Abstract: For time synchronization of a data stream with multi-channel additional data and a data stream with data on at least one base channel, a fingerprint information calculation is performed on the encoder side for the at least one base channel to insert the fingerprint information into a data stream in time connection to the multi-channel additional data. On the decoder side, fingerprint information are calculated from the at least one base channel and used together with the fingerprint information extracted from the data stream to calculate and compensate a time offset between the data stream with the multi-channel additional information and the data stream with the at least one base channel, for example by means of a correlation, to obtain a synchronized multi-channel representation.

Abstract: On an encoder-side, a multi-channel input signal is analyzed for obtaining smoothing control information, which is to be used by a decoder-side multi-channel synthesis for smoothing quantized transmitted parameters or values derived from the quantized transmitted parameters for providing an improved subjective audio quality in particular for slowly moving point sources and rapidly moving point sources having tonal material such as fast moving sinusoids.

Abstract: When encoding an audio signal, the audio signal is first encoded with the first encoder to obtain a first encoder output signal. This first encoder output signal is written into a bit stream. It is further decoded by a decoder to provide a decoded audio signal. The decoded audio signal is compared with the original audio signal to obtain a residual signal. The residual signal is then encoded via a second encoder to provide a second encoder output signal which is also written into a bit stream. The first encoder has a first time or frequency resolution. The second encoder has a second time or frequency resolution. The first resolution differs from the second resolution, so that in a respective decoder, an audio signal with both a high time resolution as well as a high frequency resolution can be retrieved.

Abstract: A selected channel of a multi-channel signal which is represented by frames composed from sampling values having a high time resolution can be encoded with higher quality when a wave form parameter representation representing a wave form of an intermediate resolution representation of the selected channel is derived, the wave form parameter representation including a sequence of intermediate wave form parameters having a time resolution lower than the high time resolution of the sampling values and higher than a time resolution defined by a frame repetition rate. The wave form parameter representation with the intermediate resolution can be used to shape a reconstructed channel to retrieve a channel having a signal envelope close to that one of the selected original channel. The time scale on which the shaping is performed is shorter than the time scale of a framewise processing, thus enhancing the quality of the reconstructed channel.

Abstract: When encoding an audio signal, the audio signal is first encoded with the first encoder to obtain a first encoder output signal. This first encoder output signal is written into a bit stream. It is further decoded by a decoder to provide a decoded audio signal. The decoded audio signal is compared with the original audio signal to obtain a residual signal. The residual signal is then encoded via a second encoder to provide a second encoder output signal which is also written into a bit stream. The first encoder has a first time or frequency resolution. The second encoder has a second time or frequency resolution. The first resolution differs from the second resolution, so that in a respective decoder, an audio signal with both a high time resolution as well as a high frequency resolution can be retrieved.