Patent ID: 6898291

Claim:
A system for mixing a plurality of audio signals, each audio signal having a plurality of audio characteristics associated therewith, the system comprising: an audio mixer having a plurality of channels, each channel adapted for receiving one of the plurality of audio signals, for varying the audio characteristics of the received audio signal, and for outputting the varied audio signal; a microcomputer system coupled to the audio mixer and having a signal processing unit and an image display unit; wherein the image display unit is adapted to display a first background scene which defines a three-dimensional space including a pair of speakers positioned within the three-dimensional space; wherein the signal processing unit transforms each audio signal into a three-dimensional transparent image having an apparent position relative to the speakers within the three-dimensional space and a plurality of visual characteristics associated with the image, said position and visual characteristics being correlated to selected audio characteristics of the audio signal; and wherein the position of the image in a first dimension is correlated to amplitude, the position of the image in a second dimension is correlated to panning, and the position of the image in a third dimension is correlated to pitch.