Karaoke apparatus creating vocal effect matching music piece

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention has been made under such a background and has an object to provide a karaoke apparatus which is capable of automatically selecting a proper vocal effect per musical piece to be performed and imparting the selected vocal effect to an inputted vocal tone of a live singing voice.
Further, the present invention also has an object to provide a karaoke apparatus which is capable of changing a vocal effect, which has been designated at the start of the karaoke performance, during the course of the progress of the music.
According to the invention, a karaoke apparatus comprises a pickup device that picks up a live singing voice of a music piece to convert the same into a vocal signal, a music source device that provides a music signal representative of a karaoke accompaniment of the music piece to accompany the live singing voice and that provides effect control information which is predetermined in matching with at least either a mood or a tempo of the music piece and which is effective to create and control a vocal effect, a vocal effecter device that processes the vocal signal according to the provided effect control information to apply the vocal effect to the live singing voice and to control the applied vocal effect, and a mixer device that mixes the provided music signal and the processed vocal signal with each other to concurrently reproduce the karaoke accompaniment and the live singing voice which is modified by the applied vocal effect so as to enrich karaoke performance of the music piece.
In a specific form, the music source device comprises means for providing initial effect control information before the karaoke performance is commenced such that the vocal effecter device is established according to the initial effect control information to initially set an adequate vocal effect in generally matching with the music piece.
Further, the music source device comprises means for providing transitional effect control information during the course of the karaoke performance to transitionally control the initially set vocal effect in specifically matching with progression of the music piece