Patent ID: 7505826

Claim:
A method of controlling an audio apparatus comprised of a main block having channels for processing audio signals, and real peripheral units of various types, connectable to the main block and having physical channels and parameters configurable, for inputting the audio signals to the main block or outputting the audio signals from the main block, the method conducted by the main block or a computer used for setting of the audio apparatus, the method comprising: a selecting step of selecting, in response to operation by an operator, a virtual peripheral unit among various types of virtual peripheral units corresponding to the various types of the real peripheral units; a displaying step of displaying the parameters of the selected virtual peripheral unit or an allocation of the channels of the main block to the physical channels of the selected virtual peripheral unit, on a display of the main block or the computer; a first configuration step of specifying, in response to operation by the operator, the parameters of the selected virtual peripheral unit or the allocation of the channels of the main block to the physical channels of the selected virtual peripheral unit displayed by the displaying step; a detection step of detecting a real peripheral unit which is newly connected to the main block; a judging step of judging whether the type of the detected real peripheral unit is identical to the type of the selected virtual peripheral unit or not; and a second configuration step, conducted when the judging step is affirmative, of allowing the detected real peripheral unit to succeed the parameters of the selected virtual peripheral unit or the allocation of the channels of the main block to the physical channels of the selected virtual peripheral unit specified by the first configuration step.