JPH10143173A - Karaoke device (sing along machine) - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To add the harmony, which has a higher tone quality and is enjoyable, by using pitch converted voice and musical instrument sounds based on the interval difference between the melody and the submelody. SOLUTION: A control section 2 discriminates whether submelody information has the interval difference which is more than certain interval (±6 intervals) against main melody information or not. If it is discriminated to have the interval difference which is more than the certain interval, a sound source 13 is asked to output the sound signals of the interval. Then, the outputs of an A/D converter 44 and the source 13 are mixed and outputted. If the interval difference between the submelody information and the main melody information is less than the certain interval (±6 intervals), the outputs of the converter 44 and a pitch converter 46 are mixed and outputted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus capable of adding a suitable harmony effect to a singer's voice.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, so-called communication karaoke, which supplies music data to a karaoke box or the like via a communication line, is becoming popular. In this type of karaoke system,
2. Description of the Related Art There is known a device having a function of automatically giving a chorus sound constituting a consonant sound to a singing voice of a user (hereinafter referred to as a vocal sound). In this type of karaoke system, a chorus sound is generated by shifting (frequency conversion) a vocal sound recorded from a microphone by a predetermined pitch difference, for example, a pitch difference corresponding to melody data for harmony.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional karaoke apparatus of this type. In this figure,
M is a microphone, and the sound (hereinafter, referred to as vocal sound) input from the microphone M is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 44, and then supplied to the effector 49 via the adder S1. Here, effects such as echo and reverb are provided. The output signal of the effector 49 is output after being converted to an analog signal by the D / A converter 50.

[0004] The sound input from the microphone M is A
The signal is input to a pitch converter 46 via a / D converter 44 and an equalizer 45. The pitch converter 46 is a circuit that converts the pitch of an audio signal according to the pitch data PD and outputs the converted audio signals as pitch-converted audio signals P1 to Pn. Here, the pitch-converted audio signals P1 to Pn
Are not always generated, but are generated according to the number of chorus sounds required. In this case, the pitch data PD is data for specifying each pitch (frequency) of the chorus sound.

Next, the pitch-converted audio signals P1 to Pn are
The equalizers 48-1 to 48-n are supplied to the equalizers 48-1 to 48-n via the volumes 47-1 to 47-n, respectively.
The 48-n output signals are added in an adder S2. That is, the pitch-converted audio signals P1 to Pn are adjusted to individual sound volumes, and further mixed after being given equalizer characteristics. Here, the volume 47
The sound volumes of -1 to 47-n are determined by the mixing data MD, and the equalizer characteristics of the equalizers 48-1 to 48-n are determined by the filter data FD. The chorus audio signal obtained by the adder S2 is added to the vocal audio signal in the adder S1, and output via the effector 49 and the D / A converter 50. With the above configuration, the vocal audio signal and the chorus audio signal are mixed, and harmony is automatically given.

Next, reference numeral 41 denotes a music data processing unit,
Music data conforming to the DI (Musical instrument digital interface) standard can be stored on a hard disk or CD-ROM (Compact Dimm
sc Read Only Memory) and read and output this. The music data processing unit 41 extracts main melody information, sub melody information and chord information from music data read from a hard disk or the like and outputs the extracted information. Here, the sub melody information is information indicating the pitch of a chorus part for the main melody, and the chord information is information indicating a chorus part of a chord such as a back chorus. The chord information may be extracted and output from the music data, or may be generated and output from the main melody information or the sub melody information by the music data processing unit 41.

As described above, the external MIDI device 41
The music data is sequentially read, and the information is output according to the progress of the music. Note that the external M used for communication karaoke
The IDI device 41 temporarily stores the song data transferred via the telephone line in the hard disk, and transfers the song data of the designated song from the hard disk to the memory.
Then, the music data transferred to the memory is sequentially processed to generate the above information.

Next, reference numeral 42 denotes a processing unit comprising a CPU and its peripheral circuits (ROM, RAM, etc.).
The pitch data PD, the mixing data MD, and the filter data FD are generated based on the main melody information, the sub melody information, and the chord information supplied from the music data processing unit 41. In this case, when generating the pitch data PD,
Whether it is generated according to the pitch difference between the main melody information and the sub melody information,
Alternatively, a chorus interval is obtained from the main melody information and the chord information, and is generated according to a pitch difference between the main melody information and the main melody information.

[0009] With the above configuration, according to the progress of the music,
The pitch data PD is created, the pitch of the audio signal input from the microphone M is converted accordingly, and various chorus sounds corresponding to the progress of the music are automatically given. The harmony adding device 40 is configured by a portion excluding the microphone M and the music data processing unit 41 from the configuration illustrated in FIG.

[0010]

By the way, in the generation of the harmony sound, the vocal sound is generated by converting the pitch, so that an audio signal having a formant basically similar to the vocal sound is generated. Harmony with the same voice quality as the person himself should be obtained. However, when a harmony sound that is far away from the pitch of the vocal sound (for example, 6 degrees or more) is generated, the formant shape greatly changes, and the voice quality often differs from that of the person. For example, when a harmony is added above the main melody, a high pitched voice like a fast turn of a tape recorder is produced, and when a harmony is added below the main melody, a low-pitched voice often sounds. In any case, an unnatural chorus sound is obtained, and some countermeasures are required.

In the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, after pitch conversion, the gain and the equalizer characteristics are adjusted for each output stage of each harmony, and the sound quality deterioration of data having a large pitch difference is reduced. However, in this method, the sound quality is considerably degraded with respect to an extreme pitch difference, and is not necessarily the optimum method.

Further, there is a method in which all parts of a chorus are electronically generated as musical instrument sounds using a sound source. But,
This method has no problem with the deterioration of the sound quality due to the pitch conversion, but when the pitch is close to the main melody, the sound quality of the musical instrument differs from the sound quality of the real voice, which is not preferable in harmony configuration. Also, voice volume and voice quality are different due to individual differences, etc.
Also from this point, preferable harmony is not always formed.

The present invention has been made under such a background, and a karaoke capable of obtaining an appropriate sound even when the pitch of the harmony sound to be given is apart from or close to the main melody. It is intended to provide a device.

[0014]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a karaoke apparatus which obtains main melody information and sub melody information from music data, and inputs the melody through a microphone. A karaoke apparatus having pitch conversion means for performing pitch conversion according to the pitch difference between the main melody information and the sub melody information and outputting the tone signal, the tone generator means for generating a tone signal corresponding to a designated pitch And, for a sub-melody in which the pitch difference exceeds a predetermined value, a switching means is provided for instructing the sound source means to sound the pitch.

Further, in the karaoke apparatus according to the second aspect, the tone signal output from the sound source means and the pitch-converted audio signal output from the pitch conversion means are synthesized at a ratio corresponding to the pitch difference. 4. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the mixing means increases the ratio of the musical tone signal as the pitch difference increases. Features.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A: Configuration of Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Also, this embodiment
M supplied from the host computer via the communication line
The present invention is applied to a communication karaoke system that stores music data of an IDI (Musical instrument digital interface) on a hard disk or the like, reads out the music data, and reproduces the music. Note that the device shown in FIG. 1 has many parts in common with the device shown in FIG. 4 described above, and the corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will be omitted.

A sound source 13 shown in FIG. 1 generates an electronic musical tone having a designated pitch. The sound source 13 includes not only various instrument sounds but also a pseudo real voice sound that resembles a human voice (for example,
Ah and Wu). The generation of the pseudo real voice may be generated by, for example, filtering a predetermined waveform.
It may be generated by reading the actual voice sampling data stored in the PCM at a period corresponding to the pitch. Further, various musical tones (including pseudo real voices) generated by the sound source 13 are selected by the above-described sound source selection information.

Next, the music data processing section 1 is almost the same as the music data processing section 41 shown in FIG. 4, except that it outputs sound source selection information. The sound source selection information is provided for each music piece and has a function of selecting a tone color in the sound source 13. The control unit 2 generates pitch data PD1, PD2 and mixing data MD based on various information supplied from the music data processing unit 1. Here, the pitch data PD1 is a sub melody (1) having a pitch difference of 5 degrees or less from the main melody.
Alternatively, the pitch of the sub melody in the pitch converter 46 is controlled. Further, the pitch data PD2 is composed of a sub melody (1
Or two or more sub-melody), and controls the pitch of a tone signal generated in the sound source 13. The mixing data MD determines the mixing ratio of the signal output from the sound source 12, the audio signal of the sub melody output from the pitch converter 46, and the audio signal output from the microphone M. That is, the volume of each volume 7-1, 7-2, 7-3 in the mixer 7 is adjusted by the mixing data MD.

B: Operation of Embodiment Next, the operation of this embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described. First, when the music data processing unit 1 starts reproducing MIDI data, main melody information, sub melody information, chord information, and sound source selection information are output.

Then, the control section 2 selects the tone color (musical instrument sound, simulated real sound such as woo, woo) of the tone signal generated in the sound source 13 based on the sound source selection information. Also,
The control unit 2 calculates a pitch difference between the chorus sound and the main melody information based on the main melody information and the sub melody information or the main melody information and the chord information. When the pitch difference is within ± 5 degrees, the pitch data PD1 corresponding to the pitch of the chorus sounds is generated and supplied to the pitch converter 46. For chorus sounds having a pitch difference of ± 6 degrees or more, pitch data PD2 corresponding to those pitches is generated and supplied to the sound source 13. As described above, for the sub-melody having a small pitch difference from the melody, the voice signal whose pitch has been converted by the pitch converter 46 is output. For the sub-melody having a large pitch difference from the melody, the tone signal is output from the sound source 13. Is output. By the above processing, the sub melody of the pitch-converted voice or the sub melody by the tone signal is added to the voice of the singer input from the microphone M. At this time, since the musical tone signal generated by the sound source 13 is assigned to the sub melody having a large pitch difference from the melody, a harmonious chorus can be obtained.

C: Modifications The present invention can be modified in various ways as described below. (1) In the above-described embodiment, whether or not to perform pitch conversion is switched depending on whether or not the pitch difference between the sub melody and the melody exceeds a predetermined value. A signal may be mixed and sounded. In mixing, it is more effective to cross-fade both the melody and the sub melody in accordance with the pitch difference.

To perform a crossfade, for example, RO
M12 stores a cross-fade characteristic when mixing the tone signal output from the sound source 13, the chorus audio output from the pitch converter 46, and the pitch-converted audio signal,
The control unit 2 may generate the mixing data MD based on the cross-fade characteristics. Here, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the cross-fade characteristic. In the illustrated example, the volume level of the pitch-converted sound and the volume level of the tone signal of the sound source 13 are shown. In this case, the level of the tone signal of the sound source 13 increases linearly from the minimum value to the maximum value from the difference of ± 4 degrees to the difference of ± 8 degrees, and the volume level of the pitch-converted sound changes from the difference of ± 4 degrees. It decreases linearly from the maximum value to the minimum value over a difference of ± 8 degrees. Then, in the state of the difference of ± 6 degrees, the volume of both is the same. Therefore, when the cross-fade characteristic shown in FIG. 2 is used, the volume of the musical tone signal increases as the pitch difference increases. For example, three sub-melody (chorus part) is superimposed on the melody, and 3
Assuming that there is a pitch difference of 5th, 8th and 8th, the sub-melody having a pitch difference of 8th is pronounced only by a musical tone signal, and the sub-melody having a pitch difference of 5th is a pitch-converted voice. And the tone signal is mixed (the ratio of the tone signal is slightly low), and the sub melody having a pitch difference of 3 is emitted only by the pitch-converted voice.

Further, a plurality of cross-fade characteristics may be stored in the ROM 12, and a characteristic according to the sound source selection information may be selected. In this case, a crossfade characteristic corresponding to the music is selected.

(2) There is an individual difference to some extent about how far the pitch-converted voice becomes unnatural from the melody. That is, some people do not become unnatural even if the pitch-converted sound has a pitch difference considerably apart from the melody, and others do not even if the pitch-converted sound is slightly away from the melody. In order to compensate for such individual differences, for example, the configuration shown in FIG. 3 may be used. The configuration shown in this figure is different from the configuration shown in FIG. 1 in FIG. 3 in that a formant detection unit 15 for detecting a formant before pitch conversion and a formant detection unit 16 for detecting a formant after pitch conversion are provided. The difference is that the detection results of the two are compared by the comparison unit 17 and the comparison result is supplied to the CPU 2.

When the pitch-converted sound is unnatural, the formants before and after the conversion are significantly different. Therefore, the formants before and after the conversion are compared. A harmonious harmony can be generated even with a sub melody having a pitch difference or a pitch-converted voice. Therefore, the configuration shown in FIG. 3 compares the formants before and after the pitch conversion, and the control unit 2 changes the volume difference between the melody of the pitch data PD1 and the melody according to the comparison result. That is, if the formants before and after the pitch conversion differ from each other beyond a predetermined range, a process of lowering the volume difference from the melody for the pitch data PD1 and raising the volume difference for the pitch data PD2 is performed.

The formant detector 1 shown in FIG.
In 5 and 16, the formants may be classified into several patterns, and it may be detected which of the patterns belongs. In this case, the comparing unit 17 detects whether the patterns match, and outputs the result.

(3) In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the tone generator 13 generates a tone signal when the pitch difference from the melody is ± 6 degrees or more. However, the tone signal is not limited to ± 6 degrees. Another appropriate pitch difference may be set as appropriate. The value may be changed according to the music. In this case, for example, it may be configured to change appropriately using a sound source selection signal.

(4) The tone color of the tone signal generated by the tone source 13 is selected according to the tone source selection information. However, the tone color may be fixed, or may be selected by a switch or the like.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, the main melody information and the sub melody information are obtained from the music data, and the main melody information and the sub melody information are supplied to the singer's voice signal input via the microphone. A karaoke apparatus having pitch conversion means for performing pitch conversion according to a pitch difference of melody information and outputting the result, a sound source means for generating a tone signal corresponding to a specified pitch, and a sub melody wherein the pitch difference exceeds a predetermined value. For the melody, a switching means for instructing the sound source means to produce the pitch is provided, so that a sub-melody that makes the pitch-converted sound unnatural can be produced by a tone signal from the sound source, and Harmony can be realized.

[0030] In addition, there is provided mixing means for synthesizing a tone signal output from the sound source means and a pitch-converted audio signal output from the pitch conversion means at a ratio corresponding to the pitch difference and outputting the synthesized signal. , Both are properly mixed,
A more harmonious chorus sound can be generated.

Also, by increasing the ratio of the tone signal as the pitch difference increases, the more unnatural the pitch-converted sound, the lower the volume and the higher the volume of the tone signal. A more natural chorus sound can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a characteristic diagram showing a mixing balance between a pitch-converted audio signal and a chorus tone signal used in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional karaoke apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... External MIDI device, 2 ... Control part (switching means, mixing means), 46 ... Pitch converter (pitch conversion means), 7 ... Mixer (mixing means), 12 ... ROM (mixing means), 13 ...
Sound source (sound source means), M ... microphone.

Claims (3)

[Claims] The present invention obtains main melody information and sub melody information from music data, and performs pitch conversion according to a pitch difference between the main melody information and the sub melody information on a voice signal of a singer input via a microphone. A karaoke apparatus having a pitch conversion means for outputting a tone signal according to a designated pitch; and for a sub-melody having a pitch difference exceeding a predetermined value, the tone generation means outputs the sound of the pitch to the sound source means. A karaoke apparatus having switching means for instructing. 2. A mixing means for synthesizing a tone signal output by the sound source means and a pitch-converted audio signal output by the pitch conversion means at a ratio corresponding to the pitch difference and outputting the synthesized signal. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 1, wherein 3. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the mixing means increases the ratio of the tone signal as the pitch difference increases.