Patent ID: 8878046

Claim:
A tone control device in communication with a tone generation device that is capable of generating a plurality of tones and capable of generating or silencing a tone with a predetermined pitch, comprising: an input device that inputs a tone generation instruction including pitch information and volume information and a silencing instruction including the pitch information; a memory device; a processor; a control program that when executed by the processor performs operations, the operations comprising: storing in the memory device a current level of a current tone being generated from the tone generation device; receiving a new tone generation instruction from the input device while generating the current tone at the current level, wherein the new tone generation instruction indicates a new tone and a new tone level corresponding to volume information at which to generate the new tone; setting a target level in the memory device based on the tone level in the new tone generation instruction; instructing the tone generation device to generate the new tone at the current level stored in the memory device while the current tone is being generated by the tone generation device; and instructing the tone generation device to gradually change the tone level of all tones that are being generated by the tone generation device from the current level at which all the tones are being generated, including the current tone and the new tone, toward the target level while all the tones are being generated.