Karaoke apparatus and method for medley playback

A karaoke apparatus for medley playback includes: playback unit for receiving playback information including MIDI sound source control information and producing acoustic sound of karaoke song on the basis of the playback information; information storage unit for storing playback information and identification information of a plurality of karaoke songs, the identification information specifying playback information of a highlight portion of each of the plurality of karaoke songs; selection instructing unit for instructing a selection of karaoke songs to be played; and playback control unit for reading out playback information of the highlight portions of the songs selected by the selection instructing unit from the information storage unit on the basis of the identification information of the each of the selected karaoke songs, and controlling the playback unit to successively play the selected karaoke songs on the basis of the playback information of the selected karaoke songs to produce a medley of the selected karaoke songs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates to a karaoke apparatus for medley playback capable 
of successively playing highlight portions of a plurality of songs, and 
more particularly to a karaoke apparatus for medley playback which plays 
karaoke music utilizing playback information including control information 
according to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
There is known a karaoke apparatus which reads out information from Compact 
Disk, Laser Video Disk or the like and plays instrumental music as an 
accompaniment for a singer. In addition, there is known a MIDI karaoke 
apparatus which stores playback information including MIDI sound source 
control information according to MIDI standard, and controls the MIDI 
sound source to play a so-called karaoke music. The MIDI standard is a 
rule for interchanging information between musical instruments such as a 
synthesizer, an electric piano or the like. The above karaoke apparatus 
plays various kind of songs, and recently many people sing so-called 
"medley (omnibus) karaoke song". The medley karaoke song is a medley of 
some portions of a plurality of songs. Highlight portions of a plurality 
of songs, including popular phrases or melodies and lasting for about 30 
to 60 seconds, are played in succession to form one medley karaoke song. 
Conventionally, such medley karaoke songs are produced by a professional 
producer in consideration of genre or composer of the songs and recorded 
in disk recording media or the like to be put on the market. Accordingly, 
the combination of musical portions of such a medley karaoke song depends 
upon the producer's selection and user cannot alter the combination to 
make a medley of his or her favorite songs. In view of this, it is desired 
to make a medley of user's favorite songs regardless of the genre or 
composer of the songs. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a karaoke apparatus for 
medley playback by which user can easily select his or her favorite songs 
and make a medley karaoke song of the favorite songs. 
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a 
karaoke apparatus for medley playback including: playback unit for 
receiving playback information including MIDI sound source control 
information and producing acoustic sound of karaoke song on the basis of 
the playback information; information storage unit for storing playback 
information and identification information of a plurality of karaoke 
songs, the identification information specifying playback information of a 
highlight portion of each of the plurality of karaoke songs; selection 
instructing unit for instructing a selection of karaoke songs to be 
played; and playback control unit for reading out playback information of 
the highlight portions of the songs selected by the selection instructing 
unit from the information storage unit on the basis of the identification 
information of the each of the selected karaoke songs, and controlling the 
playback unit to successively play the selected karaoke songs on the basis 
of the playback information of the selected karaoke songs to produce a 
medley of the selected karaoke songs. 
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a 
karaoke apparatus for medley playback including: information storage unit 
for storing digital music data including song data of a plurality of 
karaoke songs, each of the song data including music data and 
identification data specifying a highlight portion of the music data; 
selection instruction unit for instructing a selection of karaoke songs to 
be played; medley karaoke data generation unit for reading out the 
identification data of the songs selected by the selection instruction 
unit from the information storage unit in an order of the selection of the 
songs and combining the music data of the highlight portions of the 
selected songs each specified by the identification data to produce a 
successive music data of the selected songs; medley karaoke data storage 
unit for storing the successive music data of the selected songs as a 
medley karaoke data; and playback unit for receiving the medley karaoke 
data and producing acoustic sound of karaoke song on the basis of the 
medley karaoke data. 
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is 
provided a method of medley playback of karaoke songs using an omnibus 
karaoke apparatus including the steps of: storing digital music data 
including song data of a plurality of karaoke songs, each of the song data 
including music data and identification data specifying a highlight 
portion of the music data; instructing a selection of karaoke songs to be 
played in medley; reading out the music data of highlight portions of the 
selected songs with reference to the identification data; combining the 
music data of the highlight portions read out to form a successive music 
data of the selected songs; storing the successive music data of the 
selected songs as a medley karaoke data; and producing acoustic sound of 
karaoke song on the basis of the medley karaoke data. 
The nature, utility, and further features of this invention will be more 
clearly apparent from the following detailed description with respect to 
preferred embodiment of the invention when read in conjunction with the 
accompanying drawings briefly described below.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Fundamental Concept 
Before describing details of a preferred embodiment, the fundamental 
concept of the present invention will be firstly described below. 
FIG. 1 shows a fundamental concept of the present invention. As shown in 
FIG. 1, a karaoke apparatus according to the present invention includes a 
playback unit 1, a song information storage unit 2, a selection 
instruction unit 3 and a playback control unit 4. The playback unit 1 
includes a MIDI sound source for receiving control information according 
to MIDI standard and generating acoustic playback signal to output karaoke 
songs. The song information storage unit 2 stores playback information and 
identification information. Playback information includes MIDI sound 
source control information for controlling the MIDI sound source. 
Identification information specifies a predetermined portion of playback 
information of a song. The selection instruction unit 3 receives 
instruction of selecting songs to be played in medley playback. The 
playback control unit 4 retrieves and reads out playback information of 
the predetermined portions of the selected songs from the song information 
storage unit 2 by referring to identification information, and controls 
the playback unit 1 in accordance with read-out playback information. 
When selection of songs are instructed via the selection instruction unit 
3, the playback control unit 4 successively reads out, for each of the 
selected songs, playback information of the predetermined portions from 
the song information storage unit 2 by referring to identification 
information. Assuming now that songs A, C, D and E stored in the song 
information storage unit 2 are selected as shown in FIG. 1, the playback 
control unit 4 detects playback information M of the predetermined 
portions 1 to 4 of the respective selected songs with reference to 
identification information I of the respective songs A, C, D and E. 
Subsequently, the playback control unit 4 reads out MIDI sound source 
control information in the playback information of the predetermined 
portions 1 to 4 of the selected songs and successively supplies them to 
the playback unit 1 to play the predetermined portions of the selected 
songs in succession. 
Embodiment 
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below 
with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
FIG. 2 shows a construction of a karaoke apparatus according to an 
embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the karaoke 
apparatus includes a MIDI playback device 10, a mixing amplifier 11, a 
pair of speakers 12, a microphone 13, an LD (Laser Disk) player 14, a TV 
monitor 15 and a lighting device 16. The MIDI playback device 10 includes 
a controller 21 composed of microprocessor for collectively controlling 
the karaoke apparatus, an operation unit 22 for receiving instruction and 
displaying necessary information, a MIDI sound source 23 for generating an 
acoustic playback signal, a MIDI interface 24 for connecting the MIDI 
sound source 23 and the controller 21, a superimposer 25, a storage unit 
26 composed of OMDD (Optical Memory Disk Drive), an LD interface 27 for 
connecting the controller 21 and the LD player 14, a power supply 28 and a 
lighting interface 29 for connecting the controller 21 and the lighting 
device 16. 
In the MIDI playback device 10, when the MIDI sound source 23 receives MIDI 
sound source control information via the MIDI interface 24 under the 
control of the controller 21, the MIDI sound source 23 supplies acoustic 
playback signal corresponding to the control information to the mixing 
amplifier 11, and acoustic sound is output from the speaker 12. The LD 
interface 27 and the LD player 14 are connected by RS232C connecter to 
control the image playback in the LD player 14. Image signal reproduced by 
the LD player 14 is supplied, via the superimposer 25, to the TV monitor 
15 to be displayed. The superimposer 25 superimposes image signal of 
characters or the like input from the controller 21 on the image signal to 
be displayed on the TV monitor 15. The lighting unit 16 performs lighting 
under the control of the controller 21. 
The LD player 14 reproduces images, prepared being distributed to various 
genre of the songs, under the control of the controller 21. In a case of 
using an LD player having an automatic changer of LDs capable of storing 
images for thousands of songs, images are prepared for each of songs 
independently and an image corresponding to a song is selected. 
Alternately, it is possible to prepare images being roughly distributed to 
a plurality of groups. That is, every songs are distributed to a plurality 
of genre such as popular, rock or the like, and each of the groups are 
further distributed to a plurality of sub-groups such as spring, summer, 
autumn and winter. This sub-groups may be still further divided into 
groups images of morning, daytime or night, or groups of specific images 
of a middle of buildings, park, etc. One image out of these image groups 
is selected. In this case, it is sufficient to prepare only one LD, and 
therefore the system can be simplified. If various images are prepared 
utilizing an automatic changer, user may be satisfied. 
The storage unit 26 stores, as MIDI karaoke data, playback information 
including MIDI sound source control information according to MIDI 
standard. MIDI karaoke data is constituted by data of every song unit and 
each of them includes MIDI sound source control information for 
controlling the MIDI sound source 23, word-of-song data, image control 
data and lighting control data. As shown in FIG. 3, MIDI karaoke data 
includes sequence data used for playback. Sequence data includes note 
data, word-of-song data, PCM data and image/lighting control data. Note 
data includes MIDI sound source control information prepared for every 
song each including data for specifying tone, interval, tempo and rhythm, 
etc. Word-of-song data includes index data used for retrieval of songs 
requested, character data used for telop represented on the TV monitor 15 
and timing map data for specifying timing of displaying word-of-songs, 
speed of changing color of word-of-song display, each of them being 
prepared for every songs. Index data is arranged at the beginning of 
word-of-song data. PCM data includes data of sound effect that MIDI sound 
source cannot produce and data of background chorus, each of them being 
prepared for every songs. Image/lighting control data includes control 
data for instructing image reproduction and lighting in correspondence 
with the progress of song playback. 
Index data, arranged at the beginning of word-of-song data, includes data 
indicating name of song, singer, composer and genre of song, and users 
select songs by specifying these data. Genre data is used as image 
instructing data for selecting image suitable for the selected song. It is 
possible to use, as genre data, number of LD which stores image suitable 
for the song or number specifying respective images. MIDI karaoke data is 
approximately of 100 kilo-bytes for each songs. Details of karaoke file 
utilizing MIDI karaoke data and karaoke apparatus reproducing MIDI karaoke 
data are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 775,147. 
MIDI sound source control information used for controlling the MIDI sound 
source 23 includes at least one status byte for specifying kinds of 
control or MIDI channel and one or two data bytes relating to the control 
specified by the status byte. Status byte and data bytes are combined and 
transmitted as messages serving as playback information. FIG. 4A shows 
note-on message which is one of channel voice message. As seen in FIG. 4A, 
start bit and stop bit are added to each byte and these bytes are 
converted to a serial data by the MIDI interface 24. The converted data is 
supplied to the MIDI sound source 23. Note-on message and note-off 
message, shown in FIG. 4B, are serving as instructions of performances of 
pushing down keyboard and releasing the push from the keyboard, 
respectively. Note-on message is used with note-off message as a pair. 
As shown in FIG. 5, MIDI sound source control information is stored in the 
storage unit 26 in such a manner that beginning status (8Bh: h indicates 
hexadecimal number) and ending status (8Ch: h indicates hexadecimal 
number) are inserted to partition playback information of highlight 
portion of the song. Highlight portion is a part of song including popular 
phrases or melodies, for example, and is predetermined for every songs in 
advance. The beginning status and the ending status are neglected in a 
normal playback mode, and used as target for detecting the highlight 
portion of the song in a medley playback mode. 
Playback of the above-described karaoke apparatus starts when a selection 
of songs to be played are instructed via the operation unit 22. When the 
selection is input, the controller 21 reads out MIDI karaoke data of the 
selected songs from the storage unit 26 and starts playback control. In 
the playback control, the controller 21 firstly controls the LD player 14 
to reproduce images specified by image instruction information. 
Simultaneously, the controller 21 transmits MIDI sound source control 
information to the MIDI sound source 23 to play karaoke song. In addition, 
the controller 21 transmits data of title of the song and word-of-song to 
the superimposer 25 in correspondence with playback of karaoke song by 
referring to timing data in the word-of-song data. Further, the controller 
21 superimposes telop onto image reproduced by the LD player 14 and 
changes color of the telop to represent timing of singing song. 
The karaoke apparatus of the present invention performs medley playback in 
response to an instruction input via the operation unit 22. FIG. 6 is a 
flowchart of the operation of the controller 21 in the medley playback 
mode. 0n receiving the instruction of the medley playback, the controller 
21 receives instruction of selecting songs to be played in step S1. 
Specifically, user looks for a desired song in a song book and inputs data 
such as a number or an alphabet specifying the desired song via the 
operation unit 22. Alternately, user may select a desired song from a list 
of songs represented on the TV monitor. Then, the controller 21 
successively stores the selected songs until the termination of the input 
is instructed in step S2. Then, the controller 21 reads out playback 
information of an opening portion in step S3. Details of the playback 
information of the opening portion and the ending portion will be 
described later. Subsequently, the controller 21 searches and detects 
playback information of the selected songs and beginning and ending status 
of highlight portion, reads out detected playback information of the 
highlight portion, and arranges them in an order of selection to follow 
playback information of the opening portion in step S4. When the search of 
the highlight portions of the selected songs are completed in step S5, 
playback information of the ending portion is read out and arranged in 
step S6, to follow the playback information of the selected songs that has 
been already arranged. Thus playback information of one medley karaoke 
song is produced. Subsequently, MIDI sound source control information is 
transmitted to the MIDI sound source 23 and playback control of the medley 
karaoke song is performed in step S7. Simultaneously, the LD player 14 and 
the lighting device 16 are controlled in accordance with the 
image/lighting control information. In addition, the superimposer 25 is 
controlled in accordance with the word-of-song data to display titles of 
songs and word-of-song on the TV monitor 15. 
FIGS. 7 to 9 show three playback patterns of opening and ending portions of 
medley karaoke song. These figures show the cases in which four songs are 
arranged to form one medley song, however, it is possible to arrange more 
songs in the same manner. FIG. 7 shows a first pattern in which a portion 
of a first song from the beginning thereof to the highlight portion 
thereof is used as the opening portion and a portion of a last song from 
the highlight portion thereof to the end thereof is used as the ending 
portion. That is, the portions of the songs are played in the order of 1 
to 4 . FIG. 8 shows a second pattern in which music of the opening portion 
and ending portion are predetermined in advance irrespective of the 
selected songs, and stored in the storage unit. The music of the opening 
portion and the ending portion are read out and played with the highlight 
portions of the selected songs in the order of 1 to 6 . FIG. 9 shows a 
third pattern in which jump start status and jump end status are arranged 
in playback information of the songs. The playback manner is similar to 
that of the first pattern. Assuming that the last song consists of an 
opening part, first to third chorus parts and an ending part as shown in 
FIG. 9 and that the jump start status is positioned after the first or 
second chorus part and the jump end status is positioned before the ending 
part, the playback is performed in the order of 1 to 5 , thereby reducing 
the playback time. This kind of playback is described in U.S. patent 
application Ser. No. 775,147 . According to the third pattern, if the jump 
start status is positioned after the highlight portion of the song, 
playback information of the portion from the highlight portion to the jump 
start status and playback information after the jump end status are read 
out. Therefore, according to the third pattern, the first pattern is used 
in the opening portion and the ending portion is shortened. It is possible 
to utilize the second pattern in the opening portion and utilize the third 
pattern in the ending portion. That is, the first to third patterns can be 
mixed. 
Next, controls of background image, lighting and title display will be 
described below. Now assuming that the image control data and lighting 
control data are arranged in correspondence with the playback information 
of the songs as indicated by T.sub.1 to T.sub.10 shown in FIG. 10A, 
image/lighting control data corresponding to the portion to be played will 
be used in the similar manner as playback information. That is, if only 
the highlight portion of playback information is played, the image control 
data and lighting control data of the highlight portion (T.sub.4 and 
T.sub.5) is played. In a case of using the second pattern shown in FIG. 8 
to play the opening portion, the control is performed from the data 
positioned before and nearest to the highlight portion of the first song 
(T.sub.3 in FIG. 10A). With respect to the lighting control data, a 
plurality of data are sometimes used simultaneously, and the number of the 
lighting device is not limited to one. Therefore, the lighting control 
data is prepared to meet various objects or to correspond to a plurality 
of lighting devices. 
With respect to the display of title, control data is prepared for 
displaying the title on the center of the TV monitor in a large size in 
the normal playback mode, as shown in FIG. 10B. In the medley playback 
mode, the title is displayed on the center of the TV monitor in the manner 
shown in the left side of FIG. 10B at the playback time of the first song, 
and the titles of the songs after the first song are displayed in such a 
manner that the size of them are reduced and display positions of them are 
arranged, as shown in the right side of FIG. 10B. The control data 
indicating displaying timing of the title are altered at the same time 
when data of the highlight portions of the selected songs are arranged to 
produce the playback information of the medley karaoke information. 
The above described embodiment is directed to the case of successively 
reading out the playback information of the highlight portions and 
producing the playback information of the medley karaoke song before the 
playback thereof. However, the reading of the playback information of the 
highlight portions and playback thereof can be performed in parallel. By 
this operation, waiting time can be reduced especially in a case where 
many songs are selected. Further, the above embodiment is directed to the 
case where status of the MIDI sound source control information serving as 
the identification information of the highlight portion is inserted in the 
playback information of the songs and the playback information of the 
highlight portions are obtained with reference to the identification 
information. However, it is possible to store the playback information of 
the highlight portions with identification information separately from the 
playback information of the songs, and read them out. Further, the above 
embodiment is directed to the case that the status indicating the 
highlight portion is inserted in a predetermined position of the song in 
advance. However, it is possible to provide a unit for designate the 
position of the highlight portions to insert the status at the desired 
positions of the song. Still further, it is possible to apply the 
functions of fade-in and fade-out at the borders of the respective 
highlight portions arranged successively. 
As described above, the karaoke apparatus according to the present 
invention stores playback information including MIDI sound source control 
information for controlling the MIDI sound source with the identification 
information for specifying highlight portions of the songs, and reads out 
the playback information of the selected songs. Therefore, it is possible 
for users to easily produce his or her favorite medley karaoke song and 
the karaoke play will become more enjoyable. 
The invention may be embodied on other specific forms without departing 
from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present 
embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative 
and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the 
appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes 
which come within the meaning an range of equivalency of the claims are 
therefore intended to be embraced therein.