Abstract: A pickup processing system for a guitar or other musical instrument. According to one embodiment, a split pickup is employed that separates the sound from the two bass strings from the other four strings. The signal from the bass strings may be provided to an octave divider, which creates a bass sound to add back into the sound. The octave divider produces sound without discontinuities or other artifacts. Other effects include restored acoustical properties of the guitar body, stereo imaging, reverb and others. The present invention may be fully contained within the body of an acoustic guitar.

Abstract: A system and method to assist a singer or other user. An audio source is processed to extract the lead vocals from the audio signal. This vocal signal is fed to a pitch detection processor which estimates the pitch at each moment in time. A user singing into a microphone provides a user vocal signal that is also pitch detected. The pitch of the lead vocal signal and the user vocal signal are compared and any difference is provided to a pitch shifting module, which then can correct the pitch of the user vocal signal. The corrected user vocal signal may be combined with a background signal comprising a signal from the audio source without the lead vocal signal, and then provided to headphones or loudspeakers to the user and/or an audience. This system and method may be used for Karaoke performances.