Patent US 5,880,392

An improved control structure for music synthesis is provided in which: 1) the sound representation provided to the adaptive function mapper allows for a greatly increased degree of control over the sound produced; and 2) training of the adaptive function mapper is performed using an error measure, or error norm, that greatly facilitates learning while ensuring perceptual identity of the produced sound with the training example. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, sound data is produced by applying to an adaptive function mapper control parameters including: at least one parameter selected from the set of time and timbre space coordinates; and at least one parameter selected from the set of pitch, .DELTA.pitch, articulation and dynamic. Using an adaptive function mapper, mapping is performed from the control parameters to synthesis parameters to be applied to a sound synthesizer. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, an adaptive function mapper is trained to produce, in accordance with information stored in a mapping store, synthesis parameters to be applied to a sound synthesizer, by steps including: analyzing sounds to produce sound parameters describing the sounds; further analyzing the sound parameters to produce control parameters; applying the control parameters to the adaptive function mapper, the adaptive function mapper in response producing trial synthesis parameters comparable to the sound parameters; deriving from the sound parameters and the trial synthesis parameters an error measure in accordance with a perceptual error norm in which at least some error contributions are weighted in approximate degree to which they are perceived by the human ear during synthesis; and adapting the information stored in the mapping store in accordance with the error measure.