Musical effects apparatus and tone control process for a musical instrument

A musical effects apparatus for conditioning a musical input signal, comprising:

• a distortion device for adding distortion to said musical input signal, said distortion device having an input for receiving said musical input signal;
• a signal splitter coupled to said distortion device for receiving said musical input signal from said distortion device and directing said musical input signal along a first signal path out of said musical effects apparatus, and along a second signal path;
• a stereo chorus device coupled to said second signal path for receiving said musical input signal from said signal splitter and generating two stereo output signals;
• a plurality of delay devices coupled to said stereo chorus device for receiving said two stereo output signals from said stereo chorus device, each of said plurality of delay devices for delaying said stereo output signals by predetermined amounts;
• and
• control means for automatically conditioning said musical input signal by said distortion, stereo chorus and delay devices.

An apparatus for conditioning the musical tone of a musical instrument being played, comprising:

• means for storing music data and tone control data for a musical composition of an exemplary musical instrument in machine readable form, said exemplary musical instrument corresponding to said musical instrument being played,
• wherein said data storing means comprising a compact disk having a data field and a subcode field, and wherein said music data is stored in said compact disk data field, and wherein said tone control data is stored in said compact disk subcode field;
• means for conditioning said musical tone of said musical instrument being played, including means for mixing said musical tone of said musical instrument being played with said music data of said exemplary musical instrument;
• and
• means for controlling said conditioning means using said tone control data so that said musical tone of said musical instrument being played matches said music data of said exemplary musical instrument.

An apparatus for conditioning the musical tone of a musical instrument being played, comprising:

• means for storing music data and tone control data for a musical composition of an exemplary musical instrument in machine readable form, said exemplary musical instrument corresponding to said musical instrument being played;
• means for conditioning said musical tone of said musical instrument being played, including means forming said musical tone of said musical instrument being played with said music data of said exemplary musical instrument;
• and
• means for controlling said conditioning means using said tone control data so that said musical tone of said musical instrument being played matches said music data of said exemplary musical instrument, wherein said conditioning means further comprises one or more musical effects devices for conditioning said musical tone of said musical instrument being played in a predetermined manner.

A process for controlling the tone of a selected musical instrument, said process comprising the steps of:

• storing a musical composition of an exemplary musical instrument in machine readable form, said exemplary musical instrument corresponding to said selected musical instrument, wherein said musical composition includes music data and tone control data, and said storing step comprises the steps of storing said music data within a compact disk data field and storing said tone control data within a compact disk subcode field;
• inputting a first audio signal from said selected musical instrument into a musical effects device;
• generating a second audio signal from said stored musical composition, and inputting said second audio signal into said musical effects device;
• and
• conditioning said first audio signal from said selected musical instrument using said musical effects device so that its tone matches the tone of said second audio signal of said stored musical composition.