JPS6340318B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION When a key of an electronic musical instrument is operated, the present invention provides information regarding the pitch of the musical tone to be produced in response to the pressed key, and information regarding the duration of sound generation of the musical tone at that pitch. It relates to a sequencer that is once stored and plays off-line musical tones having pitches, sound durations, etc. based on the stored information, and particularly relates to improvements for speeding up editing processing for the once stored information. It is something.

First, the configuration and operation of a conventional device of this type will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a conventional sequencer, in which a key voltage S ₁ and a key signal S ₂ are supplied from a key circuit section 1.
is supplied.

FIG. 2 shows waveforms widely used for such key voltages and key signals, and the horizontal axis is the time axis.

Now, when you press the C ₁ key, in the key circuit section 1,
As shown in Figure a, a key voltage with an amplitude corresponding to the musical tone of _C1 is formed, and as shown in Figure b, the musical tone _{of C1 is} The key signal for is turned on.

When the C ₁ key is released, the key signal is turned off and a sound generation stop time t ₂ is formed, as shown in c in the figure, but the key voltage is maintained as it is.

Next, when the D ₁ key is pressed again, a key voltage with an amplitude corresponding to the tone D ₁ is generated as shown in d of the same figure, and the key signal is turned on again as shown in e of the same figure. , and the sound duration time t ₁ ′ is formed. The fact that there is a time t ₂ when the key signal turns off just before the key voltage changes means that
This means that the tone of C ₁ was statuscato.

Next, press the D ₁ key to play the D ₁ musical tone.
After making the sound continue for t ₁ ′, release the D ₁ key for a time t ₂ ′, and then press the same D ₁ key again.
Even when the key signal is turned on, as shown in f of the same figure, the key voltage is maintained at the amplitude corresponding to _D1 , as shown in g of the same figure.

This time, when you release the D ₁ key that has been pressed and simultaneously press the E ₁ key, the key voltage changes from the amplitude of D ₁ to the amplitude of E ₁ , as shown in h of the same figure. Nevertheless, as shown in Figure i, the key signal remains on. In this way, the fact that there is no time for the key signal to turn off immediately before the key voltage changes means that the change in musical tone was legato.

Now, returning to FIG. 1, upon receiving the key voltage, the key code generation section 2 converts it into a key code displayed in binary number corresponding to its amplitude value, that is, the pitch of the pressed key. , is supplied to the musical tone data storage section 3.

On the other hand, upon receiving the key signal _S2 , the time code generating section 4 counts the clock pulses while gated with the key signal _S2 , thereby determining the duration of sound generation represented by the duration of the on/off state of the key signal _S2 . t ₁ , t ₁ ′, t ₁ ″……and the pronunciation stop time t ₂ , t ₂ ′, t ₂ ″
…
. . . is converted into a digital code (hereinafter referred to as a time code), and this is supplied to the musical tone data storage section 3.

The state change detection sections 5 and 6 detect a change in either the key voltage or the key signal and send an output signal to the tone data storage section 3.

That is, in the case of staccato with changes in musical tone as shown in FIG. 2e and d, the state change detection units 5 and 6 both send output signals, In the case of statzcato, which is not accompanied by statzato, only the state change detection section 5 sends an output signal, and furthermore, in the case of legato, in which the musical tone changes continuously as shown in i and h of the same figure, the state change detection section 6 sends an output signal.
only sends an output signal. After receiving this output signal,
The musical tone data storage section 3 writes the key code supplied from the key code generation section 2 and the time code supplied from the time code generation section 4, and organizes them so that they can be read out in the order in which they were written. and memorize it.

In this way, in the write mode, the key code corresponding to the musical tone to be produced by the key pressed in a series of key operations and the time code representing the duration time and stop time of the musical tone are stored as musical tone data. It is stored in section 3.

On the other hand, in the reproduction mode for reproducing musical tones specified by the key code and time code stored in the write mode, the musical tones are read out sequentially from the musical tone data storage section 3 in the order in which they were written. The key code and time code are supplied to a key voltage generation section 7 and a key signal generation section 8, respectively.

The key voltage generator 7 receives the read key code, converts it into a key voltage, and supplies the key voltage to the synthesizer module 9.

The key signal generation unit 8 temporarily stores the read time code, subtracts and counts clock pulses, and obtains a pulse whose duration is the time required for the stored time code to become zero. Then, the time code is converted into a key signal and this is supplied to the synthesizer module 9.

The synthesizer module 9 receives the key voltage and the key signal, and generates the musical tone specified by the key code for the duration of the sound generation specified by the key signal.

Such a sequencer is used to realize offline performance of an electronic musical instrument by distorting and reproducing the musical tone and its duration time specified by key operations in the write mode in the play mode. .

Generally, in such a sequencer, the sound duration time and sound stop time vary greatly during performance, ranging from 5 milliseconds to several tens of seconds, so the time code used to represent these times is fixed. If a predetermined number of bytes were allocated, the usage rate of the musical tone data storage section 3 would decrease, making it uneconomical.

Therefore, various proposals have been made to express time codes as variable-length words. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 55-83093, connection status is added to time codes, and sound duration time or sound stop time is expressed. If the time exceeds the time that can be represented by one time code, "1" is assigned to the status, and another time code connected to the above one time code is used as its upper digit. A sequencer configured to memorize long sounds and the like has been proposed.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing a typical storage form of musical tone data in a musical tone storage section of a sequencer using such variable length words.

That is, a series of words W ₁ representing musical tone data,
W ₂ , W ₃ . . . each consists of a key code and a time code following it, and the time code is further composed of a time code representing the duration of sound generation and a time code representing the time when sound generation is stopped.

For example, 1 word of musical sound data W ₁ consists of 1 byte of key code C ₁ , followed by 1 byte of time code t ₁ that represents the duration of sound generation, and furthermore, 1 byte of time code t that represents the duration of sound generation. Consists of ₂ .

Since the time code has a variable length, for example, when the time code t ₁ ' representing the duration of sound generation is 2 bytes, such as musical sound data W ₂ ,
Alternatively, such as musical tone data _W4 , there is a mixture of data in which the time code _t1 representing the duration of sound generation and the time code _t2 representing the time at which sound generation stops are both 2 bytes.

These variable-length words are divided into fixed-length byte units, and each byte is a series of addresses Ai ₊₁ , Ai ₊₂ , which designates a specific area of the musical tone data storage section 3 .
Ai ₊₃ ...... is stored in such a way that it is assigned to.

However, this type of sequencer is generally required to have an editing function.

A typical editing function is, for example, in the write mode, by performing key operations as shown in FIG. 2, and after temporarily storing a series of musical tone data as shown in FIG. In the edit mode, for example, by performing a key operation as shown in FIG. It is required to rewrite even the time key operation to ensure the storage of musical tone data as shown in FIG. 5A.

In such a key operation in the edit mode, if you compare it with the musical tone data group (same as that shown in FIG. 3) that has been stored once in the write mode shown in FIG. 5B, As is obvious, the number of bytes of each time code changes depending on the length of the sound duration or the length of the sound stop time, so if you rewrite the time code stored at a specific address in edit mode, As the number of bytes of the subsequent time code increases or decreases, the contents of addresses after the address of the editing start point must be rewritten in order.

Therefore, in many cases, if you edit even one place,
All subsequent addresses will be rewritten.

Since such a rewriting process requires a considerable amount of processing time, the operation can be performed by operating the keys of the key circuit section 1, as explained based on FIGS. Correspondingly, when rewriting the time code of already stored musical sound data using real-time processing using the time code obtained from the time code creation section 4, a considerable amount of rewriting processing is required after performing one key operation. The next key operation cannot be accepted until the time has elapsed.

Therefore, when operating keys in the editing mode, there is a waiting time each time a key is pressed, and there is a drawback that editing operations cannot be performed with the feeling of real-time performance.

In view of the problems of the real-time editing process based on the prior art described above, an object of the present invention is to divide the storage area of a musical tone data storage section into two, and to provide two address counters for specifying addresses within each storage area. By providing this, it is an object of the present invention to provide an excellent sequencer that can eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and perform real-time editing processing at high speed without any waiting time.

The configuration of the present invention in accordance with the above object is such that, during editing work, musical tone data from the first musical tone data to immediately before the editing start point out of a series of musical tone data groups is stored in the first storage area of the musical tone data storage section, and the editing A first address counter for specifying an address of the first storage area; a first address counter for specifying an address of the first storage area; and a first address counter for specifying an address of the first storage area; First, the final address of the first storage area, that is, the address of the musical tone data immediately before the editing start point, is set in the first address counter as an initial value, and the second address counter specifies the address of the area. Set the first address of the second storage area, that is, the address of the editing start point, as the initial value in the second address counter, and then read the musical tone data from the second storage area at the address specified by the contents of the second address counter. This is read out and replaced with the time code or key code output by the time code generation section or the key code generation section in response to real-time key operations for editing work in the key circuit section, and then the first address counter By writing to the first storage area specified by the contents of , and then incrementing the contents of both the first and second address counters, the rewriting of musical tone data for editing processing affects a large number of musical tone data. The present invention is characterized in that the rewriting of one musical tone data is completed by processing only one musical tone data.

The configuration and operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on FIGS. 6 and 7.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

The musical tone data storage section 30 includes a microprocessor 30a, whose input terminals are connected to the key code generation section 2, time code generation section 4, and state change detection sections 5 and 6, respectively, and whose output terminals is connected to the storage device 30b. The storage area of the storage device 30b includes a first storage area 30b ₁ which is variably provided in the entire storage area, and a second storage area variably provided in the entire storage area separately from the first storage area 30b ₁ . It is divided into two storage areas _30b2 .

Furthermore, the musical tone data storage section 30 includes first and second address counters 30c and 30d, each of which is connected to a microprocessor 30a.

The other components are the same as those indicated by the same reference numerals in FIG.

FIG. 7 shows the storage states in the first and second storage areas 30b ₁ and 30b ₂ in FIG. 6 and the addresses of both storage areas 30b ₁ and 30b ₂ specified by the contents of the first and second address counters. FIG.

Musical tone data storage unit 30 configured as described above
So, when operating the keys in edit mode, first,
To set the editing start point, musical tone data are played one after another in playback mode.

That is, by the same operation as the conventional example described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the musical tone data group stored in the first storage area _30b1 is written in the write mode.
In the playback mode, the key codes and key signals representing the musical tones to be generated are read out sequentially and transferred to the key voltage generation section 7 and key signal generation section 8 via the microprocessor 30a to the synthesizer module 9. It is intended to supply

In this playback mode, the addresses for each byte of the key code and time code constituting each musical tone data sequentially read out from the first storage area _30b1 can be determined by, for example, a program counter (not shown) in the microprocessor 30a. As indicated by a in FIG. 7A, the program counter P4, which stores the address of the first byte of the first musical tone data, increments as the playback process progresses. As shown in figure b,
The address where the specific byte of musical tone data being processed for sound generation is stored is stored. At this time, the first address counter 30c registers the first storage area 3 as an increment result in the write mode.
The address of the last byte of the last musical tone data stored in _0b1 is stored.

Now, when the performer typically auditorily confirms the musical tone being generated, and switches the sequencer to edit mode, the performer writes the address of the program counter P4 instead of the address of the last byte of the last musical tone data. The contents are set in the first address counter 30c as an initial value.

In this editing mode, first, the microprocessor 30 sequentially writes musical tone data stored in a series of addresses in the first storage area following the address set in the first address counter 30c from the rear end.
a, the first storage area 30b ₁ in all storage areas
The data is transferred to a second storage area 30b2 provided separately from the data storage area _30b2 .

Regarding the second storage area _30b2 , the first address of the second storage area where the last transferred musical tone data, that is, the first byte of the musical tone data at the editing start point is stored, is set to the initial value in the second address counter 30d. is set as .

This situation is illustrated in FIG. 7B. Although not shown in FIG. 6, P3 is a register for storing the final address of the second storage area _30b2 , that is, the final address of all storage areas.

Therefore, when the content P2 of the second address counter 30d is examined with reference to FIG. 7, it is found that (P2 _B )=(P3)-[(P1 _A )-(P4)].

Here, P1, P2, P3, and P4 indicate the contents of the first address counter, second address counter, register, and program counter, respectively, and further, P1 _A indicates the contents of the first address counter at the end of the write mode. , and P2 _B indicates the content of the second address counter immediately after transition to the edit mode.

Therefore, in other words, the address _X2 stored in the second address counter 30d at the time of starting editing is the address _X1 of the last byte of musical tone data at the rear end, and the last byte of musical tone data immediately before the editing start point. The difference from the byte address _X4 is subtracted from the final address _X3 of the second storage area _30b2 .

Now, after the musical tone data at the editing start point and the following musical tone data group have been transferred to the second storage area _30b2 , when a key operation in the edit mode is performed, the musical tone data storage section 30 is transferred to the second address counter. The musical tone data stored in the first address of the second storage area specified by the contents of 30d, in detail,
Starting from the first byte of musical tone data at the editing start point, one byte at a time is read out one byte at a time and transferred to the microprocessor 30a. microprocessor 30
a responds to the output signals of the key code generation section 2, time code generation section 4, and state change detection sections 5 and 6, similar to the operation of the previous write mode explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. and the second storage area 30
b Rewrite each byte of musical sound data transferred from ₂ to the time code or key code specified by key operation in edit mode,
It is transferred to the first storage area _30b1 and stored at the address specified by the contents of the first address counter 30c.

Then, each time you complete rewriting one time code or key code,
Both second address counters 30c and 30d are incremented in preparation for processing the next time code or key code.

As mentioned above, the number of bytes of the time code increases or decreases depending on the duration of the sound generation or the length of the time when the sound stops, so generally the second storage area 30b ₂
When the time code read from the first address counter 3 is rewritten and written to the first storage area _30b1 , the number of bytes changes.
0c and the advancing speed of the second address counter 30d do not match.

FIG. 7C shows how the musical tone data in the second storage area _30b2 is rewritten and stored in the first storage area _30b1 .

In the above embodiment, the key code or time code of the musical tone data read from the second storage area _30b2 is rewritten with the key code or time code obtained by key operation in the edit mode. Although the operation of storing data in one storage area _30b1 has been described, it is easy to extend this rewriting operation to adding and deleting musical tone data.

That is, if reading from the second storage area _30b2 is temporarily stopped and the key code or time code obtained by key operation in the edit mode is stored in the first storage area _30b1 , editing can be performed. Musical sound data is added in an intervening manner after the start point. During such additional processing, only the first address counter 30c increments.

Furthermore, writing to the first storage area _30b1 is temporarily stopped, and the second address counter 30d is
By incrementing , a desired number of pieces of musical tone data following the editing start point are deleted. During such deletion processing, only the second address counter 30d increments.

As described above, the present invention provides musical tone data from the beginning to immediately before the editing start point and musical tone data after the editing start point in the entire storage area, separately from each other, when key operations are performed in the edit mode. and a first address counter that specifies the address of the first storage area and a second address counter that specifies the address of the second storage area. After reading out the key code or time code of the musical tone data after the editing start point sequentially from the second storage area and rewriting them, this is set as the address of the musical tone data immediately before the editing start point in the first storage area. Since it is configured so that it is stored sequentially in the addresses that follow the time code, even if the number of time code bytes increases or decreases during rewrite processing in the edit mode, the ripple effects of each byte and address of the musical tone data are not affected at once. There is no need to perform intensive processing at the time, and it is possible to process changes in addresses as the number of bytes increases or decreases for each rewritten time code.

Therefore, when editing in real time, that is, rewriting a key code or time code, in response to a key operation in edit mode, the rewriting processing time is shortened and there is almost no waiting time. This has the excellent effect of allowing the operator to perform editing work with the feeling of real-time performance.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 to 5 relate to a conventional sequencer; Figure 1 is a block diagram showing its configuration, Figure 2 is a waveform diagram showing an example of the output waveform of the key circuit section, and Figure 3 is musical tone data. 4 is a waveform diagram showing an example of the output waveform of the key circuit section due to key operations in edit mode. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the relationship between musical tone data and addresses before and after editing. Figures 6 to 7 relate to one embodiment of the present invention, with Figure 6 being a block diagram showing its configuration, and Figure 7 showing the contents of the first and second storage areas and the first and second address counters. FIG. 1...Key circuit section, 2...Key code creation section,
4... Time code creation section, 5, 6... State change detection section, 7... Key voltage creation section, 8... Key signal creation section, 9... Synthesizer module, 30...
...Music data storage unit, 30a...Microprocessor, 30b...Storage device, _30b1 ...First storage area, _30b2 ...Second storage area, 30c...First address counter, 30d...Second address counter.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A key code generating means that generates a key code corresponding to the key voltage in response to a key voltage corresponding to a musical tone to be generated, and a key signal that responds to a key signal having the duration time and stop time of the musical tone to be generated. a time code generating means for generating a time code corresponding to the key signal; and a state for detecting changes in the state of the key voltage and key signal and outputting a start signal of a sound duration time and a sound stop time for each musical tone. change detection means; musical tone data storage means for storing each of the key code and time code in response to the start signal; and a key that generates a key voltage corresponding to the key code read from the musical tone data storage means. a voltage generating means; a key signal generating means for generating a key signal having a pulse duration equal to the sound duration time and sound stop time corresponding to the time code read from the musical tone data storage means; and a synthesizer module that generates a musical tone at a pitch specified by a key voltage in response to each of the signals for a duration time and a stop time specified by the key signal, the musical tone data storage means. stores a first storage area that stores musical tone data from the first musical tone data to just before the editing start point in a series of musical tone data groups, and stores the final address of the first storage area as an initial value, and presses the key in the edit mode. a first address counter that increments in response to an operation and sequentially specifies addresses in the first storage area; and a first address counter that stores musical tone data at an editing start point and subsequent musical tone data among a series of musical tone data groups. a second storage area, and a second address that stores the first address of the second storage area as an initial value, advances in response to key operations in edit mode, and sequentially specifies addresses of the second storage area; A sequencer comprising a counter.