Ivl Technologies Ltd

Gibson Guitar Corp.

Ivl Technologis Ltd.

Brian C Gibson

Christopher Michael Jubien

Brian J Roden

John P Bertsch

Damon Langlois

James Mazur

Brian John Roden

George J Spark

Peter Ronald Lupini

Dale John Shpak

The present invention pertains to the field of control and manipulation of a digital audio signal by a user manipulable touch sensitive control surface. The present invention is specifically applicable to user manipulation of digital audio signals by disc jockeys (DJs). A touch sensitive surface substantially circumferential in shape is divided into two regions: an inner or central portion and an outer or circumferential portion. The inner portion responds to linear motion imparted by the user while the outer portion responds to circumferential motion. The linear motion imparted by the user in the central portion is used manipulate a digital audio data stream in order to impart a scratch effect.

Touch pad disc jockey controller

The invention is a method for transforming a source individual's voice so as to adopt the characteristics of a target individual's voice. The excitation signal component of the target individual's voice is extracted and the spectral envelope of the source individual's voice is extracted. The transformed voice is synthesized by applying the spectral envelope of the source individual to the excitation signal component of the voice of the target individual. A higher quality transformation is achieved using an enhanced excitation signal created by replacing unvoiced regions of the signal with interpolated data from adjacent voiced regions. Various methods of transforming the spectral characteristics of the source individual's voice are also disclosed.

Targeted vocal transformation

A method for shifting the timbre and/or pitch of an input signal samples the input signal at a first rate and stores the samples in a memory buffer. A digital signal processor resamples the stored input signal at a rate that differs from the first rate at which the input note is originally sampled and stores the resampled input signal in a second memory buffer. A pitch shifter shifts the pitch of the input signal by periodically scaling the resampled input signal by a window function to create an output signal. The rate at which the resampled data is replicated by the window function determines the pitch of the output signal.

Method and apparatus for changing the timbre and/or pitch of audio

A karaoke type system allows a participant to sing on key with a prerecorded song. A microphone produces an input signal that corresponds to a singer's voice, and a pitch corrector samples the input vocal signal and determines its pitch. The pitch corrector reads a series of codes that are stored with the prerecorded song that indicates the pitch at which the input vocal signal is to be sung in order to be on key with the prerecorded song. The pitch corrector shifts the pitch of the input vocal signal to be on key.

Musical entertainment system

Disclosed are a method and apparatus for analyzing an input vocal signal to produce a plurality of harmony signals that are combined with the input vocal signal to produce a multivoice signal. The method makes a current estimate of the fundamental frequency of the input vocal signal and determines if the current estimate is the correct estimate of the fundamental frequency. If the current estimate is correct, a reference note is assigned to correspond to the current estimate and a plurality of harmony notes are selected to correspond to the reference note. The method then generates a plurality of harmony signals by scaling the input vocal signal with a piecewise linear approximation of a Hanning window to extract a portion of the input vocal signal and by replicating the extracted portion at a plurality of rates equal to the fundamental frequencies of each of the harmony notes. The plurality of harmony signals and the input vocal signal are combined to produce the multivoice signal. The steps of the method are carried out with a microprocessor and a signal processing circuit.

Method and apparatus for generating vocal harmonies

A pitch detector is disclosed that automatically recognizes the pitch of musical notes quickly and outputs the pitch information in a variety of formats. The detector employs a microprocessor that samples the signal from a musical instrument or voice at regular intervals using an analog-to-digital converter and then utilizes both amplitude and time information from the waveform to determine the fundamental period of the note, while rejecting the harmonic components. The microprocessor analyzes the waveform looking for peaks that are approximately equal in amplitude separated by opposite polarity peaks. The time intervals between the peaks must be approximately equal too. Timing information is measured using more than one point on the waveform to avoid inaccuracies caused by temporary distortions of the waveform. The timing points are chosen at points where the slope of the waveform is high for substantially optimal accuracy. To filter out erroneous readings caused by pitch detection during note transition or noise, additional processing of the data is performed to cause a second corroborating reading to be taken when a note transition that is uncommon musically is detected.

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Victoria, Canada

Brian C Gibson