EP1416470B1 - Method and electronic apparatus for processing a digital musical file - Google Patents

Method and electronic apparatus for processing a digital musical file Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1416470B1
EP1416470B1 EP03024592A EP03024592A EP1416470B1 EP 1416470 B1 EP1416470 B1 EP 1416470B1 EP 03024592 A EP03024592 A EP 03024592A EP 03024592 A EP03024592 A EP 03024592A EP 1416470 B1 EP1416470 B1 EP 1416470B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
chord
chordn
chords
musical
file
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Fee Related
Application number
EP03024592A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP1416470A3 (en
EP1416470A2 (en
Inventor
Luigi Bruti
Marco Di Paolo
Marco Sabatini
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Roland Europe SpA
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Roland Europe SpA
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Publication date
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Publication of EP1416470A2 publication Critical patent/EP1416470A2/en
Publication of EP1416470A3 publication Critical patent/EP1416470A3/en
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Publication of EP1416470B1 publication Critical patent/EP1416470B1/en
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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
    • G10H—ELECTROPHONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS IN WHICH THE TONES ARE GENERATED BY ELECTROMECHANICAL MEANS OR ELECTRONIC GENERATORS, OR IN WHICH THE TONES ARE SYNTHESISED FROM A DATA STORE
    • G10H1/00—Details of electrophonic musical instruments
    • G10H1/0008—Associated control or indicating means
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
    • G10H—ELECTROPHONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS IN WHICH THE TONES ARE GENERATED BY ELECTROMECHANICAL MEANS OR ELECTRONIC GENERATORS, OR IN WHICH THE TONES ARE SYNTHESISED FROM A DATA STORE
    • G10H1/00—Details of electrophonic musical instruments
    • G10H1/36—Accompaniment arrangements
    • G10H1/38—Chord
    • G10H1/383—Chord detection and/or recognition, e.g. for correction, or automatic bass generation
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
    • G10H—ELECTROPHONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS IN WHICH THE TONES ARE GENERATED BY ELECTROMECHANICAL MEANS OR ELECTRONIC GENERATORS, OR IN WHICH THE TONES ARE SYNTHESISED FROM A DATA STORE
    • G10H2210/00—Aspects or methods of musical processing having intrinsic musical character, i.e. involving musical theory or musical parameters or relying on musical knowledge, as applied in electrophonic musical tools or instruments
    • G10H2210/571—Chords; Chord sequences
    • G10H2210/576—Chord progression
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
    • G10H—ELECTROPHONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS IN WHICH THE TONES ARE GENERATED BY ELECTROMECHANICAL MEANS OR ELECTRONIC GENERATORS, OR IN WHICH THE TONES ARE SYNTHESISED FROM A DATA STORE
    • G10H2240/00—Data organisation or data communication aspects, specifically adapted for electrophonic musical tools or instruments
    • G10H2240/011—Files or data streams containing coded musical information, e.g. for transmission
    • G10H2240/046—File format, i.e. specific or non-standard musical file format used in or adapted for electrophonic musical instruments, e.g. in wavetables
    • G10H2240/056—MIDI or other note-oriented file format

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for processing a digital musical file.
  • One preferred embodiment of the present invention consists in processing musical files of SMP-type (i.e. Standard MIDI File) and the description of the present invention clearly refers to this preferred embodiment, without therefore loosing its general scope.
  • SMP-type i.e. Standard MIDI File
  • SMF-type musical files are commonly used as musical bases during concerts performed by a small number of musicians (typically one or two musicians) for a restricted audience or on any occasion in which requiring a large number of musicians to play would be too costly.
  • the musician plays his/her own musical instrument while a Standard MIDI File is played back by an SMF player and thus used as a musical base.
  • a chord progression defining the harmony of the musical file so that he/she can play this chord progression by his/her own musical instrument while the SMF-type musical file is played back.
  • US5760325A1 discloses a chord detection method for detecting a chord progression for accompaniment of an input melody on a basis of a desired chord applied to a portion of an series of tone pitch sections of the input melody. Harmonic tones are extracted from the respective tone pitch sections of the input melody to enumerate each constituent tone of the harmonic tones as a chord candidate for each of the tone pitch sections; and the applied chord and the chord candidate are retrieved in the order of priority with reference to a chord progression suitable for the input melody to determine a chord coincident with the chord progression as each chord of the tone pitch sections.
  • the scope of the present invention is to provide a method and an electronic apparatus to process a digital musical file without the above drawbacks and whose implementation is easy and cost-effective at the same time.
  • Number 1 in Fig. 1 shows a synthesizer device to play back and process SMF-type musical files.
  • An SMF-type musical file comprises a plurality of channels (typically 16 channels), which are either divided into their corresponding tracks (format "1") or into one single track (format "0").
  • Each channel contains a note sequence, wherein each note is associated with its corresponding code (referred to as "Program Change”) identifying the tone and with its corresponding value (referred to as "Hold”) identifying its possible duration extension.
  • an SMF-type musical file F can contain tones belonging to 128 different musical instruments, that are divided into 16 families, each family consisting of 8 different musical instruments. Consequently, each musical instrument is identified by a progressive number ranging from 1 up to 128.
  • the 16 families are the following: FAMILY PROGRESSIVE NUMBER NAME 1 1-8 Piano 2 9-16 Chromatic Perc.
  • the synthesizer apparatus 1 comprises a box device 2 housing a processing unit 3; a display 4, that is driven by the processing unit 3; a 3.5" floppy disk drive 5 (or any other mass-storage memory like Smart Media, Compact Flash, Hard Disk, etc.), that is connected with the processing unit 3; and a keyboard 6, that is connected with the processing unit 3.
  • the processing unit 3 comprises a microprocessor, ROM-type memories containing the operative system of the microprocessor, RAM-type memories used by the microprocessor, and a group of controllers for controlling the display 4, the drive 5, the keyboard 6, and other external devices that can be connected with the synthesizer apparatus 1.
  • the synthesizer apparatus 1 is typically connected with an amplifier 7, which is capable of amplifying a musical signal coming out from the synthesizer apparatus 1 and drive it to a pair of speaker boxes 8.
  • a user inserts a floppy disk 9 containing an SMF-type musical file F into the floppy disk drive 5 and commands the processing unit 3 by means of the keyboard 6 to play back the SMF-type musical file F and transmit the related musical signal to the amplifier 7.
  • the processing unit 3 processes the SMF-type musical file F to extract its related chord progression CP defining the harmony of the very musical file F and to visualize such a chord progression CP on the display 4 simultaneously with the playback of the musical file F.
  • the musical file F is played back by the synthesizer apparatus 1, its related chord progression CP is visualized on the display 4 in synchronization with the playback of the very musical file F.
  • chord progression CP is associated with the musical file F and play some notes by using his/her instrument 9 (typically his/her instrument 9 is also connected with the amplifier 7) consistently with the visualized chord sequence.
  • the synthesizer apparatus 1 may be either independent, as shown in Fig. 1 , or integrated into one musical instrument, typically a keyboard.
  • the display 4 visualizes the current chord CC and one of the subsequent chords SC at least.
  • the number of the visualized subsequent chords SC coming after the current chord CC can be chosen by the user by means of the keyboard 6 and it ranges from one up to a maximum number, that depends on the size of the display 4.
  • this chord appears as both current chord CC as well as subsequent chord SC.
  • the user can choose what kind of visualization of the CC and SC chords he/she likes.
  • the CC and SC chords can be Visualized by using the alphanumeric representation according to the Anglo-Saxon convention (as shown in Fig. 2 ), the alphanumeric representation according to the Italian convention, a standard music score, or guitar strings.
  • the graphic representation of the current chord CC is preferably different from that of the subsequent chords SC so as to help the user when reading the CC and SC chords on the display 4.
  • the visualization of the CC and SC chords on the display 4 is updated at visualization time intervals whose duration is constant, predetermined and linked with the time duration of the rhythmic division of the playing back musical file F.
  • a time interval lapses which is constant and equal to a predetermined visualization time interval.
  • all tracks related to non-harmonic sounds are eliminated (alternatively, if the SMF-type musical file F is codified in format "0" the corresponding channels are eliminated), for example drum tracks, tracks that may potentially include non-harmonic parts, and tracks containing several transitory and accessory notes that are not needed to determine the harmony, such as the solo track.
  • the drum track is usually the track number 10
  • the solo track is usually the track number 4, so the processing unit 3 is going to eliminate these two tracks.
  • the processing unit 3 has to analyze the musical file F in advance according to known state-of-the-art procedures SO as to identify non-harmonic tracks. Alternatively the user can communicate to the processing unit 3 which non-harmonic tracks are to be eliminated by means of the keyboard 6.
  • chord recognition algorithm outputs a chord sequence, which is still too complicated for a musician to use it in real time. This is the reason why two subsequent filtering processes are applied to the outputted chord sequence.
  • the first filtering process aims at simplifying some complex chords, since some complex chords can be reduced into simpler chords without causing any substantial difference in what the listener perceives. For example, if a chord is recognized as C5b, 7, 10b, this very chord is reduced into the chord C5b, which has got the same substantial features.
  • the Table 2 shown here below is stored in the processing unit 3.
  • the Table 2 shows the principles adopted to simplify complex chords, as it indicates every complex chord and its corresponding simplified chord.
  • the processing unit 3 scrolls the chord sequence provided by the chord recognition algorithm and replaces each complex chord with its corresponding simplified chord by using the Table 2.
  • the Table 2 results from a theoretical analysis combined with a series of experimental tests and is, therefore, subject to variations depending on the desired final effect.
  • the second filtering process is aimed at avoiding an excessive number of chord changes, since it has been noticed that the chord sequence obtained from the musical file F usually features numerous chord changes and some of such chord changes are usually too fast for musicians to be able to actually use them.
  • the second filtering process eliminates the suspended chord (Sus), whose key note is seven semitones higher than the key note of the immediately previous chord (e.g. in the chord progression CMaj, GSus, the Gsus chord is the one to be eliminated).
  • the filtering process eliminates the subsequent chord whenever the sound of the previous chord is very similar to the sound of the subsequent chord.
  • the Table 3 shown here below is stored in the processing unit 3. Whenever a pair of chords (first chord and second chord) belonging to the Table 3 shown here below is found in sequence inside a chord progression, then the second chord is eliminated.
  • the Table 3 results from a theoretical analysis combined with a series of experimental tests and is, therefore, subject to variations depending on the desired final effect.
  • the typical time length of 100 CPT may range from 200 msec up to 500 msec.
  • chords are aligned along a time line that is divided into a sequence of windows, wherein each window has a time length equal to the visualization time interval described further above and comprises all the chords starting on a instant contained in that very window.
  • each window has its own initial instant, which necessarily coincides with the final instant of the previous window, and its own final instant, which necessarily coincides with the initial instant of next window.
  • the processing unit 3 moves the chords contained in the window, so as to make the initial instants of the chords coincide with the initial or final instant of the window.
  • a threshold is established, which is typically positioned at 75% of the window time length.
  • chords contained in the window having their initial instants before the threshold are moved to the initial instant of the window and the chords contained in the window having their initial instants after the threshold are moved to the final instant of the window.
  • chords result to be in the same either initial or final instant, only the chord is kept which was previously performed as the last one. In other words, only the chord is kept whose initial instant previously resulted to be the last one, whereas all the other chords are eliminated.
  • every window is equal to the visualization time interval described further above and every window comprises no more than one chord whose initial instant coincides with the initial instant of the window (and therefore with the final instant of the previous window) as well as no more than one chord whose initial instant coincides with the final instant of the window (and therefore with the initial instant of next window).
  • the processing unit 3 updates the content of the display 4 to show the current chord CC and the subsequent chords SC at time intervals coinciding with the visualization time intervals. Consequently, the content of the display 4 is updated by showing the chords whose initial instants coincide with either the initial or the final instants of the windows.
  • the duration of each window results from the time duration of the Time Signature of the musical file F.
  • the time duration of each window results from the Time Signature TS of the musical file F and the BPM value relating to the playback of the musical file F.
  • Time Signature stands for the fraction N/D, wherein N stands for the number of movements and D stands for the value of every movement related to the rhythmic unit called musical Measure.
  • the duration of each window is preferably equal to the time duration of the musical Measure, which is defined by the Time Signature TS of the musical file F whenever either the playback BPM value of musical file F is higher than 145 or the N value of the Time Signature TS relating to the musical file F is 1, 2, 3 and 5.
  • the duration of each window which is the time length of a visualization time interval, amounts to half time duration of the musical measure defined by the Time Signature TS of the musical file F.
  • the processing unit 3 can extract the chord progression CP from the musical file F both in real time, namely while the musical file F is played back, as well as before the musical file F is played back.
  • the chord progression CP is stored in a temporary memory of the processing unit 3 to be then visualized on the display 4 while the musical file F is played back.
  • the above described method for extracting the corresponding chord progression CP from an SMF-type musical file F can be applied to any other type of digital musical file having either a structure similar to that of MIDI files (i.e. including a series of notes and their related tones) or a structure with the representation of audio signals (e.g. Mp3 format and RealAudio format).
  • MIDI files i.e. including a series of notes and their related tones
  • a structure with the representation of audio signals e.g. Mp3 format and RealAudio format.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Electrophonic Musical Instruments (AREA)
  • Auxiliary Devices For Music (AREA)
EP03024592A 2002-10-31 2003-10-28 Method and electronic apparatus for processing a digital musical file Expired - Fee Related EP1416470B1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
ITBO20020691 2002-10-31
IT000691A ITBO20020691A1 (it) 2002-10-31 2002-10-31 Metodo e dispositivo per il trattamento di un file

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1416470A2 EP1416470A2 (en) 2004-05-06
EP1416470A3 EP1416470A3 (en) 2004-11-17
EP1416470B1 true EP1416470B1 (en) 2008-07-09

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EP03024592A Expired - Fee Related EP1416470B1 (en) 2002-10-31 2003-10-28 Method and electronic apparatus for processing a digital musical file

Country Status (4)

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EP (1) EP1416470B1 (it)
JP (1) JP4632646B2 (it)
DE (1) DE60322011D1 (it)
IT (1) ITBO20020691A1 (it)

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP2007225934A (ja) * 2006-02-23 2007-09-06 Xing Inc カラオケシステム及びそのホスト装置
WO2015140412A1 (en) * 2014-03-21 2015-09-24 Berggram Development Oy Method for adjusting the complexity of a chord in an electronic device

Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1996024422A1 (en) * 1995-02-06 1996-08-15 Blue Ribbon Soundworks, Ltd. System for enhancing a multimedia presentation by composing music according to a user's perception

Family Cites Families (12)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPH0640270B2 (ja) * 1985-01-30 1994-05-25 ヤマハ株式会社 和音進行記憶再生装置
US4951544A (en) * 1988-04-06 1990-08-28 Cadio Computer Co., Ltd. Apparatus for producing a chord progression available for a melody
JPH07111636B2 (ja) * 1988-04-06 1995-11-29 カシオ計算機株式会社 自動コード付加装置
JP3271331B2 (ja) * 1992-10-12 2002-04-02 カシオ計算機株式会社 メロディ分析装置
US5510572A (en) * 1992-01-12 1996-04-23 Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Apparatus for analyzing and harmonizing melody using results of melody analysis
JP2650594B2 (ja) * 1992-12-22 1997-09-03 ヤマハ株式会社 和音入力装置および自動伴奏装置
JPH06314096A (ja) * 1993-04-30 1994-11-08 Kawai Musical Instr Mfg Co Ltd 電子楽器の前コード検出装置
JPH08328557A (ja) * 1995-05-29 1996-12-13 Kawai Musical Instr Mfg Co Ltd 自動演奏装置の表示装置
US5760325A (en) * 1995-06-15 1998-06-02 Yamaha Corporation Chord detection method and apparatus for detecting a chord progression of an input melody
JP3674157B2 (ja) * 1995-06-15 2005-07-20 ヤマハ株式会社 コード決定方法および装置
JP4253997B2 (ja) * 2000-03-29 2009-04-15 ヤマハ株式会社 楽音情報変換装置、その制御方法、該制御方法を実現するプログラムを格納した記憶媒体
JP3609045B2 (ja) * 2001-10-05 2005-01-12 株式会社河合楽器製作所 自動演奏装置

Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO1996024422A1 (en) * 1995-02-06 1996-08-15 Blue Ribbon Soundworks, Ltd. System for enhancing a multimedia presentation by composing music according to a user's perception

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
ITBO20020691A1 (it) 2004-05-01
JP4632646B2 (ja) 2011-02-16
ITBO20020691A0 (it) 2002-10-31
DE60322011D1 (de) 2008-08-21
EP1416470A3 (en) 2004-11-17
EP1416470A2 (en) 2004-05-06
JP2004151688A (ja) 2004-05-27

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