Method of establishing a harmony control signal controlled in real-time by a guitar input signal

1. A method of generating a harmony in real-time based on a guitar audio input, comprising:

inputting a guitar audio input signal;

inputting a voice audio input signal;

calculating an input audio extraction representation including a peak analysis of a frequency spectrum derived from said guitar audio input signal;

calculating a decision making harmony control signal, on the basis of said input audio extraction representation, that determines a harmony relative to the voice audio input signal; and

outputting a tone based on the harmony.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a polyphonic harmony signal is generated on the basis of the decision making harmony control signal and output on a harmony output.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said guitar audio input signal is sampled or downsampled to a sample rate that is less than about 13 kHz.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said guitar audio input signal is digitally represented at a rate of less than about 13 kHz and greater than about 1.3 kHz.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said input audio extraction representation is calculated through detection of fundamental tones less than 6.5 kHz of the guitar audio input signal.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said input audio extraction representation is calculated through detection of fundamental tones less than 3.0 kHz of a guitar audio input signal.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said guitar audio input signal is provided on the basis of an A/D conversion of a guitar audio input.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said guitar audio input signal is provided on the basis of an A/D conversion of a guitar audio input and a subsequent down-sampling of said guitar audio input.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said input audio extraction representation is calculated by analysis of said guitar audio input signal and said voice audio input signal.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said input audio extraction representation is calculated by analysis of said guitar audio input signal, said voice audio input signal, and an additional input signal.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said guitar audio input signal is analyzed in time windows of less than about 1500 ms.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said guitar audio input signal is analyzed in time windows of more than about 80 ms.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said guitar audio input signal is analyzed in time windows of 100 ms to 1000 ms.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said guitar audio input signal is analyzed in overlapping time windows.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein a step size between a beginning of two consecutive time windows is less than 100 ms.

16. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the input audio extraction representation is calculated by note detection of the guitar audio input signal.

17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the input audio extraction representation is calculated by note and chord detection of the guitar audio input signal.

18. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the input audio extraction representation is calculated by note, chord, and scale detection of the guitar audio input signal.

19. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of a decision making harmony control signal and a polyphonic harmony signal is calculated on the basis of said input audio extraction representation and said voice audio input signal and wherein said polyphonic harmony signal is output time-synchronized with said voice audio input signal.

20. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of a decision making harmony control signal and a polyphonic harmony signal is calculated on the basis of said input audio extraction representation and said voice audio input signal and wherein said polyphonic harmony signal is output time-synchronized with said guitar audio input signal.

21. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a polyphonic harmony signal is established as a harmony of two or more different voices, one of the voices being based on the voice audio input signal, one of the other voices being based on a pitch shifted version of said voice audio input signal, and said two or more voices being time-synchronized with said voice audio input signal.

22. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the input audio extraction representation calculates chord information on the basis of said guitar audio input signal and scale information on the basis of said voice audio input signal.

23. A hardware structure comprising a signal processor for implementing the method of claim 1 .

24. A hardware structure according to claim 23 , wherein the hardware structure is implemented on a computer.

25. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the guitar audio input signal is provided by a high resolution A/D conversion of a guitar audio.

26. A method for use with a received analog guitar input signal, the method comprising:

sampling and partitioning a guitar input signal into a sequence of overlapping time frames;

transforming time frames determined to contain suitable harmony information into a frequency spectrum;

obtaining an analysis of peaks in the frequency spectrum;

transforming the frequency spectrum analysis into a decision making harmony control signal that determines at least one tone specific to a corresponding voice audio input signal; and

outputting the tone.