Patent ID: 7680288

Claim:
An apparatus for generating, storing, or editing an audio representation of an audio scene, comprising: an audio processor for generating a plurality of speaker signals from a plurality of input channels; a provider for providing an object-oriented description of the audio scene, wherein the object-oriented description of the audio scene includes a plurality of audio objects, wherein an audio object is associated with an audio signal, a starting time instant, and an end time instant; and a mapper for mapping the object-oriented description of the audio scene to the plurality of input channels of the audio processor, wherein the mapper is configured to assign a first audio object to an input channel, and to assign a second audio object whose starting time instant lies after the end time instant of the first audio object to the same input channel, and to assign a third audio object whose starting time instant lies after the starting time instant of the first audio object and before the end time instant of the first audio object to another of the plurality of input channels, wherein the audio processor is coupled to the provider exclusively via the mapper, to receive audio object data to be processed.