Patent ID: 8816182
Filing Date: 2014-08-26
Classification: G10H

Abstract:
1. A method for processing an electric guitar signal, the method comprising: receiving an analog output of an electric guitar having a high impedance at a buffer amplifier of an audio coupling device, the audio coupling device being disposed between the electric guitar and a portable handheld computing device and including a first connector for coupling the audio coupling device to an interface of the electric guitar, a second connector for coupling the audio coupling device to an interface of the portable handheld computing device, and an analog to digital converter; providing by the buffer amplifier the analog output of the electric guitar having a low impedance to the analog to digital converter; converting the analog output of the electric guitar into a digital audio signal using the analog to digital converter; providing the digital audio signal from the audio coupling device to the portable handheld computing device using digital communications, the portable handheld computing device including a general purpose microprocessor, an operating system, memory; and means for installing and removing software applications; and processing the digital audio signal with digital signal processing steps, the digital signal processing steps performed by a software application downloaded from an applications server to the portable handheld computing device, the software application installed independently from other software contained in memory on the portable handheld computing device, the digital signal processing steps comprising: receiving the digital audio signal by reading audio samples from the audio driver subsystem of the operating system of the portable handheld computing device; processing the audio samples using a digital signal processing block to optionally add audio effects selected by the user of the software application; and outputting the processed guitar signal by writing audio samples to the audio driver subsystem of the operating system of the portable handheld computing device.