In the related art, various sound reproduction apparatuses are proposed.
WO 2008/035431 A discloses a sound reproduction apparatus in which a plurality of sound data and assignment data are stored in a USB memory, and the assignment data and a switch are associated with each other so that sound data corresponding to an operated switch are captured from the USB memory. This reference also discloses that the association operation of the sound data with the plurality of switches displayed on a display is done by a drag-and-drop operation, and assignment data for associating the sound data to the switch are transferred to the USB memory.
JP 2006-065223 A discloses a sound source reproduction apparatus in which each of a plurality of tact switches is correlated to sound source data stored in a memory, and an associated program is executed according to an operated tact switch, to reproduce and output the sound source data.
JP 2005-045738 A discloses a call apparatus using the Internet which enables transmission and reception of BGM and sound effects in addition to a call voice, and describes that a sound volume of the BGM and the sound effects is set adjustable so as to optimize the sound volume level during synthesis with the call voice and the sound volume level when transmitting a hold sound by a hold button operation.
There is proposed a technique in which an audio interface apparatus and a computer are connected, various audio signals are captured from the audio interface and supplied to the computer, and are suitably edited or the like and recorded on the computer or output to the outside via the Internet (Internet live broadcasting).
In such an audio system, desirably, an audio file to be reproduced and output is assigned in advance to a sound reproduction switch provided on the audio interface apparatus (the switch will hereinafter referred to as an “immediate output” or “PON” switch), and the assigned audio file is desirably immediately reproduced and output upon operation of the immediate output switch. For assigning the audio file to the immediate output switch in advance, for example, a scheme may be considered in which a virtual immediate output switch corresponding to the physical immediate output switch of the audio interface apparatus is displayed on the computer, and the audio file is assigned by dragging-and-dropping the audio file to the virtual immediate output switch.
However, a problem occurs in that, in principle, even when an inappropriate file (a file other than the audio file) is erroneously assigned to the immediate output switch, it is not possible to notice that the file is inappropriate until the immediate output switch is actually operated. Even when an appropriate file (audio file) is assigned to the immediate output switch, if the data of the file are in an abnormal state such as when the data are damaged, and the audio cannot be reproduced, similar problem would occur.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds