JPH08234775A - Music reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide the music reproducing device which can properly perform fading operation and scrolling operation for text characters even when the tempo of the music is changed. CONSTITUTION: To text character information, information on a MIDI clock converted time required from the start to the end of the fading of text characters or information on a MIDI clock converted time required from the start to the end of the scrolling of the text characters is added, and this device is equipped with a counting part 4 which counts a MIDI clock and a fading quantity and scrolling quantity determination part 5 which determines a fading quantity or scrolling quantity per unit MIDI clock on the basis of the counted value of the counting part 4 and the MIDI clock converted time information; and the fading operation or scrolling operation is performed in synchronism with the MIDI clock.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a music reproducing device such as a karaoke playing device, and more particularly to a music reproducing device with improved fade operation and scroll operation of lyrics characters.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a music reproducing device such as a karaoke playing device installed in a restaurant or a home, accompaniment music information, background image information and lyric character information of a desired music are stored in a storage medium such as a laser disk. It is stored in advance. When the user selects a desired music piece, the background image is projected in accordance with the accompaniment sound to be reproduced, and at the same time, the lyrics characters are displayed on the image, and the color of the lyrics characters is accompanied so that the user can easily sing. It is widely known that it is adapted to change according to. In such a karaoke playing device, music other than those stored in the laser disk cannot be used, and not only music that is frequently used but also music that is rarely used are prepared. In that case, the cost associated therewith becomes enormous, which is not realistic.

Further, even when a new song appears and it is desired to sing the song with an accompaniment of a karaoke playing device, the new song is cut as a laser disk for the karaoke playing device and sings until it is commercially available. You can't do that, and you have to wait, for example, months before you can use it. Therefore, as a means for solving these problems at once, a communication karaoke device has been recently developed. In this online karaoke device, the information center has a database with information on many types of songs that have already been released as well as on various types of songs that are successively announced, and the ones selected from this are distributed to individual users via telephone lines as needed. However, the user selects and uses from the delivered music. This communication karaoke device is equipped with a non-storage type device in which information about a selected song is distributed from the center side each time the user selects a song, and a storage medium with a large capacity such as a hard disk. There is a storage-type device in which information about frequently used music is stored and a desired music is selected from the stored data and used. This storage type device tends to be widely used because the cost of the communication line is smaller than that of the non-storage type device.

The data in the storage medium of this storage-type device can be updated every day or when necessary when the usage rate of the telephone line is low, such as at night, and distributed early. By the way, performances such as sound quality of electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers and electronic pianos have been remarkably improved due to technological progress, and the information driving them is MIDI (Musical Instrument) specified for transmission of music information.
It is transmitted according to the Digital Interface standard. Here, MIDI refers to a standard of hardware and software defined to enable information exchange by connecting a sound source such as a musical instrument such as a synthesizer or an electronic piano.

By using this MIDI standard, it becomes possible to efficiently transmit an electronic musical instrument control signal. Further, other information not belonging to the MIDI standard, for example, lyrics character information and still image information is transmitted by a signal by a reversible arithmetic compression method, and chorus information is PCM (Pulse C
mode modulation) signal and MPEG (Mo
Ving Picture Image Cordin
g ExpertsGroup) signal. The information stored in the storage device of the karaoke playing device is read and played according to the user's selection of music, and the user refers to the lyrics characters displayed on the display in accordance with the accompaniment music to be played. While singing.

[0006]

By the way, in this type of karaoke device, when the lyrics characters are displayed on the display, they are not simply displayed but faded to the lyrics characters in order to enhance the visual effect. There is a case where an operation for displaying or erasing by applying (fade-in / fade-out operation) or a scroll operation for gradually displaying lyrics characters from the bottom of the screen is performed. The state of the screen during the fade operation and the scroll operation will be specifically described. 7 shows the state of the screen during the fade operation, and FIG. 8 shows the state of the screen during the scroll operation. In the illustrated example, the lyric characters "A", "I", and "U" are shown on the screen of the display.
As shown in (A) to FIG. 7 (B) and FIG. 7 (C), the letters “a”, “i”, and “u” are gradually and clearly displayed over time. In addition, the numbers below indicate% of the display level. Further, at the time of fading out, the display shifts from FIG. 7 (C) to FIG. 7 (A), and the display proceeds in the opposite direction.

In the case of scrolling, the display shifts from FIG. 8 (A) to FIG. 8 (C), and "A", "I", and "U" are displayed.
The character of gradually moves upward from below the pixel and stops at a fixed position (see FIG. 8C). Such a fade operation or scroll operation is designed to be completed over a predetermined time after the start of fade or scroll, and the time required for completion is not a special time in the device. , A general time, for example, "how many seconds to complete the operation".

However, in a general karaoke playing device, the tempo of the music is adjusted to ±± according to the user's preference.
It can be changed within the range of about 8%, but when the tempo of the song is accelerated, for example, the fade-in is completed by the method of setting the time required for the fade operation and scroll operation as described above. There was a problem that the lyric characters disappeared before moving on or before the scroll operation was completed, and the screen moved to the next screen. The state at this time is shown in FIG. This figure shows the fade amount (solid line) from fade-in to fade-out, and the fade-in operation is completed during time t1, but as a result of accelerating the tempo of the song, Images were switched before the fade-in was completed as indicated by the dashed arrow.

The present invention focuses on the above problems,
The present invention has been devised to effectively solve this problem, and an object thereof is to provide a music reproducing device capable of appropriately performing a fade operation and a scroll operation of a lyric character even if the tempo of the music is changed.

[0010]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a MIDI information storage unit for storing accompaniment music information according to the MIDI standard, a lyrics character information storage unit for storing lyrics character information, A control unit that reads information from the two storage units and forms a MIDI clock based on the MIDI information, a MIDI reproduction unit that reproduces the read MIDI information, and a fade of the read lyrics character information. In a music reproducing device having a lyrics character reproducing unit for reproducing while scrolling or scrolling, the lyrics character information is MIDI clock conversion time information required from start to completion of the lyrics character fade and / or lyrics characters. Is added with MIDI clock conversion time information required from the start of scrolling to the completion of the above. Counting unit for counting the lock,
A fade amount / scroll amount determining unit that determines a fade amount and / or a scroll amount per unit MIDI clock based on the count value of the counting unit and the MIDI clock conversion time information is configured. .

[0011]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, when performing a fade operation, the MIDI clock conversion time information from the start to the completion of the fade operation is added to the lyrics character information. When a scroll operation is performed, MIDI clock conversion time information from the start to the completion is added. Therefore, when reproducing the MIDI information and the lyric character information, the counting unit counts the MIDI clock when the fade operation or the scroll operation is started, and the fade amount / scroll amount determining unit determines the count value and the previous MIDI clock operation information. Based on and, the fade amount and scroll amount at that time are determined, and each operation is controlled based on that.

Since the MIDI clock is formed in the control unit so that it becomes faster when the tempo of the music becomes faster, and conversely, when the tempo becomes slower, it becomes slower accordingly. The fade amount and the scroll amount are appropriately controlled according to the tempo of the music and reproduced by the lyrics character reproducing unit.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a music reproducing device according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a music reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a concrete block configuration diagram showing a music reproducing apparatus conforming to the MIDI standard to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 3 is shown in FIG. It is a block block diagram mainly showing the reproducing means of an apparatus.

First, in FIG. 1, the MIDI information storage unit 1
Stores accompaniment music information according to the MIDI standard. The MIDI information includes music tempo information, and the control section analyzes the tempo information to obtain accompaniment music information, as well as a predetermined speed, for example, a quarter note length. The MIDI clock is set so as to count 24 times. Therefore, if the user speeds up the tempo of the music, the MIDI clock speeds up accordingly, and if the tempo is slowed down, it also slows down.

The lyric character information storage unit 2 stores lyric characters to be sung when playing the accompaniment music. Information that is a feature of the present invention is added to the lyrics character information. That is, when performing a fade operation, MIDI clock conversion time information required from the start of fade-in or the start of fade-out to completion is added,
Further, when a scroll operation is performed, time information equivalent to a MIDI clock required from the start of scrolling to the completion is added. The control unit 3 reads information from the two storage units 1 and 2 and outputs M information based on the MIDI information.
Generate the IDI clock. The counting unit 4 starts the fade operation or the scroll operation with the MID as the starting point.
Count the I clock.

The fading amount / scrolling amount determining unit 5 which is a feature of the present invention is provided with the count value of the counting unit 4 and MIDI.
The fade amount or scroll amount per unit MIDI clock is determined based on the clock conversion time, and based on this, the lyrics character reproducing unit (lyric character video signal forming unit) 6
A reproduced signal is formed at. Therefore, on the display 7, the lyrics characters faded or scrolled at an appropriate speed that follows the tempo of the song are displayed. The MIDI reproduction unit 8 reproduces a signal for accompaniment music based on the MIDI information analyzed by the control unit 3, and this signal is mixed with an audio signal from the microphone 9 and output as sound from the speaker 10. Will be done. Now, a music reproducing device to which such a basic structure is specifically applied will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, the overall structure of the music reproducing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. The information center 12 that provides information required by the music reproducing device 11 such as a storage-type karaoke playing device, accompaniment music information about a large number of songs, lyric character information, chorus information when chorus is added, It has a large-capacity storage medium 13 in which still image information is accumulated, and each music piece is made into a database. The accompaniment music information is information for driving the electronic musical instrument,
It is formatted according to the I standard.

The center controller 14 controls the information center 12
Is managed by the interface 15 via the public telephone line 16 to the predetermined music reproducing device 11 as necessary. The information center 12 manages a plurality of music reproducing devices, and one of them is shown in the illustrated example. The information distributed from the information center 12 is taken into the device via the interface 17 on the music reproducing device 11 side. The control means 18 is composed of, for example, a microcomputer and controls the operation of the music reproducing apparatus as a whole. In the present invention, the control means 18 has, in addition to the control unit 3, the counting unit 4 and the fade amount / scroll amount determining unit 5 which are the features of the present invention described above. As described above, the feature of the present invention is that the time from the start of the fade operation and the scroll operation to the completion thereof is MI.
The point is that the fade amount / scroll amount determination unit 5 determines the operation amount per unit MIDI clock based on the DI clock conversion time information.

The main storage means 19 is a storage medium for storing information about a large number of music pieces distributed from the information center 2, that is, MIDI information, lyric character information, chorus information, still image information, etc., and a large amount of data. Is stored, the storage medium is inexpensive and has a large storage capacity, such as a hard disk. The moving picture information storage means 20 is composed of, for example, a large number of laser discs and the like, and a large number of moving pictures are stored in advance therein.
It is read out as necessary in correspondence with the music types such as folk and pops. The input unit 21 including a keyboard and a remote controller is used by the user to input information for selecting a song and setting the tempo (speed) of the song, and has an operation button 22 and the like for that purpose.

The reproducing means 23 reads the MID read by the control means 18 based on the music selection information from the input means 21.
The I information, the chorus information, and the lyric character information are reproduced, and the reproduced accompaniment music and chorus are mixed with the singing voice input from the microphone 9 by the mixer means 24 and output as sound by the speaker 10. Will be. Further, the mixer means 24 has a built-in amplifier for amplifying the input signal. Simultaneously with the reproduction of the selected music piece, the moving image information selected according to the type of the music piece is read from the moving image information storage means 20 via the control means 18, and is displayed on the display 7 while the reproducing means is being displayed. The lyric character information reproduced at 23 is superimposed and displayed in a superimposed manner.
The moving image information storage means 20 is constructed in a stand-alone system and can operate independently.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, a specific structure mainly including the reproducing means 23 in FIG. 2 will be described. First, the reproduction means 23 is connected to the control means 18 by the bus 2
5, the bus 25 has, for example, a playback D as a storage means for high-speed access in which writing and reading operations are fast.
RAM (Dynamic Random Access)
Memory) 26 is connected.

This reproducing DRAM 26 is provided in the main storage means 1.
The information relating to the selected music read out from No. 9 is temporarily stored except for the still image information.
Inside this, a lyric character area 2 for storing lyric character information and a MIDI for storing MIDI information (accompaniment music information)
Area 1, chorus area 29 that stores chorus information
And the external character font area, etc. are secured. here,
MIDI area 1 and lyric character area 2 are M in FIG.
It corresponds to the IDI information storage unit 1 and the lyrics character information storage unit 2, respectively. Although the above areas are secured in one reproducing DRAM 26, the reproducing D is provided for each area.
RAM may be provided, one D for each appropriate number of areas
A RAM may be provided.

The main font storage means 30 is a medium for fixedly storing font information of a main language or a language with a small number of characters, and is composed of, for example, a ROM, in which font information is stored in advance. Then, the font information corresponding to the lyrics character to be displayed is extracted.
As the font information stored here, not only Japanese, which is frequently used, but also English, French, Hangul characters and the like, which have a small number of characters, are stored.

The font expansion unit 31 expands the information extracted from the main font storage means 30 and converts it into dot information, for example, OFG (Outline).
Font Generator).
The lyric character video signal forming unit 6 as the lyric character reproducing unit shown in FIG. 1 is a unit that forms an actual video signal based on the dot information formed by the font expanding unit 31. The forming unit 6 is a VD for lyrics characters
P (Video Display Processor)
32, and a lyrics character video RAM 33 for temporarily storing the video signal formed here. This video RAM 33 has a capacity capable of storing lyrics characters corresponding to a plurality of screens, for example, four screens in consideration of the time required to reproduce the lyrics characters, and sequentially outputs the accumulated information as a video signal. There is.

The still picture video signal forming section 34 is a section for forming a video signal for a still picture. The video signal forming section 34 directly takes in the still picture information read from the main storage means 19. VDP (Video Display Process) for still image forming a video signal
or) 35 and a still image video RAM 36 for temporarily storing the video signal formed here. The video RAM 36 has a portion for storing a title for the back screen and the like in addition to a portion for storing a still image for the front screen, and has a storage capacity for two screens, for example.

The mixing means 37 is a video signal sent from the lyrics character video signal forming section 6 and a video signal sent from the still picture video signal forming section 34 or a video sent from the moving picture information accumulating means 20. The signals are selected and superimposed and output, whereby a still image or a moving image and lyric characters are superimposed and displayed on the display 7. At this time, a fade operation or a scroll operation is added to the lyric character as needed.

MID corresponding to the MIDI reproducing section in FIG.
The I reproduction section 8 has a sound source such as a synthesizer, and
Based on the MIDI information read from the DI area 1, electronic sounds are sequentially synthesized and reproduced to form accompaniment music. The chorus playback unit 38 uses the chorus area 29.
The chorus sound is reproduced based on the chorus information extracted from the. Chorus information is PCM or M
Chorus area 2 using the information compression method such as PEG
9 is stored in the chorus reproduction section 38 and is decoded and reproduced by the chorus reproduction section 38. The audio signal reproduced by the MIDI reproducing unit 8 and the chorus reproducing unit 38 is
The mixer 24 further mixes and amplifies the sound signal from the microphone 9 and reproduces it as sound from the speaker 10.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be described. First, a general flow during reproduction will be described. In the main storage means 19 including a hard disk or the like, information for each of a large number of songs distributed from the information center 12 as necessary, such as MIDI information for accompaniment music, lyrics character information, chorus information,
Still image information is stored.

When the user selects a music piece by using the input means 21 and selects the tempo, the control means 18 reads a series of information for one music piece for the selected music piece from the main storage means 19, The data is transferred to a predetermined area of the high-speed access storage means of the reproduction means 23, that is, the reproduction DRAM 26. At the time of transferring the lyric character, the shift JIS code referred to at the time of expansion is added to each character information. Regarding the still image information, the reproduction DRAM 26
Instead, it is directly transferred to the still image video RAM 36 of the still image video signal forming unit 34.

As shown in FIG. 4, the MIDI information includes information about accompaniment music, tempo information about the music,
The display timing (flag) and the erasing timing (flag) of the lyric characters are also included, and the control means 18 inputs the tempo selected by the user and the MIDI clock which is the operation reference of the entire device based on the tempo information. To form. The speed of this MIDI clock is set to such a speed as to count 24 with respect to the length of a quarter note, for example. In the lyric character information, as shown in FIG. 5, when the shift JIS code and the character scroll operation are performed, the time from the start to the end of the scroll is converted into the MIDI clock in addition to the scroll start command. In the case of performing time information (MIDI clock conversion time information), which is a feature of the present invention, and a character fade operation, in addition to a fade-in start command and a fade-out start command, a fade-in start or fade-out start Of the time information (MIDI) when the time required from the start to the end of the
Clock conversion time information) is added. Furthermore, although not shown, when changing the color of the lyrics characters,
Information about the color change position is also included.

Next, the control means 18 controls the reproduction DRAM 2
The information stored in the MIDI area 6 is reproduced, and the MIDI data read from the MIDI area (MIDI information storage section) 1
While forming the MIDI clock as described above based on the information, the MIDI playing section 8 plays the accompaniment music by the electronic musical instrument, and the chorus playing section 38 creates the chorus information based on the information from the chorus area 29. Demodulate. These accompaniment music and chorus sound are mixed with the singing voice from the microphone 9 by the mixer means 37, and the speaker 10
Is output as sound.

At the same time, the lyrics character information is read from the lyrics character area (lyric character information storage section) 2, and the font information is read from the main font storage means 30 based on the shift JS code added to this. Based on this information, the font developing unit 31 develops dot information.
The expansion of the lyric character information into dot information is repeated for each character. The expanded dot information is sent to the lyrics character video signal forming unit 6, where it is converted into a normal video signal and stored in the lyrics character video RAM 33 and sent out.

The lyrics character video signal sent from here is superposed by the mixing means 37 on the moving picture video signal reproduced by the moving picture information storage means 20 or the still picture video signal reproduced by the still picture video signal forming section 34. Then, it is displayed on the display 7. In this case, when a command for a scroll operation or a fade operation is added to the lyric character information, the lyric character displayed correspondingly is scrolled, or fade-in or fade-out is performed. As a result, the user sings along with the accompaniment music while referring to the lyrics characters displayed at the bottom of the moving image or the still image on the display 7. Next, a flow regarding time management of the fade operation and the scroll operation, which is a feature of the present invention, will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, it is assumed that various kinds of information relating to the music selected by the user have already been transferred to each area of the reproducing DRAM 26. In S1, first MI
MIDI information and lyric character information are fetched from the DI area 1, lyric character area 2 and the like into the control unit 3, which is analyzed and reproduced. At this time, MIDI
A MIDI clock is formed based on the tempo information of the information and the tempo input selected by the user (S2), and is output for synchronization with each unit. Further, by analyzing the lyric character information, it is determined whether or not the lyric character fade operation or scroll operation is performed (S3), and NO.
If, that is, if you do not perform these operations,
When the display flag in the MIDI information is detected, normal lyric characters are displayed (S4), and at the time when the deletion flag in the MIDI information is detected, the lyric characters that have been displayed so far are deleted (S5). .

On the other hand, if YES in S3, that is, if there is a fade operation or a scroll operation, that lyric character is displayed (S6) and then added to the lyric character information. MIDI for fade-in
The clock conversion time information and the MIDI clock conversion time information for scrolling are fetched (S7). Since this information shows information indicating how much MIDI clock is applied to complete the fade operation or the scroll operation, the fade amount / scroll amount determination unit 5 determines whether or not the fade clock / scroll amount per unit MIDI clock is exceeded. The fade operation amount or scroll operation amount of is calculated (S8).

Then, a fade operation or a scroll operation is actually performed on the displayed lyric character based on the calculated operation amount. At this time, the counting unit 4 counts the MIDI clock from the start of the operation. Therefore, the ratio of the operation amount increases in accordance with the count value or in synchronization with the count value (S9). For example, assuming that the fade-in operation is completed within 10 MIDI clocks, when 1 MIDI clock has elapsed after the start of the fade-in operation, the fade-in amount becomes 10% as shown in FIG. 7A, and 5 MIDI clocks have elapsed. When you do Figure 7
As shown in FIG. 7B, the fade-in amount becomes 50%, and when 10 MIDI clocks have elapsed, the fade-in amount becomes 100% as shown in FIG. 7C. The amount of scroll operation is also determined in the same manner as described above for the fade operation, and the scroll operation is performed in synchronization with the MIDI clock as shown in FIG. 8 (A). Therefore, even if the user sets the tempo of the song to be faster when selecting the song,
Since the MIDI clock becomes faster in response to this, the fade operation and scroll operation are also performed in synchronization with this, avoiding the inconvenience of the screen switching next during a fade or scroll. It becomes possible to do.

Then, when the deletion flag in the MIDI information is detected, the lyrics characters that have been displayed so far are deleted (S5). As described above, in the present embodiment, when performing a fade operation or a scroll operation of lyric characters, the time from the start to the end of the operation is added to the lyric character information as information expressed in MIDI clock conversion. The operation amount per unit MIDI clock is calculated based on the above, and the operation is performed in synchronism with the MIDI clock. Therefore, if the tempo of the song becomes faster by the user's selection, the MIDI clock also becomes faster. It is done early, and conversely if the tempo slows down, MI
Since the DI clock also becomes slow, the operation speed becomes slow accordingly.

Therefore, even if the tempo of the music becomes faster, the operation speed of the fade-in operation, fade-out operation and scroll operation becomes faster, the screen is switched during the operation, and the lyrics characters disappear. The inconvenience of being lost can be eliminated. In the above embodiment,
Although the case of the fade operation has been mainly described as an example, it is needless to say that the same can be applied to the case of the scroll operation.

[0039]

As described above, according to the music reproducing apparatus of the present invention, the following excellent operational effects can be exhibited. Since the fade operation and scroll operation of the lyric characters are performed in synchronization with the MIDI clock, even if the user changes the tempo of the song, the operation speed of the fade operation and scroll operation can be changed correspondingly. . Therefore, especially when the tempo of the song is accelerated, it is possible to prevent the display screen from being switched and the lyrics characters disappearing during the fade operation or the scroll operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing a basic configuration of a music reproducing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a specific block diagram showing a system of a music reproducing device conforming to the MIDI standard to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a block configuration diagram mainly showing a reproducing means of the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a format of MIDI information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a format of lyrics character information.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a fade / scroll operation process of lyrics character information.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen during a fade operation.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen during a scroll operation.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a change in a fade amount during a fade operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... MIDI information storage unit (MIDI area), 2 ... lyric character information storage unit (lyric character area), 3 ... control unit, 4 ...
Counting unit, 5 ... Fade amount / scroll amount determining unit, 6
… Lyrics character playback unit (lyrics character video signal formation unit), 8…
MIDI playback unit, 11 ... music playback device, 18 ... control means, 21 ... input means, 23 ... playback means, 26 ... playback D
RAM.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A MIDI information storage unit for storing accompaniment music information according to the MIDI standard, a lyrics character information storage unit for storing lyrics character information, information from the two storage units, and MIDI based on the MIDI information. A control unit that forms a clock, a MIDI reproduction unit that reproduces the read MIDI information, and a lyrics character reproduction unit that reproduces the read lyrics character information in a displayable manner while fading or scrolling. In the music reproducing device having the above, the lyrics character information is added with MIDI clock conversion time information required from the start to completion of the lyrics character fade and / or MIDI clock conversion time information required from start to completion of the lyrics character scroll. And a counting unit that counts the MIDI clock and a counter of this counting unit. Music reproduction characterized by including a fade amount / scroll amount determining unit that determines a fade amount and / or a scroll amount per unit MIDI clock based on the unt value and the MIDI clock conversion time information. apparatus.