JPH11284455A - Audio signal processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To switch selection in the inside or at the outside of a channel of audio signal processing by providing a display screen for a plurality of icons, where icons denoting selected processing operations are displayed in ways different from icons denoting processing operations that are not selected. SOLUTION: When one of sensors on a touch panel fader 30 is touched, a corresponding fader display on a display screen is caused to color, in contrast to a color of remaining screens. Similarly, when a hand of the user approaches any of the faders, the fader is colored in a color from among several contrast colors. A control computer 20 receives a 3-byte word, only when the state of a fader corresponding to a channel changes, wherein each byte of the 3-byte word includes a 1-byte header and a payload having channel information, and a signal processing unit 50 reads the 3-byte word and rewrites data displayed on a display screen.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to audio signal processing.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In audio signal processing devices such as audio mixing consoles, there are often many different audio signal processing operations (equalization, threshold operation, etc.). These can be switched in or out of the channel for audio signal processing. In a traditional console,
This operation is performed using a hardware switch.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In many different audio signal processing operations, an object of the present invention is to switch audio signal processing channels by software by selecting an icon on a display screen.

[0004]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an audio signal processing device having the following means. An audio processor operable to provide one or more processing operations from a set of audio signal processing operations to an input audio signal; adjustment controls for adjusting processing parameters associated with each set of processing operations; A selector for selecting whether a set of individual audio signal processing operations should be applied to the current input audio signal, and an icon representing each processing operation of the set of audio signal processing operations, There is provided an audio signal processing apparatus comprising: an icon representing a processing operation; an icon representing a processing operation not currently selected; and a display screen for displaying a plurality of icons displayed in a different manner.

In the present invention, a display screen is provided for displaying an icon representing each processing operation applicable to the processing channel. When a processing operation is activated or switched to that channel, a corresponding icon is displayed and adjustments can be made to the parameters associated with that icon.

If that action is not currently selected,
The icon is still displayed, but is displayed in a different way (ie, displayed in a different color). Then, adjustments can be made to the processing of the parameters related to the icon.

Accordingly, the user can easily know which operation can be performed at present, but can adjust any operation regardless of whether or not the user is currently activated.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The matters described here are merely examples, and the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout.

FIG. 1 shows an audio mixing console, which includes a touch detection display screen 10, a control computer 20, a touch panel fader 30, a slave display screen 40, and a signal processing device 50.

The basic operation of the audio mixing console is as follows. The signal processing device 50 receives audio signals in analog or digital form and sends them to the control computer 2.
To process according to the parameters provided by 0. The user can adjust parameters generated by the control computer 20 by touching (touching) the display screen 10 or operating the touch panel fader 30. Parameter adjustments for both these modes are described in detail below.

A slave screen 40 is provided for displaying various measurement information such as audio signal levels at different points in the mixing console.

FIG. 2 illustrates a digital signal processing device 50. The digital signal processor 50 receives parameter information and filter coefficients from the control processor 20 for controlling data and filter coefficient flows inside the digital signal processor 50, and sends measurement information back to the control computer 20. Output (I / O) buffer 110, random access memory (RAM) 12 for storing current parameter data
0, a program DSP unit 130, an input analog-to-digital converter 140 (if required) for converting the input analog audio signal to a digital signal, and An output digital-to-analog converter 150 is included.

FIG. 3 illustrates the structure of the control computer 20. The control computer 20 includes a central processor 200 connected to a communication bus 210. The communication bus includes an input buffer 220 for receiving data from the fader panel 30, a random access memory (RAM) 230, a program storage memory 240,
IOS color map 250, video card 260 including video card color map, digital signal processor 5
An input buffer 270 for receiving data from 0 and an output buffer 280 for transmitting data to the digital signal processor 50 are included.

FIG. 4 shows a display on the display screen 10 which can detect a touch. Running vertically on each side of the display, there are 10 groups of strips 300 divided into two groups, laid out in an arrangement similar to the physical layout of a conventional (hardware) audio mixing console. I have. Each channel strip is identical to the other channel strips (apart from adjustments made by the user to the various parameters defined thereby), which channel strips are described with reference to FIGS. 6A and 6B below. I do.

At the center of the display 310 is a main fader 320, a routing and equalization control 330.
And a display meter 340. This channel strip provides a visual indication of the current state of the control (by providing a visual feedback of the current adjustment state and displaying the current rotational position, rather than allowing the rotational potentiometer configured in hardware to be adjusted by the user). In addition to the display, it includes several controls that can be adjusted by the user.

This situation is shown in more detail in FIGS. 6A and 6B. Thus, since the parameters are adjusted by the user, the control computer 20 changes corresponding to the displayed value on the display screen 10 and replaces the filter or control coefficient that controls the corresponding processing operation performed by the signal processing device 50. Sets also occur.

Meter 340 provides, for example, a simple level indication for the left and right channels output by DSP 130. (In that case, the control processor 100 and the I /
The level information is sent from the DSP 130 to the input buffer 270 of the control computer via the O-buffer 110. )

FIG. 5 illustrates the fader panel 30. The fader panel 30 is a substantially linear array of elongated touch sensors. The touch sensors are described in more detail below, but, in brief, they are arranged to output three pieces of information to a control computer. (A) The sensor is attached at an arbitrary position along the length direction. (B) A position along the longitudinal direction of the touched fader. (C) Signal indicating that the user's hand has approached the sensor Suitable sensors are described in WO 95/31817.

The fader panel includes one such sensor 350 for each strip on the display screen and the main fader control 32 on the display screen.
Other sensors corresponding to 0 are included. The state of the current level or parameter control is thus indicated on the screen. Touch screens and fader touch sensors can be used to adjust the current level in either direction, but this is only a relative adjustment of the current level. In other words, a particular finger position on the fader touch sensor is not mapped to a particular gain value for the corresponding channel, but instead is adjusted to increase or decrease the gain value on the touch sensor. Is mapped.

Thus, when an adjustment is made by the fader panel, the user touches the appropriate fader touch sensor (for the particular channel or main fader to be adjusted). The user then moves his finger above and below the touch sensor. Whatever the user's finger starts at the linear position along the sensor, an adjustment is made with respect to the current level of gain control represented by that fader.

FIGS. 6A and 6B both illustrate channel strips. This channel strip illustrates on a display screen a number of audio signal processing controls and devices that can be placed in the signal processing path for each of those channels. In order from the top in FIG. 6A, there are an input preamplifier, a variable delay control device, a high-pass filter, a two-band split filter, and three controls related to supply of output from a channel, a so-called panpot, a channel label and a channel fader.

For all of the controls shown in FIG. 6A, that is, for controls that process different attributes of the audio signal, these controls are displayed on the display in either prominent or inconspicuous colors. I can do it. Where a control is displayed in a prominent color, this indicates that color is "in circuit."
Where a control is displayed in an inconspicuous color (so-called "clay exclusion"), the control can still be adjusted, indicating that it is not currently in the audio circuit.

As an example of "gray exclusion", consider the "delay" control at the second top control position of channel strip 6A. The delay can be set to various values between 0 ms and 1000 ms depending on whether the delay processor is in the audio circuit, but the delay period applies to the audio signal only when the delay processor is in the circuit. Is done.

The channel strips of FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate how a user is provided with a visual feedback of the current control settings. Except for the channel faders, all controls have an associated value that gives their current setting. (For example, 60 Hz for the filter center frequency and 0.0 dB for the gain). It also has a pointer that indicates the current setting for the possible range of settings in a manner similar to the clock arm from the lowest possible value (pointer horizontal and left) to the highest possible value (pointer indicating horizontal and right). A semicircle is also shown.

Therefore, with respect to the center frequency of the high-pass filter and the band split filter of FIG. 6A, the pointer is 1/3 around the semicircle and its current value is 60 Hz
Indicates that it is closer to the lower end than the higher end. The scale used to map the current setting to a rotational position on a semicircle need not be linear, but is preferably logarithmic or another method.

FIG. 7 shows how the approach and touch are displayed on the display screen for the faders. When one of the sensors is touched on the fader panel 30, the corresponding fader display on the display screen (in this example, the particular fader 400) is colored in a contrasting color to the remaining screen, eg, red. You.
This indicates that some faders are now touched and opened for adjustment.

Similarly, when the user's hand approaches one of the faders (as detected by the proximity detector), the fader is colored to one of several shades of more contrasting colors. You. For example, the saturation further increases as the user's hand approaches the fader touch sensor. This example is shown as fader 410 in FIG.

The system allows a user to detect his hand across the fader panel 30 without having to look down at the fader panel itself. because,
He can know that his hand has approached a different fader on the screen. In addition, several different degrees of access can be used for display, and the position of the user's hand can be determined from a distribution of different colors representing different degrees of access.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate a so-called screen pop-up display. A shows a portion of the display screen illustrated in FIG. 4, particularly showing a short vertical section of three channel strips. If one of the channel strip controls is touched on the screen (when it is a touch detection screen), that screen will detect the location of the touch. This position is translated (using a look-up table, not shown) by the control computer to become the control identification corresponding to one of the channel strips.

A pop-up display containing the control is shown, and the control can be adjusted using the icons on the pop-up display. For example,
When the delay control 420 of FIG. 8A is touched, a corresponding "pop-up" delay appears and either selects another control for adjustment or time delay, or the time delay since this popup was touched expires. Until it is displayed. This is illustrated in FIG. 8B.

This pop-up display includes an icon representing the touched control. This is shown as icon 430 in FIG. 8B. The icon is shifted diagonally downward and to the right by a small number (1-10) pixels to reveal that this icon is under adjustment. This pop-up also includes a fader 450 that allows the value of a particular control to be adjusted, along with the channel title and channel number 44.
Contains 0.

There are two modes of adjustment available to the user. In the first mode, the user touches the control and keeps his finger on the touch detection screen. When the pop-up appears, the vertical component of the movement of his finger from the position where the user first touched the screen makes the corresponding movement of fader 450 and the corresponding adjustment of the attributes controlled by its controls.

In another mode of operation, the user:
You can touch and release certain controls between touch and release (touch and release) without moving your finger. Then a pop-up appears. The user touches the screen in the popup and moves his finger up and down to adjust fader 450. If the user touches the inactive area of the popup, the popup will disappear.

When making adjustments in the so-called "trim" mode again, no matter where the user's finger starts on the screen, the adjustment is relative to the current setting of the control. 9 and 10 illustrate the circuitry within fader panel 30. FIG. In FIG. 9, a specific fader sensor 500 has a corresponding analog / digital converter 51.
It provides three outputs to 0,520,530.

These three outputs are: the analog position at which the fader was touched (if it was really touched), an approach signal indicating that the user's hand was approaching the fader, and whether the fader was touched. Touch status. The digital equalization values of these signals are multiplexed in multiplexer 540 with an additional fixed signal indicating the identity of the channel to which fader 500 pertains. The multiplexed output of multiplexer 540 is a 3-byte serial data word.

All of these data words from the various channel faders are stored in the previous value buffer 550 (see FIG. 10). Each time a new serial word is received, the word is compared in comparison control logic 560 with the value previously stored in the buffer. If a change is detected, the comparison control logic 560 causes the output circuit to send three bytes representing the changed channel to the control computer 20.

Therefore, a three-byte word is sent to the control computer 20 only when the state of the fader corresponding to that channel changes. FIG. 11 illustrates the format of the data words sent to the control computer by the fader panel. Each byte 570 of the three-byte data word includes a one-byte header 580 and a payload 590 having information on the channel. The byte header 580 for each byte identifies which of the three bytes of the serial word is represented by the data currently being sent. This allows the control computer 20 to detect when it has received all three bytes of a data word.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart summarizing the operation of the control computer 20. Control computer 20
Operates an iterative loop and starts by checking the input buffer 220 (step 600). Step 6
At 10, the contents of the input buffer are examined to see if a full 3-byte serial word is present. If there is such a word, the serial word is processed in step 620. The processing associated with step 620 is described in further detail below with reference to FIG.

At step 630, the measurement information is read from the signal processor 50 and the meter displayed on the display screen is redrawn. At step 640, a detection is made as to whether the touch screen has been touched, or whether an existing touch has been removed or repositioned. If such a touch screen event is detected, the touch screen event is processed at step 650. The processing associated with step 650 is described in further detail below with reference to FIG.

Finally, if any attribute associated with the signal processing operation has changed through the operation of the loop, the new value is transmitted to the digital signal processing device 50. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing processing of a serial message.

At step 700, a detection is made as to whether access to a channel or touch status has changed. That is, a check is made to see if the channel has been touched in a previously untouched location or has a changed proximity value. If the answer is yes, in step 710, the color map associated with the particular area of the fader corresponding to that channel is changed. This process will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

At step 720, a detection is made as to whether a double-click operation has been performed. In other words, detection is performed as to whether the touch panel is touched, released, or touched and released within a predetermined period. If such an event is detected, the channel cut control is toggled in step 730 and the process ends. The channel cut control switch switches the output of the channel on or off. By toggling the control, the control is turned on if it is currently off and off if it is on.

If a double click event is detected, a detection is made at step 735 as to whether the panel is currently being touched. If the answer is yes, a further detection is made at step 740 as to whether the touch is a new touch. This detection is performed by inspecting the touch attribute stored from the previous operation of this flowchart.

If this is a new touch, a so-called trim mode is started at step 750. This involves storing the position along the fader where the new touch was made and mapping it to the current value of the gain parameter controlled by that fader.

Thus, when the user's hand is moved above or below the fader (in a subsequent operation of this flowchart), an adjustment is made from the current gain attribute controlled by the fader. If this is not a new touch, step 76
At zero, an adjustment must be made to the gain attribute controlled by that fader. Also, if the user's finger has been moved up or down since the last action in the flowchart, an adjustment must be made.

Finally, the stored previous approaching touch status and level attributes are set at step 770 to the values detected during the current operation of the flowchart. FIG. 14 illustrates a color map. This color map is a so-called logical color (0 to 2).
55 index) and the red, green and blue values for the actual display on the screen. Thus, for example, the logical color 1 is 60 for display.
R, 60G, and 60B.

The R, G, and B values can each be adjusted between 0 and 255 (ie, in 8 bits), so the color map is 256 colors out of 16.7 million combinations of R, G, B. Define a subset of The control computer maintains two copies of the color map, the first copy being a so-called BIOS copy, which can be changed by the control computer under program control. The alterations are copied to the video card color map and are actually used to map logical colors onto display parameters for the display screen.

In the present embodiment, the R, G, and B values defined by the logical colors may be all the same at first, but a plurality of areas (areas) of the screen such as each channel fader are provided. Different logical colors are assigned. When the display color of an area is to be changed rapidly, for example, when approaching a fader change or touching, the area is standard (but in this situation) relatively slow using a Microsoft window redraw command. A simple change is made to the colormap input for the logical colors used for a particular area of the screen instead of redrawing the. This has an almost instantaneous effect on the colors actually displayed.

As explained above, this change is first
The changes are made to the OS color map, and the changes are propagated (using standard instructions) to the video card color map. FIG. 15 illustrates the process associated with step 650 of FIG. That is, the processing of the touch screen event is illustrated.

At step 800, a check is made as to whether the screen has been touched now or last time (ie, during the last operation of the flowchart). If the answer is yes, processing proceeds to step 830. If the answer is no, a step 81 is made as to whether the time delay has expired since the screen was last touched.
A check is made at 0. If the delay time has not expired, the process ends. If the delay time has expired, any open pop-ups are closed in step 820 and the process ends.

At step 830, a check is made as to whether the current touch represents a new adjustment. If so, processing proceeds to steps 840 and 85
Go to 0 where any current popup is closed. At step 860, a new pop-up is opened for the new adjustment and the trim operation is started by mapping the current settings of the control selected at step 870 to the current finger position. Thus, the adjustment is made in a relative manner rather than an absolute manner as described above. Thereafter, the process ends.

If this is the current adjustment, that is, if the finger has not left the screen since the trim mode was set (in the previous operation of the flowchart), then in step 880 (if the finger is moving) The current value of the control is changed, and the corresponding display in the popup is changed at step 890.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the detection of an average proximity value (not shown) is performed on these sensors which detect the approach of the user's hand. The sensitivity of this proximity measurement can be adjusted as a result of this detection. For example, if the average is a very weak detection (which implies that the user's hand is far away), the sensitivity is increased.

[0054]

The audio signal processing apparatus of the present invention has a display screen for displaying icons representing each processing operation applicable to the processing channel. Thus, when a processing operation is activated or switched to that channel, a corresponding icon is displayed so that adjustments can be made to the parameters associated with that icon.

If the action is not currently selected,
The icon is still displayed, but is displayed in a different way (ie, displayed in a different color). Then, adjustments can be made to the processing of the parameters related to the icon.

Thus, the user can easily know which action is currently available, but can adjust any action whether or not it is currently energized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of an audio mixing console.

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of a digital signal processing device forming part of the audio mixing console of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a circuit block diagram of a control computer forming part of the audio mixing console of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a display on a display screen forming part of the audio mixing console of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a fader panel forming part of the audio mixing console of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a diagram of a channel strip.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating proximity and touch display.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a screen pop-up display.

FIG. 9 is a circuit block diagram illustrating a circuit inside the fader panel of FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 is a circuit block diagram illustrating a circuit inside the fader panel of FIG. 5;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the format of a data word sent to the control computer by the fader panel.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an operation summary of the control computer.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing processing of a serial message.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a color map.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a touch screen event.

[Explanation of symbols]

GAIN ‥‥ Amplifier, DELAY ‥‥ variable delay control, left strip down ‥‥ filter control, right strip down ‥‥ fader control

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Peter Dummin Soap, Oxford, Hodges Court 21 United Kingdom (72) Inventor Christopher Slate United Kingdom Oxford, Chipping Norton West Street 8

Claims (4)

[Claims] An audio processor operable to provide one or more processing operations from a set of audio signal processing operations to an input audio signal, and an adjustment control for adjusting processing parameters associated with each set of processing operations. And a selector for selecting whether the individual audio signal processing operation of the set should be applied to the current input audio signal, and an icon representing each processing operation of the audio signal processing operation of the set, An audio signal processing apparatus, comprising: a display screen for displaying a plurality of icons in which icons representing a selected processing operation are displayed in a different manner from icons representing a processing operation not currently selected. 2. The audio signal processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an icon representing a processing operation that is not currently selected is displayed in a color with a lesser degree of saturation than an icon representing a currently selected processing operation. . 3. The device according to claim 1, wherein
A display screen capable of detecting a touch, wherein a selector for a processing operation associated with an icon detects a predetermined sequence of user touches on a screen area overlapping the icon. Audio signal processing device including means. 4. An audio signal processing apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.