Patent ID: 7105737

Claim:
A method of scaling polyphony comprising: (a) identifying music data, wherein the music data indicates instruments to be used and each instrument has an assigned priority; (b) comparing a measure of polyphony needed to play the music data with polyphony of a sound generating device; (c) if the measure of polyphony exceeds the polyphony of the sound generating device, playing the music data without using one or more instruments indicated by the music data according to the assigned priorities; (d) for at least one instrument indicated by the music data, comparing a quality rating of the instrument on the sound generating device with a threshold corresponding to the instrument, wherein the sound generating device specifies quality ratings for the instruments; and (e) if the quality rating of the instrument is less than the threshold, selecting a substitute instrument having a quality rating that exceeds the threshold, wherein a substitution of a higher quality instrument is merited based upon a sound quality of N alternative instruments available to the sound generating device, and using the substitute instrument in place of the at least one instrument of said step (d) during said step (c).