Methods and systems for mixing digital audio signals

#This invention generally relates to processing media content and, more particularly, to a system and related interfaces facilitating the processing of media content.

#Recent advances in computing power and related technology have fostered the development of a new generation of powerful software applications. Gaming applications, communications applications, and multimedia applications have particularly benefited from increased processing power and clocking speeds. Indeed, once the province of dedicated, specialty workstations, many personal computing systems now have the capacity to receive, process and render multimedia objects (e.g., audio and video content). While the ability to display (receive, process and render) multimedia content has been around for a while, the ability for a standard computing system to support true multimedia editing applications is relatively new.

#In an effort to satisfy this need, Microsoft Corporation introduced an innovative development system supporting advanced user-defined multimedia editing functions. An example of this architecture is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,038 issued to Griffiths and commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.

#The same reference numbers are used throughout the figures to reference like components and features.

#FIG. 1 is a graphical representation of a conventional filter graph representing a user-defined development project.

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computing system incorporating the teachings of the described embodiment.

#Related Applications

#This application is related to the following commonly-filed U.S. Patent Applications, all of which are commonly assigned to Microsoft Corp., the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein: application Ser. No. 09/731,560, entitled “An Interface and Related Methods for Reducing Source Accesses in a Development System”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/732,084, entitled “A System and Related Interfaces Supporting the Processing of Media Content”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors,; application Ser. No. 09/731,490, entitled “A System and Related Methods for Reducing Source Filter Invocation in a Development Project”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/732,452, entitled “A System and Related Methods for Reducing Memory Requirements of a Media Processing System”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/731,529, entitled “A System and Related Methods for Reducing the Instances of Source Files in a Filter Graph”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/732,087, entitled “An Interface and Related Methods for Dynamically Generating a Filter Graph in a Development System”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/732,090, entitled “A System and Related Methods for Processing Audio Content in a Filter Graph”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/732,085, entitled “A System and Methods for Generating an Managing Filter Strings in a Filter Graph”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/731,491, entitled “Methods and Systems for Processing Media Content”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/731,563, entitled “Systems for Managing Multiple Inputs and Methods and Systems for Processing Media Content”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/731,892, entitled “Methods and Systems for Implementing Dynamic Properties on Objects that Support Only Static Properties”, naming Daniel J. Miller and David Maymudes as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/732,089, entitled “Methods and Systems for Efficiently Processing Compressed and Uncompressed Media Content”, naming Daniel J. Miller and Eric H. Rudolph as inventors; application Ser. No. 09/731,581, entitled “Methods and Systems for Effecting Video Transitions Represented By Bitmaps”, naming Daniel J. Miller and David Maymudes as inventors; and application Ser. No. 09/732,086, entitled “Methods and Systems for Processing Multi-media Editing Projects”, naming Eric H. Rudolph as inventor.

#Various described embodiments concern an application program interface associated with a development system. According to one example implementation, the interface is exposed to a media processing application to enable a user to dynamically generate complex media processing tasks, e.g., editing projects. In the discussion herein, aspects of the invention are developed within the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by one or more conventional computers. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, personal digital assistants, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. In a distributed computer environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. It is noted, however, that modification to the architecture and methods described herein may well be made without deviating from spirit and scope of the present invention. Moreover, although developed within the context of a media processing system paradigm, those skilled in the art will appreciate, from the discussion to follow, that the application program interface may well be applied to other development system implementations. Thus, the media processing system described below is but one illustrative implementation of a broader inventive concept.