Abstract: A method and device for concealing frame erasures caused by frames of an encoded sound signal erased during transmission from an encoder to a decoder and for recovery of the decoder after frame erasures comprise, in the encoder, determining concealment/recovery parameters including at least phase information related to frames of the encoded sound signal. The concealment/recovery parameters determined in the encoder are transmitted to the decoder and, in the decoder, frame erasure concealment is conducted in response to the received concealment/recovery parameters. The frame erasure concealment comprises resynchronizing, in response to the received phase information, the erasure-concealed frames with corresponding frames of the sound signal encoded at the encoder. When no concealment/recovery parameters are transmitted to the decoder, a phase information of each frame of the encoded sound signal that has been erased during transmission from the encoder to the decoder is estimated in the decoder.

Abstract: In the method and device for interoperating a first station using a first communication scheme and comprising a first coder and a first decoder with a second station using a second communication scheme and comprising a second coder and a second decoder, communication between the first and second stations is conducted by transmitting signal-coding parameters related to a sound signal from the coder of one of the first and second stations to the decoder of the other station. The sound signal is classified to determine whether the signal-coding parameters should be transmitted from the coder of one station to the decoder of the other station using a first communication mode in which full bit rate is used for transmission of the signal-coding parameters.

Abstract: A pitch search method and device for digitally encoding a wideband signal, in particular but not exclusively a speech signal, in view of transmitting, or storing, and synthesizing this wideband sound signal. The new method and device which achieve efficient modeling of the harmonic structure of the speech spectrum uses several forms of low pass filters applied to a pitch codevector, the one yielding higher prediction gain (i.e. the lowest pitch prediction error) is selected and the associated pitch codebook parameters are forwarded.

Abstract: An audio encoder for encoding an audio signal has a first coding branch, the first coding branch comprising a first converter for converting a signal from a time domain into a frequency domain. Furthermore, the audio encoder has a second coding branch comprising a second time/frequency converter. Additionally, a signal analyzer for analyzing the audio signal is provided. The signal analyzer, on the hand, determines whether an audio portion is effective in the encoder output signal as a first encoded signal from the first encoding branch or as a second encoded signal from a second encoding branch. On the other hand, the signal analyzer determines a time/frequency resolution to be applied by the converters when generating the encoded signals. An output interface includes, in addition to the first encoded signal and the second encoded signal, a resolution information identifying the resolution used by the first time/frequency converter and used by the second time/frequency converter.

Abstract: An apparatus for encoding includes a first domain converter, a switchable bypass, a second domain converter, a first processor and a second processor to obtain an encoded audio signal having different signal portions represented by coded data in different domains, which have been coded by different coding algorithms. Corresponding decoding stages in the decoder together with a bypass for bypassing a domain converter allow the generation of a decoded audio signal with high quality and low bit rate.

Abstract: An audio encoder has a first information sink oriented encoding branch such as a spectral domain encoding branch, a second information source or SNR oriented encoding branch such as an LPC-domain encoding branch, and a switch for switching between the first encoding branch and the second encoding branch, wherein the second encoding branch has a converter into a specific domain different from the spectral domain such as an LPC analysis stage generating an excitation signal, and wherein the second encoding branch furthermore has a specific domain coding branch such as LPC domain processing branch, and a specific spectral domain coding branch such as LPC spectral domain processing branch, and an additional switch for switching between the specific domain coding branch and the specific spectral domain coding branch.

Abstract: A device and method for shaping noise during encoding of an input sound signal comprise pre-emphasizing the input signal or a decoded signal from a given sound signal codec to produce a pre-emphasized signal, computing a filter transfer function based on the pre-emphasized signal, and shaping the noise by filtering the noise through the transfer function to produce a shaped noise signal, wherein the noise shaping comprises producing a noise feedback.

Abstract: A method and device for concealing frame erasures caused by frames of an encoded sound signal erased during transmission from an encoder to a decoder and for recovery of the decoder after frame erasures comprise, in the encoder, determining concealment/recovery parameters including at least phase information related to frames of the encoded sound signal. The concealment/recovery parameters determined in the encoder are transmitted to the decoder and, in the decoder, frame erasure concealment is conducted in response to the received concealment/recovery parameters. The frame erasure concealment comprises resynchronizing, in response to the received phase information, the erasure-concealed frames with corresponding frames of the sound signal encoded at the encoder. When no concealment/recovery parameters are transmitted to the decoder, a phase information of each frame of the encoded sound signal that has been erased during transmission from the encoder to the decoder is estimated in the decoder.

Abstract: A system and method for enhancing a tonal sound signal decoded by a decoder of a speech-specific codec in response to a received coded bit stream, in which a spectral analyser is responsive to the decoded tonal sound signal to produce spectral parameters representative of the decoded tonal sound signal. A quantization noise in low-energy spectral regions of the decoded tonal sound signal is reduced in response to the spectral parameters produced by the spectral analyser. The spectral analyser divides a spectrum resulting from spectral analysis into a set of critical frequency bands each comprising a number of frequency bins, and the reducer of quantization noise comprises a noise attenuator that scales the spectrum of the decoded tonal sound signal per critical frequency band, per frequency bin, or per both critical frequency band and frequency bin.

Abstract: A device and method for estimating a tonality of a sound signal comprise: calculating a current residual spectrum of the sound signal; detecting peaks in the current residual spectrum; calculating a correlation map between the current residual spectrum and a previous residual spectrum for each detected peak; and calculating a long-term correlation map based on the calculated correlation map, the long-term correlation map being indicative of a tonality in the sound signal.

Abstract: A device and method for resynchronization and recovery after frame erasure concealment of an encoded sound signal comprise decoding, in a current frame, a correctly received signal after the frame erasure. Frame erasure concealment is extended in the current frame using an erasure-concealed signal from a previous frame to produce an extended erasure-concealed signal. The extended erasure-concealed signal is correlated with the decoded signal in the current frame and the extended erasure-concealed signal is synchronized with the decoded signal in response to the correlation. A smooth transition is produced in the current frame from the synchronized extended erasure-concealed signal to the decoded signal.

Abstract: A method and device for coding an input sound signal in at least one lower layer and at least one upper layer of an embedded codec while reducing a quantization noise comprises, in the at least one lower layer, coding the input sound signal to produce coding parameters, wherein coding the input sound signal comprises producing a synthesized sound signal. An error signal is computed as a difference between the input sound signal and the synthesized sound signal and a spectral mask is calculated as a function of a spectrum related to the input sound signal. In the at least one upper layer, the error signal is coded to produce coding coefficients, the spectral mask is applied to the coding coefficients, and the masked coding coefficients are quantized. Applying the spectral mask to the coding coefficients reduces the quantization noise produced upon quantizing the coding coefficients.

Abstract: A method and device for searching an algebraic codebook during encoding of a sound signal, wherein the algebraic codebook comprises a set of codevectors formed of a number of pulse positions and a number of pulses distributed over the pulse positions. In the algebraic codebook searching method and device, a reference signal for use in searching the algebraic codebook is calculated. In a first stage, a position of a first pulse is determined in relation with the reference signal and among the number of pulse positions. In each of a number of stages subsequent to the first stage, (a) an algebraic codebook gain is recomputed, (b) the reference signal is updated using the recomputed algebraic codebook gain and (c) a position of another pulse is determined in relation with the updated reference signal and among the number of pulse positions.

Abstract: There is provided a transition mode device and method for use in a predictive-type sound signal codec for producing a transition mode excitation replacing an adaptive codebook excitation in a transition frame and/or a frame following the transition in the sound signal, comprising an input for receiving a codebook index and a transition mode codebook for generating a set of codevectors independent from past excitation. The transition mode codebook is responsive to the index for generating, in the transition frame and/or frame following the transition, one of the codevectors of the set corresponding to the transition mode excitation. There is also provided an encoding device and method and a decoding device and method using the above described transition mode device and method.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a gain quantization method and device for implementation in a technique for coding a sampled sound signal processed, during coding, by successive frames of L samples, wherein each frame is divided into a number of subframes and each subframe comprises a number N of samples, where N<L. In the gain quantization method and device, an initial pitch gain is calculated based on a number f of subframes, a portion of a gain quantization codebook is selected in relation to the initial pitch gain, and pitch and fixed-codebook gains are jointly quantized. This joint quantization of the pitch and fixed-codebook gains comprises, for the number f of subframes, searching the gain quantization codebook in relation to a search criterion. The codebook search is restricted to the selected portion of the gain quantization codebook and an index of the selected portion of the gain quantization codebook best meeting the search criterion is found.

Abstract: A pitch search method and device for digitally encoding a wideband signal, in particular but not exclusively a speech signal, in view of transmitting, or storing, and synthesizing this wideband sound signal. The new method and device which achieve efficient modeling of the harmonic structure of the speech spectrum uses several forms of low pass filters applied to a pitch codevector, the one yielding higher prediction gain (i.e. the lowest pitch prediction error) is selected and the associated pitch codebook parameters are forwarded.

Abstract: A pitch search method and device for digitally encoding a wideband signal, in particular but not exclusively a speech signal, in view of transmitting, or storing, and synthesizing this wideband sound signal. The new method and device which achieve efficient modeling of the harmonic structure of the speech spectrum uses several forms of low pass filters applied to a pitch codevector, the one yielding higher prediction gain (i.e. the lowest pitch prediction error) is selected and the associated pitch codebook parameters are forwarded.

Abstract: A multi-reference quantization device and method for quantizing an input LPC filter, comprises a plurality of differential quantizers using respective, different references, and a selector of a reference amongst the different references of the differential quantizers using a reference selection criterion. The input LPC filter is differentially quantized by the differential quantizer using the selected reference. A device and method for inverse quantizing a multi-reference differentially quantized LPC filter extracted from a bitstream, comprises an extractor from the bitstream of information about a reference amongst a plurality of possible references used for quantizing the multi-reference differentially quantized LPC filter, and a differential inverse quantizer using the reference corresponding to the extracted reference information to inverse quantize the multi-reference differentially quantized LPC filter.

Abstract: A device and a method for quantizing a LPC filter in the form of an input vector in a quantization domain, comprises a calculator of a first-stage approximation of the input vector, a subtractor of the first-stage approximation from the input vector to produce a residual vector, a calculator of a weighting function from the first-stage approximation, a warper of the residual vector with the weighting function, and a quantizer of the weighted residual vector to supply a quantized weighted residual vector.

Abstract: A device and a method for quantizing, in a super-frame including a sequence of frames, LPC filters calculated during the frames of the sequence. The LPC filter quantizing device and method comprises: an absolute quantizer for first quantizing one of the LPC filters using absolute quantization; and at least one quantizer of the other LPC filters using a quantization mode selected from the group consisting of absolute quantization and differential quantization relative to at least one previously quantized filter amongst the LPC filters. For inverse quantizing, at least the first quantized LPC filter is received and an inverse quantizer inverse quantizes the first quantized LPC filter using absolute inverse quantization. If any quantized LPC filter other than the first quantized LPC filter is received, an inverse quantizer inverse quantizes this quantized LPC filter using one of absolute inverse quantization and differential inverse quantization relative to at least one previously received quantized LPC filter.