The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 19, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 31, 1997
Hirokazu Kato, Hamamatsu, JP;
Yamaha Corporation, Hamamatsu, JP;
Abstract
A karaoke apparatus accompanies a vocal performance with a karaoke accompaniment reproduced according to karaoke data. In the karaoke apparatus, an input device separately converts a plurality of singing voices vocalized by different singers into respective ones of initial voice signals. At least one pitch sifter is utilized to shift a pitch of the initial voice signal to create a modified voice signal representative of a harmony voice made consonant to the singing voice. A distributor operates according to control information contained in the karaoke data to selectively distribute at least one of the initial voice signals to the pitch sifter so as to create the modified voice signal corresponding to the distributed initial voice signal. An output device selectively mixes the initial voice signals and the modified voice signal to reproduce the vocal performance composed of selected ones of the singing voices and the harmony voice in synchronization with the karaoke accompaniment.