Patent ID: 7565212

Claim:
A method of controlling an audio apparatus having a main block configurable for processing audio signals by modifying and mixing of the audio signals, and one or more peripheral units of various types, each peripheral unit being equipped with one or more components of various types and being connectable to the main block for inputting the audio signals to be processed and outputting the audio signals processed by the main block, each component being removably mountable to a peripheral unit, the method comprising: a first detection step of detecting when a peripheral unit is newly connected to the main block; a second detection step of detecting a type of the newly connected peripheral unit; an inquiry step of inquiring the newly connected peripheral unit upon detection thereof about a type of an at least one component mounted in the newly connected peripheral unit and obtaining a reply indicating the type from the newly connected peripheral unit, whereby the main block is configured according to the detected type of the newly connected peripheral unit and the type of the at least one component thereof indicated by the reply; a first display step of displaying an assignment status on a monitor between logical channels through which audio signals are processed and physical channels allocated to the peripheral units which are actually connected or potentially connectable, wherein the number of physical channels allocated to each newly connected peripheral unit being determined according to the detected type of the peripheral unit and the type of the at least one component indicated by the reply, wherein said physical channels being for inputting the audio signals to be processed or outputting the audio signals processed by the main block and wherein the assignment status is displayed in a first arrangement arbitrarily set by a user; a third detection step of detecting a command to rearrange the assignment status between the physical channels and the logical channels; and a second display step of again displaying the assignment status which is rearranged in response to the detecting of the command from the first arrangement to a second arrangement according to a predetermined rule.