Abstract: For producing a fingerprint of an audio signal, use is made of information defining a plurality of predetermined fingerprint modi, all of the fingerprint modi relating to the same type of fingerprint, the fingerprint modi, however, providing different fingerprints differing from each other with regard to their data volume, on the one hand, and to their characterizing strength for characterizing the audio signal, on the other hand, the fingerprint modi being predetermined such that a fingerprint in accordance with a fingerprint modus having a first characterizing strength is convertible to a fingerprint in accordance with a fingerprint modus having a second characterizing strength, without using the audio signal. A predetermined fingerprint modus of the plurality of predetermined fingerprint modi is set and subsequently used for computing a fingerprint using the audio signal.

Abstract: In a method for characterizing a signal, which represents an audio content, a measure for a tonality of the signal is determined (12), whereupon a statement is made (16) about the audio content of the signal based on the measure for the tonality of the signal. The measure for the tonality of the signal for the content analysis is robust against a signal distortion, such as by MP3 encoding, and has a high correlation to the content of the examined signal.