JPH07146688A - Karaoke (accompaniment to recorded music) device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a KARAOKE (accompaniment to recorded music) device constituted to prohibit to display lyrics at the time of music performance and to enable a game to hit lyrics, etc. CONSTITUTION:This KARAOKE device has a monitor 10 which displays images, a first storage means 4 in which lyric data are stored, a lyric forming section 8 which generates the images of the lyrics displayed on this monitor according to the lyric data, a sound source 14 which generates musical tones according to the performance data, a second storage means 4 in which the performance data to be inputted to this sound source is stored, a control means 15 for selecting whether the lyric data is to be inputted to a lyric forming section or not according to a game program at the time of inputting the performance data to the sound source and a third storage means 4 in which the game programs are stored.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus having a function of displaying lyrics on a monitor as music is played,
In particular, the present invention relates to a karaoke device that prohibits the display of lyrics when playing music and enables a game for hitting a song name and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a karaoke apparatus in which a music piece is played from a speaker and a background image is displayed on a monitor at the same time, lyrics (character strings) in phrase units are superimposed and displayed in order on the monitor. By displaying the lyrics like this, an environment is created in which a singer who does not remember the lyrics can easily sing.

Since this type of karaoke apparatus has a tone generation function for musical tones and a video display function, it is possible to play various games by preparing a game program that uses them. For example, a game in which a song is played in a state where the lyrics are not displayed and the lyrics, song title, singer name, etc. of this song are guessed can be considered.

[0004]

However, in the data used in the conventional karaoke apparatus, since the music, video, and lyrics are not stored independently, it is not possible to play only the music without displaying the lyrics. . For this reason, it is not possible to play a music title matching game or the like with this type of karaoke device.

The present invention provides a karaoke device having a function of displaying lyrics on a monitor as a song is played, which prohibits the lyrics display when the song is played and enables a song title matching game or the like. That is one purpose.

[0006]

The karaoke apparatus of the present invention generates a monitor for displaying an image, a first storage means for storing lyrics data, and an image of lyrics to be displayed on the monitor according to the lyrics data. A lyrics forming section, a sound source for generating musical tones according to performance data, a second storage means for storing the performance data to be input to this sound source, and the lyrics data when the performance data is input to the sound source. The present invention is characterized by comprising control means for selecting whether to input to the forming unit according to the game program, and third storage means for storing the game program.

[0007]

[Function] Lyrics data for displaying lyrics on the monitor,
In a karaoke device of a type in which performance data for synthesizing musical tones by a sound source is stored independently and these are played in synchronization by a sequencer, there is a program for controlling the lyrics to be displayed on a monitor when playing music. Therefore, by controlling the operation of this program, it is possible to create a playing state of a song in which lyrics are not displayed, and in this state, a game can be played in which the lyrics of the song, the song name, the singer name, etc. are played. If there is no correct answer to this game, it is easy to change to a state where the song is played while displaying the lyrics next time.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an entire karaoke apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, 1 is a CPU (central processing unit) that controls and manages the operation of the entire system, 2 is a RAM (random access memory) used when the CPU 1 controls and manages the operation of the entire system, and 3 is the system A data and address bus for combining the whole.

A storage device 4 stores a plurality of music data and game programs, for example, an HDD (hard disk), 5 a panel I / F (interface), and 6 gives an instruction to the system via the panel I / F 5. Controllers such as a plurality of remote controllers, 7 is a background video storage / playback unit that stores and plays back background video, 8 is an image / lyric formation unit for displaying still images and lyrics of the background, and 9 is background video storage / playback A video selector 10 for synthesizing the background video (moving image) from the unit 7 and the image from the image / lyrics display unit 8 is a monitor for superimposing and displaying a plurality of images synthesized by the video selector.

Reference numeral 11 is a microphone for inputting a singer's singing voice, 12 is a mixer for mixing the singing voice and the musical sound of a performance song, and an effector for giving various acoustic effects. Reference numeral 13 is a speaker that amplifies the synthesized singing voice and performance song with an amplifier and outputs the amplified song. Reference numeral 14 is a sound source for generating a musical sound of a performance song, and 15 is a program ROM including a sequencer for controlling the sound source 14 and the mixer, the effector 12 and the like according to the progress of the music. Reference numeral 16 is a digital audio decoder for decoding encoded digital audio data. Although this karaoke device can be configured to receive and store the music data from the host, the description of the receiving and transmitting parts of the necessary data is omitted.

The operation will be described below. During a normal karaoke performance, when a music piece is designated by the operation of the controller 6, the CPU 1 refers to the music list stored in the storage device 4 and encodes the music data of the corresponding music piece and the code for the back chorus. The transferred voice data is transferred to the RAM 2 and the control is transferred to the sequencer 15. Sequencer 15
Is based on multiple event data included in the song data,
Simultaneously execute multiple events including music performances in parallel.

That is, in the sequencer 15, the data relating to the tone color, pitch and pronunciation of the musical instrument is sent to the sound source 14, the coded audio data is sent to the digital audio decoder 16, and the background video number is the background video recording / reproducing unit 7. Further, the image designation information for displaying the lyrics is supplied to the image / lyrics forming unit 8, respectively. As a result, the background image is displayed on the entire surface of the monitor 10, and the lyrics are superposed on a part of the background image, while the speaker 13 is in the playing state in which the playing song and the back chorus are output.

As shown in FIG. 2, the music data includes a header portion,
It consists of a data sequence part and a voice data part. In the header portion, as the information peculiar to the song, a song number, a song name, a composer name, a singer name, background image selection information, and lyric font selection information are written. In the data sequence section, a plurality of tracks describing a plurality of types of events that are executed simultaneously in parallel are set. A plurality of audio information selected by the audio data instruction track of the data sequence section is written in the audio data section.

Among the tracks included in the data sequence section, data for uttering the musical tone of the musical piece to be played from the sound source 14 is described in time series on the performance data track. In the pseudo voice data track, data for producing a pseudo chorus voice (for example, "wow""woo") from the sound source 14 is described in time series. In the audio data instruction track, an audio data number for instructing chorus audio (for example, "Hakodate" and "Nagasaki") to be decoded by the decoder 16,
Each data of pitch and pitch is described. In the lyrics data track, data instructing the lyrics to be displayed on the monitor 10 along with the performance is described in time series. In the effect control data track, control data for controlling the mixer and the effector 12 are described in time series.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing details of the performance data track. Events of this performance data track include note events, tone color change events, and pitch bent events. In the note event, a CH number designating one CH (channel) to be sounded by the sound source 14, a note number (pitch), a velocity (volume), and a note length are written, and corresponds to this event. By sending the command (data) to the sound source 14, it is possible to generate a musical tone of a predetermined tone color, pitch, and volume corresponding to a predetermined note length. A CH number and tone color data are written in the tone color change event, whereby a tone color of a predetermined CH can be changed. The CH number and pitch bend information are written in the pitch bend event, so that the pitch bend effect control of the tone color assigned to a predetermined CH can be realized.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing details of the voice data instruction track and the lyrics data track. Each piece of information of the voice instruction event is described in the voice data instruction track. That is, it is information about the voice data number, the pitch, and the volume. The audio data number is the number of encoded audio data to be decoded by the decoder 16, and is the audio number of the audio data of FIG.

In the lyrics data track, each piece of information of the lyrics event, that is, display character data, display time, and wipe sequence are described. The display character data includes a character string displayed on the monitor 10, generally the type of display character for one phrase, and the address number on the monitor for displaying each character. The display time is time information indicating the time when the display character string is displayed. The wipe sequence is
This is a description of a procedure for sequentially changing the display color of the displayed character string in the direction of progression of the musical piece in synchronization with the progress of the musical piece being played. As shown in FIG. 5, all tracks have a structure in which the type of event and the waiting time ΔT until the next event occurs are arranged in time series.

When playing a game with this karaoke apparatus, the controller 6 designates the type of the game. In this case, the CPU 1 loads the corresponding game program on the HDD
4 to RAM2. This game program is R
When expanded to AM2, the sequencer 15 controls game processing, not normal karaoke performance.

Various game programs can be considered. In Figure 6, only the music is played without displaying the lyrics.
It is a processing flow of a game in which a song name / composer name / singer name, etc. are guessed. When this program is started, initialization is performed in step S1. In the next step S2, the difficulty level is input from the controller 6. The "difficulty level" is incomprehensible, and, for example, a request frequency is lower and a difficulty level is higher. Actually, each terminal temporarily stores the number of requests for each song played (terminal frequency file), and when exchanging information with the center such as distribution of new songs, the frequency file of each terminal is sent to the center, Aggregate it and create a frequency file. A frequency file indicating this degree of difficulty is stored in the HDD in advance when distributing new songs from the center.
4 is downloaded and used, or a frequency file is created (updated) on the karaoke machine side from the actual number of requests.

Since a plurality of pieces of music having the same frequency are registered in the frequency file, a piece of music is automatically selected from them in step S3. Here, if you select one song, the CPU
1 transfers the corresponding music data from the HDD 4 to the RAM 2 in step S4. In step S5, the sequencer 15
Starts playing based on the music data written in the RAM 2, but at this time, only the lyrics data track is not played back. That is, the lyrics display on the monitor 10 is prohibited by not transmitting the lyrics data to the lyrics forming unit 8. Also, the performance is a part of the song, for example 1 of the intro
Use only phrases.

In step S6, a timer for answering time limit is started simultaneously with the start of playing, and in step S7, the end of the time limit is monitored. In step S8, it is monitored whether or not there is any data input from the controller 6 within the time limit, and if there is no data, the process returns to step S7, but if there is, it is determined in step S9 whether or not the input number is equal to the song number ( This example is a game in which the "song name" is guessed by the "song number". If they are not equal, the incorrect answer process is performed in step S10, and the process returns to step S7. If they are equal, the process branches to step S12 to display the answer.

If the timer count exceeds the predetermined value (exceeds the time limit) in step S7, the process moves to step S11 to determine whether or not the answer display is required. When the time limit has passed for the first time, the process proceeds to step S15, the performance including the lyrics data is restarted, and the timer is restarted at step S6. That is, the second time, the song is played while the lyrics are displayed on the monitor 10, and the song name is guessed.

When it is determined in step S7 that the second time limit has expired, it is determined in step S11 that the answer display is required, and the process proceeds to step S12. Step S1
In 2, the correct song title is displayed on the monitor 10. In the next step S13, scoring and other processing are performed, and in step S14, it is determined whether or not the game is over. If it is determined that the game is over, an end process (END) is performed, but if it is determined that the game is not over, the process returns to step S3 to select the next song.

FIG. 7 is an example of a music title answer input screen displayed on the monitor 10 by the display control included in the game program. In this example, up to four persons can each use the controller 6 to input an answer. PLA
Y1 to PLAY4 indicate the input screens of the respective respondents, and next to them, the cumulative scores as scores are 0, 5, 10, 20.
Etc. are displayed.

This example shows the song input screen of each player when the song name "Kikikai Kai" is correct.
The character input is converted into a music number and compared in step S9 of FIG. In the display example, the PLAY1 person does not know the correct answer, and the cursor is not moving from the "A" part of the Japanese syllabary display. The person in PLAY2 knew the correct answer, "Kikikaikai," so the cursor is located at "Ka" in the middle of moving the Japanese syllabary cursor to "Ki". The PLAY3 person is moving the cursor to "ki", and at this stage the controller 6
When you press the ENTER button of the
The screen switches to a song name list screen in which "ki" is an initial letter, such as 4. The player moves the cursor up and down on the screen of the music list and presses the enter button, so that the answer converted into the music number is compared in step S9 of FIG.

In the above example, the game in which the song name is applied is explained, but a game in which the lyrics, the composer name, the singer name, etc. are applied can be similarly executed.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a karaoke apparatus having a function of displaying lyrics on a monitor as a song is played, the lyrics display when the song is played is prohibited,
It is possible to provide a karaoke device that enables a lyrics guessing game and the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an entire karaoke device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of music data.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing details of a performance data track.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing details of a voice data instruction track and a lyrics data track.

FIG. 5 is a time-series structure diagram of each track.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of a game program.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an answer screen of a music name guessing game.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... CPU, 2 ... RAM, 3 ... Bus, 4 ... Song data storage device, 5 ... Panel I / F, 6 ... Controller, 7 ... Background video storage / playback section, 8 ... Image / lyric display section, 9 ... Video Selector, 10 ... Monitor, 11 ... Microphone, 12 ... Mixer and effector, 13 ... Amplifier and speaker, 14 ... Sound source, 15 ... Program ROM and sequencer, 16 ... Digital audio decoder.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A monitor for displaying an image, a first storage means for storing lyrics data of lyrics, a lyrics forming unit for generating an image of lyrics to be displayed on the monitor according to the lyrics data, and a musical tone according to performance data. And a second storage means for storing the performance data to be input to this sound source, and whether or not to input the lyrics data to the lyrics forming unit when the performance data is input to the sound source. A karaoke device comprising: a control unit for selecting according to a game program; and a third storage unit for storing the game program.