Sound processing apparatus, method, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9294062-B2
Application number	US-201214239797-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 3, 2012
Priority date	Sep 15, 2011
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

The present technique relates to a sound processing apparatus, a method, and a program capable of alleviating degradation of the quality of sound in a case where the gain of a sound signal is amplified.
When equalizer processing for adjusting the gain of each frequency band of an input signal on the basis of a gain setting value is performed, an input signal is attenuated by an input attenuation amount derived from the gain setting value, and the equalizer processing is performed on the input signal attenuated. The amount of amplification of the gain of the input signal in the equalizer processing is estimated on the basis of the gain setting value and a weight coefficient of each frequency band derived from a generally-available music signal prepared in advance, and a difference of the estimation value and the input attenuation amount is calculated as a gain correction amount. Further, nonlinear amplification processing is performed on the input signal so as to actually amplify the input signal, which has been subjected to the equalizer processing, by a gain correction amount, and an output signal is obtained. The present technique can be applied to a sound processing apparatus.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sound processing apparatus including:
an input attenuation amount calculation unit configured to calculate an input attenuation amount for attenuating a sound signal, on the basis of a gain setting value representing an adjustment amount of a gain of each frequency band of a sound signal in equalizer processing;
an estimation gain amplification amount calculation unit configured to calculate an estimation gain amplification amount which is an estimation value of a gain of the sound signal amplified by the equalizer processing, on the basis of the gain setting value and a weight coefficient derived for each of the frequency bands;
a gain correction amount calculation unit configured to calculate a gain correction amount on the basis of the input attenuation amount and the estimation gain amplification amount;
an input gain attenuation unit configured to attenuate the sound signal on the basis of the input attenuation amount;
an equalizer processing unit configured to perform the equalizer processing on the sound signal attenuated by the input gain attenuation unit, on the basis of the gain setting value, and adjust the gain of each of the frequency bands of the sound signal; and
a gain correction unit configured to correct the gain of the sound signal having been subjected to the equalizer processing, on the basis of the gain correction amount.

2. The sound processing apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a coefficient calculation unit configured to calculate the weight coefficient, on the basis of an energy distribution of a frequency of the sound signal prepared in advance.

3. The sound processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein for each of the frequency bands, the coefficient calculation unit derives an energy change amount of the sound signal prepared in advance that changes when the gain of the frequency band of the sound signal prepared in advance is amplified by a predetermined value, and calculates the weight coefficient of a particular frequency band on the basis of a summation of the energy change amount of each of the frequency bands and a ratio of the energy change amount of the particular frequency band.

4. The sound processing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the estimation gain amplification amount calculation unit calculates, as the estimation gain amplification amount, a summation of the gain setting value multiplied by the weight coefficient.

5. The sound processing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the gain correction amount calculation unit calculates the gain correction amount by deriving a difference of the input attenuation amount and the estimation gain amplification amount.

6. The sound processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the gain correction unit performs nonlinear amplification processing on the sound signal on the basis of the gain correction amount so as to amplify the gain of the sound signal.

7. The sound processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the gain correction unit performs linear amplification processing on the sound signal so as to amplify the gain of the sound signal by a predetermined amount of the gain correction amounts, and thereafter performs the nonlinear amplification processing on the sound signal so as to amplify the gain of the sound signal having been subjected to the linear amplification processing, by an amount obtained by subtracting the predetermined amount from the gain correction amount.

8. A sound processing method comprising:
an input attenuation amount calculation step for calculating an input attenuation amount for attenuating a sound signal, on the basis of a gain setting value representing an adjustment amount of a gain of each frequency band of a sound signal in equalizer processing;
an estimation gain amplification amount calculation step for calculating an estimation gain amplification amount which is an estimation value of a gain of the sound signal amplified by the equalizer processing, on the basis of the gain setting value and a weight coefficient derived for each of the frequency bands;
a gain correction amount calculation step for calculating a gain correction amount on the basis of the input attenuation amount and the estimation gain amplification amount;
an input gain attenuation step for attenuating the sound signal on the basis of the input attenuation amount;
an equalizer processing step for performing the equalizer processing on the sound signal attenuated in the input gain attenuation step, on the basis of the gain setting value, and adjusting the gain of each of the frequency bands of the sound signal; and
a gain correction step for correcting the gain of the sound signal having been subjected to the equalizer processing, on the basis of the gain correction amount.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon, a set of computer executable instructions for causing a computer to execute processing comprising:
calculating an input attenuation amount for attenuating a sound signal, on the basis of a gain setting value representing an adjustment amount of a gain of each frequency band of a sound signal in equalizer processing;
calculating an estimation gain amplification amount which is an estimation value of a gain of the sound signal amplified by the equalizer processing, on the basis of the gain setting value and a weight coefficient derived for each of the frequency bands;
calculating a gain correction amount on the basis of the input attenuation amount and the estimation gain amplification amount;
attenuating the sound signal on the basis of the input attenuation amount;
performing the equalizer processing on the attenuated sound signal, on the basis of the gain setting value, and adjusting the gain of each of the frequency bands of the sound signal; and
correcting the gain of the sound signal having been subjected to the equalizer processing, on the basis of the gain correction amount.

Assignees

• Hatanaka Mitsuyuki
• Chinen Toru
• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Hatanaka Mitsuyuki
• Chinen Toru

Classifications

• H03G9/14 Primary

  for gain control and tone control · CPC title

• H04R29/00

  Monitoring arrangements; Testing arrangements {(for hearing aids H04R25/30; detection of loudspeaker connection H04R5/04; sound-field adaptation dependent on speaker detection H04S7/308)} · CPC title

• H03G5/04

  in untuned amplifiers · CPC title

• H03G5/025

  Equalizers; Volume or gain control in limited frequency bands · CPC title

• H03G5/165

  Equalizers; Volume or gain control in limited frequency bands · CPC title