EP1116213A1 - Automatic music generating method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention concerns a music generating method which consists in: an operation defining musical moments during which at least four notes are capable of being played, for example, bars or half-bars; an operation defining two families of note pitches, for each musical moment, the second family of note pitches having at least one note pitch which does not belong to the first family; an operation forming at least a succession of notes having at least two notes, each succession of notes being called a musical phrase, succession wherein, for each moment, each note whereof the pitch belongs exclusively to the second family is exclusively surrounded with notes of the first family; and an operation producing the output of a signal representing each pitch of each succession of notes.

Description

 AUTOMATIC MUSIC GENERATION METHOD AND DEVICE

The present invention relates to a process and a device gen _ed automatic musical ration It applies, in particular, the distribution of background music, educational materials, a music on hold phone systems, electronic them _j , toys, music synthesizers, computers, camcorders, alarm devices, music telecommunication, and more generally sound illustration and music creation

The methods and devices for generating music currently known use a library of stored musical sequences which serve as a basis for manipulating automatic random assemblies. These devices have three types of main drawbacks.

- on the one hand, the musical variety resulting from the manipulation of sequences of existing music is necessarily very limited

- on the other hand, the manipulation of parameters is limited to the interpretation of the assembly of sequences. tempo, volume, transposition, instrumentation

- and finally the memory space used by the "templates" (musical sequences) is generally very large (several Megabytes)

These drawbacks limit the applications of currently known musical generation devices, to non-professional sound illustration or to didactic music. The present invention intends to remedy these drawbacks

To this end, the present invention aims, according to a first aspect, a method of automatic musical generation, characterized in that it comprises

- an operation of defining musical moments during which at least four notes are likely to be played - an _ope ration of defining two families of note pitches, for each musical moment, the second _è my family heights note with at least one note pitch which is not in the first family,

- a constitution _ope ration of at least one succession of notes having at least two notes, each succession of notes being called a musical phrase, in which succession, from a sentence of at least three notes, each note the height of which belongs exclusively to the second family to me _è is preceded and followed only notes of the first family, and

- an output operation of a signal representative of each note pitch of each said succession Thanks to these provisions, the succession of note pitches has both a great wealth because the number of successions that can be generated in this way is several billion, and harmonic coherence, because the polyphony generated is governed by constraints. According to particular characteristics, during the operation of defining two families of note pitches, for each musical moment, the first family is defined as a set of note pitches belonging to the current harmonic chord, duplicated by octave to octave.

According to other particular characteristics, during the operation of defining two families of note pitches, the second family comprises at least the pitches of a range whose mode has been defined, which are not in the first family. . Thanks to these provisions, the definition of families is easy and the alternation of notes of the two families is harmonious.

According to other particular characteristics, during the operation of constituting at least one succession of notes having at least two notes, each musical phrase is defined as a set of notes whose start times are not separated from each other. , two by two, more than a predetermined duration.

Thanks to these arrangements, a musical phrase is, for example, made up of notes whose beginnings are not separated by more than three sixteenth notes.

According to other particular characteristics, the method of musical generation further comprises an operation of entering values representative of physical quantities and in that at least one of the operations of defining musical moments, of defining two families note pitches, the constitution of at least one succession of notes is based on the value of at least one value of physical quantity.

Thanks to these provisions, the musical piece can be linked to a physical event, such as an image, a movement, a shape, a sound, a key press, phases of a game of which a physical quantity is representative, ...

According to a second aspect, the present invention relates to an automatic musical generation device, characterized in that it comprises:

- a means of defining musical moments during which at least four notes can be played, - a means of defining two families of note pitches, for each musical moment, the second family of note pitches having at least a note pitch which is not in the first family,

a means of constituting at least one succession of notes having at least two notes, each succession of notes being called a musical phrase, a succession in which, for each moment, each note whose pitch belongs exclusively to the second family is surrounded exclusively from notes of the first family, and

- A means of outputting a signal representative of each pitch of each said succession. The present invention aims, according to a third aspect, a method of musical generation, characterized in that it comprises:

- an operation for processing information representative of a physical quantity during which at least one parameter value called "control" is generated, - an operation of association of each control parameter with at least one parameter called ^" of musical generation "corresponding, each, to at least one note to be played during a musical piece,

- a musical generation operation using each musical generation parameter to generate a musical piece. Thanks to these provisions, not only can a note depend on a physical quantity, as in a musical instrument, but a musical generation parameter relating to at least one note to be played depends on a physical quantity.

According to particular characteristics, the musical generation operation successively comprises: an operation for automatically determining a musical structure composed of moments comprising measures, each measure comprising times and each time comprising locations for the start of notes,

- an automatic determination of densities, probabilities of the start of a note to be played, associated with each location, - an automatic determination of rhythmic cadences as a function of densities. According to particular characteristics, the musical generation operation comprises:

an operation for automatically determining harmonic chords associated with each location, an operation for automatically determining families of note pitches as a function of the rhythmic chord associated with a location,

- an automatic note pitch selection operation associated with each location corresponding to the start of a note to be played, according to said families and predetermined composition rules. According to other particular characteristics, the musical generation operation comprises:

- an automatic selection of orchestral instruments,

- an automatic tempo determination operation,

- an operation to automatically determine the general tone of the song, - an operation to automatically determine the velocity for each location corresponding to the start of a note to be played,

- an operation to automatically determine the duration of each note to be played,

an operation for automatic determination of rhythmic cadences of arpeggios, and / or - an operation to automatically determine the rhythmic cadences of accompaniment chords.

According to particular characteristics, during the musical generation operation, each density depends on said tempo (speed of execution of the piece). According to a fourth aspect, the present invention relates to a method of musical generation taking into account a family of descriptors, each descriptor relating to several possible locations for the start of notes to be played in a musical piece, method comprising, for each descriptor, an operation selection of a value, characterized in that, for at least part of said descriptors, said value depends on at least one physical quantity.

According to a fifth aspect, the present invention relates to a device for musical generation, characterized in that it comprises:

a means for processing information representative of a physical quantity suitable for generating at least one so-called “control” parameter value,

a means of association of each control parameter with at least one so-called “musical generation” parameter, each corresponding to at least one note to be played during a musical piece,

- a musical generation means implementing each musical generation parameter to generate a musical piece.

According to a sixth aspect, the present invention relates to a musical generation device taking into account a family of descriptors, each descriptor being relative to several possible locations for the start of notes to be played in a musical piece, characterized in that it comprises means selection, for each descriptor, of a value depending on at least one physical quantity.

Thanks to each of these arrangements, the music generated is coherent, and pleasant to hear, since the musical parameters are linked together by constraints. In addition, the music generated is neither “free” nor accidental, nor entirely random. It corresponds to external physical quantities, and can even be done without any human assistance, thanks to the capture of values of physical quantities.

The present invention aims, according to a seventh aspect, a method of musical generation, characterized in that it comprises:

- a musical generation triggering operation,

an operation for selecting control parameters, an operation for associating each control parameter with at least one so-called “musical generation” parameter corresponding to at least two notes to be played during a musical piece, and

- a musical generation operation using each parameter of musical generation to generate a musical piece.

According to particular characteristics, the triggering operation includes an operation of connection to a network, for example the Internet network.

According to other particular characteristics, the triggering operation includes an operation of reading a sensor

According to other particular characteristics, the triggering operation includes a music type selection operation.

According to other particular characteristics, the triggering operation includes an operation of selecting musical parameters by a user. According to other particular characteristics, the musical generation operation comprises, successively.

- an operation of automatic determination of a musical structure composed of moments comprising measures, each measure comprising times and each time comprising locations of start of notes, - an operation of automatic determination of densities, probabilities of a start of note to play, associated with each location,

- an automatic determination of rhythmic cadences according to densities.

According to other particular characteristics, the musical generation operation comprises: an operation for automatic determination of harmonic chords associated with each location,

an operation of automatic determination of families of note pitches as a function of the agreement associated with a location, with the position of this location in the time of a measurement, with the situation of occupation of the neighboring positions and with the state of any neighboring notes,

- an automatic note pitch selection operation associated with each location corresponding to the start of a note to be played, according to said families and predetermined composition rules.

According to other particular characteristics, the musical generation operation comprises

- an automatic selection of orchestral instruments,

- an automatic tempo determination operation,

- an operation to automatically determine the general tone of the song,

- an automatic velocity determination operation for each location corresponding to the start of a note to be played,

- an operation to automatically determine the duration of each note to be played,

an operation for automatic determination of rhythmic cadences of arpeggios, and / or

- an operation to automatically determine rhythmic chord cadences support

According to other particular characteristics, during the musical generation operation, each density depends on said tempo (speed of execution of the piece)

According to an eighth aspect, the present invention relates to a musical generation device, characterized in that it comprises.

- a means of triggering musical generation,

a means of selecting control parameters,

a means of association of each control parameter with at least one parameter called ^" musical generation" corresponding to at least two notes to be played during a musical piece,

- a musical generation means implementing each musical generation parameter to generate a musical piece.

According to a ninth aspect, the present invention relates to a method of musical coding characterized in that the coded parameters are representative of a density, a rhythmic cadence and / or families of notes.

Thanks to each of these provisions, the music generated is coherent, and pleasant to hear, since the musical parameters are linked together by control parameters. In addition, the music generated is neither “free” nor accidental, nor entirely random. It corresponds to control parameters, and can even be done without any human assistance, thanks to sensors.

These second to ninth aspects of the invention have the same particular characteristics and the advantages as the first aspect. These are therefore not recalled HERE.

The invention also relates to a compact disc, an information medium, a modem, a computer and its peripherals, an alarm, a toy, an electronic game, an electronic gadget, a postcard, a music box, a camcorder, an image and sound recorder, a musical electronic card, a music broadcaster, a music generator, a teaching book, an art work, a radio transmitter, a television transmitter, a television receiver, a player and an audio cassette player / recorder, a video cassette player and player / recorder, a telephone, an answering machine and a switchboard, characterized in that they comprise a device as succinctly set out above.

The invention also relates to a digital sound card, an electronic music generation card, an electronic cartridge (for example for video games), an electronic chip, an image and sound editing table, a computer, a terminal, computer peripherals, video camera, image recorder, sound recorder, microphone, compact disc, magnetic tape, analog or digital information carrier, music player, music generator, book educational, a digital educational data medium, a work of art, a modem, a radio transmitter, a television transmitter, a television receiver, a reader and a reader / recorder of audio or video cassettes and a telephone. The invention also relates to - a means of storing information readable by a computer or a microprocessor retaining instructions of a computer program characterized in that it allows, locally or remotely, the implementation of the method of invention as succinctly set out above,

a means of storing information removable, partially or totally, and readable by a computer or a microprocessor retaining instructions of a computer program characterized in that it allows, locally or remotely, the implementation of the method of the invention as succinctly set out above, and

- A means of storing information obtained by implementing the method according to the present invention or a device according to the present invention The preferred or particular characteristics, and advantages of this compact disc, of this support information, this modem, this computer, these peripherals, this alarm, this toy, this electronic game, this electronic gadget, this postcard, this music box, this camcorder, this recorder of images and sounds, of this electronic music card, of this music broadcaster, of this music generator, of this educational book, of this work of art, of this radio transmitter, of this television transmitter, of this television receiver, this audio cassette player and player, this video cassette player and player, this telephone, this answering machine, this switchboard and the like s of information storage being identical to those of the process as succinctly explained above, these advantages are not recalled HERE

Other advantages and characteristics of the invention will emerge from the description which follows, made with reference to the appended drawings in which.

FIG. 1 represents, diagrammatically, a flow diagram of automatic musical generation in accordance with an embodiment of the method targeted by the present invention,

FIG. 2 represents, in the form of a block diagram, an embodiment of the musical generation device aimed by the present invention,

FIG. 3 schematically represents a flow diagram of musical generation according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 4A and 4B schematically represent a flow diagram of musical generation according to a second embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 5 represents a flowchart for determining parameters of musical generation according to a third embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 6 represents a device suitable for implementing the flow chart illustrated in FIG. 5, and

- Figure 7 shows a flowchart for determining parameters of music generation according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 represents a device suitable for implementing the flow charts illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4A and 4B,

FIG. 9 schematically represents a flow diagram of musical generation according to a first aspect of the present invention,

FIG. 10 represents an information medium according to one aspect of the present invention, and

- Figures 11 A to 11K shows a flow diagram of another embodiment of the method object of the present invention.

FIG. 1 represents, diagrammatically, a flow diagram of automatic musical generation in accordance with an embodiment of the method targeted by the present invention.

After the start 10, during an operation 12, musical moments are defined during an operation 12. For example, during operation 12, a musical piece comprising measures is defined, each measure comprising beat, each beat having note locations. In this example, operation 12 consists in assigning a number of measures to the musical piece, a number of beats for each measure and a number of note locations for each beat or a minimum note duration.

During operation 12, each musical moment is defined in such a way that at least four notes can be played during its duration.

Then, during an operation 14, two families of note pitches are defined for each musical moment, the second family of note pitches having at least one note pitch which is not in the first family. For example, each half measure of the musical piece is assigned a scale and a chord, the first family comprising the note pitches of this chord, duplicated from octave to octave and the second family comprising at least the note pitches of the range who are not in the first family. It is observed that different musical moments or consecutive musical moments can have the same families of note pitches.

Then, during an operation 16, at least one succession of notes having at least two notes is formed with, for each moment, each note whose pitch belongs exclusively to the second family being surrounded exclusively by notes from the first family. For example, a succession of notes is defined as a set of notes whose start times are not separated from each other, two by two, by more than a predetermined duration. Thus, in the example explained with operation 14, for each half measure, a succession of notes does not have two consecutive pitch pitches which are exclusively in the second family of note pitches

During an operation 18, a signal representative of the note pitches of each succession is emitted. For example, this signal is transmitted to a sound synthesizer or to an information medium. The musical generation then stops at operation. FIG. 2 represents, in the form of a block diagram, an embodiment of the recording device. musical generation targeted by the present invention In this embodiment, the device 30 comprises, linked together by at least one signal line 40, a generator of note pitch families 32, a generator of musical moments 34, a generator of musical phrases 36 and an output port 38. The output port 38 is connected to an external signal line 42

The signal line 40 is a line capable of conveying a message or information. For example, it is an electrical or optical conductor of known type. The musical moments generator 34 defines musical moments in such a way that during each musical moment, four notes can be played. For example, the musical moment generator defines a musical piece by a number of measures it contains and, for each measure, a number of beats, and for each beat, a number of possible start of note locations or a duration note minimum

The note pitch family generator 32 defines two note pitch families for each musical moment. The generator 32 defines the two families of note pitches such that the second family of note pitches has at least one note pitch which is not in the first family of note pitches. For example, each half measure of the musical piece is assigned a scale and a chord, the first family comprising the pitch of this chord, duplicated from octave to octave, and the second family comprising at least the pitch of note. the range which is not in the first family We observe that different musical moments or consecutive musical moments can have the same families of note pitches

The musical phrase generator 36 generates at least one succession of notes having at least two notes, each succession being constituted in such a way that, for each moment, each note whose pitch belongs exclusively to the second family is surrounded exclusively by notes of the first family For example, a succession of notes is defined as a set of notes whose start times are not separated from each other, two by two, more than a predetermined duration Thus, in the example explained with the generator families of note pitches 32, for each half measure, a succession of notes does not have two consecutive note pitches which are exclusively in the second family of note pitches.

The output port 38 transmits, via the external signal line 42, a signal representative of the note pitches of each succession is emitted. For example, this signal is transmitted, via the external line 42, a a sound synthesizer or has a support of information.

The music generation device 30 includes, for example, a general-purpose computer programmed to implement the present invention, a MIDI sound card connected to a computer bus, a MIDI synthesizer connected to the output of the sound card MIDI, a stereo amplifier connected to the audio outputs of the MIDI synthesizer and loudspeakers connected to the outputs of the stereo amplifier.

In the description of the second and third embodiment, and in particular in the description of FIGS. 3, 4A and 4B, the expression "random or not" is used to express that, independently of one another, each parameter to which reference is made this expression can be drawn randomly or be determined by a value of a physical quantity (for example captured by a sensor) or a choice made by a user (for example by use of keys of a keyboard), according to the variants of setting of the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, in a second simplified embodiment with a view to only generating and playing the melodic line (or song), the process targeted by the present invention implements:

an operation 102 of determining, randomly or not, the shortest duration that a note can have in the musical piece and of maximum interval, expressed in number of semitones between two consecutive note pitches (see operation 114 ),

an operation 104 of determining, randomly or not, on a time scale, the number of occurrences of each element (introduction, half-verses, verses, choruses, half-choruses, final) of a musical piece and identities between these elements, a number of measures that make up each element, a number of beats that make up each measure, and a number of time units, hereinafter called "positions"> or "locations", each time location with a duration equal to the shortest note to generate, of each time;

an operation 106 for defining, randomly or not, a density value for each location of each element of the piece, the density of a location being representative of the probability that in this temporal location, a note of the melody y is positioned (ie for the playing phase, that the note begins to be played); an operation 108 of generating rhythmic cadence, determining, randomly or not, for each position or location, as a function of the density associated with this position or this location during operation 106, if a note from the melody is positioned there, or not;

- an operation 110 of copying rhythmic cadences corresponding to the same repeated elements (choruses, couplets, half-choruses, half-couplets) of the musical piece or to identical elements (introduction, final), (thus, at the end of the operation 110, the positions of the notes are determined but not their pitch, that is to say their fundamental frequency),

- an operation 112 for assigning note pitches to notes belonging to the cadence rhythmic, during which

, during an operation 112A, for each half-measure, two families of note pitches are determined (for example, the first family composed of note pitches corresponding to a chord of a scale, possibly duplicate of octave in octave and the second family composed of note pitches of the same range which are not in the first family), randomly or not, and during a 112B operation, for each set of notes (hereafter called succession or phrase musical) whose start times are not separated from each other, two by two, more than a predetermined duration (corresponding, for example, to three positions), at the locations of even rows in said succession, heights are randomly assigned of note of the first family of notes and at the odd rank locations in said succession, we randomly assign note heights of the second family of notes (we observe that if the families change during the succession, for example at the change of half-measure, the rule continues to be observed throughout the succession), - a filtering operation 114, possibly integrated into the operation of assigning note pitches 112 , during which if two consecutive note pitches in the succession are more spaced apart than the interval determined during operation 102, expressed in number of semitones, the pitch of the second note is randomly redefined and the operation 114 is repeated, an operation 116 for assigning a note pitch to the last note of the succession, note pitch taken from the first family of note pitches, and

an operation 118 of play performed by the command of a synthesizer module in such a way that it plays the melodic line defined during the previous operations and a possible orchestration During operation 118, the playing times of the notes of the melody are drawn randomly without, however, overlapping the playing of two consecutive notes, the velocities of the note pitches are drawn randomly. The durations and velocities are repeated for each element copied during operation 110 and an automatic orchestration is generated in known manner. Finally, the instruments of the melody and the orchestra are determined randomly or not.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, there is only one type of velocity. notes placed out of time are played louder than notes placed over time. However a random draw seems more human. For example if we aim for a velocity average of 64 for a note positioned at the first location of a beat, we randomly draw a velocity between 60 and 68 for beat. And if we aim for a velocity average of 76 for a note positioned at the third location of a beat, we draw a random velocity between 72 and 80 for this note For the notes positioned at the second and fourth locations of the beat, a value velocity which depends on the velocity of the previous or next note and more low that this reference velocity is chosen. As an exception, a note at the start of a musical phrase, if its pitch is in the first family of note pitch, we choose a high velocity, for example 85. By exception, too, a last note in a musical phrase is associated with a low velocity, for example 64. For the velocities of the different accompaniment instruments, we choose, for example:

- for the basses: the notes placed on time are stronger than those placed against the beat, the rare intermediaries being even stronger;

- arpeggios: as for the bases except that the intermediaries are less strong;

- rhythmic chords: the notes placed on the beat are weaker than those placed against the beat, the intermediaries even weaker; and

- third: velocities lower than those of the melody but proportional to the velocities of the melody, note by note. If the verse is played twice, the velocities are repeated for the same notes and the same instruments. The same goes for the chorus.

Regarding the durations of the notes played, they are drawn randomly with weights which depend on the number of pitches in time. When the duration available before the next note is one unit of time, the duration of the note is one unit of time. When the duration available is two units of time, a random draw is made between the following durations: a full eighth note (5 chances out of 6) or a sixteenth note followed by a quarter sigh (1 chance out of 6). When the available duration is three time units, a random draw is made between the following durations: a full dotted eighth note (4 chances out of 6), an eighth note followed by a quarter sigh (2 chances out of 6). When the available duration is four time units, a random draw is made between the following durations: a full black (7 in 10 chances), a dotted eighth note followed by a quarter sigh (2 in 10 chances) or an eighth note followed by half a sigh (1 in 10 chances). When the available duration is more than four time units, a random draw is made to choose the complete available duration (two chances out of 10), half the available duration (2 chances out of 10), a quarter note (2 chances out of 10 ), if the time available allows, a white (2 chances out of 10) or a round (2 chances out of 10). In the event of a change of families during a musical phrase, the playing of the note is stopped unless the note belongs to the homologous families before and after the change of family.

It is observed that, as a variant, during operation 112A, the second family of note pitches optionally comprises at least one note pitch from the first family and during operations 112B and 114, the note pitches of each succession are defined in such a way that two consecutive notes of the same half measure and the same succession cannot belong exclusively to the second family of note pitches.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, in a third embodiment, the method and the device of the present invention implement operations for determining: A / the internal structure over time, comprising: - an operation 202 of defining, randomly or not, of a maximum number of locations or positions (each corresponding to the minimum duration of a note in the song) by a _j ouer time, ICI, for example, 4 pitches successively called e1, e2, e3 and e4,

B / the internal structure of the measure, comprising - an operation 204 of random or not definition, of the number of times per measure, HERE, for example, 4 times per measure, which therefore corresponds to 16 positions or locations,

The general structure of the piece, comprising

- an operation 206 of random definition or not, of the durations of the elements of the musical piece (chorus, half-chorus, verse, half-verse, introduction, final), in numbers of measures, and of the number of times the elements in the song , HERE the introduction has a duration of 2 measures, the verse a duration of 8 measures, the chorus a duration of 8 measures, each chorus and each verse being played twice and the final being the repetition of the chorus,

D / the instrumentation, comprising - an operation 208 of determining, randomly or not, an orchestra composed of instruments accompanied by adjustment values (general volume, reverberation, echoes, pan, envelope, brightness,),

E / the tempo, comprising

an operation 210 of generation, random or not, of a speed of execution of the game, F / the tone, comprising

an operation 212 of generation, random or not, of a value, positive or negative, of transposition, the basic tone whose transposition value is “0” being, arbitrarily, the C major (a transposition is a value which shifts the melody and its accompaniment by one or more tones, up or down, compared to the first tone (kept in ROM) The percussion part is not affected by the transposition This value "transposition" is taken over during the interpretation step and is added to each pitch just before sending them to the synthesizer, (except on the percussion "track") and this value can be, either as HERE constant throughout the duration of the song, either variable for a change of tone during a resumption for example, G / harmonic chords, comprising

a drawing operation 214, random or not, of chord drawing mode among two possible

- if the first mode of chord drawing is drawn, an operation 216 of drawing, random or not, of harmonic chords, - if the second mode of drawing of chords is drawn, an operation 218 of drawing, random or not , series of harmonic chords, on the one hand for the chorus and, on the other hand, for the verse,

So the chord suite is made up 00/1

14

either by drawing, random or not, chord by chord (each chord drawn being chosen or rejected according to constraints according to the rules of the musical art), however in other modes of realization, this sequence of chords can be either entered by the user-composer, either generated by the harmonic consequence of a dense first melodic line (example ^• two, three, four notes per beat) with an algorithmic character (example the fugue) or not, and from which the notes come (by random drawing or not) of scales and harmonic modes chosen randomly or not or by drawing, random or not, of a group of eight chords stored in memory among a hundred other groups. Each chord being relative here to a measure, eight measures are concerned by a group of eight chords.

In the embodiment decπt and shown, the invention is applied to the generation of songs, the harmonic chords used are chosen from perfect minor and major chords, diminished chords, dominant seventh, eleventh, ninth chords , from seventh major H / melody, comprising ^•

H1 / the rhythmic cadence of the melody, including an operation 220 of allocation, random or not, of densities, at each location of an element of the musical piece, HERE at each location of a chorus time and at each location d '' a verse time, then generation, random or not, of three rhythmic cadences of two measures each, the verse receiving the first two rhythmic cadences repeated 2 times and the chorus the third rhythmic rhythm repeated 4 times. In the example described and represented in FIG. 4, the locations e1 and e3 have, on average of all the density prints, an average density (for example of the order of magnitude of (^)) greater than the locations e2 and e4 (for example of the order of magnitude of 1/5). However, each density is weighted by a multiplying coefficient inversely proportional to the speed of execution of the piece (the higher the speed, the lower the density)

H2 / note pitches, including an operation 222 for drawing note pitches defined by the rhythmic cadence. During this operation 222, two families of note pitches are formed. The first family of note pitches consists of the note pitches of the harmonic chord associated with the position of the note and the second composed by the note pitches of the range of basic general harmony (tone in progress) amputated. (or not, as a variant) of the note pitches of the first family of note pitches During this operation 222, at least one of the following constraint rules is applied to the choice of note pitches there is never succession of two notes which are exclusively in the second family, the heights of the notes drawn for the locations e1 (positions 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, ..) always belong to the first family (except in exceptional cases, it that is to say less than a quarter cases),

.. two beginnings of notes placed in two successive positions belong alternately to one of the two families of note pitches then to the other ("alternation rule"),

. when there is no beginning of note to play at locations e2 and e4, the note pitch of the possible note which begins in e3 is in the second family of note pitches,

. the last note of a succession of note beginnings followed by at least three positions without note start has a note pitch in the first family (by local violation of the alternation rule),

. the pitch of the note in e4 belongs to the first family of notes when there is a change of harmonic chord at the following position (e1) (by local violation in e4 of the alternation rule), and

. the pitch interval between two beginnings of notes in two successive positions is limited to 5 semitones.

H3 / the velocity of the notes of the melody, including an operation 224 of generation, random or not, of velocity (volume) of the notes of the melody according to their location in time and their position in the song;

H4 / the durations of the notes, including an operation 226 of generation, random or not, of instant of end of each note played;

1 / the musical arrangement, comprising: - an operation 228 of generation, random or not, of two rhythmic cadences of the notes of arpeggios, long by one measure each, the first being copied to be associated with the whole of the verse and the second being copied to be associated with the entire chorus;

an operation 230 of generating, randomly or not, the pitch pitches of arpeggios among the pitch pitches of the first family of pitch pitches, with an interval between two pitches of successive pitches less than or equal to 5 semitones;

- an operation 232 of generation, random or not, of the velocities (volume) of the arpeggio notes. Thus, each of the two “arpeggio” rhythmic cadences of a measure receives velocity values at the locations of the “to play” notes. Each of the two measures of arpeggio velocities is distributed (copied) over the part of the song concerned: one on the verse, the other on the chorus;

an operation 234 for generating, randomly or not, durations of arpeggio notes;

- an operation 236 of generation, random or not, of two rhythmic cadences for the playing of harmonic chords, copied to be distributed one on the verse and the other on the chorus, chords of arrangement which are played when the arpeggios do not play (The rhythmic cadence of the accompaniment chords, for example played by the guitar, receives random values, or not, according to the same method as the rhythmic cadences of the notes of arpeggios. These values trigger or not the play of the accompaniment guitar. If, at the same time, an arpeggio note was to be played, the chord has priority and the arpeggio note is canceled); - an operation 238 of generating, randomly or not, velocities of rhythmic chords

- an operation 240 of generation, random or not, of reversals of agreements; and

J / the playing of the song, comprising an operation 242 of transmitting to a synthesizer all the setting and playing values of the different instruments defined during the previous operations.

In the second embodiment described and shown, a musical piece is composed and interpreted using the "MIDI" standard. "MIDI" is the abbreviation for "Musical

Instrument Digital Interface "(which can be translated, word for word, in French, by" digital interface of musical instrument ") and which means digital communication interface between musical instruments). This standard implements:

- a physical connection between the instruments, which takes the form of a bidirectional serial interface through which the information passes with a given speed, and

- a standard for exchanging information ("interfere with MIDI") by cables connected to physical connections, the meaning of predetermined digital sequences corresponding to predefined actions of musical instruments (for example, to play the note "do" in keyboard middle on the first channel of a polyphonic synthesizer, the sequence 144, 60, 80). The MIDI language concerns all parameters of note play, note stop, note pitch, choice of instrument, adjustment of the "effects" of the instrument's sound: reverberation, chorus effect, echoes, pan , vibrato, glissando.

These parameters are enough to produce music with several instruments:

MIDI of 16 parallel polyphonic channels. For example with the brand's G800 system

ROLAND, we could get 64 notes played simultaneously.

However, the MIDI standard is only an intermediary between the melody generator and the instrument.

In the event that a specific electronic circuit (for example of the ASIC type, abbreviation of Application Specific Integrated Circuit for integrated circuit for specific application) is implemented, compliance with the MIDI standard will not be essential.

The playing phase is coupled with a real interpretation phase thanks to variations, random or not, in real time, operated note by note, on the expression, the vibrato, the pan, the glissando and the fine accuracy ( known by the English name of "tune"), and this on all the notes of each instrument.

We observe here that all the random draws relate to whole numbers, possibly negative and that a draw in an interval bounded by two values can give one of these two values. Preferably, the pitch range of the melody notes is limited to the range of the human voice. The pitches of the notes are then distributed over a range of about an octave and a half, that is, in Midi language, from note 57 to note 77.

Regarding the pitch of the bass line (for example, the double bass), in the embodiment described, the bass play plays once in a while and over time (location "e1").

In addition, a correlation of play is established with the melody: when the velocity of a note of the melody exceeds a certain threshold, this leads to the generation of a possibly additional note of the bass which may not be located over time , but part-time (location

"E3") or in intermediate locations (locations "e1" and "e4"). The pitch of this bass note, additional or not, takes the same pitch as that of the melody but two octaves below (in Midi language, note 60 becomes 36).

FIG. 5 represents a fifth and a sixth embodiment of the present invention in which at least one physical quantity (here image representative information) influences at least one of the musical parameters implemented for the automatic musical generation in accordance with the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, in a fifth embodiment associated with the third embodiment (FIG. 3), at least one of the following musical generation parameters:

- the shortest duration that a note can have in the musical work,

- the number of time units per time,

- the number of beats per measure,

- a density value associated with each location, - the first family of note pitches,

- the first family of note pitches,

- The predetermined interval or number of semitones which constitutes the maximum interval between two heights of consecutive notes, is representative of a physical quantity, here an optical physical quantity represented by a source of image information.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, in a sixth embodiment associated with the fourth embodiment (FIGS. 4A and 4B), at least one of the following musical generation parameters:

- number of locations or positions per time, - number of times per measure,

- duration of a chorus,

- duration of a verse,

- duration of introduction,

- final duration, - number of repeats of the elements of the song,

- the choice of the orchestra,

- the settings of the orchestra's instruments (general volume, reverberation, echoes, pan, envelope, brightness, ...), - the tempo,

- Tone,

- the selection of harmonic chords,

- a density associated with a location, - for each location, each family of note pitches,

- each rule applicable or not to note pitches,

- the maximum pitch interval between two successive pitch pitches,

- the velocity associated with each location,

- the duration of the notes, - the densities associated with the locations for the arpeggios,

- the velocity associated with each location for the arpeggios,

- the duration of the arpeggio notes,

- the densities associated with the locations for harmonic chords, and

- the velocity associated with each location for the rhythmic chords, is representative of a physical quantity, here an optical physical quantity represented by a source of image information.

Thus, in FIG. 5, during an operation 302, an operating mode is selected between a mode of operation by sequence and song and a mode of operation "on the water", by progressive modification of generation parameters. musical. When the first operating mode is selected, during an operation 304, the user selects a duration of the selected musical piece, with a keyboard (FIG. 6) a start and an end of a sequence of moving images. Then, during an operation 306, a sequence of images or the last ten seconds of images from a video camera or from an image memory (for example a video recorder, a camcorder or a media player) digital information) is processed using image processing techniques known to those skilled in the art, to determine at least one of the following parameters:

- the average luminance of the image,

- the evolution of the average luminance of the image,

- frequency of large luminance variation, - amplitude of luminance variation,

- average chroma of the image,

- evolution of the average chrominance of the image,

- frequency of strong chrominance variation,

- amplitude of chrominance variation, - duration of the shots (detected by the sudden evolution between two successive images of average luminance and / or of average chrominance),

- movements in the image (camera or object).

Then, during an operation 308, each parameter value determined during operation 306 is mapped to at least one music generation parameter value described above.

Then, during an operation 310, a song (first mode of operation) or two elements (chorus and verse, second mode of operation) of a song are generated in accordance with the embodiment of associated musical generation (third and fourth embodiments, illustrated in Figures 3 and 4).

Finally, during an operation 312, the piece of music generated is played in synchronization with the display of the animated image, stored on an information medium.

In the second mode of operation (musical generation "on the run" evolving progressively), the parameters of musical generation progressively evolve from one musical moment to the next.

In FIG. 6 are shown, for the implementation of different embodiments of the method of musical generation of the present invention illustrated in FIGS. 3 to 5, linked together by a data and address bus 401: - a clock 402 , which cadences the operation of the device,

a source of image information 403 (for example a camcorder, a video recorder or a digital animated image player),

a random access memory 404 in which intermediate processing data, variables and processing results are stored, a read-only memory 405 in which the operating program of the device is stored,

a processor 406, which is adapted to operate the device and to organize the flows on the bus 401, to implement the program stored in the memory 405,

a keyboard 407 which allows the user to choose an operating mode of the device and, optionally to designate a start and an end of the sequence (first operating mode),

- a display 408 which allows the user to interact with the device and see the display of the moving image,

a polyphonic musical synthesizer 409, an amplifier 411, with two channels, connected to the output of the polyphonic musical synthesizer 409, and two loudspeakers 410 connected to the output of the amplifier 411.

The polyphonic musical synthesizer 409 has functions and devices adapted to the "MIDI" standard allowing it to communicate with other machines with this same layout and thus to understand the General MIDI codes which designate the main parameters of the constituent elements of a musical work, these parameters being provided by the processor 406, via a MIDI interface (not shown).

By way of example, the polyphonic musical synthesizer 409 is of the ROLAND brand and of commercial reference E70. It works with three built-in amplifiers each having 20

a maximum output power of 75 watts for high and medium sounds and 15 watts for low sounds

As illustrated in FIG. 7, in a seventh embodiment associated with the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, at least one of the following musical generation parameters - the shortest duration that a note can reach in the musical work ,

- the number of time units per time,

- the number of beats per measure,

- a density value associated with each location,

- the first family of note pitches, - the first family of note pitches,

- The predetermined interval or number of semitones which constitutes the maximum interval between two heights of consecutive notes, is representative of a physical quantity coming from a sensor, here an image sensor.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, in an eighth embodiment associated with the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B, at least one of the following musical generation parameters

- number of locations or positions per time,

- number of beats per measure,

- duration of a chorus, - duration of a verse,

- duration of introduction,

- duration of final,

- number of repπse of the elements of the piece,

- the choice of the orchestra, - the settings of the orchestra instruments (general volume, reverberation, echoes, pan, envelope, brightness, ...),

- the tempo,

- Tone,

- the selection of harmonic chords, - a density associated with a location,

- for each pitch, each family of note pitches,

- each rule applicable or not to note pitches,

- the maximum pitch interval between two consecutive note pitches,

- the velocity associated with each location, - the duration of the notes,

- the densities associated with the locations for the arpeggios,

- the velocity associated with each location for the arpeggios,

- the duration of the arpeggio notes, - the densities associated with the locations for harmonic chords, and

- the velocity associated with each location for the rhythmic chords, is representative of a physical quantity coming from a sensor, HERE an image sensor

Thus in FIG. 7, during an operation 502, the image coming from a video camera or a camcorder is processed according to image processing techniques known to those skilled in the art, to determine at least 1 one of the following parameters of the user's body position, and preferably of manual position on a monochrome background

(preferably white)

- average horizontal position of the body, hands or a baton of a conductor,

- average vertical position of the body, hands or a baton of a conductor,

- horizontal position range (standard deviation) of the body, hands or a baton of a conductor, - vertical position range (standard deviation) of the body, hands or a baton of a conductor,

- average slope of the cloud of positions of the body, hands or a baton of a conductor, and

- vertical and horizontal middle position beat (defining the four locations in a time, and the velocities associated with these locations)

Then, during an operation 504, each parameter value determined during operation 502 is matched with at least one musical generation parameter value described above.

Then, during an operation 506, two elements (chorus and verse) of a song are generated according to the embodiment of associated musical generation (second or third embodiment, illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4)

Finally, during an operation 508, the piece of music generated is played or stored on an information medium.

The musical generation parameters (rhythmic cadence, pitch, chords) corresponding to a copied part (chorus, verse, half-chorus, half-verse or movement of a song) progressively evolve from one musical moment to the next while the velocities and durations of the notes change immediately in relation to the parameters captured

It is observed that the embodiment of the device illustrated in FIG. 6 is adapted to the implementation of the fourth embodiment of the method of musical generation of the present invention, illustrated in FIG. 7

In the same way as shown with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7, and according to arbitrary mappings, other sensors of physical quantities than the image sensors can be implemented in accordance with other embodiments of the current invention. Thus, in another embodiment of the present invention, sensors of physiological quantities of the user's body, such as:

- an actimeter,

- a blood pressure monitor, - a pulse sensor,

- a friction sensor, for example on sheets or a pillow (to constitute an alarm clock which follows the alarm clock of the user),

- a pressure sensor at different points of gloves and / or shoes,

- a pressure sensor on arm and / or leg muscles, make it possible to generate values of parameters representative of physical quantities which, once matched with parameters of musical generation, allow the generation of musical pieces.

In another embodiment, not shown, the parameters representative of a physical quantity are representative of the voice of the user, via a microphone. In an exemplary implementation of an embodiment, a microphone allows the user to hum a part of a melody, for example a verse and the analysis of his voice directly gives values of the parameters of musical generation, of such that the song composed includes the part of the melody hummed by the user.

Thus, the following music generation parameters can be directly obtained by processing the signal leaving a microphone:

- translation into midi language of sung melody notes,

- tempo (speed of execution),

- maximum pitch interval between two notes played successively,

- tone, - harmonic range,

- orchestra,

- velocities of the pitches,

- site densities,

- duration of the notes. In another embodiment, not shown, associated or not or previous embodiment, a text is supplied by the user and a voice synthesis system makes this text “sing” on the melody.

In another embodiment, not shown, the user uses a keyboard, for example a computer keyboard, to make all or part of the choices of musical generation parameter.

In another embodiment, not shown, the determination of the values of musical parameters is carried out as a function of lengths of text sentences, of words used in this text, of their connotation in a dictionary of text-emotion-musical parameter links, of a number of feet per line, rhymes of this text, ... This embodiment combines favorably with other embodiments set out above.

In another embodiment, not shown, the determination of the values of musical parameters is carried out as a function of graphic objects implemented in a drawing or graphic realization software, as a function of mathematical curves, of results in a spreadsheet software , answers to a fun questionnaire (choice of animal, flower, name, country, color, geometric shape, object, style ...), description of a gastronomic menu.

In another embodiment, not shown, the determination of the values of the musical parameters is carried out according to one of the following treatments:

- image processing of a painting,

- image processing of a sculpture,

- image processing of an architectural work,

- processing of signals from olfactory or taste sensors (to associate a musical piece with a wine in which at least one taste sensor is positioned or with a perfume).

Finally, in an embodiment not shown, at least one of the parameters for automatic musical generation depends on at least one physical quantity captured by a video game sensor and or on a sequence of games in progress.

In an embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8, the present invention is applied to a mobile music generation device, such as a car radio or a portable music player.

This mobile music generation device comprises, linked together by a data and control bus 600:

- an electronic circuit 601, which performs the operations illustrated in FIG. 3 or the operations illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B, for the generation of a stereophonic audio signal; - a non-volatile memory 602;

- a program selection key 603;

- a key to go to the next song 604;

- a key for storing song 605;

- at least one traffic condition sensor 606; and - two electro-acoustic transducers 607 which play the music (for application to a portable music player, these transducers are small speakers integrated in earphones and in the application to a car radio, these transducers are speakers integrated into the passenger compartment of a vehicle).

In the embodiment of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 8, the song storage key 605 is used to write into the non-volatile memory 602 the parameters of the musical song being broadcast. In this way, the user who more particularly appreciates a musical piece, can keep it for a new listening later.

The program selection key 603 allows the user to choose a type of program, for example depending on your physical condition or traffic conditions. For example, the user can choose between three types of program:

- a “wake-up” program, intended to wake him up or keep him awake, a program in which the songs are particularly rhythmic; - a “cool-driver” program, intended to relax him (for example in traffic jams), a program in which the tracks are calm, and slower than in the “wake-up” program) and are intended to reduce impatience related to traffic jams); and

- an “easy-listening” program, mainly comprising gay music. The button for switching to the next song 604 allows the user who does not like a song currently being listened to, to switch to a new song.

Each traffic condition sensor 606 provides a signal representative of traffic conditions. For example, the following sensors can constitute sensors 606:

- a clock, which determines the duration of driving since the last stop of the vehicle or the device (this duration being representative of the state of fatigue of the user); - a speed sensor, connected to the vehicle speedometer which determines the average speed of the vehicle over a period of a few minutes (for example the last five minutes) for, depending on predetermined thresholds (for example 15 km / h and 60 km / h), determine if the vehicle is in heavy traffic (congested), medium (without congestion), or on a clear highway; - a vibration sensor, which measures the average intensity of the vibrations to determine the traffic conditions (repeated stops in heavy traffic, high vibrations on the highway), between tracks;

- a gearbox speed sensor which is engaged (the frequent shift in first or second corresponds to traffic in urban or congested areas while maintaining one of the last two speeds corresponding to traffic on motorways );

- a weather, outdoor temperature, humidity and / or rain sensor;

- a temperature sensor inside the vehicle; - a clock giving the time during the day; and,

- more specifically adapted to a walkman, a pedometer, which captures the rhythm of walking.

Depending on the signals from each sensor 606 (possibly compared to previously memorized signal values), and if the user has not chosen a musical program, this is selected by the electronic circuit 601.

In FIG. 9 is represented, schematically, a flow diagram of musical generation according to an aspect of the present invention, in which, during an operation 700, the user initiates the process of musical generation, for example, by supplying electrically electronic circuits, by pressing a music generation selection key

Then, during a test 702, it is determined whether the user can select musical parameters, or not. When the result of the test 702 is positive, during an operation 704, the user has the possibility of selecting musical parameters, for example via a keyboard, potentiometers, selectors or a voice recognition system, by choosing a page from a site of a computer network, for example the Internet network, according to signals from sensors

The operations 700 to 704 jointly constitute a triggering operation 706 When the user has selected each musical parameter which he can select or when a predetermined duration has passed without selection of a parameter by the user, or even when the result of test 702 is negative, during an operation 708, the device determines random parameters, including for each parameter which could have been selected but which has not already been selected during operation 704 Au during an operation 710, each parameter, random or selected, is matched with a musical generation parameter, in accordance with the embodiment implemented (for example one of the embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 3, or 4A and 4B)

During an operation 712, a song is generated by implementing the musical parameters selected during operation 704 or generated during operation 706, in accordance with the embodiment implemented Finally, during 'an operation 714, the musical piece generates is played as explained above

In FIG. 10, is an embodiment of the present invention applied to an information medium 801, for example a compact disc (CD-ROM, CD-I, DVD,) In this embodiment, the parameters of each song, explicit with reference to FIGS. 3, 4A and 4B, are kept on the information medium and allow a saving of 90% of the sound-music memory space, compared to music compression devices currently used

In the same way, the present invention applies to networks, for example the Internet network, for transmitting music accompanying "web" pages, without transferring large "midi" or "audio" files, only an order of predetermined game (by the "WebMaster") of a few bits is transmitted to a device using the invention, integrated or not on the computer, or quite simply to a "plug-in" (program) of musical generation couple with a simple card In another embodiment not shown the invention is applied to toilets and the device is started by a sensor (a contact, for example) of the presence of a user seated on the toilet seat

In other embodiments, not shown, the present invention is applied to an interactive terminal (sound illustration), to a vending machine (background music) or to an input ringtone (so as to vary the sound emission of these devices while drawing the attention of their user).

In another embodiment of the present invention, not shown, the melody is entered by the user, for example, by using a musical keyboard and all the other parameters of the musical piece (musical arrangement) are defined by setting of the present invention.

In another embodiment, not shown, the user imposes the rhythmic rhythm and the other musical parameters are defined by the device which is the subject of the present invention.

In another embodiment of the present invention, not shown, the user selects the number of game points, for example as a function of phonemes, syllables or words of a spoken or written text.

In another embodiment, not shown, the present invention is applied to a telephone receiver, for example for controlling a musical and personalized call ringing by the called party.

According to a variant, the musical ringtone is automatically associated with the telephone number of the caller.

According to another variant, the music generation device is included in a telephone receiver or else located on a telematic server connected to the telephone network.

In another embodiment, not shown, the user selects chords for the generation of the melody. For example, the user can select up to 4 chords per measure.

In another embodiment, not shown, the user selects a harmonic grid and / or a structure for repeating measurements.

In another embodiment not shown, the user selects, or plays the game of bass, and the other musical parameters are selected by the device object of the present invention.

In another embodiment of the present invention, not shown, software is downloaded to the computer of a user of a communication network (for example the Internet network) and this software allows automatic implementation, either by triggering by the user, either by triggering by a network server, of one of the embodiments of the invention.

According to a variant not shown, when a server transmits an Internet page, it transmits all or part of the musical parameters of an accompanying music intended to accompany the reading of the page considered.

In an embodiment not shown, the present invention is implemented in conjunction with a game, for example a video game or a portable electronic game of such so that at least one of the parameters of the musical pieces played depends on the playing phase and / or the results of the player, while ensuring diversity between successive musical sequences.

In another embodiment, not shown, the present invention is applied to a telephone device, for example a switchboard, for broadcasting a diversified and harmonious music on hold.

According to a variant, the listener changes the song by pressing a key on the keyboard of his telephone, for example, the star key or the hash key. In another embodiment, not shown, the present invention is applied to an answering machine or to a messaging system, to musically introduce the message of the owner of the device.

According to a variant, the owner changes the song by pressing a key on the answering machine keyboard. According to a variant not shown, the musical parameters are modified with each call.

In an embodiment not shown, the device, or method, object of the present invention is implemented in a radio, in a tape recorder, in a compact disc or audio cassette player, in a television set, in a broadcaster audio or multimedia, a selector makes it possible to select the musical generation in accordance with the present invention.

Another embodiment is set out with reference to FIGS. 11 to 25, by way of nonlimiting example.

In this embodiment described and shown, all the random draws carried out by the central unit 1106 relate to whole numbers positive or negative and that a draw in an interval bounded by two values can give one of these two values.

- During a 1200 operation, the synthesizer is initialized and switched to General Midi mode by sending specific Midi codes. It therefore becomes a "slave" Midi expander ready to read and execute orders. - During operations 1202 and 1204, the central unit 1106 reads the values of the constants, corresponding to the structure of the piece to be generated, and stored in the read-only memory (ROM) 1105, then transfers them to the random access memory (RAM) 1104.

To define the internal structure of a beat (Fιg.12-1150), the value 4 is given for the maximum number of "possible places to play per time, 4 places called" e1 "," e2 "," e3 " and "e4" (terminology specific to the invention). Each beat of the entire song has 4 identical locations. Other modes of applications can use a different value or even several values corresponding to binary or ternary divisions of time. Example, for a ternary division of time: 3 locations per time, either 3 eighth notes in triplet in measures 2/4, 4 / 4,6 / 4 ... or 3 quarter notes in triplet in measures 2 / 2,3 / 2 ... Which then gives only 3 slots "e1 "," e2 "and" e3 "by time. The number of these locations conditions some of the following operations.

- Still during operation 1202, the central unit 1106 also reads the value of constant 4, corresponding to the internal structure of the measurement (Fig. 12-1150,1160).

This value defines the number of beats per measure.

Thus, the general structure of the song will be composed of 4-beat measures (4/4), where each beat can contain a maximum of 4 sixteenth notes, offering 16 (4x4) positions of notes, note duration or rests per measure. This simple measurement choice is arbitrarily decided to facilitate the understanding of the reader.

- During operation 1204, the central unit 1106 reads values of constants corresponding to the general structure of the piece (Fig.13-1204) and more precisely to the lengths, in measures, of "moments". Verse and chorus each receive a length value in measures equal to 8. Verse and chorus therefore represent a total of 16 measures of 4 beats each containing 4 locations. Either a total of time units or "positions" of

16 x 4 x 4 = 256 positions

The values corresponding to the number of times "moments" are also read during the game phase. During the game phase, the introduction will be the reading and playing of the first two measures of the verse, played twice, the "verse and chorus "will be played each 2 times and the final (coda) will be the repetition of the chorus, these arbitrary values being able, in other modes of applications, to be different or even, between imposed, random limits.

- During operations 1202 and 1204, and following each of the readings of the constants stored in the read-only memory (ROM) 1105, the central unit 1106 transfers these structure values into the random access memory (RAM) 104.

- During an operation 1206, the central unit 1106 makes a reservation of tables of associated variables (over time) and of allocation of tables of whole numbers, each table having 256 entries, corresponding to the 256 positions of the song ( J = 1 to 256). The values possibly kept by each table are set to zero (for the case where the program is looped in order to generate continuous music). The main tables thus reserved, allocated and initialized are: Fig. 12-1170)

- the table of harmonic chords,

- the table of the rhythmic cadence of the melody, - the table of the pitch of the notes of the melody,

- the table of the length (duration) of the melody notes,

- the velocity table of the melody notes,

- the table of the rhythmic cadence of the notes of the arpeggios, - the table of the pitch of the notes of the arpeggios,

- the velocity table of the arpeggios notes,

- the table of the rhythmic cadence of the rhythmic chords,

- the table of the velocity of the rhythmic chords. Then during an operation 1208, the central unit 1106 performs a random orchestral drawing, from among a set of orchestras composed of instruments specific to a specific style of music (variety, classical ...), This value with the corresponding values:

- the type of instrument (or sound) - the settings of each of these instruments (general volume, reverberation, echoes, pan, envelope, brightness ...), which conditions the following operations.

These values are stored in the "instrumentation" register of the RAM 1104. -Then during an operation 1212, the central unit 1106 randomly draws the tempo of the song to be generated, in the form of a clock value corresponding to the duration of a unit of time ("position"), that is, in note length, of a sixteenth note expressed in 1/200 th of a second. This value is drawn at random between 17 and 37. For example, the value 25 corresponds to a quarter note duration of 4 x 25 / 200th second = 1/2 second, or a tempo of 120 to the quarter note. This value is stored in the tempo register of the RAM 1104.

The result of this operation influences the following operations, the melody and the musical arrangement being denser (more notes) if the tempo is slow, and vice versa.

Then during an operation 1214, the central unit 1106 performs a random draw between -5 and +5. This value is stored in the 'transposition' register of the RAM 1104.

Transposition is a value that defines the key (or basic harmony) of the song, it shifts the melody and its accompaniment by one or more semitones, up or down, compared to the first tone of zero value and kept in ROM.

The basic tone of value '0', being arbitrarily C major (or its relative minor: A minor).

During an operation 1220, the central processing unit performs a binary drawing and, during a test 1222 determines whether the value drawn is equal to "1" or not. When the result of test 1222 is negative, the drawing of one of the preprogrammed sequences of 8 chords (1 per measure) is carried out in ROM 1105, operations 1236 to 1242. If the result of test 1222 is positive, the drawing of chords is performed, one by one, randomly for each measurement, operations 1224 to 1234. During operation 1236, the central unit performs the random draw of two digits, between '1' and the 'total number' of preprogrammed sequences of chords contained in the "chords" register of ROM 1105. Each chord suite has eight chord numbers, each represented by a number between 0 and 11 (chromatic scale, semitone by semitone, from do to si), alternating with eight mode values (Major = 0, minor = 1).

For example, the following sequence of 8 chords and 8 modes: 9, -1, 4, -1, 9, -1, 4, -1, 7, 0, 7, 0, 0.0, 0, 0 corresponds in the table below: Lam Mim Lam Mim Chords Sol Sol Do Do

Values 9 4 9 4 7 7 0 0

Table in which, in the "Shift / min" line, each major chord is represented by a zero and each minor chord by '-1'. We will see later, during operation 1411, that each sequence of chords is associated with a table of chord reversals whose values are 1, 2 and 3.

During an operation 1238, these different values are written and distributed in the chord table at the positions corresponding to the length of the verse (positions 1 to 128). During an operation 1240, a procedure identical to I operation 1236 is carried out but this time for the chorus.

During an operation 1242, these different values are written and distributed in the chord table at the positions corresponding to the length of the chorus (positions 129 to 256). When the result of test 1222 is positive ,! ' central unit 1106 proceeds to a random draw of a single chord programmed in ROM 1105, then during operation 1228 and from position 17 (J = 17) compares the chord drawn with the chord of the previous measurement (J = J-16). According to the rules of the art (neighboring tones, minor relative, dominant seventh chords ...), the compared chord is accepted or not. If the agreement is refused, in the course of a transaction 1226, a new chord draw is made alone for the same position 'J' until the agreement is accepted. Then during operation 1230, the value of the chord is copied along with its mode and reversal values, in random access memory in the chord table, on the 16 positions of the current measure.

Each measure is thus processed in 16-position jumps made by operation 1234. Test 1232 checks whether the position of 'J' is not the last position of the song (J = (256-16) +1), c is to say the first position of the last measure.

Operation 1230 on the one hand, and operations 1238 and 1242 on the other hand allow the flow of the flowchart to know the current agreement at each of the song's 256 positions.

In general, we can schematize these operations concerning the chords of the song to be generated:

A random drawing operation of sequences of preprogrammed chords intended for each of the two fundamental moments: verse then chorus,

An operation of random drawing of chords from available chords, for each measure, according to the constraints of the rules of art, the choice of one or the other of the two preceding operations being itself random. It should be noted here that the embodiment described and represented generates music of "song" or "easy listening" style, so the available chords are voluntarily limited to chords: perfect minor and major, diminished, seventh dominant, eleventh . Harmony (chord) participates in determining the style of music. Thus, obtaining a "Latin American" style, for example, requires a library of chords of seventh major, augmented fifth, ninth ...

FIG. 15 groups together the operations of random generation of one of the three rhythmic cadences of two measures each distributed over the whole of the piece, determining the positions of the notes to be played in the melody and more precisely the positions of the beginnings of the notes to be played ( "note-on") of the melody, the other positions being consequently, rests, note durations or end of note duration (or "notes-off" described later in "Duration of notes") .

Example of a rhythmic cadence of two 4/4 measures, i.e. 32 positions: measures: 1 2 beats: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 places: 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 positions to play: 1000 1010 0000 1000 1000 0000 1110 0000

The line of positions to be played represents the rhythmic rhythm, the number 'indicating the position which will receive a pitch later and the number' 0 'indicating the positions which will receive rests, or, as we will see below, durations (or lengths) of note, and "note-off".

The verse receives the first two cadences repeated 2 times, and the chorus receives the third cadence repeated 4 times.

The operation of generating a rhythmic cadence is carried out in four stages in order to apply a density coefficient specific to each location ("e1" to "e4") within the time of the measurement. The values of these coefficients therefore determine the particular rhythmic rhythm of a given style of music.

For example, a density equal to zero, and applied to each of the locations "e2" and "e4", results in a melody composed only of eighth notes at the locations "e1" and "e3". On the other hand, a maximum density applied to the 4 locations results in obtaining a melody composed only of sixteenth notes at the locations "e1", "e2," e3 "and" e4 "(general rhythmic cadence of the fugue) The drawing of the random rhythmic cadences of the melody, ie the drawing of the "playing positions" in time (universal) at the "locations" e1 "to" e4 "is done in anticipation, here by leaps of 4 in 4 positions:

- firstly, the positions at locations "e1" positions 1, 5, 9, 13, .... up to 253 must be processed - secondly, the positions at locations "e3" positions 3, 7, 11, 15 .... up to 255

- then indifferently the other locations "e2" and "e4". positions 2, 6, 10, 14 .... up to 254 positions 4, 8, 12, 16 .... up to 256 The positions are therefore not processed chronologically, except obviously, when the positions are first processed in "e1". This allows, for the following draws (in order: positions "e3", "e2" and "e4") to know the previous (past) and next (future) time neighborhood of the note to be processed (except in " e1 "where we only know the previous one from the second to be drawn). This knowledge of the past and the future of each position will condition the decisions to be made for the different treatments in "e3", "e2" then "e4" (presence or absence of a note in the preceding and following locations, conditioning the existence of the note in treat and later the same principle will be applied to the drawing of note pitches to treat intervals, duplicates, durations, etc.). Here time is divided into four sixteenth notes but this principle remains valid for any other division of time. Example:

In the present embodiment, the existence of the notes at the locations "e2" and "e4" is conditioned by the presence of a note, either at the previous position or at the next position. In other words, if this position has no immediate vicinity, neither before nor after, it cannot be a position to play and will be a position of silence or duration of note or note-off.

In the embodiment described and shown, the different cadences have a length of two measures, so there are eight possible "locations (" e1 "to" e4 "), of notes to be played.

- the locations "1" in the first part of the verse have a density allowing a minimum number of 2 notes for two measures and a maximum number of 6 notes, for two measures, - the "e3" locations of the first part of the verse have a density allowing a minimum number of 5 notes for two measures and a maximum number of 6 notes, for two measures,

- the locations "e2" and "e4" in the first part of the verse have a very low density I chance out of 12 to have a note at these locations

- the locations "1" in the second part of the verse have a density allowing a minimum number of 5 notes for two measures and a maximum number of 6 notes for two measures,

- the locations "e3" in the second part of the verse have a density allowing a minimum number of 4 notes for two measures and a maximum number of 6 notes for two measures,

- the locations "e2" and "e4" in the second part of the verse have a very low density ^• I chance out of 12 to have a note at these locations

- the slots "1" of the chorus (whole) have a density allowing a minimum number of 6 notes for two measures and a maximum number of 7 notes for two measures,

- the chorus "e3" slots have a density allowing a minimum number of 5 notes for two measures and a maximum number of 6 notes for two measures,

- the slots "e2" and "e4" of the chorus have a very low density I chance out of 14 to have a note at these locations This density option results in I obtaining a rhythmic cadence of "song" style or "easy listening" The density of the rhythmic rhythm is inversely proportional to the speed of execution (tempo) of the song, also, the faster the song the less the density is strong

If test 1278 is positive, during an operation 1250 a binary draw is carried out. If the draw result is positive, the rhythmic cadences of the melody are generated according to the random mode.

During an operation 1254, the density for each location "e1 to" e4 "is drawn from one of the three cadences of two measures to be generated (two for the verse, only one for the chorus). 'J' of positions is initialized to the first position (J = 1) during I 'operation 1256, in order to first process the positions at locations "e1"

Then, during an operation 1258, a binary draw ('0' or "1") is carried out in order to determine whether this position 'J' should receive a note or not As it was said above, according to I ' location in time (the "e1") of the position to be treated, the chances of obtaining a positive result are more or less great. The result obtained ('0' or '1') is entered in the table of rhythmic cadences of the melody, at position J If the result of test 1260 is negative, that is to say that there remain positions at the locations "e1" in the cadence of two measurements in progress, J is incremented by the value '4' to "jump" to the next "e1" position.

If the result of test 1260 is positive, test 1266 checks whether all the positions of all the locations have been processed. If this test 1266 is negative, an operation 1264 proceeds to initialize the position J as a function of the new location to be processed. To process the locations "e1", 'J' was initialized to 1, and to process

- "e3" locations: initialization is: J = 3

- "e2" locations: initialization is: J = 2

- "e4" locations: initialization is: J = 4

Thus, the loop of operations 1254, 1256, 1258,1260,1266 is carried out as long as the test 1266 is negative.

This same process is used for each of the 3 cadences of two measures (two for the verse, one for the chorus).

If the result of test 1252 is negative, an operation 1268 proceeds to a random drawing of one of the cadences of two preprogrammed measurements in ROM 1105. This same process is used for each of the 3 cadences of two measurements (two for the verse, one for the chorus).

If the result of test 1266 is positive, an operation 1269 copies the 3 rhythmic cadences obtained over the whole song to the rhythmic rhythm table of the melody: the first cadence of two measures (i.e. 32 positions) is copied twice on the first four measures of the song. At this stage, half of the verse is processed, i.e. 64 positions. the second cadence of two measures (32 positions) is played twice on the following four measures. At this stage, the entire verse is processed, ie 128 positions. the third and last cadence of two measures (32 positions) is reproduced 4 times on the following eight measures. At this stage, the entire verse and the chorus are processed, ie 256 positions.

Then during operations 1270 to 1342, the note pitches are drawn. at the positions defined by the rhythmic cadence (positions of notes to be played).

A note pitch is conditioned by five main elements:

- The basic general harmony

- the chord associated with the same position of the piece - its location ("e1" to "e4") in the time of its own measure.

- the interval which separates it from the pitch of the previous note, and into the next note.

- its possible immediate vicinity (presence of a note in the previous position or (and) next.

Also, as was done during the drawing of the rhythmic cadence of the melody. The drawing of the note pitches of the melody is carried out, in part, in anticipation. The positions of notes to be played on the whole song, defined by the rhythmic rhythm of the melody (above), are not treated chronologically.

- an operation to generate two "note families" is made up:

a first family of notes called "base notes" constituted by the notes making up the chord associated with the "position" of the note to be processed and

- a family of notes called "passing notes" consisting of the notes of the range of the basic general harmony (tone in progress) amputated or not of the notes composing the chord associated with the position of the note to be processed.

In the embodiment described and shown, the family of passing notes consists of the notes in this range is amputated from the notes making up the associated chord in order to avoid successive repetitions of the same note pitches (duplicates). For example, in the C scale, the underlined notes make up the chord of

Fa, and form the family of base notes. The other notes form the family of passing notes ja, si.do, ré, mifa, sol,! A si.rJo, ré, mi.îa ...

In the embodiment described and represented, and with the exceptions described below, the melody consists of an alternation of passing notes and base notes

H3 / Drawing of the pitch of the melody (Rg.16 to 19) For a better understanding of the reader, it is not repeated, in what follows, that it is a question of the pitch of the positions to be played defined by the rhythmic cadence of the melody and that the draws are random, there is obviously no anticipation during the first draw of each of the two following operations.

A first operation (Rg.16) to anticipate the drawing of note pitches in the family of "base notes", where only the positions placed at the start of time ("e1") are processed (positions 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, etc.).

A second operation (Rg.17) to anticipate the drawing of note pitches, in the family of "passing notes", where only the positions placed at "half time" ("e3"), are processed (positions 3 , 7, 11, 15, 19, etc.).

- a third operation (Rg.18) for drawing note pitches at the locations "e2" (positions 2,6,10,14,18, etc.). This draw is made in one or the other family according to the possible neighborhood (note or silence) preceding in "e1" and (or) following in "e3" (Fig. 24). Depending on the case, this drawing can cause a change of family from the following note to "e3" in order to respect the alternation imposed here: basic note / passing note (Rg. 24).

- a fourth operation (Rg.19) for drawing note pitches at locations "e4" (positions 4,8,12,16,20, etc.). This draw is made in one or the other family according to the possible neighborhood (note or silence) preceding in "e3" and (or) following in "e1" (Rg. 24. Depending on the case, this drawing can cause a change of family from the previous note to "e3" in order to respect a base note / passage note alternation imposed here (Rg. 25) Exceptions to the base note / passage alternation: - the last note of a musical phrase is drawn from the family of base notes whatever location ("e1" to "e4") in the time of the current measure (Rg.20), here an end-of-sentence note is considered as such if it is followed by a minimum of 3 positions of rests (without note ).

- the note in "e4" is taken from the family of basic notes in the event that there is a chord change at the following position in "e1".

-For certain styles (eg American varieties, jazz), we accept a passing note representing the second (note of the melody D, with accompaniment, a perfect C major chord) at the location "e1" (same if the chord is a chord started from C major), while in the embodiment described and represented (song style), in "e1" only the base notes are accepted.

The operations and tests in FIG. 16 concern the drawing of the notes to be played at the locations "e1", thus as previously in the drawing of the rhythmic cadences, the processing of the positions concerned is carried out by jumps of 4 positions (positions 1, then 5 , then 9 ...). During an operation 1270, the position indicator 'J' is initialized on position '1', then during test 1272, the central unit 1106 checks, in the table of rhythmic cadences of the melody, whether the position 'J' corresponds to a note to be played.

If the test 1272 is positive, after having read the current chord (at this same position J), the central unit 1106 proceeds to the random drawing of one of the note pitches of the family of base notes.

It is recalled that the positions at locations "e1" receive only notes from the basic family, with the very rare exception already described.

During a test 1276, and obviously from the second position to be processed, the central unit 1106 checks whether the preceding location ("e1") is a position for the note to be played. If this is the case, a calculation of the interval separating the two notes is carried out. If this interval (in semitones) is too large, the central unit proceeds to a new drawing in 1274 for the same position J.

The size of maximum interval allowed between the notes of the locations "e1" here has a value of 7 semitones.

If test 1276 is positive, the note pitch is placed in the note pitch table at position J. Test 1278 then checks whether 'J' is the last location "e1" to be processed. If this is not the case, the variable 'J', corresponding to the position of the song, is incremented by 4 and the same operations 1272 to 1278 are performed for the new position. If test 1272 is negative, (there will be no note at position 'J'), 'J' is incremented by 4 (position "e1" next) and the same operations 1272 to 1278 are performed for the new position

Operations and 17 tests concerned the draw notes a _j ouer the locations "e3", as well as earlier in the draw at the locations "e1", the processing of the relevant positions is done in steps of 4 positions (3 positions , then 7, then 11)

During an operation 1270 bis, the position indicator 'J' is initialized to position '3', then during test 1272 bis, the central unit 1106 checks, in the table of rhythmic cadences of the melody, if position 'J' corresponds to a note to be played

If test 1272 bis is positive, after reading the current chord (at this same position J) and the range of basic harmony (tone) for constitutes the family of passing notes described above, the central unit 1106 randomly draws one of the note pitches from the family of pass marks The positions at the "e3" locations receive notes from the pass family, given the very low density of the pass notes "e2" and " e4 "in this embodiment (in song style)

These notes in "e3" will possibly be corrected later, during the draws concerning the positions in the locations "e2" and "e4" (Rg 24 and 25) For other styles of music, like the fugue for example, the density of four slots is very strong, which has the effect of generating a note to play by slot ("e1" to "e4"), that is to say four sixteenth notes per beat for a measure of 4/4 In this case , to respect the alternation imposed in the embodiment decπt and represents (basic note then passing mark), the drawing of the note pitches at the locations "e3" would be carried out in the family of basic notes

- "e1 '- base note," e2 "= passing grade,

- "e3" = basic grade, "e4" = passing grade

In the embodiment described and represents, (or the notes, at the locations "e2" and "e4" of the time, are very rare taking into account the chosen density), the family of the passing notes is chosen for the notes to be played at locations "e3" because most often the result of the draws is the following for each time

- "e1" = base note, "e2" = sequence "e3" = passing mark, "e4" = sequence Then there is indeed alternation of basic notes and passing marks imposed by the mode of reaiisationation decπt and represents During a test 1276 bis, the central unit 1106 seeks the previous playing position ("e1" or "e3") and the pitch of the note at this position A calculation of the interval separating the two notes is If this interval is too large, the central unit 1106 carries out a new draw in 1274 bis for the same position J 38

The maximum interval size authorized between the notes of the "e3" locations and their previous note has HERE a value of 5 semitones.

If test 1276 bis is positive, the note pitch is placed in the note pitch table at position J Test 1278 bis then checks whether 'J' is the last location "e3" to be processed If it is not the case, the variable 'J', corresponding to the position of the piece, is incremented by 4 and the same operations 1272 bis to 1278 bis are performed for the new position

If the test 1272 bis is negative, (there will be no note at position 'J'), 'J' is incremented by 4 (position "e1" next) and the same operations 1272 bis to 1278 bis are performed at the new position

The operations of FIG. 18 concern the drawing of the notes to be played at the locations "e2". As before, in the draw at the locations "e1" then "e3", the processing of the positions concerned is carried out in 4-position jumps (positions 2, then 6, then 10 ...)

During an operation 1310, the position indicator 'J' is initialized to position '2', then during test 1312, the central unit 1106 checks, in the table of rhythmic cadences of the melody, whether the position 'J' corresponds to a note to be played.

If test 1312 is positive, during an operation 1314, the central unit reads, in the table of chords at position 'J', the current chord and the range of the basic harmony (tone) The central unit 1106 then proceeds to the random drawing of one of the note pitches of the family of pass marks

Positions at locations "e2" always receive notes from the passing family, unless they are isolated, that is to say without note immediately in front (past) and without note immediately behind (future)

- there is no note to play and placed in the next position (future) in "e3" In these cases, the slots "e2" receive basic notes We can still see HERE, the advantage of the early draw The presence of a note to be played in "e2" implies the correction of the next and immediately adjacent note in "e3" (Rg.24)

The central unit 1106 searches for the previous playing position ("e1" or "e3") and the pitch of the note at this position. A calculation of the interval separating the previous note and the note being drawn is made If this interval is too large, the test 1318 is negative Then the central unit 1106 proceeds, during an operation 1316 to a new drawing at the same position J The maximum amount of interval authorized between the notes of the locations "e2" and the previous note (past) on the one hand, and next note (future) on the other hand, has HERE a value of 5 39

If test 1318 is positive, the note pitch is placed in the note pitch table at position J

During an operation 1320, and in the event that the following position is drawn

(D + 1) is done in the family of passing notes (as it is the case here), the central unit 1106 proceeds to the new drawing (correction) of the note located at the following position (D + 1 in "e3"), but this time the draw is made in the notes of the basic family to respect the alternation "base-passage" HERE imposed

The test 1322 then checks whether 'J' is the last location "e2" to be processed. If this is not the case, the variable 'J', corresponding to the position of the piece, is incremented by 4 and the same operations 1312 to 1322 are performed at the new position J

If test 1322 is negative, (there will be no note at position 'J'), and during an operation 1324, 'J' is incremented by 4 (position "e2" following) thus the same operations 1312 to 1322 are performed at the new position

The operations and tests of FIG. 19 concern the drawing of the notes to be played at the locations "e4" As previously, in the drawing at the locations "e1", "e3" and "e2", the processing of the positions concerned is performed by leaps and bounds 4 positions (positions 2,

During an operation 1330, the position indicator 'J' is initialized on position '4', then during test 1332, the central unit 1106 checks, in the table of rhythmic cadences of the melody, whether the position 'J' corresponds to a note to play If the test 1332 is positive, during another test 1334 the central unit 1106 checks if the chord located at the next position J + 1 is different from that of the position J in progress.

If the result of test 1334 is negative, the central unit 1106 during an operation 1336, reads in the chord table at position 'J', the current chord and the range of the basic harmony (tone ) The central unit 1106 then proceeds to randomly draw one of the note pitches in the family of pass marks

Positions in locations "e4" always receive passing family notes except in the following exceptional cases

- the chord placed at the next position D + 1 is different from that of the current position 'J' - the position to be treated is isolated, that is to say without note immediately before

(past) and without note immediately behind (future)

- the next position (future in "e1") is a position of silence

In all these exceptions, the position at location "e4" receives a base note The presence of a note to play in "e4" implies the correction of the previous and immediately adjacent note in "e3" (Fig.25).

During a test 1339, the central unit 1106 searches for the previous playing position ("e1", "e2" or "e3") and then the pitch of the note at this position. The interval between the previous note and the note being drawn is calculated. If this interval is too large, test 1339 is negative. Then the central unit 1106 proceeds, during an operation 1336, to a new drawing at the same position J.

The maximum interval size authorized between the notes of the "e4" locations and the previous (past) note on the one hand, and the next (future) note on the other hand, has a value of 5 semitones here.

If test 1339 is positive, the note pitch is placed in the note pitch table at position J.

During an operation 1340, and in the case where the drawing of the previous position (J-1) was carried out in the family of passing notes, the central unit 1106 proceeds to the new drawing (correction) of the note located at the previous position (d-1 therefore in

"e3"), but this time the draw is made in the notes of the base family to respect the alternation "base-passage" imposed here.

Test 1342 then checks whether 'J' is the last location ("e4") to be processed. If this is not the case, the variable 'J', corresponding to the position of the song, is incremented by 4 and the same operations 1332 to 1342 are performed for the new position J.

If test 1342 is negative, (there will be no note at position 'J'), and during an operation 1344, 'J' is incremented by 4 (position "e4" following) thus the same operations 1332 to 1342 are performed at the new position.

Then, figure 20 represents the operations (always concerning the notes of the melody),

- note length (duration) calculations,

- drawing velocities (volume) of notes,

- search and correct the notes located at the end of the different musical phrases previously generated. These operations are processed chronologically from position '1' to position '256'.

During an operation 1350, the variable 'J' is initialized to 1 (first position) then during a test 1352 the central unit 1106 reads, in the table of rhythmic cadences of the melody, if the position 'J 'must be played.

If test 1352 is positive (the current position 'J' is a position to be played), the central unit 1106 counts the positions of rest located behind (future) the current position 'J'.

During an operation 1354, the central unit 1106 calculates the duration of the note placed at position J: the number (integer) corresponding to half of the total of the positions of rests found. 00/17850

41

In a sub-table of note durations, also comprising 256 positions, a value '1' indicating "note-off" is placed at the position corresponding to the end of the last position of the duration. This instruction will be read, during the play phase, and will allow you to "cut" the note at this precise moment. The "note-off" determines the end of the length of the previous note, the shortest length here being the sixteenth note (only one position of the song).

Example: 4 empty positions were found following a note placed at position '1' (J = 1). The duration of the note is then 2 positions (4/2 ... It is recalled here that these are positions on a time scale) to which the duration of the initial position 'J' of the note is added itself, either a total duration of 3 positions corresponding here to 3 quarters of sigh or a half-sigh pointed.

Here the eighth notes that follow are linked together (a single empty positition between them).

Other note duration calculation systems can be implemented for other embodiments or other styles of music:

- quantization of silence: duration corresponding to a multiple of the unit of time, here the sixteenth note is in value of silence the quarter of sigh).

- maximum lengthening of the duration for so-called "wide" songs.

- duplication of the initial duration for the notes played pitted. - durations chosen by random draw, limited by the number of silence positions available (between 1 and 7 for example).

During an operation 1355, the central unit 1106 reads the different velocity values from the read-only memory 1105, and assigns them to the velocity table of the melody notes, as a function of: - the location ("e1" at "e4") notes over time, and

- their position in the song.

Velocities of the notes to be played according to their location in time of the measure:

Velocity location (Midi code: 0 to 127)

"e1" 65

"e3" 75

"e2" 60

"e4" 58

The velocity of the notes, in relation to the location, contributes to giving character, style, to the music generated.

- Here, the velocity of end-of-sentence notes is equal to 60 (low velocity), unless the note to be processed is isolated with more than 3 positions of rest in front (past) and behind (future) where in this case the velocity of the note is equal to 80 (medium high velocity). 00/17850

42

Then, during a test 1356, the central unit 1106 checks whether the number of rests located after the note and calculates during operation 1353, is equal to or greater than 3

If test 1356 is positive and the note to be played at position 'J' is from the family of passing notes, the note for the current position (J) is considered to be a "musical end note" and must be removed from the family of base notes during operation 1360

Then, a test 1362 checks if the position J is equal to 256 (end of the tables) If the test 1362 is negative 'J' takes the value J + 1 and the operations and tests 1352 to 1362 are carried out again at the new position If test 1362 is positive a binary draw operation is performed to decide on the mode of generation of the rhythmic cadence of the arpeggios

When the result of the draw is positive, during an operation 1372 the value 1 is given to the variable J

Then, during an operation 1374 a binary random draw is performed When the result you draw from operation 1374 is positive a value '1' is entered in the table of rhythmic cadences of the arpeggios

Test 1376 then checks whether J = 16?

It is specified HERE, that two different cadences of a measure (16 positions) are drawn randomly and repeated one on all of the 8 measures of the verse, and the other on all of the 8 measures of the chorus

The operations relating to a single cadence are here represented in FIG. 21, those relating to the second cadence being identical

If test 1376 is negative, during an operation 1377 J is incremented by '1' and operations 1374 to 1376 are carried out again If test 1376 is positive, during operation 1378, the central unit 1106 make an identical copy of this cadence measurement on all the measurements of the moment concerned (verse or chorus)

If the test 1370 is negative, during an operation 1371, the central unit 1106 proceeds to a random drawing of one of the measurements (16 positions) of rhythmic rhythms preprogrammed in read-only memory 1105

Then during an operation 1380, J is reset by taking the value '1'

Then during a test 1382, the central unit 1106 checks in the table of rhythmic cadences of the melody if this position 'J' is a position of note to play

If the result of test 1382 is positive, during an operation 1384, the central unit proceeds to read the current chord, then to randomly draw a note from the basic family

Then during an operation 1386 the central unit proceeds to an interval comparison of the drawn note and the previous note If the interval exceeds the maximum authorized interval (HERE 5 semitones), operation 1384 is repeated.

If the interval does not exceed the maximum interval authorized, during an operation 1387, the central unit then proceeds to randomly draw the velocity of the arpeggio note from the numbers read in read-only memory (ex 68 , 54, 76, 66 ..) and I 'writes in the velocity table arpeggio notes at position J.

During test 1388, the central unit checks whether J = 256?

If test 1388 is negative, the value J is incremented by 1 and operations 1382 to 1388 are carried out again at the new position If test 1388 is positive, during operation 1400 the value J is initialized to the value '1'.

During a 1404 test, the central unit reads in the arpeggio table if there is an arpeggio note to play at location J

If the result of test 1404 is positive, position J of the table of the rhythmic rhythm of the chords keeps a value '0' during operation 1406.

Then, during a test 1412 the central unit checks if J = 256? If the result of test 1412 is negative, the variable J is incremented by '1', and operation 1404 is then repeated.

If the result of test 1404 is negative, during operation 1408, position J of the rhythmic rhythm chord table takes the value '1' (chord to be played when there is no arpeggio note to play).

Then during operation 1410, the central unit 1106 draws one of the two values (HERE 54 and 74) of velocities of the rhythmic chords stored in read-only memory 1105 and writes it in the table corresponding to position J Then during operation 1411, the central unit 1106 draws one of the two values (1, 2 or 3) of rhythmic chord reversal stored in ROM 1105 and writes it in the chord reversal table. at position J

Each of these values defines the place of the notes to be played in the chord. Example of reversals of a C major chord - reversal 1 = do3, mι3, sol3 (tonic, third, fifth)

- reversal 2 = sol2, do3, mι3 (fifth, tonic, third.)

- reversal 3 = mι3, sol3, do4 (third, fifth, tonic.)

The numbers '2' e, '3', and '4', placed behind the note, indicating the octave pitch. Then during a test 1412, the central unit 1106 checks if J is equal to 16 (end of the cadence measurement).

If the test 1412 is negative, during an operation 1414 J is incremented by '1' and operation 1404 is repeated for the new position J. 44

If the test 1412 is positive, during an operation 1416 -the cadence measurement is copied over the entire verse (position 1 to 128) in the sub-table "rhythmic chord cadence".

-the velocity measurement is copied over the entire verse (position 1 to 128) in the sub-table "velocities of rhythmic chords".

-the measure of reversals is copied over the entire verse (position 1 to 128) in the sub-table "reversals of rhythmic chords".

It is specified that the operations 1400 to 1416 above concerning the verse are the same for the chorus (positions 129 to 256). Then during an operation 1420, the central unit sends the various General Midi configuration parameters, instrumentation and sound adjustments to the 1109 synthesizer, via the Midi 113. interface. It is recalled that the synthesizer has been initialized during operation 1200.

Then, during operation 1422, the central unit initializes the clock t = 0.

Then, if the value of 't' is 20, all the results of the operations at position 'J', described below (and shown in Figure 23), will be sent to the synthesizers.

These sendings are effected every 20 / 200th second, and this for each position (1 to 256), respecting the times of the different "moments".

Then during an operation 1424, the position 'J' is initialized and receives the value '1'.

The central unit 1106, during an operation 1426, reads the values of each table and sends them to the synthesizer 1428 in a Midi protocol form. After sending all the game parameters, the central unit 1106 waits until the 20 / 200th seconds have elapsed (t = t + 20 in the example chosen).

During operation 1431, the central unit resets t '(t' = 0). Then, during a test 1434, the central unit 1106 checks whether the position J is the end of the current "moment" (end of the introduction, of the couplet, etc.). If the test 1434 is negative, then during a test 1436, the central unit 1106 checks if the position J (as a function of the values of repeats) is not that corresponding to the end of the song.

If test 1436 is negative, J is incremented by 1 during operation 1437 and then operation 1426 is repeated. If test 1434 is positive, we return to the start of the "moment" (eg at the start of the verse).

It is recalled that the introduction has a length of 2 measures (these are the first two measures of the verse), the verse has a length of 8 measures, the chorus of 8 measures. Each moment is played successively 2 times and the final (coda) is the repetition of the chorus (three

Also, during operation 1435, the variable J successively takes the following values "- end of introduction ^• J = J-32

- end of verse - J = J- (8x16)

- end of chorus: J = J- (8x16)

- Chorus repetition (Coda) J = J- (8x16)

Then, the operation 1426 is repeated at the new position J. If the test 1436 is positive, all of the operations are terminated, unless the whole process of musical generation described above is looped. In this case, the musical listening is continuous

Then, depending on the speed of calculation of the microprocessor used, the different pieces are linked together after a silence of a few tenths of a second, during which the "partition" of a new piece is generated.

Claims

1 Automatic musical generation process, characterized in that it includes:

- an operation to define musical moments during which at least four notes can be played, - an operation to define two families of note pitches, for each musical moment, the second family of note pitches having at least a note pitch which is not in the first family,

- an operation of constituting at least one succession of notes having at least two notes, each succession of notes being called a musical phrase, a succession in which, for each moment, each note whose pitch belongs exclusively to the second family is surrounded exclusively from notes of the first family, and

- an output operation of a signal representative of each pitch of each said succession

2 Method of musical generation according to claim 1, characterized in that, during the operation of defining two families of note pitches, for each musical moment, the first family is defined as a set of note pitches belonging to a duplicate octave to octave chord

3 Method of musical generation according to claim 2, characterized in that, during the operation of defining two families of note pitches, the second family of note pitches comprises at least the note pitches of a range which are not in the first family of note pitches

4 A method of musical generation according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, during the operation of constituting at least one succession of notes having at least two notes, each musical phrase is defined as a set of notes whose start times are not separated from each other, two by two, more than a predetermined duration

5 A method of musical generation according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it further comprises an operation of entering values representative of physical quantities and in that at least one of the operations of definition of musical moments, definition of two families of note pitches, constitution of at least one succession of notes is based on the value of at least one value of physical quantity

6 Method of musical generation according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it comprises

an operation for processing information representative of a physical quantity during which at least one so-called "control" parameter value is generated,

an operation of associating each control parameter with at least one parameter called "musical generation" corresponding to at least two notes to be played during a musical piece, and - a musical generation operation using each musical generation parameter to generate a musical piece.

7. A method of musical generation according to claim 7, characterized in that the musical generation operation comprises, successively: - an operation of automatic determination of a musical structure composed of moments comprising measures, each measure comprising times and each time with note start locations,

- an automatic determination of densities, probabilities of the start of a note to play, associated with each location, and - an automatic determination of rhythmic cadences as a function of densities.

8. A method of musical generation according to any one of claims 7 or 8, characterized in that the musical generation operation comprises:

- an operation for automatic determination of harmonic chords associated with each location,

an operation for automatically determining families of note pitches as a function of the rhythmic chord associated with a location, and

- an automatic note pitch selection operation associated with each location corresponding to the start of a note to be played, according to said families and predetermined composition rules.

9. A method of musical generation according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized in that the musical generation operation comprises:

- an automatic selection of orchestral instruments,

- an automatic tempo determination operation, - an automatic determination of the general tone of the song,

- an automatic velocity determination operation for each location corresponding to the start of a note to be played,

- an operation to automatically determine the duration of each note to be played,

- an automatic determination of rhythmic cadences of arpeggios, and / or - an automatic determination of rhythmic cadences of accompaniment chords.

10. A method of musical generation according to claim 10, characterized in that, during the musical generation operation, each density depends on said tempo.

11. A method of musical generation according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that at least one of the notes has a height which depends on the height of the notes which surround it.

12. A method of musical generation according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that it comprises a first operation of determining pitch of notes positioned at predetermined locations and a second operation for determining the height of other notes during which the pitch of a note depends on the note heights of the notes which surround said note and which are at said predetermined locations

13 A method of musical generation according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the note pitches are determined in an achronic order

14 Automatic musical generation device, characterized in that it comprises-

- a means of defining musical moments during which at least four notes can be played,

a means of defining two families of note pitches, for each musical moment, the second family of note pitches having at least one note pitch which is not in the first family of note pitches,

a means of constituting at least one succession of notes having at least two notes, each succession of notes being called a musical phrase, a succession in which, for each moment, each note whose pitch belongs exclusively to the second family is surrounded exclusively from notes of the first family, and

- A means of outputting a signal representative of each pitch of each said succession.

15. Music generation device according to claim 15, characterized in that the means for defining two families of note pitches is adapted to define, for each musical moment, the first family as a set of note pitches belonging to a chord duplicate from octave to octave.

16. Musical generation device according to claim 16, characterized in that the means for defining two families of note pitches is suitable for defining the second family of note pitches so that it comprises at least the note pitches of a range which is not in the first family of note pitches.

17 Musical generation device according to any one of claims 15 to 17, characterized in that the means of constituting at least one succession of notes having at least two notes is adapted so that each musical phrase is defined as a set notes whose start times are not separated from each other, two by two, more than a predetermined duration 18. A musical generation device according to any one of claims 15 to 18, characterized in that it comprises, in addition, a means of entering values representative of physical quantities and in that at least one of the means for defining musical moments, for defining two families of note pitches, for constituting at least one succession of notes is adapted to take into account said value of at least one value of physical quantity 19. Musical generation device according to any one of claims 15 to 19, characterized in that it comprises rte

a means for processing information representative of a physical quantity suitable for generating at least one so-called "control" parameter value, a means of association of each control parameter with at least one so-called "musical generation" parameter, each corresponding to at least two notes to be played during a musical piece,

- a musical generation means implementing each musical generation parameter to generate a musical piece.

20. Musical generation device according to any one of claims 15 20, characterized in that the means of constituting succession is adapted so that at least one of the notes has a height which depends on the height of the notes which surround it. .

21. Musical generation device according to any one of claims 15 to 21, characterized in that the suction constitution means is adapted to determine heights of notes positioned at predetermined locations and to determine heights of other notes at during which the pitch of a note depends on the note heights of the notes which surround said note and which are at said predetermined locations.

22. Musical generation device according to any one of claims 15 to 22, characterized in that the means of constituting succession is adapted to determine the note pitches are determined in an achronic order.