There is provided an apparatus for detecting a musical note of an instrument comprising a sensor unit including a sensor configured to sense a vibration of the instrument and a control unit configured to identify a component of the musical note based on a frequency of the vibration recognized by the sensor unit, wherein the sensor unit is connected to a port of a microprocessor of the control unit through a first route to transfer the recognized vibration, and wherein the sensor unit is selectively connected to a port of the microprocessor through a second route different from the first route to output a sound based on a signal supplied from the microprocessor.

A sound processing device includes: a combining processor that combines a performance sound and a source sound, based on operation information corresponding to a performance operation on an instrument. The performance sound is obtained by picking up a sound generated by the performance operation on the instrument. The source sound is obtained from a sound source.

An apparatus for decomposing an audio signal into a background component signal and a foreground component signal, has: a block generator for generating a time sequence of blocks of audio signal values; an audio signal analyzer for determining a characteristic of a current block of the audio signal and for determining a variability of the characteristic within a group of blocks having at least two blocks of the sequence of blocks; and a separator for separating the current block into a background portion and a foreground portion wherein the separator is configured to determine a separation threshold based on the variability and to separate the current block into the background component signal and the foreground component signal, when the characteristic of the current block is in a predetermined relation to the separation threshold.

A device is provided as part of a system, the device being for capturing vibrations produced by an object such as a musical instrument. Via a fixation element, the device is fixed to a drum. The device has a sensor spaced apart from a surface of the drum, located relative to the drum, and a magnet adjacent the sensor. The fixation element transmits vibrations from its fixation point on the drum to the magnet. Vibrations from the surface of the drum and from the magnet are transmitted to the sensor. A method may further be provided for interpreting an audio input, such as the output of the sensors within the system, the method comprising identifying an audio event or grouping of audio events within audio data, generating a model of the audio event that includes a representation of a timbre characteristic, and comparing that representation to expected representations.

A DJ media player is provided. The DJ media player includes a display to show audio playback information; a platter used to control audio playback; one or more energy-storing devices; and a processor for responding to DJ media-player electrical-power loss. Responding to DJ media-player electrical-power loss includes storing electrical charge on energy-storing devices; sensing a disruption in electrical current supplied by a power source to the DJ media player; powering the DJ media player using the electrical charge on the energy-storing devices; and displaying a notification on a DJ media-player display that there was a disruption of power. Responding to electrical-power loss comprises performing a safe shutdown procedure for avoiding file and system corruption.

Arranged accompaniment data are created by: acquiring original performance information; extracting, from the acquired original performance information, one or more accent positions in a music piece represented by the acquired original performance information; acquiring existing accompaniment pattern data; and adjusting time positions of one or more accompaniment notes, which are to be generated on the basis of the acquired accompaniment pattern data, so as to coincide with the extracted one or more accent positions. In this way, it is possible to create accompaniment data matching accent positions (rhythmic elements) of the music piece represented by the original performance information and thereby automatically make a musical arrangement with respective characteristics of the existing accompaniment pattern data and original performance information remaining therein.

Techniques for generating a virtual music experience. The techniques include source separating an arbitrary digital audio input into a plurality of source-separated tracks. Sets of music features are determined from the plurality of source-separated tracks and provided to a video presentation system at a video frame rate of the video presentation system. The providing the sets of music features to the video presentation system causes the video presentation system to animate one or more graphical assets based on the provided sets of music features.

A process includes collecting a digital input signal and performing initial pitch detection to detect one or more pitches on the digital input signal. The process also includes manipulating the digital input signal to form a manipulated digital signal based on the one or more pitches detected.

A media-content augmentation system includes a database with a multiplicity of media files and associated metadata. Each media file is mapped to at least one contextual theme defined by beginning and end timings. A processing system couples to the database; and an input couples to the processing system. The input is in the form of temporally-varying events data. The processing system resolves the input into one or more categorized contextual themes, correlates the themes with metadata associated with selected media files relevant to the themes, and then splices or fades together selected media files to reflect the events as the input varies with time, thus generating as an output, a media product in which transitions between media are aligned with the temporally-varying events. The database may contain sections of digital media files. A method aligns sections in digital media files with temporally-varying events data to compose a media product.

A timing prediction method includes updating a state variable relating to the timing of a next sound generation event in a performance using a plurality of observation values relating to a timing of sound generation in a performance, and outputting an updated state variable that has been updated.