Layered voice musical self-accompaniment system

Abstract

The practice of this invention enables a musician to augment a main 'lead voice' performance by extemporaneously deriving from particularly selected notes of the main performance a separate synthesized accompaniment in which particularly selected notes may be controllably time-extended (e.g. sustained) singly or in a group, in effect 'detached' from the lead voice. The first of a pair of low profile footswitches enables/cancels accompaniment triggering; the second enables/cancels accompaniment time-extension. Switch logic is implemented such that the first switch can never override the second switch to cancel time-extension; thus a musician operating the switches interactively, typically one with each foot, is enabled, through strategic timing relative to the lead notes, to trigger accompaniment notes from particularly selected lead notes, to controllably time-extend particularly selected accompaniment notes, and to accumulate groups of such time-extended accompaniment notes. The invention is applicable to a wide range of lead voice sources including the guitar, The Chapman Stick.RTM. fingerboard instrument and its synthesizer controller version. The Grid.RTM., guitar synthesizers, keyboard synthesizers, as well as acoustic, electrical and synthesized musical instruments of various types and even the human voice. The invention may be implemented using available MIDI-based equipment, specially configured. The practices are applicable to sustain, delay and echo effects. As a refinement, pitch bending in the accompaniment may be separately disabled, thus emphasizing pitch bending performed in the lead voice.