JPH10232674A - Sound processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the convenience of selecting operation when stored processing characteristics are selected by performing a sound processing on the basis of processing characteristic data corresponding to a characteristic display image selected on a list display by operating an operation means. SOLUTION: In response to the operation of an EQ list key, a control part 6 calculates equalizing characteristics. Image data for displaying the equalizing characteristics graphically are generated and expanded in a specific area of a G data memory 8. Then the control part 6 transmits the image data, expanded in the G data memory 8, as display data to a display part 5. Namely, an image listing the respective EQ data contents as registered equalizing characteristics with equalizing characteristic curves is displayed. A user operates cursor keys over a look at the list display to select desired equalizing processing characteristics. Then sound processing characteristics are selected out of registered processing characteristics and executed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sound processing apparatus that can be used in an audio system or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various sound processing apparatuses such as an equalizer and a reverb, their processing characteristics are stored in a memory, and when used by a user, the processing characteristics are selected from the stored processing characteristics according to the user's preference. In many cases, a processing characteristic is selected based on the processed processing characteristics. The processing characteristic stored in the memory is, for example, characteristic data set by the manufacturer as a factory preset, or characteristic data set by the user himself.

For example, taking an equalizer as an example, processing characteristics (in this case, frequency characteristics) include processing characteristics according to music genres such as equalizing processing characteristics suitable for classical music and equalizing processing characteristics suitable for rock and pop. Or, equalizing processing characteristics according to the listening environment such as in a car, a room, a hall, etc. are provided as factory presets so that a user can select them. In addition, the user can change some of the characteristics of these factory presets, or set a completely new equalizing processing characteristic by himself, register this in memory, and then select and call that processing characteristic later, The same equalizing can be performed.

[0004]

Some processing characteristics to be registered in the memory are given simple names so that the user can easily select them. For example, as a type of the above-mentioned equalizing characteristics, "lock"
If registered names such as "classic", "car stereo", and "room" are set, the user does not have to get lost when selecting. For example, FIG. 7 shows an example of a screen for selecting an equalizing characteristic. For each of the ten frequency characteristics registered in the memory, “Memory1” to “Memory” are displayed.
ry10 ". This registered name does not particularly match the acoustic feature of the characteristic, but the name can be set arbitrarily, for example, “Memory1” to “M”.
A registered name such as "rock" or "classic" may be used instead of "emory10". In any case, the user can select a desired processing characteristic by performing an operation while looking at the registered name. For example, as shown in FIG.
If it is positioned at “memory 7” and the enter operation is performed in that state, an equalizing process based on the processing characteristics registered as “Memory 7” is executed.

[0005] However, various circumstances such as the number of characteristics to be registered in the memory being large, the user performing delicate processing characteristic setting and registering the same, and the equalizer having a large number of adjustment bands, etc. so,
It is often difficult to give an appropriate name to each processing characteristic, or when, for example, a registration number is used as shown in FIG. 7, it is often difficult to know which characteristic is what name. Along with this, at the time of actual selection of the processing characteristics, the user does not know which of the stored processing characteristics is the one desired by the user and hesitates about the operation.

Also, frequency characteristics of equalizing, etc.
If the characteristics themselves can be viewed in a graph form, for example, it is considered that even if various processing characteristics are registered, it is easy to determine whether each is the desired characteristic. In a device having a function of displaying the characteristic itself, the selected characteristic is displayed when a certain processing characteristic is selected (that is, at the time of actual processing execution), and does not serve as a guide for the selection operation. .

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to improve the convenience of the operation of selecting a stored processing characteristic.

For this reason, at the time of the selection operation of the processing characteristic, the control means generates characteristic presentation image data which can be set from the characteristic data value for each of the plurality of processing characteristic data stored in the storage means, and Are displayed in a list on the display means. Then, based on the processing characteristic data corresponding to the characteristic presentation image selected by the operation of the operation means on the list display, control is performed so that the sound processing by the sound processing means is executed.
According to the present invention, for example, even when a large number of processing characteristics or processing characteristics having subtle differences are stored, characteristics such as frequency characteristics and time change characteristics can be viewed in a graph form as a characteristic presentation image. If possible, the user can most accurately determine what the processing characteristics are.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. It is assumed that the sound processing device of this example is an equalizer device. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an equalizer device mounted on a sound reproduction system or the like. An audio signal to be equalized is input from a terminal 1 and supplied to an equalizing processing unit 2. The equalizing processing section 2 performs necessary equalizing (frequency characteristic processing) on the audio signal, and outputs the signal from the terminal 3 to a subsequent device. Note that the input / output audio signal (equalizing processing target signal) may be an analog audio signal or a digital audio signal. Of course, in the case of an analog audio signal, the equalizing processing unit 2 has an analog filter configuration, and in the case of a digital audio signal, it has a digital filter configuration.

[0010] The equalizing processing in the equalizing processing section 2 is executed under the control of the control section 6. The control unit 6 is configured by, for example, a microcomputer, and serves as an internal memory (or an external memory device).
Memory 7 for storing data of various equalizing characteristics
(Hereinafter referred to as an EQ memory). That is, the EQ memory 7 stores and holds various frequency characteristic data based on factory presets and frequency characteristic data set by the user. For example, BAND1 to BAND10 by factory preset or user setting
Assuming that 10 types of equalizing characteristics are registered, EQ memory 7 has B as shown in FIG.
This means that data EQd1 to EQd10 of each equalizing processing characteristic are stored as AND1 to BAND10.

If the equalizing processing characteristics that can be selected are only those of the factory preset without considering the user settings, they may be stored as a ROM. In addition, since it is required that the data of the equalizing processing characteristics according to the factory preset and the user setting is not lost even when the power is turned off, E
It is preferable that the Q memory 7 is actually configured as a non-volatile memory or the like, or an S-RAM or the like having a backup configuration.

The equalizing control of the control unit 6 includes:
The equalizing processing unit 2 is controlled based on a processing characteristic selected by a user operation or the like from among the equalizing processing characteristics stored in the EQ memory 7. For example, the gain of each band to be subjected to individual frequency characteristics is set according to the selected equalizing processing characteristic, and transmitted as a processing coefficient of each band filter in the equalizing processing unit 2. Thus, the audio signal from the terminal 1 is subjected to frequency characteristic processing according to the selected equalizing processing characteristic, and is output from the terminal 3.

The control unit 6 further monitors a user operation using the operation unit 4 and performs processing in accordance with the operation, and performs display control on the display unit 5 and the like. The operation unit 4 is provided with, for example, a menu key 42, an EQ list key 42, a cursor key 43, an enter key 44, and the like as shown in FIG. With these key operations, the user sets the equalizing characteristics or performs an operation of selecting the equalizing characteristics registered in the EQ memory 7. However, the user operates the equalizing characteristics, which is a characteristic operation of this example. The selection operation will be described later.

When the display unit 5 is executing the equalizing processing with the processing characteristics of the equalizing processing unit 2, the control unit 6 causes the display unit 5 to display an acoustic characteristic (spectrum analyzer display) by the processing, When the user sets the equalizing processing characteristics, control is performed to execute the setting input screen display. Further, at the time of selecting operation of the equalizing processing characteristic stored in the EQ memory 7, a display for improving the selecting operation is performed as described later. Display data for the display unit 5 is, for example, a graphic data memory 8 serving as an internal work RAM.
Expand to Then, by supplying the data developed in the graphic data memory 8 to the display unit 5, a required display operation is executed.

The operation of the equalizer of this embodiment when the user selects the processing characteristic will be described with reference to FIGS. In the case of this example, when the user selects the equalizing processing characteristic, the user presses the EQ list key 42 of the operation unit 4 shown in FIG. In response to the operation of the EQ list key 42, the control unit 6 starts the processing of FIG. First, in step F101, a variable n is set to n = 1. Then, in step F102, the variable n is compared with the constant MAX. The constant MAX is the maximum number of equalizing processing characteristics that can be stored in the EQ memory 7. If the variable n is equal to or smaller than the constant MAX, the process proceeds to step F103, where the EQ memory 7 reads the EQ data content EQd (n) stored as BAND (n), and the EQ data content EQd
The equalizing characteristic set as (n) is calculated. Subsequently, in step F104, image data of an equalizing characteristic curve having, for example, a horizontal axis as a frequency axis and a vertical axis as a level is generated as image data for graphically presenting the equalizing characteristic, and the image data is stored in a graphic data memory. 8 to the required area. Then, the variable n is incremented in step F105, and the process returns to step F102.

The processing in steps F103 to F105 is repeated a number of times corresponding to the constant MAX, since it is determined in step F102 that the variable n has exceeded the constant MAX. That is, for example, the constant MAX = 10, and the EQ memory 7 has a maximum of 10 EQ processing characteristic EQs.
Assuming that the data contents (EQd1 to EQd10) can be stored, the processing of steps F103 to F105 is performed on each of the EQ data contents, whereby the equalizing characteristic curves for each of the EQ data contents EQd1 to EQd10 are obtained. Is developed in the graphic data memory 8.

After the above processing is completed and the process proceeds from step F102 to step F106, the control unit 6 executes the image data developed in the graphic data memory 8, that is, the image data of the equalizing characteristic curve for each of the EQ data contents EQd1 to EQd10. Is transmitted to the display unit 5 as display data. At the same time, cursor display control is performed. As a result, a display such as that shown in FIG. That is, as the equalizer memory list, an image is displayed in which each of the registered EQ data contents EQd1 to EQd10 as the equalizing characteristic is displayed in a list with an equalizing characteristic curve. In this case, “Memory1” to “Memory1”
As "0", each of the EQ data contents EQd1 to EQd10 is listed as a characteristic curve on the frequency axis.

At this time, "M" attached to each processing characteristic
The display of "memory1" to "Memory10"
The name may be simply assigned automatically in the order of registration, or the user may be given a registered name corresponding to each of the EQ data contents as shown in FIG. May display a registered name arbitrarily given to each equalizing processing characteristic.

In the display state of FIG. 5A, the cursor K is displayed at the position of "Memory 1" as a default state. The display position of the cursor K at the start of the list display may be, for example, the position of the processing characteristic selected last time.

The user operates the cursor key 43 shown in FIG. 2 while viewing the list as shown in FIG.
Is moved to select desired equalizing processing characteristics. That is, the user selects a desired frequency characteristic while looking at the frequency characteristic curve. The controller 6 monitors the operation of the user in steps F107 and F108 during execution of the list display. When the cursor key 43 is operated, the process proceeds from step F108 to F109, where the cursor key 43 is displayed.
The display position of the cursor K is moved according to the operation of.

For example, when the user desires the processing characteristic as “Memory 7”, the cursor key 43 is operated to move the cursor K to “Memory 7” as shown in FIG.
7 ”. Then, the enter key 44 is pressed in this state. Then, the process of the control unit 6 proceeds to step F11.
It is assumed that the process proceeds to 0 and the equalizing processing characteristic selected by the cursor K is selected and determined. Then, in step F111, the selected equalizing processing characteristic “Memory7”, that is, the EQ
The control of the equalizing processing unit 2 is performed so that the processing of the characteristic registered as the data content EQd7 is executed.

In such a processing characteristic selection method of this example,
For each of the registered equalizing processing characteristics, the user looks at an image that clearly expresses the characteristic itself, for example, in this example, a graph image with a frequency axis and a level axis,
Desired processing characteristics can be selected. In other words, since the characteristic itself can be selected using an image that clearly expresses the characteristic, the user does not know the correspondence between the characteristic itself and the registered name, as in the case of selecting with the registered name of the processing characteristic, and hesitates in the selection operation. Disappears. Further, since the characteristics themselves are presented in the form of a graph, for example, subtle differences in processing characteristic settings can be clearly distinguished. From these facts, the user's operability for selection is significantly improved.

As in the present embodiment, the graph image of the frequency characteristic indicating the equalizing processing characteristic itself can be generated from the stored data content of the equalizing processing characteristic itself. Therefore, as display data at the time of selection,
It is not necessary to store display data unique to each characteristic such as a name and a special icon in the memory. For example, EQ
It is not necessary to register character data such as names and image data for forming unique icons in the memory 7 in correspondence with the contents of each EQ data. This makes it possible to save the memory capacity and, consequently, increase the number of equalizing operations. It is possible to register processing characteristics or to reduce the size of a mounted memory. Of course, if there is enough memory capacity, a registered name may be added according to each equalizing processing characteristic as described above.

In this embodiment, the number of equalization processing characteristics registered in the EQ memory 7 is 10 at the maximum, and 10
The example in which the individual characteristics are displayed as shown in FIG. 5 has been described,
Actually, it is conceivable that a larger number of equalizing processing characteristics can be registered. On the other hand, the screen size of the display unit 5 cannot be so large.
That is, it is conceivable that not all processing characteristics can be displayed in a list on one screen. In this case, the frequency characteristic graph is sequentially scrolled with a cursor operation, or registered by moving a page on the screen. All of the processing characteristics may be displayed according to the operation of the user. In addition, in order to allow a greater number of registration processing characteristics to be efficiently selected, the registration data content may be hierarchized.

Incidentally, in the above example, the equalizer device has been described, but the present invention can be applied to other various sound processing devices. For example, a sound effector such as a reverb device, an echo delay device, a compressor / limiter device, or a filter device, or a time alignment function that adjusts the sound wave arrival time from multiple speakers to a listening point according to the distance (delay function for each channel) ) And crossover network system functions. In other words, the present invention can be applied to a function / apparatus in which a usage mode in which audio processing content is registered and a user selects and executes the registered audio processing characteristic is implemented.

FIG. 6 shows a display example when the present invention is applied to a reverb device. As a configuration of the reverb device, the equalizing processing unit 2 in FIG. 1 in the example of the equalizer device may be configured to replace the reverb processing unit. Then, in response to the user's list operation, the control unit generates image data indicating the characteristics themselves for each of the reverb processing characteristics stored in the memory, and displays the list as shown in FIG. In the case of the reverb characteristic, the image data indicating the characteristic itself has time on the horizontal axis and level (reverberation level) on the vertical axis, and the time and level as the original sound, the early reflection sound, and the rear reverberation sound are graphed as shown. It is good to be expressed in form. Then, the user looks at the displayed image representing the characteristic itself and selects a desired characteristic, and the control unit causes the reverb processing unit to execute a process using the selected characteristic. With such a configuration and operation, the same effect as in the case of the equalizer device can be obtained.

In the case of an apparatus other than the reverb apparatus, such as an echo delay apparatus and a compressor / limiter apparatus, which produces an acoustic effect observed on the time axis, at least one axis is used as an image representing the characteristic itself. It is preferable to use a graph form. In the case of an echo / delay device, the delay time and the number of delays / level are represented in the form of a graph on the time axis. In the case of a compressor / limiter device, the attack time, release time, etc. are represented in the form of a graph on the time axis. It should be done. On the other hand, in an equalizer device or a sound processing device such as a filter device (a low-pass filter, a band-pass filter, a high-pass filter, a notch filter, and a comb filter) as a level process according to frequency, at least one axis is used as an image representing the characteristic itself. May be in a graph form in which is a frequency axis.

It goes without saying that various examples other than those shown in FIG. 4 can be considered as the processing procedure for the actual list display and selection operation.

[0029]

As described above, the sound processing apparatus of the present invention generates characteristic presentation image data which can be set from characteristic data values for each of a plurality of processing characteristic data stored in the storage means, and performs each processing. A list of characteristic presentation images of characteristic data is displayed by the display means. Then, on this list display, control is performed so that sound processing by the sound processing means is executed based on processing characteristic data corresponding to the characteristic presentation image selected by the operation of the operation means. As a result, the user can select a desired processing characteristic without hesitation while viewing the characteristic presentation image expressing the characteristic itself, thereby realizing simplification and speeding up of the operation, and improving operability. be able to.

In the case of an apparatus that performs processing relating to frequency characteristics, the characteristic presentation image is an image in the form of a graph having a frequency axis. In the case of an apparatus that performs processing relating to change characteristics on the time axis, the characteristic presentation image is used. Is suitable as presentation of the characteristics themselves by making the image in a graph form having a time axis.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an equalizer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an operation unit of the equalizer device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of stored data contents of the equalizer device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process when selecting a characteristic of the equalizer device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a display operation of the equalizer device of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a display operation of a reverb device according to another embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional display operation for selecting characteristics.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Equalizing processing unit, 4 operation unit, 5 display unit,
6 control unit, 7 EQ memory, 8 graphic data memory, 42 EQ list key, 43 cursor key,
44 Enter key

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sound processing means for performing predetermined sound processing on an input audio signal and outputting the result, a display means, an operation means, and a storage means for storing a plurality of processing characteristic data relating to the predetermined sound processing. For each of the plurality of processing characteristic data stored in the storage unit, generate characteristic presentation image data that can be set from characteristic data values, and display a list of characteristic presentation images for each processing characteristic data on the display unit. ,
On this list display, based on processing characteristic data corresponding to the characteristic presentation image selected by the operation of the operation means,
Control means for controlling the sound processing means so that the sound processing is executed; and a sound processing apparatus. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined acoustic processing is processing relating to a frequency characteristic, and the characteristic presentation image is an image in the form of a graph having a frequency axis.
A sound processing device according to claim 1. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined sound processing is processing relating to a change characteristic on a time axis, and the characteristic presentation image is an image in a graph form having a time axis. Sound processing equipment.