and first divides the text data into words. Next, the data compression unit 10 obtains a pronunciation of each word using a built-in dictionary. Further, each sound included in the pronunciation is replaced with an audio signal stored in advance corresponding to, for example, each of the 50 sounds, and if necessary, the audio signal is processed so as to be a smoother audio. For words that are used relatively frequently, voice signals corresponding to the words themselves are stored in advance.

The audio signal synthesized in this way is a digital signal and is temporarily stored in the memory of the personal computer 1. When the operator gives an instruction to output this audio signal from a speaker in order to confirm it by ear, the audio signal is converted into an analog signal by D / A conversion,
Speakers built into the PC 1 via an amplifier, etc.
Alternatively, it is output to a speaker as an external device.

Further, the operator converts the above-mentioned audio signal into an MD.
When the apparatus 2 instructs to record on the MD 11, first, the above audio signal is taken out of the above memory, and the data compression unit 10 of the personal computer 1 uses the ATRA.
It is compressed by the C method. The compressed data is represented by S
In the CSI controller chip, the data is divided into transmission units in accordance with the SCSI standard, and various transmission control bits and the like are added.
Sent to

On the MD device 2 side, the data transmitted from the personal computer 1 is received by the interface unit 16 as described above, and is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 15. Further, the interface unit 16 sequentially retrieves the data from the buffer memory 15 and performs processing such as removing transmission control bits and the like added for transmission, thereby restoring the audio signal to a state before transmission. And outputs it to the digital signal processing circuit 14. At this time, the audio signal remains compressed by the ATRAC method.

Thereafter, the system control microcomputer 1
Under the control of 7, the optical pickup 12 irradiates the MD 11 with laser light, and the head drive circuit 24 controls the magnetic head 25 so as to apply a magnetic field modulated on the basis of the audio signal to the MD 11. The audio signal is magneto-optically recorded on the MD 11.

FIG. 3 is a time chart when an audio signal input from the personal computer 1 is recorded in a compressed state. As shown in FIG. 1, an audio signal is intermittently input from the personal computer 1 after being divided into a predetermined data length.
Since this audio signal has already been compressed on the personal computer 1 side, recording can be performed in a state almost similar to continuous recording, and high-speed recording becomes possible.

As described above, the audio recording / reproducing apparatus of the present embodiment converts the audio signal synthesized by the personal computer 1 into
In this configuration, the data is compressed by the ATRAC method so as to be in a form suitable for MD recording, and then transmitted to the MD device 2 side. That is, since the audio signal is transmitted in the form of a compressed digital signal, the data transmission time between the personal computer 1 and the MD device 2 is reduced, and the time required for compression on the MD device 2 side is reduced. Therefore, high-speed recording of an audio signal becomes possible. Further, since the data amount is reduced by the compression, the storage capacity of the buffer memory 15 provided corresponding to the interface unit 16 of the MD device 2 can be reduced.

Further, for example, another configuration is conceivable in which an audio signal digitized by A / D conversion is transmitted to the MD device without compression, and the MD device compresses the audio signal before recording. However, in such a configuration, it is necessary to newly provide a dedicated terminal for inputting a digital audio signal in the MD device, whereas in the configuration described in the premise example , the audio signal and the personal computer 1 Can be transmitted to the MD device 2 via a single signal line that is compatible with the above-described interface, so that there is an advantage that it is not necessary to newly provide the dedicated terminal described above.

Further, in the above another configuration, it is necessary to newly provide a compression processing circuit, a memory, and the like for compressing the input digital audio signal on the MD device side. It can be said that the configuration of the present premise is superior also in cost.

In this example , an example is described in which SCSI is used as an interface for inputting and outputting data between the personal computer 1 and the MD device 2. However, various other interfaces can be applied. It is. Furthermore, in the above-described premise example , an example has been described in which the data compression unit 10 made of software mounted on the personal computer 1 performs speech synthesis from text data and compresses a synthesized speech signal. This can be replaced by hardware such as an LSI that realizes these functions.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described below based on In addition, for convenience of explanation,
Means having the same functions as the means shown in the drawings of the premise example are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

The basic configuration of the audio recording / reproducing apparatus according to this embodiment is as shown in FIG. 4, and the personal computer 1 has a data compression section 31 in place of the data compression section 10. The data compression section 31 compresses the data amount of the audio signal generated by the audio synthesis section 9. In other words, the data compression unit 31 has the number of bits of the audio signal generated by the audio synthesis unit 9 of about 1 which is almost equal to that of a CD (compact disk)
In the case of 6 bits, the audio signal is compressed by reducing this to 8 bits which is almost the same as that of a cassette tape. As this method, for example, a process of thinning out the audio signal or a process of narrowing the frequency band of the audio signal can be adopted. Thereby, the data amount of the audio signal is reduced.

The MD device 2 compresses a digital audio signal input through the interface unit 16 by the data compression unit 32 and outputs the compressed signal to the recording / playback unit 8. The data compression section 32 corresponds to the compression / expansion circuit 22 shown in FIG. 5, and compresses a signal by the ATRAC method. That is, in the present embodiment, the MD device 2
The digital audio signal input from the personal computer 1 to the interface unit 16 is compressed by the compression / expansion circuit 22 and then sent to the digital signal processing circuit 14.

In the above configuration, when recording the audio signal generated by the personal computer 1 in the MD device 2, first, a digital audio signal is generated by the data compression unit 31 of the personal computer 1 as described above. This signal is temporarily stored in a memory in the personal computer 1.

Next, the audio signal is taken out of the above-mentioned memory and is compressed by the data compression unit 31 mounted on the personal computer 1. This compression is processing for reducing the number of bits of the audio signal by half. The compressed data is divided into transmission units in the above-mentioned SCSI controller chip in accordance with the SCSI standard, and various transmission control bits and the like are added to the compressed data and transmitted to the MD device 2 via the cable 7. .

On the MD device 2 side, the data transmitted from the personal computer 1 is received by the interface unit 16 as described above, and is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 15. Further, the interface unit 16 includes the buffer memory 1
5 are sequentially taken out, restored to the state before transmission, and output to the compression / decompression circuit 22. Compression / expansion circuit 22
Then, the input audio signal is subjected to predetermined compression by the ATRAC method, and is output to the digital signal processing circuit 14. Thereafter, under the control of the system control microcomputer 17, an audio signal is recorded on the MD 11 by the optical pickup 12 and the magnetic head 25.

FIG. 6 is a time chart when the audio signal input from the personal computer 1 in a compressed state is recorded on the MD 11. As shown in FIG. 1, an audio signal is intermittently input from the personal computer 1 after being divided into a predetermined data length. Since this audio signal has been compressed on the personal computer 1 side and the data amount is small, the compression by the compression / expansion circuit 22 can be performed in a short time. Therefore, M
The non-recording time when recording the audio signal of each unit (one cluster) in D11 is shortened, and recording can be performed in a state almost similar to continuous recording. This enables high-speed recording.

As described above, in the audio recording / reproducing apparatus of the present embodiment, high-speed recording is enabled by compressing the audio signal in advance before the MD apparatus 2 compresses the audio signal according to the ATRAC method. ing. Therefore, the present apparatus is suitable for a case where high-speed recording is required, although the sound quality is reduced to the extent that it can be heard. Further, in practice, the voice synthesis performed by the personal computer 1 to generate a voice signal is based on the reading of text data or the like, so that the processing by the present apparatus may have a problem with sound quality as long as listening is possible. Not something.

Further, since the data amount is reduced by the compression, the storage capacity of the buffer memory 15 provided corresponding to the interface unit 16 of the MD device 2 can be reduced as in the case of the premise example. is there.

On the other hand, the processing for recording the audio signal on the MD 11 and the processing for reproducing the audio signal from the MD 11 are the same as those described in the premise example . When recording a signal other than the audio signal transmitted from the personal computer 1,
An input signal from the personal computer 1 to the interface unit 16 is input to the digital signal processing circuit 14 without passing through the compression / expansion circuit 22, and thereafter, is recorded on the MD 11 in the same manner as other signals.

In this embodiment, the compression processing of the audio signal is performed by the data compression section 31 of the personal computer 1. However, if the compression in the compression / expansion circuit 22 of the MD device 2 can be performed in a short time, the MD 11
The data compression unit 31 is not limited to the personal computer 1, and the data compression unit 31
It may be provided at a stage preceding the compression / expansion circuit 22 in the signal transmission path to the compression / expansion circuit 22 of the D device 2.

In this embodiment, when a digital audio signal is transmitted from the personal computer 1 to the MD device 2,
The audio signal is precompressed in the stage preceding the compression / expansion circuit 22.
The present invention can also be applied to a case where an analog audio signal is transmitted. For example, when the converter 23 performs A / D conversion on an analog audio signal of the personal computer 1 input to the converter 23 of the MD device 2 through the audio input / output terminal 26, the sampling frequency is changed from a normal 44.1 kHz to, for example, half. Of 22.05 kHz. In such a configuration, the data amount of the audio signal is reduced,
Can be performed at high speed. That is, if the compression can be performed at a high speed, the transfer speed of the signal from the personal computer 1 to the MD device 2 can be set accordingly, and as a result, the recording speed to the MD 11 can be increased.

[0064]

[0065]

[0066]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an audio recording / reproducing apparatus.
The data processing device is provided with a second compression unit for compressing the generated audio signal, and the audio compression recording / reproducing device converts the audio signal processed by the second compression unit and transmitted from the data processing device into a first compression signal. After processing by the unit, the data is recorded on a recording medium.

Thus, the transmission time of the audio signal between the data processing device and the audio recording / reproducing device can be reduced. Further, the processing time in the first compression unit can be reduced. Therefore, after the audio signal is transmitted from the data processing device, it is possible to perform processing until the audio signal is recorded on the recording medium of the audio compression recording / reproducing device at a high speed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the audio recording / reproducing apparatus, the conversion section of the audio compression / recording / reproducing apparatus is adapted so that the audio signal inputted from the data processing apparatus is replaced with the audio signal inputted from other than the data processing apparatus. In this configuration, sampling is performed at a lower sampling frequency.

As a result, since the data amount of the audio signal input from the data processing device is reduced, the processing of the audio signal by the compression unit can be performed at a high speed. Therefore, after the audio signal is transmitted from the data processing device, it is possible to perform processing until the audio signal is recorded on the recording medium of the audio compression recording / reproducing device at a high speed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an audio recording / reproducing apparatus according to a premise of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system of an MD device of the audio recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a time chart showing an audio signal recording operation performed by the MD device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an audio recording / reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a control system of an MD device of the audio recording / reproducing device illustrated in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a time chart showing an audio signal recording operation performed by the MD device shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system of an MD device provided in a conventional audio recording / reproducing device.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional audio recording / reproducing apparatus including the MD device.

9 is a block diagram showing another example of the schematic configuration of the control system of the MD device shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a time chart showing a recording operation of an audio signal performed by an MD device in a conventional audio recording and reproducing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 personal computer (data processing device) 2 MD device (audio compression recording / reproducing device) 9 audio synthesis unit 10 data compression unit (second compression unit) 11 MD (recording medium) 16 interface unit 22 compression / expansion circuit (first compression unit) ) 23 converter (conversion unit) 31 data compression unit (second compression unit)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A data processing device for generating an audio signal, a conversion unit for converting the audio signal from analog to digital, and a first compression unit for compressing the audio signal into a predetermined form. And an audio compression recording / reproducing apparatus for recording the audio signal in the recording medium on the recording medium, wherein the data processing apparatus compresses the generated audio signal.
The audio compression recording and reproducing apparatus
Is processed by the second compression unit and transmitted from the data processing device.
An audio recording / reproducing apparatus , wherein a received audio signal is processed by a first compression unit and then recorded on a recording medium. 2. A data processing device for generating an audio signal from character data, an audio signal from a device other than the data processing device, and
A conversion unit that can input an audio signal from a data processing device, converts the audio signal from analog to digital, and
An audio recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: a compression section for compressing the audio signal processed by the conversion section into a predetermined form; and an audio compression recording / reproducing apparatus for recording the audio signal processed by the compression section on a recording medium. In the device, the conversion unit may include a sound input from the data processing device.
For voice signals, input from other than the above data processing device
Sample at a lower sampling frequency than the audio signal
An audio recording / reproducing apparatus for performing recording.