Patent ID: 6121531
Filing Date: 2000-09-19
Classification: G10H

Abstract:
A karaoke apparatus for accompanying a vocal performance with a karaoke accompaniment reproduced according to karaoke data, comprising:an input device that separately converts a plurality of singing voices vocalized by different singers into respective ones of initial voice signals;a plurality of pitch shifters, each pitch shifter being 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 corresponding to the initial voice signal;a distributor that operates according to control information contained in the karaoke data to selectively distribute the initial voice signals to the pitch shifters so as to create the modified voice signals corresponding to the distributed initial voice signals, wherein the distributor selectively distributes one initial voice signal to one group of pitch shifters and distributes other initial voice signals to other groups of pitch shifters, respectively, so that the singing voices of different singers are treated independently from each other; andan output device that selectively mixes the initial voice signals and the modified voice signals to reproduce the vocal performance composed of selected ones of the singing voices and the harmony voices in synchronization with the karaoke accompaniment.