JPH05173560A - Automatic music playing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reflect a performance tempo on the varying speed of characteristics of a generated musical sound by providing a means for setting the performance tempo and a means for outputting information having a value corresponding to the set performance tempo. CONSTITUTION:A performance data memory 10 is previously stored with performance data for an automatic performance. A panel 20 is provided with an operation element for indicating the start of the performance, an operation element for indicating the stop of the performance, an operation element for setting the performance tempo, etc., and a control part 30 monitors the operation states of those operation elements. According to the operation states of those operation elements, the performance data stored in the performance data memory 10 are read out by the control part 30 and supplied to a MIDI circuit 40. The MIDI circuit 40 outputs the supplied performance data to an externally connected musical sound generation device at a specific transfer speed in the form of a signal matching the MIDI standards.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention uses performance data stored internally or performance data generated internally, for example, M
The present invention relates to an automatic performance device that outputs a signal conforming to the IDI standard to the outside.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art MIDI from an external device such as an automatic performance device
2. Description of the Related Art A tone generation device has been realized which generates a tone based on performance data indicating note-on, note-off, etc. supplied via communication means such as a standard. In such a tone generator, portamento, envelope, etc.
When controlling the characteristics of a musical tone such as pitch and volume to change with the passage of time, the changing speed is set by an operator provided on the panel of the musical tone generating device. .. In this case, for example, in the case of portamento, the rate of change is defined as a time constant when the pitch of the musical tone being generated goes from the portamento start pitch to the portamento end pitch, the portamento start pitch. There is one that is defined as the elapsed time from when to the portament end pitch, or one that is defined as the pitch change range per predetermined time.

[0003]

The performance data output from the automatic performance device or the like may be performance data with a fast tempo or performance data with a slow tempo. In this case, for example, when the performance tempo is fast. There is a case where it is desired to match the changing speed of the characteristic of the musical sound with the playing tempo by, for example, increasing the changing speed of the characteristic of the musical sound. However, in the conventional automatic performance device, the speed of the performance is simply changed according to the set performance tempo, and the information indicating the performance tempo cannot be transmitted to the musical sound generation device. In order to match with the performance tempo, it was necessary to set the changing speed of the quality of the musical sound in the musical sound generation device so as to match the performance tempo.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention can change the characteristics of musical tones at a speed according to the performance tempo without resetting the changing speed of the characteristics of musical tones such as pitch and volume on the side of the musical tone generator. It is an object to provide an automatic performance device devised so that it can be performed.

[0005]

The automatic performance apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises means for setting a performance tempo and means for outputting information having a value corresponding to the set performance tempo. It is characterized by having.

[0006]

The automatic performance device of the present invention outputs information having a value corresponding to the set performance tempo. Therefore, the tone generation device side receiving this information determines the characteristics of the musical tone for generating the performance tempo. It is possible to reflect this on the rate of change.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of an automatic performance device to which the present invention is applied. Performance data for automatic performance is stored in advance in the performance data memory 10. Panel 2
0 is provided with an operator for instructing a performance start, an operator for instructing a performance stop, an operator for setting a performance tempo, etc. The operation states of these operators are monitored by the control unit 30. Based on the operation states of these operators, the performance data stored in the performance data memory 10 is read by the control unit 30 and supplied to the MIDI circuit 40. The MIDI circuit 40 outputs the supplied performance data as a signal conforming to the MIDI standard at a predetermined transfer rate to a musical tone generator (not shown) connected to the outside.

The control unit 30 serves as a working area in which a CPU for executing a predetermined program, a ROM for storing the program and data necessary for executing the program, and a register necessary for executing the program are set. It is composed of a RAM and a timer that applies a timer interrupt to the CPU at predetermined intervals. The CPU executes a predetermined main routine and its subroutine for monitoring the operation state of the operators on the panel 20, and also executes a timer interrupt routine (see FIG. 5) at every timer interrupt cycle. Here, this timer interrupt cycle is set by the CPU.

FIG. 2 shows the contents stored in the performance data memory 10. As shown in FIG. 2, one piece of performance data is made up of three kinds of data: type data STATUS, main data DATA, and timing data STET. A large number of performance data composed of such three data are stored in the performance data memory 10, and are sequentially read from the performance data stored at the head address thereof by a timer interrupt routine shown in FIG. 5 described later.
The type data STATUS indicates the type of the performance data, that is, what the performance data indicates. The types of performance data include note-on data and note-off data, as well as performance tempo data and portamento time data related to the present invention.

The main data DATA is the pitch and strength of the musical tone to be generated when the performance data is, for example, note-on data, and the performance tempo value when the performance data is performance tempo data. When the performance data is portamento time data, the portamento time (the time from the start of portamento to the end) is indicated. The timing data STET defines the timing at which the performance data becomes valid.
It shows the elapsed time (difference time) from the last performance data to the performance data as a numerical value proportional to the note length. That is, when the value is "24", the length of the quarter note is shown, and when the value is "12", the length of the eighth note is shown. The tempo value of performance tempo data is 1
It is expressed as the number of quarter notes per minute. Further, the portamento time of the portamento time data is represented by a relative value corresponding to the note length, similarly to the timing data STET.

Next, of the program executed by the CPU in the control unit 30 shown in FIG. 1, a portion related to the present invention will be described. The RAM and the timer are assumed to be initialized when the power is turned on by a main routine (not shown). FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a performance tempo changing routine, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a work area in the RAM. For simplification, the same symbols are used for each register in this work area and the value stored in each register.

Whether or not a performance tempo setting operator (not shown) provided on the panel 20 is operated is monitored by a main routine (not shown), and when this operator is operated, it is shown in FIG. A performance tempo change routine is executed. When this routine is activated, first the tempo value newly set by the performance tempo operator is stored in the tempo value TEMPO in the work area shown in FIG. 4 (step (a)), and then this new value is stored. Tempo value TEMP
The interrupt cycle of the timer in the control unit 30 (see FIG. 1) is set corresponding to O. Where tempo value TEMP
O is expressed as the number of quarter notes per minute, and the interrupt period is an interval of 1 / 24th of the length of the quarter note. For example, when the tempo value TEMPO is “120”, the interrupt cycle is set to about “21 msec”.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the timer interrupt routine. This timer interrupt routine is a routine that is activated in each interrupt cycle generated by the timer. First, in step (c), it is determined whether the timer TM is "0". This step determines whether or not the performance data to be processed has become valid, and when the timer TM is "0", it indicates that the performance data to be processed is valid. There is. When the performance of the timer TM is started, the performance data memory 1
The value of the timing data STET of the performance data at the start address of 0 (see FIG. 1) is stored, and in the middle of the performance, the timing of the new performance data at step (n) described later at the time when the process relating to the performance data immediately before is completed The value of the data STET is stored. In step (d), the value of the timer TM is decremented by "1" to reflect the passage of time.

In step (e), it is determined whether or not the performance data currently being processed is performance tempo data. If it is determined that the performance tempo data is present, the process proceeds to step (f), and the tempo value indicated by the performance tempo data is set to the tempo value TEMPO. Next, in step (g), the timer interrupt period is set by the same processing as in step (b) (see FIG. 3) described above, and the process proceeds to step (j). The process in step (j) will be described later. Here, the performance tempo is set by the performance tempo data in the performance data, but when the user operates the performance tempo setting operator on the panel 20 (see FIG. 1), the routine shown in FIG. , The playing tempo is changed arbitrarily. When it is determined in step (e) that the performance data currently being processed is not the performance tempo data, the process proceeds to step (h). At this step (h), the performance data currently being processed is It is determined whether or not it is portamento time data. If it is determined to be portamento time data, the process proceeds to step (i), and in this step (i), the portamento time indicated by the portamento time data is set to the portamento time value PORTA_TM. Next, in step (j), an absolute portamento time value to be output to an external musical tone generating device is obtained based on the set tempo value TEMPO and portamento time value PORTA_TM. Specifically, the portamento time value PTIME to be obtained is PTIME = PORTA_TM × 2500 / TEMPO
It is calculated according to (1). To specifically describe the meaning of the expression (1), for example, in the case of PORTA_TM = 24 (the length of one quarter note) and TEMPO = 120 (the number of quarter notes per minute is 120), PTIME = 24 × 2500/120 = 500 (msec), which means that the time from the start time to the end time of portamento is 500 msec.

When the absolute portamento time value PTIME is obtained in this way, data based on this portamento time value PTIME is output to the external tone generator as portamento time data of the MIDI signal (step (K)), and proceed to step (m). When it is determined in step (h) that the performance data currently being processed is not also portamento time data, the process proceeds to step (l), and processing relating to performance data other than performance tempo data and portamento time data, For example, processing such as outputting the note-on data as a MIDI signal is performed. In step (m), the address for instructing the performance data memory shown in FIG. 2 so as to process the next performance data is advanced by one, and in step (n), the value of the timing data STET of the performance data newly processed. Is set in the timer TM, and then the process returns to step (c).

The routine shown in FIG. 5 is executed at each timer interrupt cycle, a large number of performance data are sequentially processed, and MIDI signals are sequentially output to an external tone generating device. Next, an example of processing of portamento time data received from the automatic musical instrument on the side of the musical tone generator connected to the automatic musical instrument will be described.

In the tone generation device connected to this automatic performance device, the rate of change in pitch when portamento is applied is set based on portamento time data. The pitch change rate can be set in the same manner as when it is set from the panel which is conventionally used in a normal tone generator or when portamento time data is received by a MIDI signal. For example, the following processing can be performed. That is, when the note-on data is received,
Find the pitch difference between the portamento start pitch (for example, the pitch corresponding to the previously received note-on data) and the portamento end pitch (the pitch corresponding to the newly received note-on data), and then The pitch difference is divided by the value of the portamento time data received as the MIDI signal to obtain the quotient. The tone pitch of the musical tone being generated is changed every predetermined time by an amount corresponding to this quotient. For example, the pitch difference is "12" as the numerical value of the note number in the MIDI signal.
If the value of the portamento time data is "500 (mS)" and the predetermined time (pitch change processing cycle) is "1 mS" (indicating the pitch difference of one octave), " It is sufficient to change the pitch every 1 mS by a value (2.4 cents) obtained by multiplying the quotient (0.024) obtained by dividing 12 "by" 500 "by the pitch (100 cents) for a semitone. "12 cents" if the predetermined time is "5 ms"
The pitch may be changed every 5 ms for (2.4 * 5 = 12). By such processing, the time required from the start to the end of portamento becomes the time defined by the portamento time data in the performance data and the performance tempo, and a musical tone with the portamento effect defined by this time is generated. In this case, the pitch change speed is obtained by setting the pitch change width per predetermined time based on the value of the portamento time data.
By setting the time interval for changing the pitch based on the value of the portamento time data, or when performing a process in which the pitch change draws an exponential curve, the sound is based on the value of the portamento time data. You may make it obtain the pitch change speed by setting the time constant of a pitch change.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the performance tempo is set when the performance tempo is set by the operator on the panel in the automatic performance device or by reading the performance tempo data in the performance data. In this case, the musical tone generating device can automatically obtain the changing speed of the characteristic of the musical tone corresponding to the performance tempo. The portamento time data is 7 from "0" to "127".
Although it is often transmitted and received as a numerical value of a bit, the portamento time required for performance in the wide range is several msec to several sec, so that it is obtained in step (j) of the flow shown in FIG. Value is "0" to "127"
It is desirable to perform logarithmic conversion so that the value of the above corresponds to a value of several msec to several sec and then output it as portamento time data. In this case, the musical tone generating apparatus which has received the portamento time data performs exponential conversion of the inverse characteristic with the above logarithmic conversion to obtain the actual portamento time, and the portamento processing is performed based on this.

In the above embodiment, the case where only the pitch is taken as the characteristic of the musical tone changing with the passage of time and the portamento effect is given is explained, but other characteristics such as the volume (volume) of the sound are described. The present invention can be applied to the case of controlling the time change. Further, in the above embodiment, the automatic performance device outputs the data indicating the absolute portamento time. However, if the information output from the automatic performance device has a value reflecting the performance tempo, For example, it may be one that indicates the width of change in pitch over time or its reciprocal. Alternatively, information having a value indicating the performance tempo itself may be output. In this case, on the side of the musical tone generating device, the width of change in pitch per predetermined time period may be controlled according to the value of the playing tempo to reflect it in the portamento time. In this case, if the received tempo value is standard, the portamento time set on the panel of the tone generator is used as is, and if the received tempo value is half of the standard tempo value, May double the portamento time set on the panel, and if the received tempo value is twice the standard tempo value, the portamento time set on the panel may be halved for use.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the pitch of the portamento start pitch and the portamento end pitch is not particularly considered on the automatic performance device side, and the portamento processing is performed on the musical tone generation device side in consideration of this pitch. I chose
The automatic performance device may perform processing in consideration of this pitch and output portamento time data having a value reflecting this pitch. In this case, it is not necessary to perform the above-described processing in consideration of the pitch on the side of the musical sound generating device. Such processing is performed by the applicant of the present invention in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-26.
It is particularly effective when applied to a case where the portamento effect is added only to the musical tone following the portamento start pitch data as shown in Japanese Patent No. 2251. In this case, it is advisable to output the portamento time data having a value reflecting the pitch just before the note-on data corresponding to the musical sound to which the portamento effect is applied is output.

In the above embodiment, the portamento time data is output only when the performance tempo data or the portamento time data in the performance data is read out. Therefore, the performance tempo operator of the panel 20 is operated. When the performance tempo is changed, the portamento time data corresponding to the new performance tempo is not immediately output, but when the performance tempo operator is operated to change the performance tempo, steps (g), (j), The same process as in (k) may be performed to immediately output the portamento time data corresponding to the new performance tempo.

[0022]

As described in detail above, the automatic performance device of the present invention comprises means for setting a performance tempo and means for outputting information having a value corresponding to the set performance tempo. On the side of the musical tone generating device which receives this information, it becomes possible to reflect the performance tempo on the changing speed of the characteristic of the musical tone to be generated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of an automatic performance device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing stored contents of a performance data memory.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a performance tempo changing routine.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a work area in a RAM.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a timer interrupt routine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 performance data memory 20 panel 30 control unit 40 MIDI circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic performance device comprising: a means for setting a performance tempo; and means for outputting information having a value corresponding to the set performance tempo.