An electronic music system which imitates acoustic instruments addresses the problem wherein the audio spectrum of a a recorded note is entirely shifted in pitch by transposition. The consequence of this is that unnatural formant shifts occur, resulting in the phenomenon known in the industry as "munchkinization." The present invention eliminates munchkinization, thus allowing a substantially wider transposition range for a single recording. Also, the present invention allows even shorter recordings to be used for still further memory improvements. An analysis stage separates and stores the formant and excitation components of sounds from an instrument. On playback, either the formant component or the excitation component may be manipulated.