JP3996565B2 - Karaoke equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an improvement in scoring accuracy in a karaoke apparatus having a singing scoring function.

  Conventionally, some karaoke apparatuses have a scoring function for scoring the skill of a singer. The scoring function that has been practically used in the past compares the pitch extracted from the reference such as a guide melody with the frequency extracted from the singing voice (for example, Patent Document 1), and adds the evaluation of the volume change to this. (Patent Document 2).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-49183 JP-A-10-161673

  However, since the conventional scoring function determines the score based on how long (number of samples) the singing frequency matches the reference (entered the allowable frequency range), it is easy to stabilize the singing pitch. The song with many slow and long notes had an unbalance that it was easier to get a high score than a song with a short note and a fast tempo. Also, even if the same song sings the part where the short notes continue, it will be possible to obtain a high score by paying attention to the pitch at the part of the long notes, and the true singing skill cannot be judged. There was a drawback.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a karaoke apparatus with a scoring function that can accurately determine the skill of actual singing.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, performance means for playing karaoke music and supplying reference data including pitch information and delimiter information of each note of the singing melody in synchronization with the performance of the karaoke music, and sampling input of the singing voice The singing voice input means, the singing voice is compared with the reference data, and a sample in which the difference between the frequency of the singing voice and the pitch of the singing melody is within an allowable range within a period of one note is predetermined. When the number is greater than or equal to the number of pieces, the note is judged to be acceptable, and a score is determined according to the number of passed or rejected notes. And.

  In the present invention, the weight of a short note is increased and the weight of a long note is decreased, so that the pitch is matched with a short note whose pitch is difficult to obtain (the frequency of the singing voice matches the pitch of the singing melody). And when the difference is within an allowable range), even if the time of the note is short, a higher score can be obtained than when the pitch is accurate with a long note.

  That is, in each note, when the frequency of the singing voice matches the pitch of the singing melody, the note is determined to be a passing note. The higher the number of accepted notes, the higher the score, but the notes are weighted according to the length of time, and the notes that are shorter in time are weighted more. As a result, a high score can be obtained when a difficult song (passage in a song) whose sound changes frequently is sung well.

  Note that the actual time varies depending on the tempo even for the same note, but by measuring the length of the note not by the number of beats but by time (number of samples), it can be determined based on the actual beat time.

  In addition, the present invention is characterized by comprising filter means for low-pass filtering one or both of the pitch information of the singing melody and the inputted singing voice.

  In the present invention, one or both of the pitch information of the singing melody and the singing voice are low-pass filtered. By subjecting the pitch information of the singing melody to LPF processing, the pitch information of the singing melody becomes discontinuous and the mechanical pitch change becomes gentle, and the pitch change of the actual singer can be approached. Further, by subjecting the singing voice to LPF processing, fine frequency fluctuations such as vibrato can be removed, and it is possible to prevent the skillful singing from becoming a low evaluation.

  As described above, according to the present invention, when scoring a singer's song, it is based on the skill of the actual singing more accurately than simply judging by the time and number of times that match the reference data (frequency of singing melody). It becomes possible to make a judgment.

A karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In a karaoke device, the performance of a karaoke song is the operation of outputting the background video / lyric telop to the monitor while generating the music of the karaoke song. The singing voice is scored by comparing it with the reference, and a scoring operation for calculating and displaying the score after the end of the song is executed.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the karaoke apparatus. The karaoke apparatus is composed of a CPU 10 that controls the operation of the entire apparatus and various devices connected thereto. Connected to the CPU 10 are a hard disk 11, a RAM 12, a sound source 13, a mixer (effector) 14, a vocal adapter 19, an MPEG decoder 20, a synthesis circuit 21, and an operation unit 23. The hard disk 11 stores music data for playing karaoke music, video data for displaying a background video on a monitor, and the like. In the RAM 12, an area for reading out programs and music data, a scoring log area for recording scoring results and the like in the scoring mode are set.

  The sound source 13 forms a musical sound signal in accordance with music data (note event data or the like) input by the music sequencer 31 executed by the CPU 10. The formed tone signal is input to the mixer 14. The mixer 14 gives an effect such as echo to the plurality of musical sound signals generated by the sound source 13 and the singing voice signal of the singer input via the microphone 17 -A / D converter 18. Mix the signal with an appropriate balance. The mixed digital audio signal is input to the sound system 15. The sound system 15 includes a D / A converter and a power amplifier. The input digital signal is converted into an analog signal, amplified, and emitted from the speaker 16. The effect that the mixer 14 gives to each audio signal and the balance of mixing are controlled by the CPU 10.

  The singing voice signal converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 18 is also input to the vocal adapter 19. The vocal adapter 19 calculates the singing frequency from the input singing voice signal and also calculates the reference frequency input from the music sequencer 31 of the CPU 10. And this singing frequency and a reference frequency are synchronized and it inputs into CPU10 (scoring mode process 34) every 30 ms. As the reference, guide melody data included in the song data is used. The determined frequency is expressed as a cent value from C0.

  The background video data 41 stored in the HDD 11 is encoded in the MPEG2 format, and the background video reproduction program 33 executed by the CPU 10 reads it and inputs it to the MPEG decoder 20. The MPEG decoder 20 converts the input MPEG data into an NTSC video signal and inputs it to the synthesis circuit 21. The synthesizing circuit 21 is a circuit that synthesizes an OSD such as a lyrics telop or a scoring result display on the video signal of the background video. The synthesized video signal is displayed on the monitor display 22.

  The operation unit 23 includes a panel switch interface, a remote control receiving circuit, and the like, and inputs an operation signal to the CPU 10 according to the operation of the panel switch and the remote control device by the user. The CPU 10 detects this operation signal by the operation input processing program 35 and executes a corresponding process. The operation input processing program 35 is included in the system program.

  The panel switch and the remote control device are provided with various key switches for selecting a song number and selecting a mode such as a scoring mode.

  When a song number is input with a panel switch or a remote control device, the operation input processing program 35 detects this and transmits it to the sequencer 30 as a request for a karaoke song. In response, the sequencer 30 reads the song data of the karaoke song identified by this song number from the song data storage area 40 of the hard disk 11. The sequencer 30 includes a song sequencer 31 and a lyrics sequencer 32, and the lyrics sequencer 32 includes a character pattern creation program 32a. The music sequencer 31 reads the data of tracks such as performance data tracks and guide melody tracks in the music data, and controls the sound source 13 with this data to generate performance sounds of karaoke music. The lyrics sequencer 32 reads the data of the lyrics track in the song data, creates a lyrics telop image pattern based on the data, and outputs the image pattern to the synthesis circuit 21. Further, the background video reproduction program 33 reads predetermined background video data in accordance with an instruction from the sequencer 30 and inputs it to the MPEG decoder 20.

  Here, the music data stored in the hard disk 11 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1A, the song data includes a musical sound track for playing a karaoke song, a guide melody track for generating a guide melody, a lyrics track for displaying a lyrics telop, and a break in the song. The mark data track is written with mark data to be indicated. The song data has a header, audio data, audio data control track, etc. in addition to this, but it is omitted in this figure for the sake of simplicity.

  Each track is described according to the MIDI format. For example, the guide melody track is composed of event data such as note-on event data and note-off event data and timing data indicating the read timing of each event data, as shown in FIG. The note-on event data includes pitch data, and specifies the pitch of a musical tone (guide melody) generated by the note-on. This musical tone continues until the next note-off event data is read out.

  The timing data can be composed of duration data indicating the time interval between the event data, absolute time data indicating the absolute time from the start time of the music, and the like.

  The event data of the musical tone track and the guide melody track is composed of the note event data indicating the pitch, volume, on / off, etc. of the musical tone as described above, and by inputting this note event data to the sound source 13, the sound source Reference numeral 13 sounds or mutes the musical sound corresponding to the event data. The musical sound track is composed of a plurality of tracks (parts) for generating musical sounds of a large number of musical instruments, and the guide melody track is composed of single melody MIDI data for guiding the singing melody.

  Also, mark data indicating various break points in the karaoke song is written in the mark data track. Mark data includes the first chorus mark written at the beginning and the first chorus, the interlude mark written at the first chorus and interlude, the second chorus mark written at the second chorus and the second chorus. There is an ending mark or the like written at the separation between the eyes and the ending, and a rust start mark and rust end mark written at the start / end points of rust in each chorus. This mark is synchronized with the musical tone generated by the performance track and the guide melody track, and is described as a system exclusive message.

  On the other hand, the event data of the lyrics track is sequence data in which the lyrics telop of the karaoke song is implemented by system exclusive data, and has event data different from the musical tone track and the guide melody track. The event data is page break data, lyrics display data, and the like.

  In the performance of karaoke music in the normal mode, the sequencer 30 generates the karaoke performance sound and displays the lyrics telop as described above. In the scoring mode, the scoring process is performed by the scoring mode processing program 34 in addition to this. The action is executed.

  First, with reference to the functional block of FIG. 3, the processing of each unit in the scoring mode will be described. The singing voice signal input from the microphone 17 is converted into a digital voice signal by the A / D converter 18 and input to the vocal adapter 19 (at the same time input to the mixer 14, but here only the operation in the scoring mode will be described. To do). The vocal adapter 19 inputs this digital audio signal to the singing frequency detection unit 102 and detects the singing frequency (cent value).

  On the other hand, reference data is input from the song sequencer 31 to the reference frequency detector 101 in synchronization with the performance of the karaoke song. As described above, guide melody data is used as the reference data. The reference frequency detection unit 101 extracts pitch information from note-on event data of the input MIDI data, and outputs the pitch cent value as a reference frequency.

  The detection of the singing frequency by the singing voice detection unit 102 and the detection of the reference frequency by the reference frequency detection unit 101 are performed in synchronization every 30 ms, and the detection result is input to the scoring mode processing program 34 every 30 ms.

  Further, when note-on / off event data is input from the music sequencer 31, the reference frequency detection unit 101 notifies the scoring mode processing program 34 of note-on information and note-off information at the timing.

  The scoring mode processing program 34 performs low-pass filter (LPF) processing (105, 106) on the input singing frequency and reference frequency. The LPF process for the reference frequency is a process for smoothening the pitch change of the reference (see FIG. 4A), which is a mechanical pitch sequence, and bringing it closer to a human song. Further, the LPF processing for the singing frequency is processing for obtaining flat singing frequency information by removing techniques such as vibrato.

  FIG. 4A shows an example of guide melody data used as a reference. The reference data is mechanical data in which the pitch changes discontinuously at an accurate beat timing even in a legato section in which notes are continuous. By performing LPF processing on such a discontinuous reference, the pitch gradually changes between notes as shown in FIG. It is possible to make the pitch change similar to that of singing. Note that rest sections where notes are interrupted, places where singing with non-legato, etc. are excluded from the LPF processing. As a result, it is possible to prevent the LPF processing from becoming unnatural due to the data of the section without sound.

  FIG. 6C is a diagram showing an example of singing voice frequency data. The singing voice frequency has a gentle transition (so-called “scribbling”) at the transition of notes (pitch), and has a periodic frequency change such as vibrato in the stretched part of the sound. . By performing LPF processing on this singing voice frequency data, it is possible to remove fine frequency changes such as overshoot and vibrato in the squeaky part, as shown in Fig. 4 (D), and accurately extract the frequency that was sung. Will be able to.

  The audio signal input from the microphone 17 includes various noises as well as the singing audio signal. When the level of the noise component is large, the frequency detection unit 102 may detect the frequency by regarding the noise component as a singing voice signal. If such a noise component is input to the LPF processing unit 106, not only the one sample but also erroneous data will be output after that. Therefore, if there is a sudden pitch change of 150 cents or more, which is difficult to consider as a frequency change of the singing voice, ignore the data (adopt the previous sample data again) and perform LPF processing. , It can prevent adverse effects due to noise.

  Since the data sequence of the singing frequency and the reference frequency is discrete data every 30 ms, the LPF processing unit 106 for the singing frequency uses a secondary filter with a cut-off frequency of 5.5 Hz in order to suitably achieve the above processing. The LPF processing unit 105 for the reference frequency uses a secondary filter having a cutoff frequency of 5 Hz.

  In this embodiment, LPF processing is performed on both the singing frequency and the reference frequency, but this processing is not essential. Moreover, even if it carries out only with respect to either one, the said each effect can be acquired.

  The singing frequency and the reference frequency subjected to the LPF processing are input to the scoring unit 107. The scoring unit 107 compares the singing frequency with the reference frequency, calculates a difference (cent value), and determines a pass note and a fail note for each note (note) based on the difference. Since the note-on information / note-off information is input from the reference frequency detection unit 101 to the scoring unit 107, the singing frequency matches the pitch of the singing melody for a predetermined (one or more) samples ( If the number of times the singing frequency matches the pitch of the singing melody is less than the above-mentioned predetermined sample, the “failed note” is determined. It is determined that

  Further, in parallel with the determination of the pass / fail notes, each note is ranked according to the length (shortness) of the note. That is, since it is more difficult to adjust the pitch of a singing note with a shorter note, the notes are ranked according to their time length, and the weight used when calculating the final score is changed.

  FIG. 8A is a diagram showing ranking and weighting of each rank. In this example, a note having a length of 10 samples (300 ms) or less is given as a rank A, and a weight of 1.2 is given. In addition, a note longer than 33 samples (about 1 second) is set to C rank, because it is a long note that can be easily sung, and has a weight of 0.8. The middle 11 to 33 sample notes are given normal weights and given a weight of 1.

  The final score is, as a rule, the percentage of the number of accepted notes to the total number of notes of the song, that is, the number of accepted notes divided by the total number of notes and multiplied by 100. By summing up by rank, each weighting coefficient is multiplied, and the sum of the weighted values is divided by the total number of notes. In consideration of the entertainment function in the karaoke apparatus, 50 is added to a value obtained by multiplying this value by 50 to obtain a maximum of 100 points, and a minimum of 50 points is obtained.

The processing of the scoring mode processing program 34 will be described with reference to the flowchart.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the input monitoring operation. In this operation, the input from the vocal adapter is monitored. When sample data, that is, a singing frequency and a reference frequency every 30 ms are input (s1), LPF processing is executed for both (s3, s4). As described above, only one of the LPF processes may be performed. The result of this LPF process is notified to the scoring process (FIG. 6 etc.).

  On the other hand, when note-on information or note-off information is sent from the reference frequency detector 101 (s2), this is notified to the scoring process (s5).

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the scoring process operation. When note-on information is sent from the input monitoring process (FIG. 5), this processing operation is started.

  First, the counter that counts the number of samples input during the note period, the number of samples within the allowable range (OK samples), and the number of samples outside the allowable range (NG samples) is reset (s9).

  Next, it waits until the sample data, that is, the singing frequency and the reference frequency subjected to the LPF processing, are input (s10). When sample data is input, the sample number counter is counted up (s11). However, even if sample data is input, the processing is started and the first five samples are discarded and the processing returns to the sample data waiting routine (s10) without performing any processing (s32). This is because, as shown in FIG. 4, the frequency is not stable for about 150 ms immediately after the start of the note due to a gradual change in frequency (so-called “shackle”, etc.). This is because.

  As described above, since the first five samples may be greatly deviated from the target frequency, when LPF processing is performed on the singing frequency or the reference frequency, these five samples that are not adopted are subjected to LPF processing of the subsequent sample data. May be deleted from the LPF input so as not to adversely affect the. In this case, when the first five samples are completed, the LPF process may be notified to discard the sample data input so far.

  When sample data after the sixth sample is input, the processing from s13 is executed. In s13, the singing frequency input at that time is compared with the reference frequency to obtain the difference. If this difference is within the allowable range (s14), the OK sample counter is counted up (s15), and if the difference is outside the allowable range, the NG sample counter is counted up (s16).

  When note-off information is input in the sample data waiting routine (s17), it is determined whether or not this note is a passing note based on the OK count number (and / or the NG count number) (s18). Then, the notes are ranked (A / B / C) based on the count value of the number of samples (s19). If it is determined as a pass note (s20), pass note information including the fact that it is a pass note and the rank of this note, etc. is output for the score totaling process for counting the final score (s21). If it is determined as a failing note, failing note information including the fact that it is a failing note and the rank of this note is output to the score totaling process (s22).

  Here, the pass note is determined when the OK count number is equal to or greater than a predetermined value (one or more), or when the NG count number is equal to or less than a predetermined value (0 to plural). May be performed based on a criterion such as when the value is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

  FIG. 7 shows the score totaling process. This process is executed when a music end message is sent from the music sequencer 31 or the reference frequency detection unit 101. First, the number of passing notes is tabulated by rank (s25). Next, the sum of the number of notes for each rank plus the weighting factor is summed and divided by the total number of notes to calculate the base point. The base score is multiplied by 50, and then 50 is added to calculate the final score (s26). The calculated final score is displayed on the monitor 22 (s27).

  In the above embodiment, only the passing notes are targeted for scoring, but the number of rejected notes and their ranks may be subject to scoring.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the notebook is ranked into three steps of A / B / C based on the length of time, ranking is not limited to three steps. Moreover, the boundary line of each rank is not limited to 10 samples and 33 samples. Moreover, the weighting coefficient of each rank is not limited to 1.2 / 1.0 / 0.8.

  Further, instead of classifying each note into a plurality of ranks, as shown in FIG. 8B, a weighting coefficient corresponding to each length may be given. This change curve (including straight lines and broken lines) is not limited to the illustrated one.

  Further, the rank classification, the weighting coefficient, etc. may be common to all the music pieces, or different ones may be set for each genre or each music piece.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the passing note is weighted with the length, you may make it weight a failure note and weight a point. That is, in the above embodiment, the passing notes are accumulated with a weight of 1.2 / 1.0 / 0.8, and the failing notes are uniformly 0, but even if the failing notes are short notes, In this case, a score of about 0.1 to 0.8 is added instead of 0. Also, when a long note fails, a point may be deducted instead of 0.

The block diagram of the karaoke apparatus which is embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the structural example of the song data used with the karaoke apparatus The figure which shows the functional block of the scoring process of the karaoke apparatus The figure explaining LPF processing in the karaoke apparatus The flowchart which shows the input monitoring process of the karaoke device Flow chart showing scoring processing operation of the karaoke apparatus The flowchart which shows the score totaling process of the same karaoke device The figure explaining ranking of notes of the karaoke device

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... CPU, 11 ... Hard disk, 12 ... RAM, 13 ... Sound source, 14 ... Mixer, 15 ... Sound system, 16 ... Speaker, 17 ... Microphone, 18 ... A / D converter, 19 ... Vocal adapter, 20 ... MPEG decoder, 21 ... Synthesis circuit, 22 ... Monitor, 23 ... Operation part,
30 ... Sequencer, 31 ... Song sequencer, 32 ... Lyric sequencer, 32a ... Character pattern creation program, 33 ... Background video reproduction program, 34 ... Scoring mode processing program, 35 ... Operation input processing program,
40 ... song data storage area, 41 ... background video storage area, 43 ... scoring log,
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... Reference frequency detection part, 102 ... Singing frequency detection part, 105, 106 ... Low-pass filter process part, 107 ... Scoring part

Claims (2)

A performance means for playing karaoke songs and supplying reference data including pitch information and break information of each note of the singing melody in synchronization with the performance of the karaoke songs,
Singing voice input means for sampling and inputting singing voice;
When the singing voice is compared with the reference data, and the difference between the frequency of the singing voice and the pitch of the singing melody within an allowable range within a period of one note is a predetermined number or more, It is a means for determining a score for this note and determining a score according to the number of passed or rejected notes, and a scoring means for determining a score with a greater weight for shorter notes;
Karaoke device equipped with.   The karaoke apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a filter unit that performs low-pass filter processing on one or both of the pitch information of the singing melody and the input singing voice.

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