Abstract: A system and method for detecting, separating and recording the individual voices in a musical composition performed by a plurality of instruments. The electrical waveform signal for the multi-voiced musical composition is fed to a waveform signal converter to convert the waveform signal to a frequency spectrum representation. The frequency spectrum representation is fed to a frequency spectrum comparator where it is compared to predetermined steady-state frequency spectrum representations for a particular musical instrument. Upon detecting the presence of a frequency spectrum representation corresponding to a predetermined steady-state frequency spectrum representation, the detected frequency spectrum representation and measured growth and decay frequency spectrum representations are fed to a waveform envelope comparator and compared to predetermined waveform envelopes, i.e. frequency spectrum representations during the growth, steady-state and decay periods of the waveform signal.