EP2209109A2 - Method and control device for controlling an organ - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves selecting accompaniment of parish tunes from a database by a control device (1), and transmitting a control sequence to an organ (5). The organ reproduces the accompaniment to control commands from the controlling device. A search query is generated in the database by the control device according to an input of a tune identifier of the parish tunes, where the database selects the accompaniment depending on the identifier, and provides a partial sequence of the control sequence. An independent claim is also included for a controlling device for controlling an organ, comprising a selection module.

Description

On the one hand, the invention relates to a method for controlling an organ, by means of a control device from a database an accompaniment of a Gemeindelied selected and the organ a control sequence is transmitted, by means of which the organ on a control command from the control device plays the accompaniment, on the other hand, a control device for controlling an organ with a selection module for selecting an accompaniment of a church song from a database and a playback module for transmitting a control sequence to the organ for playback of the accompaniment.

With the help of such methods and devices, religious communities bridge the bottlenecks in the musical supply of masses, services and liturgical celebrations due to the lack of qualified specialist staff.

For the purposes of this specification, "organ" refers to any device used to accompany a congregation song that creates or imitates the sound of a pipe organ. In particular, these are pipe organs with mechanical, pneumatic or electrical action, "electric organs" and keyboards, as well as specialized electronic tone generators including programmatically simulating a pipe organ-equipped computer and audio file players that output sound through speakers. Common software programs for the simulation of a pipe organ are specialized samplers such as the product "Hauptwerk" of the Crumhorn-Labs, GB and synthesizers such as the free software "Aeolus" (www.kokkinizita.net/linuxaudio/aeolus). Well-known file formats for digital audio data used to reproduce organ sounds are, in particular, "RIFF WAVE" (file suffix, for example, "wav") and "MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3" (suffix "mpg").

A method and a device of the type mentioned are known from the product "MIDI Sequencer +" of the Dutch company Johannus Orgelbouw. The device controls an electric organ via a MIDI interface: A removable memory (SD memory card) acting as a sequence memory contains in a directory structure as a database subsequences in the form of MIDI files with accompaniments to a stanza of a Gemeindelieds as well as other pieces of music. The selection module of the known device for selecting an accompaniment is a Removable Disk File Browser: The device has a small screen for viewing, a scroll wheel and arrow keys for navigating the directory structure and selecting an accompaniment, as well as buttons for the start, pause, and end accompaniment playback controls.

The sequence memory of such devices is generally set up by a priest, pastor or liturgist involved in the preparation of the celebration for use in the celebration by selecting from a database on a commercial workstation the control sequences for the designated church songs and storing them in the sequence memory.

The establishment of the sequence memory of another known device takes place, for example, with the computer song selection program "Orgaliwa" offered by the engineering office Klaus Holzapfel. This program not only allows the selection of control sequences available in file form on the workstation, but also the determination of a sequence of congregational songs in the celebration. The operation of the known device during the celebration can thus be reduced to the operation of a single key alternately as a start and stop command.

Methods and devices of the aforementioned type are made DE 199 38 961 A1 and from US 6,975,995 B2 in which by means of a control device from a database accompaniments of songs can be selected, the control device generates a search query to the database after entering a song identifier and the database selects the accompaniment based on the song identifier and provides. Furthermore, it is off DE 88582 C a method for controlling an organ is known, wherein by means of a control device an accompaniment of a church song is selected and the organ is transmitted a control sequence by means of which the organ reproduces the accompaniment to a control command from the control device.

The known devices and methods require a precise planning of the music-to-be-served celebration - and an actual planning corresponding to the course of the celebration. Any deviation in the course of planning leads to tasks that can not be easily solved with the known devices based on simple start and stop commands. Spontaneous wishes during the celebration After other than the planned accompaniments can not be satisfied with the known devices and methods.

task

The invention has for its object to enable a more flexible accompaniment of church songs.

solution

Proceeding from the known methods, it is proposed according to the invention that the control device generates a search query to the database after input of a song identifier of the congregation song and that the database selects the accompaniment based on the song identifier and provides at least one subsequence of the control sequence.

As a database, directory structures on a data medium or alternatively other types of databases can be used, as in the known devices. The control device has a search function set up for the respective database type, which uses the song identifier to search for an accompaniment defined in the database for the community song and returns the result of the search.

The inventive method allows a particularly simple and in the context of musical accompaniment of religious communities intuitively obvious choice, as the church songs in the common collections here - especially "Praise God" (GL) of the German-speaking Catholic dioceses and "Protestant hymnal" (EC) of the German-speaking Protestant communities - have numerical identifiers and are generally announced in the course of each celebration on the basis of these identifiers.

The inventive method requires neither the compilation of a specific sequence memory for each celebration, nor is the musical design of the celebration limited to the intended selection of church songs. Only the storage capacity of the available sequence memory restricts the selection of accompaniments by the method according to the invention.

In the context of a method according to the invention, the database preferably also selects a prelude to the church song based on the song identifier and the organ gives up the control command first the foreplay again. The automatic linking of the selection of an accompaniment with the selection of a subsequence for an introductory foreplay increases the ease of use of the control device. In the same way, partial sequences for a specific epilogue to end the church song or for an interlude between the verses can also be selected automatically on the basis of the song recognition. Alternatively, preludes, interludes and posts can only be selected on explicit request - for example by means of special stanza identifiers "V", "Z" and "N".

More preferably, after input of stanza identifiers to the common stem, the controller repeats the subsequence within the control sequence corresponding to a number of stanza identifiers. The inventive method thus makes the storage of several control sequences for a church song - in "Orgaliwa" one MIDI file per number to be sung stanzas - superfluous and thus simplifies the structure of the database.

In an advantageous embodiment, the control device restricts the search request based on the database identifier to the database in the context of a method according to the invention after inputting a database identifier to the common term. The method according to the invention thus makes it possible, particularly within a celebration, to particularly easily, for example by means of a database identifier "G" for the praise of God and "E" for the evangelical hymnal, the change between different collections. Alternatively, in the context of a method according to the invention a collection can be selected beforehand, so that the search query is restricted to the associated database without inputting a database identifier and another database is selected only when expressly entering another database identifier.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, after confirmation of the selection of the accompaniment, the control device transmits the song identifier to a song display. Such a method according to the invention permits the automatic linking of two independent systems which, in the absence of qualified specialist personnel on the organ, are both actuated by the respective executing liturgy in the known state of the art.

Such a link is particularly useful if, even with unsuccessful search in the database for confirmation, the song identifier is transmitted to the song display: So the community with the same control device not musically backed works from the known collections - especially prayers and psalm readings - are displayed , In addition to the song recognition, the database and stanza identifications can also be transmitted to the song display as part of a method according to the invention.

Starting from the known control devices, it is proposed according to the invention to provide a search module for generating a search request for a song identifier entered in the selection module to the database and by a receiving module for receiving at least a subsequence of the control sequence from the database. The selection, playback, search and reception modules are each combinations of hardware and software in the context of the control device according to the invention. The control device according to the invention makes it possible to carry out one of the methods described above and is likewise distinguished by the advantages mentioned there.

Preferably, a control device according to the invention has a database for managing at least one sequence memory for subsequences of control sequences for monitoring congregation songs. In the context of the application, a sequence memory is a data carrier for storing control sequences, for example a memory card. The database functionality can then be implemented particularly easily by operating system functions for accessing the directory structure of the memory card. Supplementary information can be stored in configuration files for each individual subsequence, for a group of associated subsequences or centrally for each data carrier. Alternatively, the search module of a control device according to the invention, a query to an external database - for example by means of an FTP or HTTP request via a network connection to a database on the Internet - send.

Furthermore, a control device according to the invention preferably has at least one sequence memory with at least one subsequence of a control sequence for the organ Playback of an accompaniment of a church song. Such a control device according to the invention requires (apart from the corresponding connections to the organ) no further external devices for controlling the accompaniment of church songs. Alternatively, the database in the search module of a control device according to the invention can only contain a list of available accompaniments, each with a reference to external sequence memory - for example, local server or FTP server on the Internet, of which the partial sequences are retrieved via a network connection.

Particularly preferably, a control device according to the invention has a song display module for transmitting the song identifier to a song display. Such a control device enables the above-described linking of the control of an organ with the control of a song display.

embodiment

The invention is explained below with reference to an embodiment: The in FIG. 1 illustrated control device 1 has in a central unit 2, a compact industrial PC ("Embedded PC") and in a separate housing of 150 x 100 x 35 mm, a control unit 3 with a microcontroller. The control unit 3 is connected to the central unit 2 by a UHF radio link, the control device 1 is connected by cables via a game device 4 with an electric organ 5 and by another UHF radio link with a song display 6.

The control device 1 has a selection module, a search module, a sequence memory, a reception module, a reproduction module and a song display module and, for the power supply of the operating unit 3, four mignon cells. The respective software components of the modules are implemented programmatically in a control program as a C program that is executed on the industrial PC.

The sequence memory is a group of up to four standard USB storage media in corresponding slots of the first housing with a FAT32 directory structure as a database. The directory structure of a memory card contains in each case for a compilation, for example for the "Praise of God" and for the "Evangelical hymnal" with a given syntax of the file names used MIDI files with subsequences to accompany the church songs from the collections.

The file names each consist of a four-digit alphanumeric identifier of the collection, a four-digit numeric song identifier, one of the letters "s", "v", "z" and "n" for the sub-sequence types "stanza", "foreplay", "interlude" and "Nachspiel" and optionally a two-digit numeric variant identifier, a dot and the common file suffix "mid" for MIDI files. The song recognition is filled to the left with "underlined" ("_"): The congregational song 715 from the Gotteslob with Aachen regional part receives so for example the song identifier "_715", the subsequence for the accompaniment of a stanza of this Gemeindelied is under the file name GLAC_715s.mid stored on the memory card for the "Praise God".

The selection module of the control device 1 comprises a selection subroutine of the control program and in the operating unit 3 a graphics screen 7, a numeric keypad 8 with the keys 9 "0" to "9", "<-" (left arrow), ":" ("colon ")," Fn "(function key)," Minus "," Plus "and" OK "and four keys 10 side by side below the screen for selecting one of the collections. After the start of the control device 1, first the selection subroutine searches for memory cards in the slots, switches in the respectively corresponding key 10 a green diode 11, reads from configuration files respectively in the root directory of the memory cards the database identifiers of available collections and fades them to select a collection above the respectively assigned key 10 on the screen. The last selected database ID represents the selection subprogram inverted as a pre-selection ("Default").

In an input field on the screen, the selection subroutine inverts the previously selected number - for example "257: 1-3" - as a preselection. If the operator takes the preselection with the button 9 "OK", the organ 5 repeats the last played accompaniment , If the operator instead selects another collection, the selection subprogram displays its database ID inverted and deletes the preselection of the number. If the operator selects another one via the numeric keypad 8 Number, the selection subroutine reverses the numbering of the number and overwrites the preselection on the screen.

If the operator concludes the entry with the button 9 "OK", then the selection subroutine interprets the string: A first sequence of up to four digits up to a colon (or until the end of the string) is interpreted as song recognition and, if appropriate, to left filled with underlines.

The song display module transmits the database identifier and the inputted character string to the song display 6. The song display module includes a song display subroutine of the control program and an industrial PC controlled UHF broadcast module controlled by the song display subroutine for remotely controlling a song display 6 remote from the control device 1.

Using a corresponding operating system function of the industrial PC, the search subroutine searches for file names in the root directory of the respective memory card that begin with the song identifier and end with the file suffix "mid" and transmits the list of found files back to a receiving module, here: a receive subroutine of the control program.

The reception subroutine interprets the list of found files: If the list is empty (for example, for spoken prayers and liturgical texts in the selected compilation), the reception subroutine displays the message "no accompaniment!" On the screen. Otherwise, the reception sub-program fades in on the screen further information - for example a song beginning of the selected congregational song - a.

If, in the string entered by means of the selection module, the song identifier is followed by a ":"("colon"), then the selection subroutine interprets the following characters as a designation of the stanzas. If the string between two numbers contains the character "-"("minus"), the selection subroutine will select the stanzas from the first to the second of the numbers. If the string between two numbers contains the character "+"("plus"), the selection subroutine does not select the stanzas between the first and second numbers. The selection subroutine determines Finally, the number of selected stanzas and presents them for information to the operator on the screen.

The playback module includes a control subroutine of the control program, four tone control ("dynamics") and game speed ("tempo") keys 12 and a MIDI OUT interface for controlling the game device 4.

During playback of the selected accompaniment on the organ 5, the playback module allows the interruption between two stanzas and the resumption by means of the key 9 "OK" and by means of the keys 12 the change of the playing speed and the sound strength (especially on acoustic instruments) in stages by choice different registers. For each level, the registers to be selected in the directory structure are defined in a central configuration file.

During playback, the selection subroutine can not select another collection and no other church song. Further stanzas can be entered and transmitted to the organ 5 by means of the key 9 "OK" to continue the accompaniment.

On the control unit 3 simple lists ("playlists") of church songs for a liturgical celebration filed and without new input of numbers successively transmitted to the organ 5.

In the figures are

1

control device

2

central processing unit

3

operating unit

4

gaming machine

5

organ

6

song display

7

graphics screen

8th

numeric keypad

9

button

10

button

11

diode

12

button

Claims (9)

Method for controlling an organ (5), wherein by means of a control device (1) from a database an accompaniment of a church song is selected and the organ (5) is sent a control sequence by means of which the organ (5) is sent to a control command from the control device (1 ) the accompaniment, characterized in that the control device (1) generates a search query to the database after input of a song identifier of the Gemeindelieds and that the database selects the accompaniment based on the song identifier and provides at least a subsequence of the control sequence. Method according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the database on the basis of the song identifier also selects a foreplay of the church song and that the organ (5) on the control command first reproduces the foreplay. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the control device (1) repeats the partial sequence within the control sequence corresponding to a number of strophes after entering stanza identifiers to the common stem. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the control device (1) restricts the search request based on the database identifier to the database after entering a database identifier to the Gemeindelied. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the control device (1) transmits the song recognition to a song display (6) after confirmation of the selection of the accompaniment. Control device (1) for controlling an organ (5) with a selection module for selecting accompaniment of a Gemeindelied from a database and with a playback module for transmitting a control sequence to the organ (5) for playing back the accompaniment, characterized by a search module for generating a query concerning a song identifier entered in the selection module to the database and by a receiving module for receiving at least a subsequence of the control sequence from the database. Control device (1) according to the preceding claim, characterized by a database for managing at least one sequence memory for subsequences of control sequences for monitoring congregation songs. Control device (1) according to the preceding claim, characterized by at least one sequence memory having at least one subsequence of a control sequence for the organ (5) for reproducing an accompaniment of a church song. Control device (1) according to one of claims 5 to 7, characterized by a song display module for transmitting the song identifier to a song display (6).

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