Yamaha Corporation

Keizyu Anada

Hirokazu Kato

Tadashi Sugiyama

Takurou Sone

Shingo Kamiya

Toshiya Iida

A customer holds a personal data card (personal data card) which stores data of five music pieces including music-piece codes of favorite karaoke music pieces, and the key and tempo setting of the music pieces as my-song data. The customer inserts the personal data card into a card insertion slot. The five my songs are assigned to music-piece selection switches, respectively. The music pieces can be selected only by turning on one of the music-piece selection switches. Unlike a usual music-piece selection, therefore, it is not required to input a music-piece code consisting of five to seven digits. When a start switch is turned on thereafter, the music piece is started. Prior to the start, the key and tempo stored in the personal data card are set. Therefore, the setting with which the customer sings the song in best conditions can be automatically performed. In addition, when favorite setting of a favorite song is obtained during the performance of a karaoke music piece, the music-piece code and the setting data of the music piece are written into the personal data card by turning on a writing switch. At the next time and thereafter, the music piece and the setting can be selected by turning on only the music-piece selection key or one-flick selection.

Karaoke apparatus with a personal data reading function

A karaoke apparatus is configured so that, even when a music piece data having no harmony data is to be performed, a harmony voice signal can be generated. Notes of a length not smaller than a quarter note are extracted from a karaoke performance data and a guide melody data of a music piece data. The distributions of frequencies of occurrence of the tones (C to B) are aggregated. The distributions are compared with the major judgment scale and the minor judgment scale. Then, the data is judged to have a key in which the tonic note (scale note) exists at a place where the highest coincidence is attained. A harmony data is generated on the basis of the result of the key judgment and the guide melody data, and a harmony voice signal is produced based on the harmony data.

Harmony generating apparatus and method of use for karaoke

A karaoke music piece is selected through a music-piece selecting section 2, and a rhythm for the performance of the karaoke music piece is designated through a rhythm designating section 5. A performance section 6 reads a melody system track of the selected karaoke music piece, and supplies the performance data to a tone generator 8. On the other hand, a rhythm pattern producing section 7 produces a rhythm performance data for the designated rhythm based on a chord and a beat at that time, and supplies the produced data to the tone generator 8. Accordingly, the selected karaoke music piece can be played with the designated rhythm which is different from the original one.

Karaoke apparatus with alternative rhythm pattern designations

A karaoke apparatus has an information source for providing a performance data containing musical tone designation information, lyric indication information and fading control information according to progression of a karaoke song in response to a request. A tone generator operates according to the musical tone designation information for generating musical tones of the karaoke song. A first signal generator operates according to the lyric indication information for generating a lyric image signal indicative of lyric words of the karaoke song. A second signal generator generates a background image signal representative of a background scene of the karaoke song. A video superimposer operates according to the fading control information for mixing the lyric image signal and the background image signal with each other to synthesize a composite image signal such that a mixing ratio of the lyric image signal and the background image signal is time-variably controlled according to the fading control information during the course of the progression of the karaoke song. A display device operates according to the composite image signal for displaying a mixture of the lyric words and the background scene in either of fade-in and fade-out manners relative to each other during the course of the progression of the karaoke song.

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Hamamatsu, Japan

Keizyu Anada