Panning presets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9420394-B2
Application number	US-201113151199-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2011
Priority date	Feb 16, 2011
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

For media clips having audio content, a novel method for applying panning behaviors to the audio content is presented. The method receives a selection of a media clip having audio content and a selection of a panning preset for modifying a set of audio parameters of the audio content to create an audio panning effect. Each panning preset is associated with several sets of values where each set of values corresponds to the set of audio parameters. The audio parameters include parameters for determining a distribution of the audio content across a multi-channel output system. The method applies each the sets of values associated with the selected panning preset to successive portions of the audio content in order to control the distribution of the audio content to the multi-channel output system.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of editing audio content to produce an audio panning effect, the method comprising:
applying a panning preset from a set of predefined panning presets to a set of audio parameters of the audio content to create the audio panning effect, each panning preset comprising a plurality of sets of predefined values, each set of predefined values having a value corresponding to each audio parameter in the set of audio parameters, the audio parameters comprising parameters for determining a distribution of the audio content across a multi-channel output system, the panning preset applied by setting each of a set of predefined values to a corresponding audio parameter in the set of audio parameters of the audio content;
receiving a value for a particular audio parameter of the set of audio parameters different from a currently set predefined value for the particular audio parameter; and
adjusting a remaining set of audio parameters in the set of audio parameters of the audio content based on interdependences between the particular audio parameter and the remaining set of audio parameters in order to control the distribution of the audio content to each channel of the multi-channel output system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each set of predefined values is stored as a snapshot corresponding to one of a plurality of states of the panning preset, each snapshot being applied to the audio content as a function of time.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the multi-channel output system comprises a multi-speaker system, wherein applying each snapshot associated with the applied panning preset controls the distribution of the audio content to each speaker of the multi-speaker system.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein a progression through successive states of the applied panning preset changes the distribution of the audio content across each speaker of the multi-channel speaker system.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein applying each snapshot associated with the applied panning preset to control the distribution of the audio content to each speaker of the multi-speaker system produces an effect of an audio movement along a predetermined path.

6. A method of editing audio content to produce an audio panning effect, the method comprising:
receiving a selection of a panning preset from a set of predefined panning presets for modifying a set of audio parameters of the audio content to create the audio panning effect, each panning preset comprising a plurality of sets of predefined values, each set of predefined values having a value corresponding to each audio parameter in the set of audio parameters;
setting each of a set of predefined values of the selected panning preset to a corresponding audio parameter in the set of audio parameters of the audio content;
receiving a value for a particular audio parameter of the set of audio parameters different from a currently set predefined value for the particular audio parameter; and
adjusting a remaining set of audio parameters in the set of audio parameters of the audio content based on interdependences between the particular audio parameter and the remaining set of audio parameters to produce the audio panning effect in order to control distribution of the audio content to each channel of a multi-channel speaker system.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising adjusting a progression rate of the panning preset by changing a length of a portion of a media clip to which the panning preset is applied, wherein when a first portion of the media clip is shorter than a second portion of the media clip, applying the panning preset to the first portion causes a higher progression rate of the panning preset.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein each set of predefined values is stored as a snapshot corresponding to one of a plurality of states of the panning preset.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein a progression through successive states of the panning preset produces the audio panning effect by modulating individual outputs to each channel of the multi-channel speaker system as a function of time.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising scaling an elapsed time of each portion of a media clip between the snapshots of the panning preset such that the snapshots are distributed throughout the media clip.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising applying an interpolation function to determine additional sets of values of audio parameters for additional states of the panning preset based on the stored snapshots of the panning preset.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the set of predefined values of each snapshot is applied to the audio content as a function of time, each snapshot changing the values of the audio parameters of the audio content at a predetermined point in time.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the panning effect is a directional panning effect that creates a sense of audio movement along a predetermined path.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the panning effect is a non-directional panning effect that distributes the audio content to the multi-channel speaker system to produce the audio panning effect.

15. A method of editing a media clip having audio content to produce an audio panning effect, the method comprising:
receiving a selection of a panning preset from a set of predefined panning presets for modifying a set of audio parameters of the audio content to create the audio panning effect, each panning preset comprising a plurality of sets of predefined numerical values, each set of predefined numerical values having a numerical value for each audio parameter in the set of audio parameters and stored as a different state of the panning preset, the set of audio parameters comprising parameters for determining a distribution of the audio content across a multi-channel output system, each state of the selected panning preset comprising at least one audio parameter value that is different from values of a same audio parameter for all other states of the panning preset;
receiving a selection of a particular state of the panning preset; and
setting a numerical value of each audio parameter in the set of audio parameters of the audio content to the corresponding predefined numerical value in the set of predefined numerical values stored as the particular state of the panning preset to distribute the audio content to the multi-channel output system to produce a non-directional panning effect of the audio content.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising setting the numerical value of each audio parameter in the set of audio parameters of the audio content to the corresponding predefined numerical value in a set of predefined numerical values representing a predefined default state of the panning preset to audio parameters of the audio content when the selection of the particular state is not received.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the particular state of the panning preset is a first state of the panning preset, the method further comprising:
receiving a selection of a second state of the panning preset during a playback of the audio content, and
setting the numerical value of each audio parameter in the set of audio parameters of the audio content to each corresponding numerical value of a set of numerical values corresponding to the second state of the panning preset to a remaining unplayed portion of the audio content of the playback.

18. A method of authoring a custom panning preset for editing media clips having audio content to produce an audio panning

Assignees

• Eppolito Aaron M
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Eppolito Aaron M

Classifications

• H04S1/007

  in which the audio signals are in digital form (data reduction aspects thereof based on psychoacoustics G10L19/02) · CPC title

• H04S2400/11

  Positioning of individual sound objects, e.g. moving airplane, within a sound field (H04S2420/13 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04S2400/15

  Aspects of sound capture and related signal processing for recording or reproduction · CPC title

• H04S7/40 Primary

  Visual indication of stereophonic sound image · CPC title

• H04S2400/03

  Aspects of down-mixing multi-channel audio to configurations with lower numbers of playback channels, e.g. 7.1 -> 5.1 (H04S2400/01 takes precedence) · CPC title