JPH09212182A - Karaoke device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a KARAOKE device which can put arbitrary plural pieces of music together into a medley. SOLUTION: Desired music is selected out of a main storage part stored with many pieces of music information in digital code and the selected music information is reproduced. Then the KARAOKE device is equipped with a medley music specification part 36 which specifies plural pieces of music to be put together into a medley through input operation, a medley order decision part 52 which decides which place in the medley the music specified by the medley music specification part 36 is at, an extraction part 53 which selectively extracts a specific medley part of the music information according to the result of the medley order decision part 52, and a connection process part 54 which connects respective medley parts extracted by the extraction part 53. Consequently, plural pieces of music that a user selects can be put together into a medley.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus, and more particularly to a karaoke apparatus capable of medley arrangement.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a karaoke apparatus installed in a restaurant or home, accompaniment music information of a desired music piece,
Background image information and lyrics character information are stored in advance in a storage medium such as a laser disk. Then, when the user selects a desired music piece, if there is a back chorus, the back chorus is overlapped with the accompaniment sound to be reproduced, and the background image is displayed, and at the same time, the lyrics characters are displayed on this image. It is widely known that the color of the lyric characters changes according to the accompaniment so that the user can easily sing. In such a karaoke device,
As for songs other than those stored in the laser disc, it is not possible to use them, and if not only songs that are frequently used but also songs that are rarely used are collected, the cost associated therewith becomes enormous, Not realistic.

Further, even when a new song appears and it is desired to sing it with the karaoke apparatus, the new song is
It cannot be sung until it is cut as a laser disk for a karaoke playing device and is on the market, and it has to wait, for example, several months before it can be used. 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, the performance of electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers and electronic pianos has been remarkably improved due to technological progress, and the information that drives them is specified for the transmission of digitally encoded signals, such as music information. MIDI (M
musical Instrument Digital
It is transmitted according to the Interface standard. Here, MIDI refers to a standard of hardware and software defined to enable information exchange by connecting with 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
An audio signal of g Experts Group) will be transmitted by a signal formatted by the coding method. The information stored in the storage device of the karaoke 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. I will sing.

[0006]

By the way, there are some music pieces in which a plurality of hit songs and the like of one singer are partially extracted and combined and made into a medley into one music piece. For, though, it tends to be interesting and often used because it is possible to sing multiple songs at the same time. However, this medley song is fixed as one song because the creator decides in advance which song to make into a medley, so the user can select any song and meddle it. I couldn't enjoy it. In addition, it is not possible to deal with not only the music of the same singer but also the music of various singer's favorite singer who wants to sing. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems and was devised to effectively solve the problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a karaoke device capable of medleying arbitrary plural songs.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a karaoke apparatus for selecting a desired music piece from a main storage unit storing a large number of digitally encoded music piece information and reproducing the selected music piece information. A medley music designating section for designating a plurality of tunes to be medleyed by an input operation, a medley order determining section for deciding which position of the medley the music designated by the medley music designating section is arranged, and this medley. An extraction unit that selectively extracts a predetermined medley conversion unit of music information according to the result of the order determination unit, and a connection processing unit that performs connection processing of each medley conversion unit extracted by this extraction unit It is configured in.

A second aspect of the present invention is a karaoke apparatus for selecting a desired music piece from a main storage section for storing a large number of digitally encoded music piece information and reproducing the selected music piece information. The medley designating section, the random tune selecting section that randomly selects a predetermined number of tunes to be medley from the main storage section in response to the input of the random medley designating section, and the random tune selecting section A medley order discriminating unit that discriminates where the music is arranged in the medley, and an extraction unit that selectively extracts the prelude, the medley converting unit, and the postlude of the music information according to the result of the medley order discriminating unit. , And a connection processing unit that performs a connection process for each of the medley converting units extracted by the extracting unit.

A third aspect of the present invention is a karaoke apparatus for selecting a desired music piece from a main storage unit that stores a large number of digitally encoded music piece information and reproducing the selected music piece information. A medley singer designating section that specifies all the music pieces of all singers of the singer designated by the medley singer designating section, and a predetermined number of medleys to be medleyed from the music pieces extracted by the all music composition extracting section. A random music selection unit that randomly selects music, a medley order determination unit that determines where in the medley the music selected by this random music selection unit is arranged, and the result of this medley order determination unit Accordingly, an extraction unit for selectively extracting a prelude, a medley conversion unit, and an afterplay of the music information, and a connection processing unit for performing a connection process of each medley conversion unit extracted by this extraction unit are provided. Are those that form.

A fourth invention is such that a specific one mode can be selected from the modes of the first, second and third inventions, that is, a large number of digitally encoded music pieces. In a karaoke device that selects a desired music piece from a main storage unit that stores information and reproduces the selected music piece information, a first mode having a medley music piece specifying unit that specifies a plurality of music pieces to be medleyed by an input operation. A second mode having a random medley designating section for designating a random medley and a random song selecting section for randomly selecting a predetermined number of songs to be medulated from the main storage section in response to an input of the random medley designating section. And a medley singer designating section for designating a singer name to be a medley target, and an all song extracting section for extracting all tunes of the singer designated by the medley singer designating section. At least two modes out of the third mode having a random music selection unit that randomly selects a predetermined number of music to be medley extracted from all the music extraction units, and each of the above modes is selectively A mode switching unit that can be switched to, a medley order determination unit that determines at which position in the medley the music designated or selected in the mode selected by the mode switching unit is arranged, and the medley order determination unit According to the result of the music information, an extraction unit for selectively extracting a prelude, a medley conversion unit, and an afterperformance, and a connection processing unit for performing a connection process of each medley conversion unit extracted by this extraction unit. It is configured in.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the user designates a plurality of arbitrary songs to be medley by the medley song designating unit, the medley order discriminating unit determines the medley permutation. This permutation is, for example, the order designated by the user. The extraction unit selectively extracts a predetermined medley conversion unit and the like of the music according to the result of the medley order determination unit. For example, in the case of the first song of the medley, the prelude portion and the medley conversion portion are extracted, in the case of the middle tune only the medley conversion portion is extracted, and in the case of the final tune, the medley conversion portion and the subsequent performance portion are extracted. And saved respectively. Then, the connection processing unit performs connection processing by changing the performance speed and tonality of the succeeding next song in consideration of the performance speed and tonality of the previous song in order to connect the extracted medley converting units. . When one medley-tuned music is created in this manner, the reproduction of the medley-tuned music is started by a usual method. Note that the music information has a medley conversion section that is extracted in advance when the music information is converted into a medley prior to distribution.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the user selects the random medley designating section, the random tune selecting section randomly selects a predetermined number of tunes to be medley from the main storage section.
In this case, the selection range may be all songs in the main storage unit, or may be narrowed down to songs of a specific genre or the like in the main storage unit. In this way, the processing after selecting a plurality of music pieces to be medley shifts to the processing for determining the medley order and various processing subsequent thereto, as in the case of the first invention.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the user designates a specific singer name by the medley singer designating section, the all song extracting section extracts all the songs of this singer. Then, the random music selection unit randomly selects a predetermined number of music to be medleyed from the extracted music. In this way, the processing after selecting a plurality of music pieces to be medley shifts to the processing for determining the medley order and various processing subsequent thereto, as in the case of the first invention.

The fourth invention has at least two modes among the modes of the first, second and third inventions, and these modes can be switched by a switching unit. still,
As a matter of course, each invention has a so-called normal mode in which the information of the designated music is reproduced over the whole.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a karaoke device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows M
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a karaoke device of the present invention conforming to the IDI standard, FIG. 2 is a block diagram mainly showing a reproducing means, FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing an example of accompaniment music information in the music information.

First, the overall structure of a communication type karaoke apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. The information center 2 that provides the information required by the storage-type karaoke device 1 includes accompaniment music information (MIDI information) about a large number of music pieces, lyric character information, and chorus information when adding chorus (above. (Collectively referred to as music information), a large-capacity storage medium 3 in which text information about music, still image information, and the like are accumulated.
And each music is stored in a database. Each of the above information is digitally encoded so that it can be easily transmitted and processed. The accompaniment music information is information for driving an electronic musical instrument, is digitally encoded, and is formatted according to the so-called MIDI standard. This is referred to as MIDI information. In the MIDI information, a medley converting unit is defined in advance as described later.

The center control unit 4 manages the entire operation of the information center 2, and this database stores
If necessary, the public telephone line 6 from the interface 5
Is delivered to a predetermined karaoke device 1 via. The information center 2 has a plurality of music reproducing devices under control, and one of them is shown in the illustrated example. The information distributed from the information center 2 is the interface 7 on the karaoke machine 1 side.
It is taken into the device through. The control means 8 is composed of, for example, a microcomputer and controls the operation of the entire music reproducing apparatus, and performs music selection or extraction operation in each mode described later.

The main storage unit 9 is a storage medium for storing information regarding a large number of music pieces distributed from the information center 2, that is, MIDI information, lyrics character information, chorus information, text information, still image information, and the like. Since 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 unit 10 is composed of, for example, a large number of laser discs and the like, and a large number of moving pictures are prestored therein, and each moving picture corresponds to a song type such as enka, folk, and pops, and as necessary. Read out. The input means 11 composed of a keyboard and a remote control device is used by the user to select a song, input information for setting the tempo (speed) of the song, and switch the mode of the present invention.

The reproducing means 12 reproduces MIDI information, chorus information, lyric character information, etc. read from the main storage section 9 via the control means 8 based on the music selection information from the input means 11 and the selected mode. The reproduced accompaniment music and chorus are mixed by the mixer unit 14 and further mixed with the singing voice input from the microphone 13 by the amplifier 19 and output as sound by the speaker 15. . Simultaneously with the reproduction of the selected music, the moving image information selected according to the type of the music is read from the moving image information storage unit 10 via the control unit 8 and is displayed on the display 16 while the reproducing unit is displayed. The lyric character information reproduced at 12 is superimposed and displayed in a superimposed manner.

Next, with reference to FIG. 2, a specific structure mainly including the reproducing means 12 in FIG. 1 will be described. First, the reproduction means 12 has a bus 17 connected to the control means 8.
The bus 17 has, as a high-speed access storage means for fast write / read operation, for example, a playback D.
RAM (Dynamic Random Access)
Memory) 18 is connected.

The reproducing DRAM 18 is provided in the main storage means 9
The information related to the selected music read out from is temporarily stored except for the still image information, and is used as a work area during the medley operation of the present invention. Lyrics character area 2 for storing information
0, a MIDI area 21 for storing MIDI information, a chorus area 22 for storing chorus information, a medley area 23 for work during medleying, and the like are secured.

The main font storage unit 24 is a medium for fixedly storing font information of a main language, for example, RO
The font information is pre-stored in it.
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 25 expands the information extracted from the main font storage unit 24 and converts it into dot information, for example, OFG (Outline).
Font Generator). The lyrics character video signal forming unit 26 is the font expanding unit 25.
Is a portion for forming an actual video signal on the basis of the dot information formed by developing in the above. The video signal forming portion 26 is a VDP (Video Display) for lyric characters.
Processor 27), and a lyrics character video RAM 28 for temporarily storing the video signal formed here.

The still picture video signal forming section 29 is a section for forming a video signal for a still picture. The video signal forming section 29 directly takes in the still picture information read from the main storage section 9. VD for still image forming video signal
P (Video Display Process)
r) 30 and a still image video RAM 31 for temporarily storing the video signal formed here.

The switch section 32 is a video signal sent from the lyrics character video signal forming section 26 and a video signal sent from the still picture video signal forming section 29 or a video sent from the moving picture information accumulating section 10. 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 16.

The MIDI reproducing means 33 has a sound source such as a synthesizer, and sequentially synthesizes and reproduces electronic sounds based on the MIDI information extracted from the MIDI area 21 to form accompaniment music. The chorus reproduction means 34 reproduces a chorus sound based on the chorus information extracted from the chorus area 22. The chorus information is stored in the preceding chorus area 22 in a state of being compressed, for example, in the form of a PCM signal using an information compression method such as MPEG.
The data is decompressed and decoded at 4 and reproduced. And this MI
The audio signals reproduced by the DI reproducing means 33 and the chorus reproducing means 34 are mixed by the mixer section 14, and the mixed signal is further mixed and amplified by the audio signal from the microphone 13 by the amplifier 19, and the speaker 15 is produced. It is supposed to be played as a sound from.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the input means 11 has a key controller 36 for adjusting the height of the reproduced music in addition to the ten-key group 35 for inputting the coded music number, singer name, etc. It has a mode switching section 37 for switching the mode of the present invention, a display section 38 for displaying the selected mode and the like. In this embodiment, the mode switching unit 37 uses the normal mode button indicated by "0",
It has a first mode button indicated by "1", a second mode button indicated by "2", and a third mode button indicated by "3", and a desired mode can be obtained by pressing these buttons. Note that the mode selection method is not limited to this configuration, and may be set to return to the normal mode each time the operation of the selected mode is performed, for example.

Here, each mode will be briefly described. The normal mode is a mode in which the information of the designated music is reproduced throughout. The first mode corresponds to the first invention, and is a mode in which a plurality of songs selected by the user are made into a medley. The second mode corresponds to the second aspect of the invention and is a mode in which a plurality of music pieces are automatically selected at random from the main storage unit and made into a medley. The third mode corresponds to the third aspect of the invention, and is a mode in which a plurality of songs are automatically selected randomly from the songs of the designated singer name and made into a medley.

To make a medley, it is necessary to predefine which part of each music piece should be taken out. FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of one MIDI standardized music piece, in which there is a prelude portion 39 in the front stage and a postlude portion 40 in the rear stage.
There is a performance part 41 between the two. Then, a predetermined region of the main performance portion 41, for example, several phrases from the beginning of the main performance portion are defined in advance as the medley conversion portion 42. This meditation information can be easily added by using one of the MIDI tracks. This medley part 42
May specify any area in the main performance portion 41. For example, instead of the example described above, a so-called rusty portion or the like that is the most exciting in the music may be designated.
Since the display timing of the lyric characters is also defined as one of the MIDI tracks, the lyric characters corresponding to the medley conversion section can be automatically displayed with the above configuration.

Next, the function of each mode except the normal mode will be described with reference to FIG. First, in FIG.
Three modes 43, 44, and 45 from the first to the third are shown, and each corresponds to the first to the third inventions.
The first mode 43 has a medley music designating section 36 which is operated by pressing the "1" button of the mode switching section 37, and the operation of this designating section 36 starts a program for designating the medley music. It is designed to capture multiple songs that are designated to be medleyed. Second mode 44
Has a random medley designation unit 47 and a random music selection unit 48 which are operated by pressing the "2" button of the mode switching unit 37. When the random medley designating section 47 operates, a program for designating the random medley operates,
The random music selection section 48 automatically and randomly selects a predetermined number of music pieces to be medley from the main storage section 9 (see FIG. 1) and fetches them.

The third mode 45 is the mode switching section 37.
It has a medley singer designating section 49, an all music extracting section 50 and a random music selecting section 51 which are operated by pressing the "3" button. When the medley singer designating section 49 operates, the program for designating the medley singer runs and the all music extracting section 5
At 0, all the songs of this singer in the main storage unit 9 are extracted, and further, in the random song selection unit 51, a predetermined number of songs to be medleyed are automatically and randomly selected from the extracted songs. It is designed to be imported. Following the above modes 43, 44, and 45, the medley order determination unit 52, the extraction unit 53, and the connection processing unit 54 are commonly used in each mode. Medley order determination unit 52
Is for determining at which position in the medley the predetermined number of songs designated or selected in each of the above-mentioned modes are arranged. Specifically, for example, as will be described later, the selected song is selected. Medleys are created in the order stored in the table to be registered.

The extraction unit 53 is provided with the medley order discrimination unit 52.
The prelude portion, the medley converting portion, and the postlude portion of the music information are selectively extracted according to the result of the above. For example, in the case of the first song of the medley, the prelude portion and the medley conversion portion are extracted, in the case of the middle tune, only the medley conversion portion is extracted, and in the case of the final tune, the medley conversion portion and the subsequent performance portion are extracted. ,save. Connection processing unit 54
Is for connecting the songs before and after the medley converting unit extracted and stored by the extracting unit 53. Try to make the song naturally continuous. Each operation above is
As a matter of course, the processing is performed according to a pre-defined program. After that, one of the medley pieces created here is reproduced according to a normal routine.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be described. First, a general flow during reproduction will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3. The main storage unit 9 including a hard disk or the like stores information on each of a large number of songs distributed from the information center 2 as needed, such as MIDI information for accompaniment music, lyrics character information, chorus information, still image information, and text. Information and the like are stored.

When the user uses the input means 11 to select the normal mode and the music and also selects the tempo that suits him / her, the control means 8 stores a series of information for one music for the selected music in the main memory. The data is read from the unit 9 and is stored in the reproducing unit 12 for high-speed access, that is, the reproducing DRAM 18
Are transferred to a predetermined area. In addition, this normal mode,
Button "0" of the mode switching unit 37 in the input means 11
It is set by pressing (see FIG. 4). When transferring the lyric character, a shift JIS code or the like that is referred to at the time of expansion is added to each character information. Note that the still image information is directly transferred to the still image video RAM 31 of the still image video signal forming unit 29, not to the reproduction DRAM 18.

The MIDI information as the accompaniment information includes not only information about the accompaniment music but also tempo information about the music.
It also includes the display timing and erasing timing of lyric characters, chorus start timing information, information indicating the medley conversion part, etc., and the text information includes coded singer name, song name, and chorus presence / absence information. Has been. Based on the tempo information, the control means 8 forms a MIDI clock that serves as an operation reference for the entire device. 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.

Next, the control means 8 controls the reproduction DRAM 18
The lyrics character information is read from the lyrics character area 20, the font information is read from the main font storage unit 24 based on the shift JIS code added to the lyrics character information, and The font development unit 25 develops dot information based on the 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 26, where it is converted into a normal video signal and stored in the lyrics character video RAM 28 and sent out.

The lyric character video signal transmitted from the lyric character video signal forming section 26 is a moving picture video signal reproduced by the moving picture information storage section 10 or a still picture video signal reproduced by the still picture video signal forming section 29. And switch part 3
It will be superimposed by 2 and will be displayed on the display 16. At the same time, while the MIDI clock is formed as described above based on the MIDI information read from the MIDI area 21, the MIDI playing means 33 plays the accompaniment music of the electronic musical instrument, and the chorus area 22.
The chorus information is demodulated by the chorus reproducing means 34 based on the information from.

The accompaniment music and chorus sound are mixed with the singing voice from the microphone 13 and output as sound from the speaker 15. 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 16.

The above is the description of the operation in the normal mode. Next, the operation in the medley mode will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6. Regarding the medley mode, the user can select the button of the mode switching unit 37 of the input means 11
The first to third modes can be freely selected by pressing 1 "to" 3 ". For example, the button" here "
Assuming that the first mode is selected by pressing "1", the medley music designation section 36 shown in FIG. 3 is activated, and a predetermined number of music numbers continuously input by the user thereafter are fetched and tabulated. A part of the medley area 23 is used to store this table, and Fig. 6 is a diagram showing an example of such a table.
The case where a song is input is shown. If there are too many medley songs, it will take too long to sing, so
The maximum number of songs that can be medleyed may be determined in advance on the program, or in order to cut the number of songs that can be medleyed in the middle of the maximum number of songs
A signal indicating "end" may be assigned to the "#" button.

It is assumed here that the tables are registered in the order specified from the top, and the meditation is performed in this order. Therefore, on the table, the music piece registered at the top is the head music piece, the music piece registered at the bottom (last) is the final music piece, and the music pieces registered between them are the intermediate music pieces. Of course, this order can be arranged in an arbitrary order on the program. When the table creation is completed in this way, next, 5
All pieces of music information corresponding to one piece of music are transferred in order or all at once from the main storage unit 9 to the medley area 23.
Then, the medley order discriminating unit 52 discriminates in which order the music is located by referring to the order of registration in the table, and the extraction unit 53 extracts a predetermined portion from the music information based on the discrimination result. Extract. For example, as for the first song, as shown in FIG. 5, the prelude portion 39 and the medley portion 42 are formed.
For the middle tune, only the medley converted portion 42 is read, and for the final tune, the medley converted portion 42 and the succeeding portion 40 are read and stored. As described above, the centered portion 42 is defined in advance by the center when the music information is distributed.

Now, the portion to be medleyed in this way is
I took it out, but if I simply connect it in this state and play it back in order, it becomes very difficult to sing when the speed and height of the previous and next songs are different, so this connection part is natural The connection is processed for smooth transition.
That is, in the connection processing section 54, the speed of the succeeding piece of music is changed according to the preceding piece of music, or the height is changed to perform tonality. Also, there is a short rest period at the connection,
Alternatively, an ascending signal and a descending signal of the scale are added to make the transition smoothly. This kind of processing is performed in the meditation area 2
When completed on 3, the meddle-ized music information is distributed to the corresponding areas, that is, the lyric character area 20, the MIDI area 21, and the chorus area 22, and is reproduced in the same manner as in the normal mode described above. As a result, the tuned song is reproduced.

Next, the case where the button "2" is pressed to select the second mode will be described. When the second mode is selected, the random medley designation unit 47 is activated, and the random music selection unit 48 uses the text information stored in the main storage unit 9 to select a predetermined number, for example, 5 from all the music. Randomly automatically selects a song as a song for medleying.
In this case, since only 5 songs are randomly selected from all the songs in the main storage unit 9 according to the random number, the user has no idea which song to select. Here, a genre may be designated as the selection range, or a hit song recently distributed, for example, a new score may be designated. It goes without saying that all of this information is included in the text information, such as the genre code and distribution date.

Here, the selected music pieces are registered in tabular form as shown in FIG. 6 in the order of selection, as in the first mode. Subsequent processing is performed in the same manner as in the first mode. This second mode is, so to speak, a quiz-like mode of play, and there are cases where the user knows some of the medley songs and some of them do not.

Next, the case where the third mode is selected by pressing the button "3" will be described. When the third mode is selected, the medley singer designation unit 49 is activated, and when the user inputs one desired specific singer name coded using the ten-key group 35, the all-songs extraction unit 50 Main memory 9
By referring to the text information of, all the song names of the singer are extracted from the songs stored in the main storage unit 9 and taken into the medley area 23. Then, the random music selection unit 51 selects only a predetermined number, for example, 5 musics, from the extracted musics according to a random number, and in the same selection order as in the first mode, the table is registered as shown in FIG. 6 and registered. . The subsequent processing is performed in the same manner as in the first mode. In this third mode, a plurality of songs by a specific singer selected by the user are medleyed.
The selected mode name is displayed on the display section 38 of the input means 11 and shown to the user.

Next, each of the above operations will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the user uses the input means 1
Mode selection is performed using the mode switching unit 37 of No. 1 (S
1), press the button "0" to select normal mode (Y in S2
If S) is selected, the user next inputs the code number of the song to be sung (S3). Then, the control means 8
Displays the music information corresponding to this from the main storage unit 9 in the DRAM.
It is read to 18 (S4), and reproduction is started (S5). In this case, since it is the normal mode, the entire one piece of music is reproduced, and the reproduction ends (S6). At the end of this process, the normal mode is on standby.

Next, if the medley mode, for example, the first mode is selected in S7 instead of the normal mode,
The user subsequently inputs and specifies the code number of the music piece to be medleyed (S8), and the control means 8 registers the music pieces in the table in the specified order (S9). This operation is performed until a predetermined number, for example, the code number of 5 songs is input, or the end key,
For example, it continues until "#" button is pressed (Y in S10).
ES). It should be noted that when the creation of the table is completed, the music information of the five registered music pieces is all taken into the DRAM 23. When the input is completed and the table creation is completed, next, in order to determine the medley order, it is determined whether or not the head music of the table is present (S11), and the head music (Y
If ES), the prelude portion 39 of the music information (see FIG. 5)
Then, the medley converting section 42 is read out and stored (S12). If it is not the first song (NO), then it is judged whether or not the last song in the table is present (S13). If NO here, it means that the song is an intermediate song, so only the medley converting section 42 of this song information is read out and stored (S14). If YES here, since it is the final song, the medley converting section 42 and the succeeding part 40 of this song information are read out and saved (S15).

In this way, if only the portion required for the medley conversion is taken out, the speed and the height of the preceding music are taken into consideration in order to connect the preceding and following medley conversion parts, and Tonality is performed so that different songs are naturally and smoothly connected (S16). If the connection process is completed and the medley process is completed in this way, S
Then, the process proceeds to step 5 and the subsequent reproducing process is performed as described above.
Here, only the music that the user has specified and knows can be made into a medley. At the end of this mode, the normal mode may be restored, or the standby mode may be set in the first mode.

Next, returning to S7, if, for example, the second mode is selected here, the control means 8 performs a random number operation to select a predetermined number, for example, five songs from all the songs stored in the main storage section 9. A song is automatically selected at random (S1
7), table this in the order of selection and register (S1)
8). Subsequent processing, that is, S11 to S16 and S5,
The step of S6 is the same as that described above. here,
The device itself can meddle the selected music regardless of the user's intention. When this mode ends, the normal mode may be restored as described above, or the standby mode may be set in the second mode.

Next, returning to S7, if, for example, the third mode is selected here, the user subsequently inputs the code of the singer name to be medleyed (S19). Then, the control means 8 extracts all song names corresponding to the singer from the main storage unit 9 by referring to the text information (S20), and further, by a random number operation from a number of the extracted songs, a predetermined number, for example, five songs. Are automatically and randomly selected (S21), and are tabulated and registered in the order of selection (S22). Subsequent processing, that is, steps S11 to S16 and steps S5 and S6 are the same as described above. Here, the device itself randomly selects a large number of songs from one specific singer selected by the user, and can make a medley.
When this mode ends, the normal mode may be restored as described above, or the standby mode may be set in the third mode. In the above embodiment, the maximum number of music pieces when medley is set is 5, but the number is not limited to this value. In addition, in this embodiment,
Although the third mode can be selected, it is not necessary to provide all three modes, and any one mode or two modes can be selected.
The two modes may be provided so as to be selectable together with the normal mode.

[0050]

As described above, according to the karaoke apparatus of the present invention, the following excellent operational effects can be exhibited. According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to make a plurality of musical pieces specified by the user into a medley, and it is possible to expand the usage mode. According to the second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of music pieces randomly selected by the device itself can be medley regardless of the user's intention, and can be used in a game-like usage mode. According to the third invention, it is possible to make a plurality of songs randomly selected by the device itself from the songs of the singer specified by the user, and to widen the usage mode. According to the fourth invention, of the first to third inventions, two or three invention modes can be selected and used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing a karaoke device of the present invention conforming to the MIDI standard.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram mainly showing a reproducing means.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing an example of input means.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing an example of accompaniment music information of music information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state of music pieces registered in a table.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a flowchart showing an operation of the karaoke apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Karaoke device, 8 ... Control means, 9 ... Main storage unit, 11
... input means, 12 ... reproduction means, 35 ... ten-key group, 37
... Mode switching unit, 39 ... Prelude part, 40 ... Post playing part, 4
2 ... Medley conversion section, 43 ... First mode, 44 ... Second mode, 45 ... Third mode, 46 ... Medley music designating section,
47 ... Random medley designation section, 48 ... Random music selection section, 49 ... Medley singer designation section, 50 ... All music extraction section, 5
1 ... Random music selection section, 52 ... Medley order determination section, 5
3 ... Extraction unit, 54 ... Connection processing unit.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A karaoke device for selecting a desired music piece from a main storage section for storing a large number of digitally encoded music piece information and reproducing the selected music piece information, and selecting a plurality of music pieces to be medulated by an input operation. A medley music designating section to be designated, a medley order determining section which determines at which position of the medley the music designated by the medley song designating section is arranged, and music information according to the result of the medley order determining section. A karaoke device characterized by comprising an extracting unit for selectively extracting a predetermined medley converting unit and a connection processing unit for connecting the medley converting units extracted by the extracting unit. . 2. A karaoke device for selecting a desired music piece from a main storage section for storing a large number of digitally encoded music piece information and reproducing the selected music piece information, and a random medley specifying section for specifying a random medley. , A random music selection unit that randomly selects a predetermined number of songs to be medley from the main storage unit in response to the input of the random medley designation unit, and the music selected by the random music selection unit A medley order discriminating unit that discriminates which position is arranged, an extracting unit that selectively extracts the prelude, the medley converting unit, and the postlude of the music information according to the result of the medley order discriminating unit, and the extracting unit. A karaoke device, characterized in that it is provided with a connection processing unit that performs a connection process for each of the medley converting units extracted in. 3. In a karaoke device for selecting a desired music piece from a main storage section for storing a large number of digitally encoded music piece information and reproducing the selected music piece information, a medley for designating a singer name to be a medley object. A singer designating section, an all song extracting section for extracting all the songs of the singer designated by the medley singer designating section, and a predetermined number of pieces of music to be medleyed randomly from the songs extracted by the all song extracting section. A random music selection unit to select, a medley order determination unit that determines where in the medley the music selected by this random music selection unit is arranged, and music information according to the result of the medley order determination unit It is configured to include an extraction unit that selectively extracts the prelude, the medley conversion unit, and the afterplay, and a connection processing unit that performs a connection process of each medley conversion unit extracted by this extraction unit. Characteristic karaoke device. 4. A karaoke device for selecting a desired music piece from a main storage section for storing a large number of digitally encoded music piece information and reproducing the selected music piece information, and selecting a plurality of music pieces to be medley by an input operation. A first mode having a medley music designating section for designating, a random medley designating section for designating a random medley, and a predetermined number of tunes to be medulated from the main memory section in response to an input of the random medley designating section. A second mode having a random music selection section for selecting, a medley singer designating section for designating a singer name to be a medley target, and an all music extracting section for extracting all music of singers designated by the medley singer designating section And a random music selection section that randomly selects a predetermined number of music pieces to be medleyed from the music pieces extracted by the all music extraction section. At least two modes of the mode, a mode switching unit capable of selectively switching each of the above modes, and a position in the medley where the music designated or selected in the mode selected by the mode switching unit is arranged. The medley order discriminating unit for discriminating whether or not to be performed, the extraction unit for selectively extracting the prelude, the medley converting unit, and the postlude of the music information according to the result of the medley order discriminating unit, and the extraction unit for extracting. A karaoke device, characterized in that it is configured to include a connection processing unit that performs a connection process of each medley conversion unit. 5. The extraction unit extracts a prelude and a medley conversion as a result of the medley order discriminating unit in the case of the first music, and an end performance and a meditation conversion in the case of the last music, and an intermediate music. The karaoke device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein in the case of, the medley converting section is extracted. 6. The karaoke system according to claim 1, wherein the connection processing section performs processing so as to match a playing speed and a pitch of a medley converting section following the preceding medley converting section. apparatus. 7. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the karaoke apparatus has a normal mode for reproducing the information of the designated music throughout.