JP2011017998A - Karaoke device which casually calls attention to person whose voice is too large - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To give an effective chance which casually makes a singer notified that a singing volume of the singer who sings according to accompaniment music is too large, without explicitly notifying the fact, and thereby, to make the singer lower his/her the singing volume in high probability without spoiling pleasure of Karaoke singing.SOLUTION: A moving average of an amplitude level of singing input from a microphone 171 is determined, and when the determined moving average is more than a reference level which is set beforehand, an output sound volume of the accompaniment music is lowered.

Description

  The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus, and more particularly, to a karaoke apparatus having a function for casually calling attention to a person whose voice is too loud.

  The karaoke device is a hard disk device that forms a karaoke database, a music generation device that generates an acoustic signal of accompaniment music based on music performance data, an acoustic device that amplifies an accompaniment music or an acoustic signal from a microphone, and generates sound from a speaker, A display (display device) using an LCD or PDP, a video processing device for processing video data to be displayed on the display, a user interface device for exchanging input from a user and a response to the user, etc. It is comprised (for example, patent documents 1-4).

  The acoustic device includes a mixing amplifier, and mixes and amplifies the accompaniment music generated by the music generation device and the singing voice input to the microphone and outputs the sound from the speaker. Thereby, the singer can enjoy singing along with listening to the accompaniment music flowing from the speaker.

JP 11-38981 A JP 11-344987 A JP 2006-126523 A JP 2004-341228 A

  The karaoke user can sing freely according to the accompaniment music while listening to the accompaniment music of the requested karaoke piece, but the singing voice is too improper and the person who is singing Other than the above, it may be annoying and may cause annoyance to others. In this case, the singer should be aware of this and try to suppress his / her singing volume, but for singers who are concentrating on singing along with the accompaniment music, Often there is no room for caring.

  If the singer's singing volume level becomes too high, even if a warning display is given to notify the singer's singing volume level, it is impossible to expect the singer to notice it and reduce the singing volume appropriately. Will. Also, the singing voice volume level displayed by a level meter etc. fluctuates in units of syllables, and even if it is below the warning level at a certain moment, it exceeds the warning level at the next moment, and how much volume is There is also a problem that it is difficult for the singer to know exactly what to do. And if the singer receives attention that the singing volume is too loud, or if the singer cares too much about his / her singing volume level, this disturbs the mood of the singing and is free to match the accompaniment music There is also concern that the enjoyment of using karaoke will be impaired.

  As a method for suppressing the singing voice volume of the singer, it is conceivable to perform automatic volume control for feedback control of the amplification gain of the microphone amplifier so that the amplitude level of the singing voice input from the microphone does not exceed a predetermined level. However, if this automatic volume control is performed, the singer will run in the direction of increasing the singing voice volume because his / her singing voice volume is not faithfully reflected in the output volume from the speaker. In other words, if the volume of the singing voice output from the speaker is forcibly suppressed by automatic volume control, the singer misunderstands that the volume suppression by the automatic volume control is insufficient for his / her singing volume, and the singing volume is insufficient. As a result, it tends to cause a loud result to further increase the singing voice volume. In addition, since the automatic volume control is to automatically (mechanically) suppress the dynamic range of the volume and average the volume, it also has a negative effect of preventing singing with an inflection in the volume.

  The present invention solves the above problems, and its purpose is to pay attention to the singer again when the singing voice volume of the singer singing along with the accompaniment music is too high. It is also possible to give an effective trigger to let you notice casually and be willing to lower the singing voice volume spontaneously, and this will increase the singer's singing volume level with a high probability without compromising the enjoyment of using karaoke. The object is to provide a karaoke apparatus that can be lowered.

The karaoke apparatus according to the present invention is specified by the following items (1) and (2).
(1) Obtain the moving average of the amplitude level of the singing voice input from the microphone. (2) While obtaining the moving average, reduce the output volume of the accompaniment music when the obtained moving average level exceeds a preset reference level. Letting

  If the singing voice volume of a singer singing along with the accompaniment music is too high, the singer's singing voice volume is too loud, so that the singer can be reminded casually and voluntarily reduce the singing voice volume. Thus, the singing voice volume level of the singer can be lowered with a high probability without impairing the enjoyment of using karaoke.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the whole karaoke performance apparatus of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the principal part of 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph which shows the example of output volume control of the accompaniment music in 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the principal part of 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a graph which shows the example of output volume control of the accompaniment music in 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

=== Basic configuration of the entire karaoke apparatus ===
A schematic configuration of a karaoke apparatus according to the present invention is illustrated in FIG.
This karaoke apparatus is a computer application device equivalent to a well-known personal computer, and the central processing unit 11 that forms the core of the karaoke apparatus forms a computer main body including a CPU, a RAM, and a ROM.

  Under the control and management of the central processing unit 11, a hard disk device 12 as a large-capacity external storage, an optical disk reproducing device 13 such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, and a karaoke host device via a public communication line such as an optical communication line A communication control device 14 for communicating with the user, a user interface device 15 for exchanging input from the user and a response to the user, and a music generation device for generating an acoustic signal of accompaniment music based on MIDI music performance data 16, an acoustic device 17 that amplifies an accompaniment music or an acoustic signal from the microphone 171 and generates a sound from the speaker 172, a display (display device) 18 using an LCD or a PDP, and video data to be displayed on the display 18 A video processing device 19 is installed.

  The hard disk device 12 stores karaoke data including accompaniment music data mainly composed of MIDI data and lyric character data that is a generation origin of lyrics subtitles for a large number of karaoke songs. In addition, for the long-format video data in a predetermined format, script data that defines the video data processing sequence (storage location and processing order of video data to be processed, etc.) Table of contents information such as the release year and the singing part of the lyrics is also stored.

  The music generation device 16 generates accompaniment music from the accompaniment music data in the karaoke data. With respect to the lyric character data, a lyric subtitle image in which a portion to be sung is changed in color in synchronization with the accompaniment music is sequentially generated, and a bitmap is developed in the video RAM. Also, predetermined moving image data is sequentially transferred to the video processing device 19 in a predetermined order based on the script data, and the background moving image of the lyrics subtitle is decoded.

  The acoustic device 17 includes acoustic circuits such as a microphone amplifier 31, a microphone volume control unit 32, a microphone volume level detection unit 33, an accompaniment volume control unit 35, and a mixing amplifier 36, and the accompaniment music generated by the music generation device 16. Then, the singing voice input to the microphone 171 is mixed and amplified, and the sound is output from the speaker 172.

  The video processing device 19 superimposes the lyrics subtitles on the decoded moving image and displays and outputs them on the display 18. Lyric subtitles are sequentially created from time-series lyrics character data synchronized with the progress of the accompaniment music.

  The user interface device 15 includes an operation panel 151 of the karaoke device main body and a karaoke remote control device 152. In order to exchange operation information with the karaoke remote control device 152, short distance wireless communication means (IrDA transceiver, infrared LED, infrared light receiving element) capable of bidirectional communication is provided.

  The central processing unit 11 identifies karaoke data, script data, table of contents information and the like of each music piece by the music piece ID, and manages this as a karaoke database.

  The central processing unit 11 receives a reservation command (request) from the user interface device 15. The reservation command includes a music ID (music identification code). When this reservation command is received, the music IDs included in the command are registered at the end of the processing reservation queue in the order of reception. And music ID is taken out sequentially from the head of a queue. When the music ID is extracted from the queue, the karaoke data for the corresponding music is extracted from the karaoke database and used for performance processing.

=== Concerning Main Configuration and Operation of the First Embodiment ===
The main part of the first embodiment of the present invention includes the acoustic device 17 and a central processing unit 11 that controls the acoustic device 17.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the acoustic device 17 includes a microphone amplifier 31, a microphone volume control unit 32, a microphone volume level detection unit 33, an accompaniment volume control unit 35, a mixing amplifier 36, and the like.

  The singing voice signal input from the microphone 171 is input to the mixing amplifier 36 via the microphone amplifier 31 and the microphone volume control unit 32. The accompaniment music generated by the music generating device 16 is input to the mixing amplifier 36 via the accompaniment volume control unit 35. The mixing amplifier 36 mixes and amplifies the singing voice signal and the accompaniment music and outputs the sound from the speaker 172.

  At this time, the amplitude level of the singing voice signal is detected by the microphone volume level detecting unit 33, that is, the singing voice volume level. This level detection can be performed by, for example, envelope detection of a singing voice signal. Further, the volume levels of the singing voice signal and the accompaniment music are variably controlled by the microphone volume control unit 32 and the accompaniment volume control unit 35, respectively. This variable control can be performed by a command from the central processing unit 11. It has become.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the logical configuration and operation of the main part of the karaoke apparatus described above. Moreover, FIG. 3 shows the control operation example in the principal part of the karaoke apparatus mentioned above with a graph (timing chart).

  1 to 3, during the karaoke performance, the microphone volume level detector 33 periodically samples the amplitude level of the singing voice input signal (microphone input volume level), and each predetermined sampling time The moving average is obtained by calculating the arithmetic average value of the sampling value group for the number of times.

  The microphone input volume level acquired from the microphone volume level detection unit 33 faithfully reflects an instantaneous change in the volume level as shown by the wavy graph line in FIG. 3, but this volume level is instantaneous. Even if it becomes large, it is not always recognized as a loud sound volume. Even if the volume of the singing voice has an inflection and the volume is not excessive, it frequently occurs that the peak of the volume level instantaneously exceeds the excessively high reference level. For this reason, it is not possible to appropriately determine whether or not the volume is excessive only by the volume level acquired from the microphone volume level detection unit 33.

  However, the moving average obtained by averaging the volume levels over a certain length of time-series section is obtained by smoothing the instantaneous amplitude of the volume level as shown by the solid graph line in FIG. Without being disturbed by the instantaneous fluctuation (short-term fluctuation) of the volume level, the magnitude of the volume can be appropriately reflected.

  In the first embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, the moving average of the volume level is calculated for each sampling of the microphone input volume level, and the calculated moving average exceeds a predetermined reference level. In addition, control for lowering the volume level of the accompaniment sound by one step is performed via the accompaniment volume control unit 35. In this case, in the first embodiment, flag control is performed so that the control for lowering the volume level is performed only once.

  As a result, as shown in FIG. 3, when the moving average of the singing volume exceeds a predetermined reference level, the volume of the accompaniment music suddenly decreases by one step, but when the volume of the accompaniment music decreases, the accompaniment music A singer who is singing while listening to the song can be aware that the singing volume is too high by making his / her singing volume relatively loud. As a result, it is possible to obtain an effect of casually calling attention to a person whose voice is too loud.

  Also, even if the singer is not conscious of lowering his singing volume, in order for the singer to sing along with the accompaniment music, he is forced to listen to the accompaniment music with a reduced volume, To do so, you have to turn down your singing volume.

  As described above, according to the karaoke apparatus of the present invention, when the singing voice volume of a singer singing along with the accompaniment music is too high, the singer can be reminded casually without having to pay attention to it again. It is possible to give an effective chance to voluntarily lower the singing voice volume. Thereby, a singer's singing voice sound volume level can be lowered with high probability, without impairing the pleasure of using karaoke.

=== Concerning Main Configuration and Operation of Second Embodiment ===
The principal part of 2nd Embodiment of this invention is shown with the flowchart (timing chart) of the flowchart of FIG. 4, and FIG.
If it pays attention and demonstrates the difference with 1st Embodiment mentioned above, in this 2nd Embodiment, as shown in FIG.4 and FIG.5, the state where the moving average of microphone input sound volume level exceeds a predetermined reference level arises. If the moving average continues to exceed the specified reference level even after the execution of this control, the duration is counted with a timer. To do. Then, after the timer counts a predetermined time (time up), if the moving average exceeds a predetermined reference level, control is performed to further lower the volume level.

  Thereby, even if it does not call attention to a singer again, it can be further strengthened so that a singing voice volume may be reduced spontaneously.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Central processing unit 12 Hard disk device 13 Optical disk reproducing device 14 Communication control device 15 User interface device 151 Operation panel 152 Karaoke remote control device 16 Music generating device 171 Microphone 172 Speaker 17 Sound device 18 Display (display device)
19 Video processing device 31 Microphone amplifier 32 Microphone volume control unit 33 Microphone volume level detection unit 35 Accompaniment volume control unit 36 Mixing amplifier

Claims (2)

  A karaoke apparatus characterized in that, while obtaining a moving average of amplitude levels of singing voice input from a microphone, an output volume of accompaniment music is reduced when the obtained moving average level exceeds a preset reference level.   2. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output volume of the accompaniment music is further reduced by one step when the state where the moving average level exceeds the reference level continues for a predetermined time or more.

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