Apparatus and Method for Encoding and Decoding an Audio Signal Using Downsampling or interpolation of Scale Parameters

Specification

The present invention is related to audio processing and, particularly, to audio pro-cessing operating in a spectral domain using scale parameters for spectral bands.

Prior art 1 : Advanced Audio Coding (AAC)

In one of the most widely used state-of-the-art perceptual audio codec, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) [1-2], spectral noise shaping is performed with the help of so-called scale factors.

In this approach, the MDCT spectrum is partitioned into a number of non-uniform scale factor bands. For example at 48kHz, the MDCT has 1024 coefficients and it is partitioned into 49 scale factor bands. In each band, a scale factor is used to scale the MDCT coefficients of that band. A scalar quantizer with constant step size is then employed to quantize the scaled MDCT coefficients. At the decoder-side, inverse scaling is performed in each band, shaping the quantization noise introduced by the scalar quantizer.

The 49 scale factors are encoded into the bitstream as side-information. It usually requires a significantly high amount of bits for encoding the scale factors, due to the relatively high number of scale factors and the required high precision. This can be-come a problem at low bitrate and/or at low delay.

Prior art 2: MDCT-based TCX

In MDCT-based TCX, a transform-based audio codec used in the MPEG-D USAC [3] and 3GPP EVS [4] standards, spectral noise shaping is performed with the help of a LPC-based perceptual filer, the same perceptual filter as used in recent ACELP-based speech codecs (e.g. AMR-WB).

In this approach, a set of 16 LPCs is first estimated on a pre-emphasized input signal. The LPCs are then weighted and quantized. The frequency response of the weighted

and quantized LPCs is then computed in 64 uniformly spaced bands. The MDCT co-efficients are then scaled in each band using the computed frequency response. The scaled MDCT coefficients are then quantized using a scalar quantizer with a step size controlled by a global gain. At the decoder, inverse scaling is performed in every 64 bands, shaping the quantization noise introduced by the scalar quantizer.

This approach has a clear advantage over the AAC approach: it requires the encod-ing of only 16 (LPC) + 1 (global-gain) parameters as side-information (as opposed to the 49 parameters in AAC). Moreover, 16 LPCs can be efficiently encoded with a small number of bits by employing a LSF representation and a vector quantizer. Con-sequently, the approach of prior art 2 requires less side-information bits as the ap-proach of prior art 1 , which can makes a significant difference at low bitrate and/or low delay.

However, this approach has also some drawbacks. The first drawback is that the fre-quency scale of the noise shaping is restricted to be linear (i.e. using uniformly spaced bands) because the LPCs are estimated in the time-domain. This is disadvan-tageous because the human ear is more sensible in low frequencies than in the high frequencies. The second drawback is the high complexity required by this approach. The LPC estimation (autocorrelation, Levinson-Durbin), LPC quantization (LPC<->LSF conversion, vector quantization) and LPC frequency response computation are all costly operations. The third drawback is that this approach is not very flexible be-cause the LPC-based perceptual filter cannot be easily modified and this prevents some specific tunings that would be required for critical audio items.

Prior art 3: Improved MDCT-based TCX

Some recent work has addressed the first drawback and partly the second drawback of prior art 2. It was published in US 9595262 B2, EP2676266 B1. In this new ap-proach, the autocorrelation (for estimating the LPCs) is no more performed in the time-domain but it is instead computed in the MDCT domain using an inverse trans-form of the MDCT coefficient energies. This allows using a non-uniform frequency scale by simply grouping the MDCT coefficients into 64 non-uniform bands and com-puting the energy of each band. It also reduces the complexity required to compute the autocorrelation.

However, most of the second drawback and the third drawback remain, even with the new approach.

it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved concept for processing an audio signal.

This object is achieved by an apparatus for encoding an audio signal of claim 1, a method of encoding an audio signal of claim 24, an apparatus for decoding an encod-ed audio signal of claim 25, a method of decoding an encoded audio signal of claim 40 or a computer program of claim 41.

An apparatus for encoding an audio signal comprises a converter for converting the audio signal into a spectral representation. Furthermore, a scale parameter calculator for calculating a first set of scale parameters from the spectral representation is pro-vided. Additionally, in order to keep the bitrate as low as possible, the first set of scale parameters is downsampled to obtain a second set of scale parameters, wherein a second number of scale parameters in the second set of scale parameters is lower than a first number of scale parameters in the first set of scale parameters. Further-more, a scale parameter encoder for generating an encoded representation of the second set of scale parameters is provided in addition to a spectral processor for pro-cessing the spectral representation using a third set of scale parameters, the third set of scale parameters having a third number of scale parameters being greater than the second number of scale parameters. Particularly, the spectral processor is configured to use the first set of scale parameters or to derive the third set of scale parameters from the second set of scale parameters or from the encoded representation of the second set of scale parameters using an interpolation operation to obtain an encoded representation of the spectral representation. Furthermore, an output interface is pro-vided for generating an encoded output signal comprising information on the encoded representation of the spectral representation and also comprising information on the encoded representation of the second set of scale parameters.

The present invention is based on the finding that a low bitrate without substantial loss of quality can be obtained by scaling, on the encoder-side, with a higher number of scale factors and by downsampling the scale parameters on the encoder-side into a second set of scale parameters or scale factors, where the scale parameters in the second set that is then encoded and transmitted or stored via an output interface is

lower than the first number of scale parameters. Thus, a fine scaling on the one hand and a low bitrate on the other hand is obtained on the encoder-side.

On the decoder-side, the transmitted small number of scale factors is decoded by a scale factor decoder to obtain a first set of scale factors where the number of scale factors or scale parameters in the first set is greater than the number of scale factors or scale parameters of the second set and, then, once again, a fine scaling using the higher number of scale parameters is performed on the decoder-side within a spectral processor to obtain a fine-scaled spectral representation.

Thus, a low bitrate on the one hand and, nevertheless, a high quality spectral pro-cessing of the audio signal spectrum on the other hand are obtained.

Spectral noise shaping as done in preferred embodiments is implemented using only a very low bitrate. Thus, this spectral noise shaping can be an essential tool even in a low bitrate transform-based audio codec. The spectral noise shaping shapes the quantization noise in the frequency domain such that the quantization noise is mini-mally perceived by the human ear and, therefore, the perceptual quality of the decod-ed output signal can be maximized.

Preferred embodiments rely on spectral parameters calculated from amplitude-related measures, such as energies of a spectral representation. Particularly, band-wise en-ergies or, generally, band-wise amplitude-related measures are calculated as the ba-sis for the scale parameters, where the bandwidths used in calculating the band-wise amplitude-related measures increase from lower to higher bands in order to approach the characteristic of the human hearing as far as possible. Preferably, the division of the spectral representation into bands is done in accordance with the well-known Bark scale.

In further embodiments, linear-domain scale parameters are calculated and are par-ticularly calculated for the first set of scale parameters with the high number of scale parameters, and this high number of scale parameters is converted into a log-like domain. A log-like domain is generally a domain, in which small values are expanded and high values are compressed. Then, the downsampling or decimation operation of the scale parameters is done in the log-like domain that can be a logarithmic domain with the base 10, or a logarithmic domain with the base 2, where the latter is preferred for implementation purposes. The second set of scale factors is then calculated in the log-like domain and, preferably, a vector quantization of the second set of scale fac-tors is performed, wherein the scale factors are in the log-like domain. Thus, the result of the vector quantization indicates log-like domain scale parameters. The second set of scale factors or scale parameters has, for example, a number of scale factors half of the number of scale factors of the first set, or even one third or yet even more pref-erably, one fourth Then, the quantized small number of scale parameters in the sec-ond set of scale parameters is brought into the bitstream and is then transmitted from the encoder-side to the decoder-side or stored as an encoded audio signal together with a quantized spectrum that has also been processed using these parameters, where this processing additionally involves quantization using a global gain. Prefera-bly, however, the encoder derives from these quantized log-like domain second scale factors once again a set of linear domain scale factors, which is the third set of scale factors, and the number of scale factors in the third set of scale factors is greater than the second number and is preferably even equal to the first number of scale factors in the first set of first scale factors. Then, on the encoder-side, these interpolated scale factors are used for processing the spectral representation, where the processed spectral representation is finally quantized and, in any way entropy-encoded, such as by Huffman-encoding, arithmetic encoding or vector-quantization-based encoding, etc.

In the decoder that receives an encoded signal having a low number of spectral pa-rameters together with the encoded representation of the spectral representation, the low number of scale parameters is interpolated to a high number of scale parameters, i.e., to obtain a first set of scale parameters where a number of scale parameters of the scale factors of the second set of scale factors or scale parameters is smaller than the number of scale parameters of the first set, i.e., the set as calculated by the scale factor/parameter decoder. Then, a spectral processor located within the apparatus for decoding an encoded audio signal processes the decoded spectral representation using this first set of scale parameters to obtain a scaled spectral representation. A converter for converting the scaled spectral representation then operates to finally obtain a decoded audio signal that is preferably in the time domain.

Further embodiments result in additional advantages set forth below. In preferred em-bodiments, spectral noise shaping is performed with the help of 16 scaling parame-ters similar to the scale factors used in prior art 1 . These parameters are obtained in the encoder by first computing the energy of the MDCT spectrum in 64 non-uniform bands (similar to the 64 non-uniform bands of prior art 3), then by applying some pro-cessing to the 64 energies (smoothing, pre-emphasis, noise-floor, log-conversion), then by downsampling the 64 processed energies by a factor of 4 to obtain 16 pa-rameters which are finally normalized and scaled. These 16 parameters are then quantized using vector quantization (using similar vector quantization as used in prior art 2/3). The quantized parameters are then interpolated to obtain 64 interpolated scaling parameters. These 64 scaling parameters are then used to directly shape the MDCT spectrum in the 64 non-uniform bands. Similar to prior art 2 and 3, the scaled MDCT coefficients are then quantized using a scalar quantizer with a step size con-trolled by a global gain. At the decoder, inverse scaling is performed in every 64 bands, shaping the quantization noise introduced by the scalar quantizer.

As in prior art 2/3, the preferred embodiment uses only 16+1 parameters as side-information and the parameters can be efficiently encoded with a low number of bits using vector quantization. Consequently, the preferred embodiment has the same advantage as prior 2/3: it requires less side-information bits as the approach of prior art 1 , which can makes a significant difference at low bitrate and/or low delay.

As in prior art 3, the preferred embodiment uses a non-linear frequency scaling and thus does not have the first drawback of prior art 2.

Contrary to prior art 2/3, the preferred embodiment does not use any of the LPC-related functions which have high complexity. The required processing functions (smoothing, pre-emphasis, noise-floor, log-conversion, normalization, scaling, interpo-lation) need very small complexity in comparison. Only the vector quantization still has relatively high complexity. But some low complexity vector quantization tech-niques can be used with small loss in performance (multi-split/multi-stage approach-es). The preferred embodiment thus does not have the second drawback of prior art 2/3 regarding complexity.

Contrary to prior art 2/3, the preferred embodiment is not relying on a LPC-based per-ceptual filter. It uses 16 scaling parameters which can be computed with a lot of free-dom. The preferred embodiment is more flexible than the prior art 2/3 and thus does not have the third drawback of prior art 2/3.

In conclusion, the preferred embodiment has all advantages of prior art 2/3 with none of the drawbacks.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are subsequently described in more detail with respect to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus for encoding an audio signal;

Fig. 2 is a schematic representation of a preferred implementation of the scale factor calculator of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of a preferred implementation of the downsampler of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a schematic representation of the scale factor encoder of Fig. 4;

Fig. 5 is a schematic illustration of the spectral processor of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 illustrates a general representation of an encoder on the one hand and a decoder on the other hand implementing spectral noise shaping (SNS);

Fig. 7 illustrates a more detailed representation of the encoder-side on the one hand and the decoder-side on the other hand where temporal noise shaping (TNS) is implemented together with spectral noise shaping (SNS);

Fig. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus for decoding an encoded audio signal;

Fig. 9 illustrates a schematic illustration illustrating details of the scale factor decoder, the spectral processor and the spectrum decoder of Fig. 8;

Fig. 10 illustrates a subdivision of the spectrum into 64 bands;

Fig. 11 illustrates a schematic illustration of the downsampling operation on the one hand and the interpolation operation on the other hand;

Fig. 12a illustrates a time-domain audio signal with overlapping frames;

Fig. 12b illustrates an implementation of the converter of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 12c illustrates a schematic illustration of the converter of Fig. 8.

Fig. 1 illustrates an apparatus for encoding an audio signal 160. The audio signal 160 preferably is available in the time-domain, although other representations of the audio signal such as a prediction-domain or any other domain would principally also be useful. The apparatus comprises a converter 100, a scale factor calculator 110, a spectral pro-cessor 120, a downsampler 130, a scale factor encoder 140 and an output interface 150. The converter 100 is configured for converting the audio signal 160 into a spectral repre-sentation. The scale factor calculator 110 is configured for calculating a first set of scale parameters or scale factors from the spectral representation.

Throughout the specification, the term "scale factor" or "scale parameter" is used in order to refer to the same parameter or value, i.e., a value or parameter that is, subsequent to some processing, used for weighting some kind of spectral values. This weighting, when performed in the linear domain is actually a multiplying operation with a scaling factor. However, when the weighting is performed in a logarithmic domain, then the weighting operation with a scale factor is done by an actual addition or subtraction operation. Thus, in the terms of the present application, scaling does not only mean multiplying or dividing but also means, depending on the certain domain, addition or subtraction or, generally means each operation, by which the spectral value, for example, is weighted or modified using the scale factor or scale parameter.

The downsampler 130 is configured for downsampling the first set of scale parameters to obtain a second set of scale parameters, wherein a second number of the scale parame-ters in the second set of scale parameters is lower than a first number of scale parameters in the first set of scale parameters. This is also outlined in the box in Fig. 1 stating that the second number is lower than the first number. As illustrated in Fig. 1 , the scale factor en-coder is configured for generating an encoded representation of the second set of scale factors, and this encoded representation is forwarded to the output interface 150. Due to the fact that the second set of scale factors has a lower number of scale factors than the first set of scale factors, the bitrate for transmitting or storing the encoded representation of the second set of scale factors is lower compared to a situation, in which the downsam-pling of the scale factors performed in the downsampler 130 would not have been per-formed.

Furthermore, the spectral processor 120 is configured for processing the spectral repre-sentation output by the converter 100 in Fig. 1 using a third set of scale parameters, the third set of scale parameters or scale factors having a third number of scale factors being greater than the second number of scale factors, wherein the spectral processor 120 is configured to use, for the purpose of spectral processing the first set of scale factors as already available from block 110 via line 171. Alternatively, the spectral processor 120 is configured to use the second set of scale factors as output by the downsampler 130 for the calculation of the third set of scale factors as illustrated by line 172. In a further imple-mentation, the spectral processor 120 uses the encoded representation output by the scale factor/parameter encoder 140 for the purpose of calculating the third set of scale factors as illustrated by line 173 in Fig. 1. Preferably, the spectral processor 120 does not use the first set of scale factors, but uses either the second set of scale factors as calcu-lated by the downsampler or even more preferably uses the encoded representation or, generally, the quantized second set of scale factors and, then, performs an interpolation operation to interpolate the quantized second set of spectral parameters to obtain the third set of scale parameters that has a higher number of scale parameters due to the interpo-lation operation.

Thus, the encoded representation of the second set of scale factors that is output by block 140 either comprises a codebook index for a preferably used scale parameter codebook or a set of corresponding codebook indices. In other embodiments, the encoded represen-tation comprises the quantized scale parameters of quantized scale factors that are ob-tained, when the codebook index or the set of codebook indices or, generally, the encod-ed representation is input into a decoder-side vector decoder or any other decoder.

Preferably, the spectral processor 120 uses the same set of scale factors that is also available at the decoder-side, i.e., uses the quantized second set of scale parameters together with an interpolation operation to finally obtain the third set of scale factors.

In a preferred embodiment, the third number of scale factors in the third set of scale fac-tors is equal to the first number of scale factors. However, a smaller number of scale fac-tors is also useful. Exemplarily, for example, one could derive 64 scale factors in block

110, and one could then downsample the 64 scale factors to 16 scale factors for trans-mission. Then, one could perform an interpolation not necessarily to 64 scale factors, but to 32 scale factors in the spectral processor 120. Alternatively, one could perform an in-terpolation to an even higher number such as more than 64 scale factors as the case may be, as long as the number of scale factors transmitted in the encoded output signal 170 is smaller than the number of scale factors calculated in block 110 or calculated and used in block 120 of Fig. 1.

Preferably, the scale factor calculator 110 is configured to perform several operations il-lustrated in Fig. 2. These operations refer to a calculation 111 of an amplitude-related measure per band. A preferred amplitude-related measure per band is the energy per band, but other amplitude-related measures can be used as well, for example, the sum-mation of the magnitudes of the amplitudes per band or the summation of squared ampli-tudes which corresponds to the energy. However, apart from the power of 2 used for cal-culating the energy per band, other powers such as a power of 3 that would reflect the loudness of the signal could also be used and, even powers different from integer num-bers such as powers of 1.5 or 2.5 can be used as well in order to calculate amplitude-related measures per band. Even powers less than 1 .0 can be used as long as it is made sure that values processed by such powers are positive- valued.

A further operation performed by the scale factor calculator can be an inter-band smooth-ing 112. This inter-band smoothing is preferably used to smooth out the possible instabili-ties that can appear in the vector of amplitude-related measures as obtained by step 111. If one would not perform this smoothing, these instabilities would be amplified when con-verted to a log-domain later as illustrated at 115, especially in spectral values where the energy is close to 0. However, in other embodiments, inter-band smoothing is not per-formed.

A further preferred operation performed by the scale factor calculator 110 is the pre-emphasis operation 113. This pre-emphasis operation has a similar purpose as a pre-emphasis operation used in an LPC-based perceptual filter of the MDCT-based TCX pro-cessing as discussed before with respect to the prior art. This procedure increases the amplitude of the shaped spectrum in the low-frequencies that results in a reduced quanti-zation noise in the low-frequencies.

However, depending on the implementation, the pre-emphasis operation - as the other specific operations - does not necessarily have to be performed.

A further optional processing operation is the noise-floor addition processing 114. This procedure improves the quality of signals containing very high spectral dynamics such as, for example, Glockenspiel, by limiting the amplitude amplification of the shaped spectrum in the valleys, which has the indirect effect of reducing the quantization noise in the peaks, at the cost of an increase of quantization noise in the valleys, where the quantization noise is anyway not perceptible due to masking properties of the human ear such as the absolute listening threshold, the pre-masking, the post-masking or the general masking threshold indicating that, typically, a quite low volume tone relatively close in frequency to a high volume tone is not perceptible at all, i.e., is fully masked or is only roughly per-ceived by the human hearing mechanism, so that this spectral contribution can be quan-tized quite coarsely.

The noise-floor addition operation 114, however, does not necessarily have to be per-formed.

Furthermore, block 115 indicates a log-like domain conversion. Preferably, a transfor-mation of an output of one of blocks 111, 112, 113, 114 in Fig. 2 is performed in a log-like domain. A log-like domain is a domain, in which values close to 0 are expanded and high values are compressed. Preferably, the log domain is a domain with basis of 2, but other log domains can be used as well. However, a log domain with the basis of 2 is better for an implementation on a fixed-point signal processor.

The output of the scale factor calculator 110 is a first set of scale factors.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, each of the blocks 112 to 115 can be bridged, i.e., the output of block 111, for example, could already be the first set of scale factors. However, all the processing operations and, particularly, the log-like domain conversion are preferred. Thus, one could even implement the scale factor calculator by only performing steps 111 and 115 without the procedures in steps 112 to 114, for example.

Thus, the scale factor calculator is configured for performing one or two or more of the procedures illustrated in Fig. 2 as indicated by the input/output lines connecting several blocks.

Fig. 3 illustrates a preferred implementation of the downsampler 130 of Fig. 1. Preferably, a low-pass filtering or, generally, a filtering with a certain window w(k) is performed in step 131, and, then, a downsampling/decimation operation of the result of the filtering is per-formed. Due to the fact that low-pass filtering 131 and in preferred embodiments the downsampling/decimation operation 132 are both arithmetic operations, the filtering 131 and the downsampling 132 can be performed within a single operation as will be outlined later on. Preferably, the downsampling/decimation operation is performed in such a way that an overlap among the individual groups of scale parameters of the first set of scale parameters is performed. Preferably, an overlap of one scale factor in the filtering opera-tion between two decimated calculated parameters is performed. Thus; step 131 performs a low-pass filter on the vector of scale parameters before decimation. This low-pass filter has a similar effect as the spreading function used in psychoacoustic models. It reduces the quantization noise at the peaks, at the cost of an increase of quantization noise around the peaks where it is anyway perceptually masked at least to a higher degree with respect to quantization noise at the peaks.

Furthermore, the downsampler additionally performs a mean value removal 133 and an additional scaling step 134. However, the low-pass filtering operation 131 , the mean value removal step 133 and the scaling step 134 are only optional steps. Thus, the downsam-pler illustrated in Fig. 3 or illustrated in Fig. 1 can be implemented to only perform step 132 or to perform two steps illustrated in Fig. 3 such as step 132 and one of the steps 131 , 133 and 134. Alternatively, the downsampler can perform all four steps or only three steps out of the four steps illustrated in Fig. 3 as long as the downsampling/decimation operation 132 is performed.

As outlined in Fig. 3, audio operations in Fig. 3 performed by the downsampler are per-formed in the log-like domain in order to obtain better results.

Fig. 4 illustrates a preferred implementation of the scale factor encoder 140. The scale factor encoder 140 receives the preferably log-like domain second set of scale factors and performs a vector quantization as illustrated in block 141 to finally output one or more in-dices per frame. These one or more indices per frame can be forwarded to the output in-terface and written into the bitstream, i.e., introduced into the output encoded audio signal 170 by means of any available output interface procedures. Preferably, the vector quan-tizer 141 additionally outputs the quantized log-like domain second set of scale factors.

Thus, this data can be directly output by block 141 as indicated by arrow 144. However, alternatively, a decoder codebook 142 is also available separately in the encoder. This decoder codebook receives the one or more indices per frame and derives, from these one or more indices per frame the quantized preferably log-like domain second set of scale factors as indicated by line 145. In typical implementations, the decoder codebook 142 will be integrated within the vector quantizer 141. Preferably, the vector quantizer 141 is a multi-stage or split-level or a combined multi-stage/split-level vector quantizer as is, for example, used in any of the indicated prior art procedures.

Thus, it is made sure that the second set of scale factors are the same quantized second set of scale factors that are also available on the decoder-side, i.e., in the decoder that only receives the encoded audio signal that has the one or more indices per frame as out-put by block 141 via line 146.

Fig. 5 illustrates a preferred implementation of the spectral processor. The spectral pro-cessor 120 included within the encoder of Fig. 1 comprises an interpolator 121 that re-ceives the quantized second set of scale parameters and that outputs the third set of scale parameters where the third number is greater than the second number and prefera-bly equal to the first number. Furthermore, the spectral processor comprises a linear do-main converter 120. Then, a spectral shaping is performed in block 123 using the linear scale parameters on the one hand and the spectral representation on the other hand that is obtained by the converter 100. Preferably, a subsequent temporal noise shaping opera-tion, i.e., a prediction over frequency is performed in order to obtain spectral residual val-ues at the output of block 124, while the TNS side information is forwarded to the output interface as indicated by arrow 129.

Finally, the spectral processor 125 has a scalar quantizer/encoder that is configured for receiving a single global gain for the whole spectral representation, i.e., for a whole frame. Preferably, the global gain is derived depending on certain bitrate considerations. Thus, the global gain is set so that the encoded representation of the spectral representation generated by block 125 fulfils certain requirements such as a bitrate requirement, a quality requirement or both. The global gain can be iteratively calculated or can be calculated in a feed forward measure as the case may be. Generally, the global gain is used together with a quantizer and a high global gain typically results in a coarser quantization where a low global gain results in a finer quantization. Thus, in other words, a high global gain re-sults in a higher quantization step size while a low global gain results in a smaller quanti- zation step size when a fixed quantizer is obtained. However, other quantizers can be used as well together with the global gain functionality such as a quantizer that has some kind of compression functionality for high values, i.e., some kind of non-linear compres-sion functionality so that, for example, the higher values are more compressed than lower values. The above dependency between the global gain and the quantization coarseness is valid, when the global gain is multiplied to the values before the quantization in the line-ar domain corresponding to an addition in the log domain. If, however, the global gain is applied by a division in the linear domain, or by a subtraction in the log domain, the de-pendency is the other way round. The same is true, when the "global gain" represents an inverse value.

Subsequently, preferred implementations of the individual procedures described with re-spect to Fig. 1 to Fig. 5 are given.

Detailed step-by-step description of preferred embodiments

ENCODER:

● Step 1 : Energy per band (111)

The energies per band EB(n) are computed as follows.

with X(k) are the MDCT coefficients, NB - 64 is the number of bands and lnd(n) are the band indices. The bands are non-uniform and follow the perceptually-relevant bark scale (smaller in low-frequencies, larger in high-frequencies).

● Step 2: Smoothing (112)

The energy per band EB(b) is smoothed using

Remark: this step is mainly used to smooth the possible instabilities that can appear in the vector EB(b). If not smoothed, these instabilities are amplified when converted to log-domain (see step 5), especially in the valleys where the energy is close to 0.

• Step 3: Pre-emphasis (113)

The smoothed energy per band Es(b) is then pre-emphasized using

with gtilt controls the pre-emphasis tilt and depends on the sampling frequency. It is for example 18 at 16kHz and 30 at 48kHz. The pre-emphasis used in this step has the same purpose as the pre-emphasis used in the LPC-based perceptual filter of prior art 2, it in-creases the amplitude of the shaped Spectrum in the low-frequencies, resulting in re-duced quantization noise in the low-frequencies.

• Step 4: Noise floor (114)

A noise floor at -40dB is added to EP(b) using

Ep(b) = max(EP(b), noise Floor) for b = 0..63

with the noise floor being calculated by

This step improves quality of signals containing very high spectral dynamics such as e.g. glockenspiel, by limiting the amplitude amplification of the shaped spectrum in the valleys, which has the indirect effect of reducing the quantization noise in the peaks, at the cost of an increase of quantization noise in the valleys where it is anyway not perceptible.

• Step 5: Logarithm (115)

A transformation into the logarithm domain is then performed using

● Step 6: Downsampling (131, 132)

The vector EL(b) is then downsampled by a factor of 4 using

With

This step applies a low-pass filter (w(k)) on the vector EL (b) before decimation. This low-pass filter has a similar effect as the spreading function used in psychoacoustic models: it reduces the quantization noise at the peaks, at the cost of an increase of quantization noise around the peaks where it is anyway perceptually masked.

• Step 7: Mean Removal and Scaling (133, 134)

The final scale factors are obtained after mean removal and scaling by a factor of 0.85

Since the codec has an additional global-gain, the mean can be removed without any loss of information. Removing the mean also allows more efficient vector quantization. The scaling of 0.85 slightly compress the amplitude of the noise shaping curve. It has a similar perceptual effect as the spreading function mentioned in Step 6: reduced quantiza-tion noise at the peaks and increased quantization noise in the valleys.

• Step 8: Quantization (141, 142)

The scale factors are quantized using vector quantization, producing indices which are then packed into the bitstream and sent to the decoder, and quantized scale factors scf Q(n).

• Step 9: interpolation (121, 122)

The quantized scale factors scf Q(n) are interpolated using

scfQint(0) = scfQ(0)

scfQint(1) = scfQ(0)

and transformed back into linear domain using

gsNs(b) = 2scfQint(b) for b = 0..63

Interpolation is used to get a smooth noise shaping curve and thus to avoid any big ampli-tude jumps between adjacent bands.

• Step 10: Spectral Shaping (123)

The SNS scale factors gSNs(b) are applied on the MDCT frequency lines for each band separately in order to generate the shaped spectrum Xs(k)

Fig. 8 illustrates a preferred implementation of an apparatus for decoding an encoded audio signal 250 comprising information on an encoded spectral representation and in-formation on an encoded representation of a second set of scale parameters. The decod-er comprises an input interface 200, a spectrum decoder 210, a scale factor/parameter decoder 220, a spectral processor 230 and a converter 240. The input interface 200 is configured for receiving the encoded audio signal 250 and for extracting the encoded spectral representation that is forwarded to the spectrum decoder 210 and for extracting the encoded representation of the second set of scale factors that is forwarded to the scale factor decoder 220. Furthermore, the spectrum decoder 210 is configured for decod-ing the encoded spectral representation to obtain a decoded spectral representation that is forwarded to the spectral processor 230. The scale factor decoder 220 is configured for decoding the encoded second set of scale parameters to obtain a first set of scale param-eters forwarded to the spectral processor 230. The first set of scale factors has a number of scale factors or scale parameters that is greater than the number of scale factors or scale parameters in the second set. The spectral processor 230 is configured for pro-cessing the decoded spectral representation using the first set of scale parameters to ob-tain a scaled spectral representation. The scaled spectral representation is then converted by the converter 240 to finally obtain the decoded audio signal 260.

Preferably, the scale factor decoder 220 is configured to operate in substantially the same manner as has been discussed with respect to the spectral processor 120 of Fig. 1 relat-ing to the calculation of the third set of scale factors or scale parameters as discussed in connection with blocks 141 or 142 and, particularly, with respect to blocks 121, 122 of Fig.

5. Particularly, the scale factor decoder is configured to perform the substantially same procedure for the interpolation and the transformation back into the linear domain as has been discussed before with respect to step 9. Thus, as illustrated in Fig. 9, the scale factor decoder 220 is configured for applying a decoder codebook 221 to the one or more indi-ces per frame representing the encoded scale parameter representation. Then, an inter-polation is performed in block 222 that is substantially the same interpolation as has been discussed with respect to block 121 in Fig. 5. Then, a linear domain converter 223 is used that is substantially the same linear domain converter 122 as has been discussed with respect to Fig. 5. However, in other implementations, blocks 221 , 222, 223 can operate different from what has been discussed with respect to the corresponding blocks on the encoder-side.

Furthermore, the spectrum decoder 210 illustrated in Fig. 8 comprises a dequantiz-er/decoder block that receives, as an input, the encoded spectrum and that outputs a dequantized spectrum that is preferably dequantized using the global gain that is addi-tionally transmitted from the encoder side to the decoder side within the encoded audio signal in an encoded form. The dequantizer/decoder 210 can, for example, comprise an arithmetic or Huffman decoder functionality that receives, as an input, some kind of codes and that outputs quantization indices representing spectral values. Then, these quantiza-tion indices are input into a dequantizer together with the global gain and the output are dequantized spectral values that can then be subjected to a TNS processing such as an inverse prediction over frequency in a TNS decoder processing block 211 that, however, is optional. Particularly, the TNS decoder processing block additionally receives the TNS side information that has been generated by block 124 of Fig. 5 as indicated by line 129. The output of the TNS decoder processing step 211 is input into a spectral shaping block 212, where the first set of scale factors as calculated by the scale factor decoder are ap-plied to the decoded spectral representation that can or cannot be TNS processed as the case may be, and the output is the scaled spectral representation that is then input into the converter 240 of Fig. 8.

Further procedures of preferred embodiments of the decoder are discussed subsequently. DECODER:

• Step 1: Quantization (221)

The vector quantizer indices produced in encoder step 8 are read from the bitstream and used to decode the quantized scale factors scfQ(n).

• Step 2: Interpolation (222, 223)

Same as Encoder Step 9.

• Step 3: Spectral Shaping (212)

The SNS scale factors gSNS(b) are applied on the quantized MDCT frequency lines for each band separately in order to generate the decoded spectrum X(k) as outlined by the following code.

Fig.6 and Fig. 7 illustrate a general encoder/decoder setup where Fig. 6 represents an implementation without TNS processing, while Fig. 7 illustrates an implementation that comprises TNS processing. Similar functionalities illustrated in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 corre-spond to similar functionalities in the other figures when identical reference numerals are indicated. Particularly, as illustrated in Fig. 6, the input signal 160 is input into a transform stage 110 and, subsequently, the spectral processing 120 is performed. Particularly, the spectral processing is reflected by an SNS encoder indicated by reference numerals 123, 110, 130, 140 indicating that the block SNS encoder implements the functionalities indi-cated by these reference numerals. Subsequently to the SNS encoder block, a quantiza-tion encoding operation 125 is performed, and the encoded signal is input into the bit-stream as indicated at 180 in Fig. 6. The bitstream 180 then occurs at the decoder-side and subsequent to an inverse quantization and decoding illustrated by reference numeral 210, the SNS decoder operation illustrated by blocks 210, 220, 230 of Fig. 8 are per-formed so that, in the end, subsequent to an inverse transform 240, the decoded output signal 260 is obtained.

Fig. 7 illustrates a similar representation as in Fig. 6, but it is indicated that, preferably, the TNS processing is performed subsequent to SNS processing on the encoder-side and, correspondingly, the TNS processing 211 is performed before the SNS processing 212 with respect to the processing sequence on the decoder-side.

Preferably the additional tool TNS between Spectral Noise Shaping (SNS) and quantiza-tion/coding (see block diagram below) is used. TNS (Temporal Noise Shaping) also shapes the quantization noise but does a time-domain shaping (as opposed to the fre-quency-domain shaping of SNS) as well. TNS is useful for signals containing sharp at-tacks and for speech signals.

TNS is usually applied (in AAC for example) between the transform and SNS. Preferably, however, it is preferred to apply TNS on the shaped spectrum. This avoids some artifacts that were produced by the TNS decoder when operating the codec at low bitrates.

Fig. 10 illustrates a preferred subdivision of the spectral coefficients or spectral lines as obtained by block 100 on the encoder-side into bands. Particularly, it is indicated that low-er bands have a smaller number of spectral lines than higher bands.

Particularly, the x-axis in Fig. 10 corresponds to the index of bands and illustrates the pre-ferred embodiment of 64 bands and the y-axis corresponds to the index of the spectral lines illustrating 320 spectral coefficients in one frame. Particularly. Fig. 10 illustrates ex-emplarily the situation of the super wide band (SWB) case where there is a sampling fre-quency of 32 kHz.

For the wide band case, the situation with respect to the individual bands is so that one frame results in 160 spectral lines and the sampling frequency is 16 kHz so that, for both cases, one frame has a length in time of 10 milliseconds.

Fig. 11 illustrates more details on the preferred downsampling performed in the downsampler 130 of Fig. 1 or the corresponding upsampling or interpolation as performed in the scale factor decoder 220 of Fig. 8 or as illustrated in block 222 of Fig. 9.

Along the x-axis, the index for the bands 0 to 63 is given. Particularly, there are 64 bands going from 0 to 63.

The 16 downsample points corresponding to scfQ(i) are illustrated as vertical lines 1100. Particularly, Fig. 11 illustrates how a certain grouping of scale parameters is performed to finally obtain the downsampled point 1100. Exemplarily, the first block of four bands con-sists of (0, 1 , 2, 3) and the middle point of this first block is at 1.5 indicated by item 1100 at the index 1.5 along the x-axis.

Correspondingly, the second block of four bands is (4. 5, 6, 7), and the middle point of the second block is 5.5.

The windows 1110 correspond to the windows w(k) discussed with respect to the step 6 downsampling described before. It can be seen that these windows are centered at the downsampled points and there is the overlap of one block to each side as discussed be-fore.

The interpolation step 222 of Fig. 9 recovers the 64 bands from the 16 downsampled points. This is seen in Fig. 11 by computing the position of any of the lines 1120 as a func-tion of the two downsampled points indicated at 1100 around a certain line 1120. The fol-lowing example exemplifies that.

The position of the second band is calculated as a function of the two vertical lines around it (1.5 and 5.5) : 2=1.5+1/8x(5.5-1.5).

Correspondingly, the position of the third band as a function of the two vertical lines 1100 around it (1.5 and 5.5): 3=1.5+3/8x(5.5-1.5).

A specific procedure is performed for the first two bands and the last two bands. For these bands, an interpolation cannot be performed, because there would not exist vertical lines or values corresponding to vertical lines 1100 outside the range going from 0 to 63. Thus, in order to address this issue, an extrapolation is performed as described with respect to step 9: interpolation as outlined before for the two bands 0, 1 on the one hand and 62 and 63 on the other hand.

Subsequently, a preferred implementation of the converter 100 of Fig. 1 on the one hand and the converter 240 of Fig. 8 on the other hand are discussed.

Particularly, Fig. 12a illustrates a schedule for indicating the framing performed on the encoder-side within converter 100. Fig. 12b illustrates a preferred implementation of the converter 100 of Fig. 1 on the encoder-side and Fig. 12c illustrates a preferred implemen-tation of the converter 240 on the decoder-side.

The converter 100 on the encoder-side is preferably implemented to perform a framing with overlapping frames such as a 50% overlap so that frame 2 overlaps with frame 1 and frame 3 overlaps with frame 2 and frame 4. However, other overlaps or a non-overiapping processing can be performed as well, but it is preferred to perform a 50% overlap together with an MDCT algorithm. To this end, the converter 100 comprises an analysis window

101 and a subsequently-connected spectral converter 102 for performing an FFT pro-cessing, an MDCT processing or any other kind of time-to-spectrum conversion pro-cessing to obtain a sequence of frames corresponding to a sequence of spectral repre-sentations as input in Fig. 1 to the blocks subsequent to the converter 100.

Correspondingly, the scaled spectral representation(s) are input into the converter 240 of Fig. 8. Particularly, the converter comprises a time-converter 241 implementing an inverse FFT operation, an inverse MDCT operation or a corresponding spectrum-to-time conver-sion operation. The output is inserted into a synthesis window 242 and the output of the synthesis window 242 is input into an overlap-add processor 243 to perform an overlap-add operation in order to finally obtain the decoded audio signal. Particularly, the overlap-add processing in block 243, for example, performs a sample-by-sample addition between corresponding samples of the second half of, for example, frame 3 and the first half of frame 4 so that the audio sampling values for the overlap between frame 3 and frame 4 as indicated by item 1200 in Fig. 12a is obtained. Similar overlap-add operations in a sample-by-sample manner are performed to obtain the remaining audio sampling values of the decoded audio output signal.

An inventively encoded audio signal can be stored on a digital storage medium or a non-transitory storage medium or can be transmitted on a transmission medium such as a wireless transmission medium or a wired transmission medium such as the Internet.

Although some aspects have been described in the context of an apparatus, it is clear that these aspects also represent a description of the corresponding method, where a block or device corresponds to a method step or a feature of a method step. Analogously, aspects described in the context of a method step also represent a description of a corresponding block or item or feature of a corresponding apparatus.

Depending on certain implementation requirements, embodiments of the invention can be implemented in hardware or in software. The implementation can be performed using a digital storage medium, for example a floppy disk, a DVD, a CD, a ROM, a PROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM or a FLASH memory, having electronically readable control signals stored thereon, which cooperate (or are capable of cooperating) with a programmable computer system such that the respective method is performed.

Some embodiments according to the invention comprise a data carrier having electroni-cally readable control signals, which are capable of cooperating with a programmable computer system, such that one of the methods described herein is performed.

Generally, embodiments of the present invention can be implemented as a computer pro-gram product with a program code, the program code being operative for performing one of the methods when the computer program product runs on a computer. The program code may for example be stored on a machine readable carrier.

Other embodiments comprise the computer program for performing one of the methods described herein, stored on a machine readable carrier or a non-transitory storage medi-um.

In other words, an embodiment of the inventive method is, therefore, a computer program having a program code for performing one of the methods described herein, when the computer program runs on a computer.

A further embodiment of the inventive methods is, therefore, a data carrier (or a digital storage medium, or a computer-readable medium) comprising, recorded thereon, the computer program for performing one of the methods described herein.

A further embodiment of the inventive method is, therefore, a data stream or a sequence of signals representing the computer program for performing one of the methods de-scribed herein. The data stream or the sequence of signals may for example be config-ured to be transferred via a data communication connection, for example via the Internet.

A further embodiment comprises a processing means, for example a computer, or a pro-grammable logic device, configured to or adapted to perform one of the methods de-scribed herein.

A further embodiment comprises a computer having installed thereon the computer pro-gram for performing one of the methods described herein.

In some embodiments, a programmable logic device (for example a field programmable gate array) may be used to perform some or all of the functionalities of the methods de-scribed herein. In some embodiments, a field programmable gate array may cooperate

with a microprocessor in order to perform one of the methods described herein. Generally, the methods are preferably performed by any hardware apparatus.

The above described embodiments are merely illustrative for the principles of the present invention. It is understood that modifications and variations of the arrangements and the details described herein will be apparent to others skilled in the art. It is the intent, there-fore, to be limited only by the scope of the impending patent claims and not by the specific details presented by way of description and explanation of the embodiments herein.

Bibliography

[1] ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001; Information technology - Coding of audio visual objects - Part 3: Audio.

[2] 3GPP TS 26.403; General audio codec audio processing functions; Enhanced aacPlus general audio codec; Encoder specification; Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) part.

[3] ISO/IEC 23003-3; Information technology - MPEG audio technologies - Part 3: Unified speech and audio coding.

[4] 3GPP TS 26.445; Codec for Enhanced Voice Services (EVS); Detailed algorithmic description.

Claims

1. Apparatus for encoding an audio signal (160), comprising;

a converter (100) for converting the audio signal into a spectral representation;

a scale parameter calculator (110) for calculating a first set of scale parameters from the spectral representation:

a downsampler (130) for downsampling the first set of scale parameters to ob- tain a second set of scale parameters, wherein a second number of scale parame- ters in the second set of scale parameters is lower than a first number of scale pa- rameters in the first set of scale parameters;

a scale parameter encoder (140) for generating an encoded representation of the second set of scale parameters;

a spectral processor (120) for processing the spectral representation using a third set of scale parameters, the third set of scale parameters having a third num- ber of scale parameters being greater than the second number of scale parame- ters, wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to use the first set of scale parameters or to derive the third set of scale parameters from the second set of scale parameters or from the encoded representation of the second set of scale parameters using an interpolation operation; and

an output interface (150) for generating an encoded output signal (170) com- prising information on the encoded representation of the spectral representation and information on the encoded representation of the second set of scale parame- ters.

2. Apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the scale parameter calculator is configured to

calculate, for each band of a plurality of bands of the spectral representation, an amplitude-related measure in a linear domain to obtain a first set of linear do-main measures;

to transform the first set of linear-domain measures into a log-like domain to obtain the first set of log-like domain measures, and

wherein the downsampler (130) is configured to downsample the first set of scale factors in the log-like domain to obtain the second set of scale factors in the log-like domain.

3. Apparatus of claim 2,

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to use the first set of scale parameters in the linear domain for processing the spectral representation or to in-terpolate the second set of scale parameters in the log-like domain to obtain inter-polated log-like domain scale factors and to transform the log-like domain scale factors into a linear domain to obtain the third set of scale parameters.

4. Apparatus of one of the proceeding claims,

wherein the scale parameter calculator (110) is configured to calculate the first set of scale parameters for non-uniform bands, and

wherein the downsampler (130) is configured to downsample the first set of scale parameters to obtain a first scale factor of the second set by combining a first group having a first predefined number of frequency adjacent scale parameters of the first set, and wherein the downsampler is configured to downsample the first set of scale parameters to obtain a second scale parameter of the second set by combining a second group having a second predefined number of frequency adja-cent scale parameters of the first set, wherein the second predefined number is equal to the first predefined number, and wherein the second group has members that are different from members of the first predefined group.

5. Apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first group of frequency adjacent scale parame-ters of the first set and the second group of frequency adjacent scale parameters of the first set have at least one scale parameter of the first set in common, so that the first group and the second group overlap with each other.

6. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the downsampler (130) is con- figured to use an average operation among a group of first scale parameters, the group having two or more members.

7. Apparatus of claim 6,

wherein the average operation is a weighted average operation configured to weight a scale parameter in a middle of the group stronger than a scale parameter at an edge of the group.

8. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the downsampler (130) is configured to perform a mean value remov- al (133) so that the second set of scale parameters is mean free.

9. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the downsampler (130) is configured to perform a scaling operation (134) using a scaling factor lower than 1.0 and greater than 0.0 in a log-like do- main.

10. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the scale parameter encoder (140) is configured to quantize and en- code the second set using a vector quantizer (141), wherein the encoded repre- sentation comprises one or more indices (146) for one or more vector quantizer codebooks.

11. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the scale factor encoder (140) is configured to provide a second set of quantized scale factors associated with the encoded representation (142), and

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to derive the second set of scale factors from the second set of quantized scale factors (145).

12. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to determine this third set of scale parameters so that the third number is equal to the first number.

13. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to determine an interpolat-ed scale factor (121) based on a quantized scale factor and a difference between the quantized scale factor and a next quantized scale factor in an ascending se-quence of quantized scale factors with respect to frequency.

14. Apparatus of claim 13,

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to determine, from the quantized scale factor and the difference, at least two interpolated scale factors, wherein for each of the two interpolated scale factors, a different weighting factor is used.

15. Apparatus of claim 14,

wherein the weighting factors increase with increasing frequencies associated with the interpolated scale factors.

16. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to perform the interpolation operation (121) in a log-like domain, and

to convert (122) interpolated scale factors into a linear domain to obtain the third set of scale parameters.

17. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the scale parameter calculator (110) is configured to calculate an am- plitude-related measure for each band to obtain a set of amplitude-related measures (111), and

to smooth (112), the energy-related measures to obtain a set of smoothed amplitude-related measures as the first set of scale factors.

18. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the scale parameter calculator is configured to calculate an amplitude- related measure for each band to obtain a set of amplitude-related measures, and

to perform (113) a pre-emphasis operation to the set of amplitude-related measures, wherein the pre-emphasis operation is so that low frequency ampli- tudes are emphasized with respect to high frequency amplitudes.

19. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the scale parameter calculator (110) is configured to calculate an am- plitude-related measure for each band to obtain a set of amplitude-related measures, and

to perform a noise-floor addition operation (114), wherein a noise floor is cal- culated from an amplitude-related measure derived as a mean value from two or more frequency bands of the spectral representation.

20. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims, wherein the scale factor calculator (110) is configured to perform at least one of a group of operations, the group of opera- tions comprising calculating (111) amplitude-related measures for a plurality of bands, performing (112) a smoothing operation, performing (113) a pre-emphasis operation, performing (114) a noise-floor addition operation, and performing a log- like domain conversion operation (115) to obtain the first set of scale parameters.

21. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to weight (123) spectral values in the spectral representation using the third set of scale factors to obtain a weighted spectral representation and to apply a temporal noise shaping (TNS) op-eration (124) onto the weighted spectral representation, and

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to quantize (125) and en-code a result of the temporal noise shaping operation (124) to obtain the encoded representation of the spectral representation.

22. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the converter (100) comprises an analysis windower (101 ) to gener-ate a sequence of blocks of windowed audio samples, and a time-spectrum con-verter (102) for converting the blocks of windowed audio samples into a sequence of spectral representations, a spectral representation being a spectral frame.

23. Apparatus of one of the preceding claims,

wherein the converter (100) is configured to apply an MDCT (modified discrete cosine transform) operation to obtain an MDCT spectrum from a block of time do-main samples, or

wherein the scale factor calculator is configured to calculate, for each band, an energy of the band, the calculation comprising squaring spectral lines, adding squared spectral lines and dividing the squared spectral lines by a number of lines in the band, or

wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to weight (123) spectral values of the spectral representation or to weight (123) spectral values derived from the spectral representation in accordance with a band scheme, the band scheme being identical to the band scheme used in calculating the first set of scale factors by the scale factor calculator (110), or

wherein a number of bands is 64, the first number is 64, the second num-ber is 16, and third number is 64, or

wherein the spectral processor is configured to calculate a global gain for all bands and to quantize (125) the spectral values subsequent to a scaling (123) in- volving the third number of scale factors using a scalar quantizer, wherein the spectral processor (120) is configured to control a step size of the scalar quantizer (125) dependent on the global gain.

24. A method for encoding an audio signal (160), comprising:

converting (100) the audio signal into a spectral representation;

calculating (110) a first set of scale parameters from the spectral representa- tion:

downsampling (130) the first set of scale parameters to obtain a second set of scale parameters, wherein a second number of scale parameters in the second set of scale parameters is lower than a first number of scale parameters in the first set of scale parameters;

generating (140) an encoded representation of the second set of scale pa- rameters;

processing (120) the spectral representation using a third set of scale parame- ters, the third set of scale parameters having a third number of scale parameters being greater than the second number of scale parameters, wherein the pro- cessing (120) uses the first set of scale parameters or derives the third set of scale parameters from the second set of scale parameters or from the encoded repre- sentation of the second set of scale parameters using an interpolation operation; and

generating (150) an encoded output signal (170) comprising information on the encoded representation of the spectral representation and information on the en- coded representation of the second set of scale parameters.

25. Apparatus for decoding an encoded audio signal comprising information on an en- coded spectral representation and information on an encoded representation of a second set of scale parameters, comprising:

an input interface (200) for receiving the encoded signal and extracting the encoded spectral representation and the encoded representation of the second set of scale parameters:

a spectrum decoder (210) for decoding the encoded spectral representation to obtain a decoded spectrai representation;

a scale parameter decoder (220) for decoding the encoded second set of scale parameters to obtain a first set of scale parameters, wherein the number of scale parameters of the second set is smaller than a number of scale parameters of the first set;

a spectral processor (230) for processing the decoded spectral representa-tion using the first set of scale parameters to obtain a scaled spectral representa-tion; and

a converter (240) for converting the scaled spectral representation to obtain a decoded audio signal.

26. Apparatus of claim 25,

wherein the spectral scale parameter decoder (220) is configured to interpo-late (222) the second set of scale parameters in a log-like domain to obtain inter-polated log-like domain scale parameters.

27. Apparatus of claim 25 or 26,

wherein the scale parameter decoder (220) is configured to decode the en-coded spectral representation using a vector dequantizer (210) providing, for one or more quantization indices, the second set of decoded scale parameters, and

wherein the scale parameter decoder (220) is configured to interpolate (222) the second set of decoded scale parameters to obtain the first set of scale parame-ters.

28. Apparatus of one of claims 25 to 27,

wherein the scale parameter decoder (222) is configured to determine an in- terpolated scale parameter based on the quantized scale parameter and a differ- ence between the quantized scale parameter and a next quantized scale parame- ter in an ascending sequence of quantized scale parameters with respect to fre- quency.

29. Apparatus of claim 28,

wherein the scale parameter decoder (222) is configured to determine, from the quantized scale parameter and the difference at least two interpolated scale parameters, wherein for the generation of each of the two interpolated scale pa- rameters a different weighting factor is used.

30. Apparatus of claim 29,

wherein the scale parameter decoder (220) is configured to use the weighting factors, wherein the weighting factors increase with increasing frequencies associ- ated with the interpolated scale parameters.

31. Apparatus of one of claims 25 to 30, wherein the scale parameter decoder is con- figured to perform the interpolation operation (222) in a log-like domain, and

to convert (223) interpolated scale parameters into a linear domain to obtain the first set of scale parameters, wherein the log-like domain is a log domain with a base of 10 or with a base of 2.

32. Apparatus of one of claims 25 to 31 ,

wherein the spectral processor (230) is configured

to apply (211) a temporal noise shaping (TNS) decoder operation to the de- coded spectral representation to obtain a TNS decoded spectral representation, and

to weight (212) the TNS decoded spectral representation using the first set of scale parameters.

33. Apparatus of one of claims 25 to 32,

wherein the scale parameter decoder (220) is configured to interpolate quan- tized scale parameters so that interpolated quantized scale parameters have val- ues being in a range of ± 20% of values obtained using the following equations:

scfQint(0) = scfQ(0)

scfQint(1) = scfQ(0)

wherein scfQ(n) is the quantized scale parameter for an index n, and wherein scfQint(k) is the interpolated scale parameter for an index k.

34. Apparatus of one of claims 25-33,

wherein the scale parameter decoder (220) is configured to perform an inter- polation (222) to obtain scale parameters within, with respect to frequency, the first set of scale parameters and to perform an extrapolation operation to obtain scale parameters at edges, with respect to frequency, of the first set of scale parame- ters.

35. Apparatus of claim 34,

wherein the scale parameter decoder (220) is configured to determine at least a first scale parameter and a last scale parameter of the first set of scale parame- ters with respect to ascending frequency bands by an extrapolation operation.

36. Apparatus of one of claims 25 to 35,

wherein the scale parameter decoder (220) is configured to perform an inter- polation (222) and a subsequent transform from a log-like domain into a linear do- main, wherein the log-like domain is a log 2 domain and wherein the linear domain values are calculated using an exponentiation with a base of two.

37. Apparatus of one of claims 25 to 36,

wherein the encoded audio signal (250) comprises information on a global gain for the encoded spectral representation,

wherein the spectrum decoder (210) is configured to dequantize (210) the en- coded spectral representation using the global gain, and

wherein the spectral processor (230) is configured to process the dequantized spectral representation or values derived from the dequantized spectra! represen- tation by weighting each dequantized spectral value or each value derived from the dequantized spectral representation of a band using the same scale parameter of the first set of scale parameters for the band.

38. Apparatus of one of claims 25 to 37,

wherein the converter (240) is configured

to convert (241) time-subsequent scaled spectral representations;

to synthesis window (242) converted time-subsequent scaled spectral repre- sentations, and

to overlap-and-add (243) windowed converted representations to obtain a de- coded audio signal (260).

39. Apparatus of one of claims 25 to 38,

wherein the converter (240) comprises an inverse modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) converter, or

wherein the spectral processor (230) is configured to multiply spectral values by corresponding scale parameters of the first set of scale parameters, or

wherein the second number is 16 and the first number is 64, or

wherein each scale parameter of the first set is associated with a band, where-in bands corresponding to higher frequencies are broader than bands associated with lower frequencies, so that a scale parameter of the first set of scale parame-ters associated with a high frequency band is used for weighting a higher number of spectral values compared to a scale parameter associated with a lower frequen-cy band, where the scale parameter associated with the lower frequency band is used for weighting a lower number of spectral values in the low frequency band.

40. Method for decoding an encoded audio signal comprising information on an encoded spectral representation and information on an encoded representa- tion of a second set of scale parameters, comprising:

receiving (200) the encoded signal and extracting the encoded spectral repre-sentation and the encoded representation of the second set of scale parameters;

decoding (210) the encoded spectral representation to obtain a decoded spectral representation;

decoding (220) the encoded second set of scale parameters to obtain a first set of scale parameters, wherein the number of scale parameters of the second set is smaller than a number of scale parameters of the first set;

processing (230) the decoded spectral representation using the first set of scale parameters to obtain a scaled spectral representation; and

converting (240) the scaled spectral representation to obtain a decoded audio signal.

41. Computer program for performing, when running a computer or a processor, the method of claim 24 or the method of claim 40.