Yamaha Corporation

Hiroshi Mino

Hirokazu Kato

Minoru Ogita

Yasuo Kageyama

A karaoke apparatus is provided with a first storage for storing a plurality of karaoke data files corresponding to a plurality of karaoke songs and containing an accompaniment data and a picture index data, a second storage for storing a plurality of primary pictures, and a third storage for storing a plurality of secondary pictures which are mixed to the primary pictures. Upon requesting a desired karaoke song to select the corresponding karaoke data file, particular ones of the primary pictures and the secondary pictures are retrieved from the second and third storages according to the picture index data contained in the selected karaoke data file. A video mixer operates for mixing the retrieved secondary picture to the retrieved primary picture to synthesize a composite picture which meets a mood of the requested karaoke song. A tone generator operates according to the accompaniment data contained in the selected karaoke data file to sound an instrumental accompaniment of the requested karaoke song. A monitor displays the composite picture in synchronization with the instrumental accompaniment so as to present a background screen of the performed karaoke song.

Karaoke apparatus having video mixer of main and insert pictures

A karaoke apparatus produces a karaoke accompaniment which accompanies a singing voice of an actual player, and concurrently creates a harmony voice originating from a virtual player. In the karaoke apparatus, a memory device stores voice information of the virtual singer. An input device collects the singing voice of the actual player. An analyzing device analyzes an audio frequency of the collected singing voice. A synthesizing device processes the stored voice information based on the analyzed audio frequency to synthesize the harmony voice having another audio frequency which is set in harmony with the analyzed audio frequency. An output device mixes the collected singing voice and the synthesized harmony voice with each other, and outputs the mixed singing and harmony voices along with the karaoke accompaniment. In one preferred embodiment, the memory device stores the voice information in the form of a sequence of phonetic elements that are successively sampled syllable by syllable from a singing voice of the virtual player.

Karaoke apparatus using frequency of actual singing voice to synthesize

In a karaoke apparatus for playing a karaoke song designated by a request, a first storage rewriteably stores a plurality of song data files corresponding to a plurality of karaoke songs to form an extendible library which can be updated. Further, a second storage permanently stores another plurality of song data files corresponding to another plurality of karaoke songs to form a fixed library which cannot be update. A directory table recodes a classification of each song data file classified to one of the extendible library and the fixed library. A storage selector responds to a request for addressing the director table to check a classification of a requested song data file, and for retrieving the same selectively from one of the extendible library and the fixed library according to the classification. A tone generator processes the retrieved song data file to sound a desired karaoke song designated by the request.

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Tokyo, Japan

Hiroshi Mino