Patent ID: 7396992

Claim:
A tone synthesis apparatus for outputting a continuous tone waveform by time-serially combining rendition style modules defining rendition-style-related waveform characteristics for individual tone portions and sequentially crossfade-synthesizing a plurality of waveforms in accordance with the combination of the rendition style modules by use of at least two channels, said tone synthesis apparatus comprising: an acquisition section that acquires performance information including instructions for starting and ending generation of a note; a determination section that makes a determination, in accordance with the performance information acquired by said acquisition section, as to whether a crossfade characteristic of crossfade synthesis of the plurality of waveforms should be changed or not; and a change section that, in accordance with a result of the determination by said determination section, automatically changes the crossfade characteristic of the crossfade synthesis having already been started at a time point when the performance information was acquired by said acquisition section, so as to cause the crossfade synthesis to be completed earlier, wherein a time position of a succeeding one of rendition style modules to be time-serially combined in accordance with the acquired performance information is controlled by said change section automatically changing the crossfade characteristic of the crossfade synthesis having already been started at the time point when the performance information was acquired by said acquisition section.