Apparatus and Method for Processing a Decoded Audio Signal in a Spectral Domain
Specification
The present invention relates to audio processing and, in particular, to the processing of a
decoded audio signal for the purpose of quality enhancement.
Recently, further developments regarding switched audio codecs have been achieved. A
high quality and low bit rate switched audio codec is the unified speech and audio coding
concept (USAC concept). There is a common pre/post-processing consisting of an MPEG
surround (MPEGs) functional unit to handle a stereo or multichannel processing and an
enhanced SBR (eSBR) unit which handles the parametric representation of the higher
audio frequencies in the input signal. Subsequently there are two branches, one consisting
of an advanced audio coding (AAC) tool path and the other consisting of a linear
prediction coding (LP or LPC domain) based path which, in turn, features either a
frequency domain representation or a time domain representation of the LPC residual. All
transmitted spectra for both AAC and LPC are represented in the MDCT domain following
quantization and arithmetic coding. The time domain representation uses an ACELP
excitation coding scheme. Block diagrams of the encoder and the decoder are given in Fig.
1.1 and Fig. 1.2 of ISO/IEC CD 23003-3.
An additional example for a switched audio codec is the extended adaptive multi-rate-wide
band (AMR-WB+) codec as described in 3GPP TS 26.290 VIO.0.0 (2011-3). The AMRWB+
audio codec processes input frames equal to 2048 samples at an internal sampling
frequency Fs. The internal sampling frequencies are limited to the range 12800 to 38400
Hz. The 2048-sample frames are split into two critically sampled equal frequency bands.
This results in two super frames of 1024 samples corresponding to the low frequency (LF)
and high frequency (HF) band. Each super frame is divided into four 256-sample frames.
Sampling at the internal sampling rate is obtained by using a variable sampling conversion
scheme which re-samples the input signal. The LF and HF signals are then encoded using
two different approaches: the LF is encoded and decoded using a "core" encoder/decoder,
based on switched ACELP and transform coded excitation (TCX). In the ACELP mode,
the standard AMR-WB codec is used. The HF signal is encoded with relatively few bits
(16 bits per frame) using a bandwidth extension (BWE) method. The AMR-WB coder
includes a pre-processing functionality, an LPC analysis, an open loop search functionality,
an adaptive codebook search functionality, an innovative codebook search functionality
and memories update. The ACELP decoder comprises several functionalities such as
decoding the adaptive codebook, decoding gains, decoding the innovative codebook,
decode ISP, a long term prediction filter (LTP filter), the construct excitation functionality,
an interpolation of ISP for four sub-frames, a post-processing, a synthesis filter, a deemphasis
and an up-sampling block in order to finally obtain the lower band portion of the
speech output. The higher band portion of the speech output is generated by gains scaling
using an HB gain index, a VAD flag, and a 16 kHz random excitation. Furthermore, an HB
synthesis filter is used followed by a band pass filter. More details are in Fig. 3 of G.722.2.
This scheme has been enhanced in the AMR-WB+ by performing a post-processing of the
mono low-band signal. Reference is made to Figs. 7, 8 and 9 illustrating the functionality
in AMR-WB+. Fig. 7 Illustrates pitch enhancer 700, a low pass filter 702, a high pass filter
704, a pitch tracking stage 706 and an adder 708. The blocks are connected as illustrated in
Fig. 7 and are fed by the decoded signal.
In the low-frequency pitch enhancement, two-band decomposition is used and adaptive
filtering is applied only to the lower band. This results in a total post-processing that is
mostly targeted at frequencies near the first harmonics of the synthesize speech signal. Fig.
7 shows the block diagram of the two-band pitch enhancer. In the higher branch the
decoded signal is filtered by the high pass filter 704 to produce the higher band signals s .
In the lower branch, the decoded signal is first processed through the adaptive pitch
enhancer 700 and then filtered through the low pass filter 702 to obtain the lower band
post-process signal (SLEE) The post-process decoded signal is obtained by adding the lower
band post-process signal and the higher band signal. The object of the pitch enhancer is to
reduce the inter-harmonic noise in the decoded signal which is achieved by a time-varying
linear filter with a transfer function HE indicated in the first line of Fig. 9 and described by
the equation in the second line of Fig. 9. a is a coefficient that controls the inter-harmonic
attenuation. T is the pitch period of the input signal S (n) and SLE (n) is the output signal of
the pitch enhancer. Parameters T and a vary with time and are given by the pitch tracking
module 706 with a value of a = 1, the gain of the filter described by the equation in the
second line of Fig. 9 is exactly zero at frequencies 1/(2T), 3/(2T), 5/(2T), etc, i.e., at the
mid-point between the DC (0 Hz) and the harmonic frequencies 1/T, 3/T, 5/T, etc. When a
approaches zero, the attenuation between the harmonics produced by the filter as defined in
the second line of Fig. 9 decreases. When a is zero, the filter has no effect and is an allpass.
To confine the post-processing to the low frequency region, the enhanced signal SLE
is low pass filtered to produce the signal SLEF which is added to the high pass filter signal
SH to obtain the post-process synthesis signal SE.
Another configuration equivalent to the illustration in Fig. 7 is illustrated in Fig. 8 and the
configuration in Fig. 8 eliminates the need to high pass filtering. This is explained with
respect to the third equation for SE in Fig. 9. The l Lp(n) is the impulse response of the low
pass filter and (n) is the impulse response of the complementary high pass filter. Then,
the post-process signal SE( ) is given by the third equation in Fig. 9. Thus, the post
processing is equivalent to subtracting the scaled low pass filtered long-term error signal
a.eLT( ) from the synthesis signal s (n). The transfer function of the long-term prediction
filter is given as indicated in the last line of Fig. 9. This alternative post-processing
configuration is illustrated in Fig. 8. The value T is given by the received closed-loop pitch
lag in each subframe (the fractional pitch lag rounded to the nearest integer). A simple
tracking for checking pitch doubling is performed. If the normalized pitch correlation at
delay T/2 is larger than 0.95 then the value T/2 is used as the new pitch lag for post¬
processing. The factor a is given by a = 0.5gp, constrained to a greater than or equal to
zero and lower than or equal to 0.5. gp is the decoded pitch gain bounded between 0 and 1.
In TCX mode, the value of a is set to zero. A linear phase FIR low pass filter with 25
coefficients is used with the cut-off frequency of about 500 Hz. The filter delay is 12
samples). The upper branch needs to introduce a delay corresponding to the delay of the
processing in the lower branch in order to keep the signals in the two branches time aligned
before performing the subtraction. In AMR-WB+ Fs=2x sampling rate of the core. The
core sampling rate is equal to 12800 Hz. So the cut-off frequency is equal to 500Hz.
It has been found that, particularly for low delay applications, the filter delay of 12 samples
introduced by the linear phase FIR low pass filter contributes to the overall delay of the
encoding/decoding scheme. There are other sources of systematic delays at other places in
the encoding/decoding chain, and the FIR filter delay accumulates with the other sources.
It is on object of the present invention to provide an improved audio signal processing
concept which is better suited for real time applications or two-way communication
scenarios such as mobile phone scenarios.
This object is achieved by an apparatus for processing a decoded audio signal in
accordance with claim 1 or a method of processing a decoded audio signal in accordance
with claim 15 or a computer program in accordance with claim 16.
The present invention is based on the finding that the contribution of the low pass filter in
the bass post filtering of the decoded signal to the overall delay is problematic and has to
be reduced. To this end, the filtered audio signal is not low pass filtered in the time domain
but is low pass filtered in the spectral domain such as a QMF domain or any other spectral
domain, for example, an MDCT domain, an FFT domain, etc. It has been found that the
transform from the spectral domain into the frequency domain and, for example, into a low
resolution frequency domain such as a QMF domain can be performed with low delay and
the frequency-selectivity of the filter to be implemented in the spectral domain can be
implemented by just weighting individual subband signals from the frequency domain
representation of the filtered audio signal. This "impression" of the frequency-selected
characteristic is, therefore, performed without any systematic delay since a multiplying or
weighting operation with a subband signal does not incur any delay. The subtraction of the
filtered audio signal and the original audio signal is performed in the spectral domain as
well. Furthermore, it is preferred to perform additional operations which are, for example,
necessary anyway, such as a spectral band replication decoding or a stereo or a
multichannel decoding are additionally performed in one and the same QMF domain. A
frequency-time conversion is performed only at the end of the decoding chain in order to
bring the finally produced audio signal back into the time domain. Hence, depending on
the application, the result audio signal generated by the subtractor can be converted back
into the time domain as it is when no additional processing operations in the QMF domain
are required anymore. However, when the decoding algorithm has additional processing
operations in the QMF domain, then the frequency-time converter is not connected to the
subtractor output but is connected to the output of the last frequency domain processing
device.
Preferably, the filter for filtering the decoded audio signal is a long term prediction filter.
Furthermore, it is preferred that the spectral representation is a QMF representation and it
is additionally preferred that the frequency-selectivity is a low pass characteristic.
However, any other filters different from a long term prediction filter, any other spectral
representations different from a QMF representation or any other frequency-selectivity
different from a low pass characteristic can be used in order to obtain a low-delay post¬
processing of a decoded audio signal.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention are subsequently described with respect to
the accompanying drawings in which:
Fig. l a is a block diagram of an apparatus for processing a decoded audio signal in
accordance with an embodiment;
Fig. l b is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment for the apparatus for
processing a decoded audio signal;
Fig. 2a illustrates a frequency-selective characteristic exemplarily as a low pass
characteristic;
Fig. 2b illustrates weighting coefficients and associated subbands;
illustrates a cascade of the time/spectral converter and a subsequently
connected weighter for applying weighting coefficients to each individual
subband signal;
illustrates an impulse response in the frequency response of the low pass
filter in AMR-WB+ illustrated in Fig. 8;
illustrates an impulse response and the frequency response transformed into
the QMF domain;
illustrates weighting factors for the weighters for the example of 32 QMF
subbands;
illustrates the frequency response for 16 QMF bands and the associated 16
weighting factors;
illustrates a block diagram of the low frequency pitch enhancer of AMRWB+;
illustrates an implemented post-processing configuration of AMR-WB+;
illustrates a derivation of the implementation of Fig. 8; and
Fig. 10 illustrates a low delay implementation of the long term prediction filter in
accordance with an embodiment.
Fig. l a illustrates an apparatus for processing a decoded audio signal on line 100. The
decoded audio signal on line 100 is input into the filter 102 for filtering the decoded audio
signal to obtain a filtered audio signal on line 104. The filter 102 is connected to a timespectral
converter stage 106 illustrated as two individual time-spectral converters 106a for
the filtered audio signal and 106b for the decoded audio signal on line 100. The timespectral
converter stage is configured for converting the audio signal and the filtered audio
signal into a corresponding spectral representation each having a plurality of subband
signals. This is indicated by double lines in Fig. la, which indicates that the output of
blocks 106a, 106b comprises a plurality of individual subband signals rather than a single
signal as illustrated for the input into blocks 106a, 106b.
The apparatus for processing additionally comprises a weighter 108 for performing a
frequency-selective weighting of the filtered audio signal output by block 106a by
multiplying individual subband signals by respective weighting coefficients to obtain a
weighted filtered audio signal on line 110.
Furthermore, a subtractor 112 is provided. The subtractor is configured for performing a
subband-wise subtraction between the weighted filtered audio signal and the spectral
representation of the audio signal generated by block 106b.
Furthermore, a spectral-time converter 114 is provided. The spectral-time conversion
performed by block 114 is so that the result audio signal generated by the subtractor 112 or
a signal derived from the result audio signal is converted into a time domain representation
to obtain the processed decoded audio signal on line 116.
Although Fig. l a indicates that the delay by time-spectral conversion and weighting is
significantly lower than delay by FIR filtering, this is not necessary in all circumstances,
since in situations, in which the QMF is absolutely necessary cumulating the delays of FIR
filtering and of QMF is avoided. Hence, the present invention is also useful, when the
delay by time-spectral conversion weighting is even higher than the delay of an FIR filter
for bass post filtering.
Fig. l b illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention in the context of the
USAC decoder or the AMR-WB+ decoder. The apparatus illustrated in Fig. l b comprises
an ACELP decoder stage 120, a TCX decoder stage 122 and a connection point 124 where
the outputs of the decoders 120, 122 are connected. Connection point 124 starts two
individual branches. The first branch comprises the filter 102 which is, preferably,
configured as a long term prediction filter which is set by the pitch lag T followed by an
amplifier 129 of an adaptive gain a . Furthermore, the first branch comprises the timespectral
converter 106a which is preferably implemented as a QMF analysis filterbank.
Furthermore, the first branch comprises the weighter 108 which is configured for
weighting the subband signals generated by the QMF analysis filterbank 106a.
In the second branch, the decoded audio signal is converted into the spectral domain by the
QMF analysis filterbank 106b.
Although the individual QMF blocks 106a, 106b are illustrated as two separate elements, it
is noted that, for analyzing the filtered audio signal and the audio signal, it is not
necessarily required to have two individual QMF analysis filterbanks. Instead, a single
QMF analysis filterbank and a memory may be sufficient, when the signals are
transformed one after the other. However, for very low delay implementations, it is
preferred to use individual QMF analysis filterbanks for each signal so that the single QMF
block does not form the bottleneck of the algorithm.
Preferably, the conversion into the spectral domain and back into the time domain is
performed by an algorithm, having a delay for the forward and backward transform being
smaller than the delay of the filtering in the time domain with the frequency selective
characteristic. Hence, the transforms should have an overall delay being smaller than the
delay of the filter in question. Particularly useful are low resolution transforms such as
QMF-based transforms, since the low frequency resolution results in the need for a small
transform window, i.e., in a reduced systematic delay. Preferred applications only require a
low resolution transform decomposing the signal in less than 40 subbands, such as 32 or
only 16 subbands. However, even in applications where the time-spectral conversion and
weighting introduce a higher delay than the low pass filter, an advantage is obtained due to
the fact that a cumulating of delays for the low pass filter and the time-spectral conversion
necessary anyway for other procedures is avoided.
For applications, however, which anyway require a time frequency conversion due to other
processing operations, such as resampling, SBR or MPS, a delay reduction is obtained
irrespective of the delay incurred by the time-frequency or frequency-time conversion,
since the "inclusion" of the filter implementation into the spectral domain, the time domain
filter delay is completely saved due to the fact that the subband-wise weighting is
performed without any systematic delay.
The adaptive amplifier 129 is controlled by a controller 130. The controller 130 is
configured for setting the gain a of amplifier 129 to zero, when the input signal is a TCXdecoded
signal. Typically, in switched audio codecs such as USAC or AMR-WB+, the
decoded signal at connection point 124 is typically either from the TCX-decoder 122 or
from the ACELP-decoder 120. Hence, there is a time-multiplex of decoded output signals
of the two decoders 120, 122. The controller 130 is configured for determining for a
current time instant, whether the output signal is from a TCX-decoded signal or an
ACELP-decoded signal. When it is determined that there is a TCX signal, then the
adaptive gain a is set to zero so that the first branch consisting of elements 102, 129, 106a,
108 does not have any significance. This is due to the fact that the specific kind of post
filtering used in AMR-WB+ or USAC is only required for the ACELP-coded signal.
However, when other post filtering implementations apart from harmonic filtering or pitch
enhancing is performed, then a variable gain a can be set differently depending on the
needs.
When, however, the controller 130 determines that the currently available signal is an
ACELP-decoded signal, then the value of amplifier 129 is set to the right value for a which
typically is between 0 and 0.5. In this case, the first branch is significant and the output
signal of the subtractor 112 is substantially different from the originally decoded audio
signal at connection point 124.
The pitch information (pitch lag and gain alpha) used in filter 120 and amplifier 128 can
come from the decoder and/or a dedicated pitch tracker. Preferably, the information are
coming from the decoder and then re-processed (refined) through a dedicated pitch
tracker/long term prediction analysis of the decoded signal.
The result audio signal generated by subtractor 112 performing the per band or per
subband subjection is not immediately performed back into the time domain. Instead, the
signal is forwarded to an SBR decoder module 128. Module 128 is connected to a monostereo
or mono-multichannel decoder such as an MPS decoder 131, where MPS stands for
MPEG surround.
Typically, the number of bands is enhanced by the spectral bandwidth replication decoder
which is indicated by the three additional lines 132 at the output of block 128.
Furthermore, the number of outputs is additionally enhanced by block 131. Block 131
generates, from the mono-signal at the output of block 129 a, for example, 5-channel
signal or any other signal having two or more channels. Exemplarily, a 5-channel scenario
have a left channel L, a right channel R, a center channel C, a left surround channel Ls and
a right surround channel Rs is illustrated. The spectral-time converter 114 exists, therefore,
for each of the individual channels, i.e., exists five times in Fig. l b in order to convert each
individual channel signal from the spectral domain which is, in the Fig. lb example, the
QMF domain, back into the time domain at the output of block 114. Again, there is not
necessarily a plurality of individual spectral-time converters. There can be a single one as
well which processes the conversions one after the other. However, when a very low delay
implementation is required, it is preferred to use an individual spectral time converter for
each channel.
The present invention is advantageous in that the delay introduced by the bass post filter
and, specifically, by the implementation of the low pass filter FIR filter is reduced. Hence,
any kind of frequency-selective filtering does not introduce an additional delay with
respect to the delay required for the QMF or, stated generally, the time/frequency
transform.
The present invention is particularly advantageous, when a QMF or, generally, a timefrequency
transform is required anyway as, for example, in the case of Fig. lb, where the
SBR functionality and the MPS functionality are performed in the spectral domain
anyway. An alternative implementation, where a QMF is required is, when a resampling is
performed with the decoded signal, and when, for the purpose of resampling, a QMF
analysis filterbank and a QMF synthesis filterbank with a different number of filterbank
channels is required.
Furthermore, a constant framing between ACELP and TCX is maintained due to the fact
that both signals, i.e., TCX and ACELP now have the same delay.
The functionality of a bandwidth extension decoder 129 is described in detail in section 6.5
of ISO/IEC CD 23003-3. The functionality of the multichannel decoder 131 is described in
detail, for example, in section 6.11 of ISO/IEC CD 23003-3. The functionalities behind the
TCX decoder and ACELP decoder are described in detail in blocks 6.12 to 6.17 of
ISO/IEC CD 23003-3.
Subsequently, Figs. 2a to 2c are discussed in order to illustrate a schematic example. Fig.
2a illustrates a frequency-selected frequency response of a schematic low pass filter.
Fig. 2b illustrates the weighting indices for the subband numbers or subbands indicated in
Fig. 2a. In the schematic case of Fig. 2a, subbands 1 to 6 have weighting coefficients equal
to 1, i.e., no weighting and bands 7 to 10 have decreasing weighting coefficients and bands
1 to 14 have zeros.
A corresponding implementation of a cascade of a time-spectral converter such as 106a
and the subsequently connector weighter 108 is illustrated in Fig. 2c. Each subband 1, 2
14 is input into an individual weighting block indicated by Wi, W2, W14 . The
weighter 108 applies the weighting factor of the table of Fig. 2b to each individual subband
signal by multiplying each sampling of the subband signal by the weighting coefficient.
Then, at the output of the weighter, there exist weighted subband signals which are then
input into the subtractor 1 2 of Fig. l a which additionally performs a subtraction in the
spectral domain.
Fig. 3 illustrates the impulse response and the frequency response of the low pass filter in
Fig. 8 of the AMR-WB+ encoder. The low pass filter liLp(n) in the time domain is defined
in AMR-WB+ by the following coefficients.
a[13] = [0.088250, 0.086410, 0.081074, 0.072768, 0.062294, 0.050623, 0.038774,
0.027692, 0.018130, 0.010578, 0.005221, 0.001946, 0.000385];
hLp(n)=a(n-12) for n from 13 to 25
The impulse response and the frequency response illustrated in Fig. 3 are for a situation,
when the filter is applied to a time-domain signal sample that 12.8 kHz. The generated
delay is then a delay of 12 samples, i.e., 0.9375 ms.
The filter illustrated in Fig. 3 has a frequency response in the QMF domain, where each
QMF has a resolution of 400 Hz. 32 QMF bands cover the bandwidth of the signal sample
at 12.8 kHz. The frequency response and the QMF domain are illustrated in Fig. 4.
The amplitude frequency response with a resolution of 400 Hz forms the weights used
when applying the low pass filter in the QMF domain. The weights for the weighter 108
are, for the above exemplary parameters as outlined in Fig. 5.
These weights can be calculated as follows:
W=abs(DFT(h Lp(n), 64)), where DFT(x,N) stands for the Discrete Fourier Transform of
length N of the signal x. If x is shorter than N, the signal is padded with N-size of x zeros.
The length N of the DFT corresponds to two times the number of QMF sub-bands. Since
L (n) is a signal of real coefficients, W shows a Hermitian symmetry and N/2 frequency
coefficients between the frequency 0 and the Nyquist frequency.
By analysing the frequency response of the filter coefficients, it corresponds about to a cut¬
off frequency of 2*pi* 10/256. This is used for designing the filter. The coefficients were
then quantized for writing them on 14 bits for saving some ROM consumption and in view
of a fixed point implementation.
The filtering in QMF domain is then performed as follows:
Y=post-processed signal in QMF domain
X= decoded signal in QMF signal from core-coder
E=inter-harmonic noise generated in TD to remove from X
Y(k)= X(k)-W(k).E(k) for k from 1 to 32
Fig. 6 illustrates a further example, where the QMF has a resolution of 800 Hz, so that 16
bands cover the full bandwidth of the signal sampled at 12.8 kHz. The coefficients W are
then as indicated in Fig. 6 below the plot. The filtering is done in the same way as
discussed with respect to Fig. 6, but k only goes from 1 to 16.
The frequency response of the filter in the 16 bands QMF is plotted as illustrated in Fig. 6.
Fig. 10 illustrates a further enhancement of the long term prediction filter illustrated at 102
in Fig. lb.
Particularly, for a low delay implementation, the term s(n+T) in the third to last line of Fig.
9 is problematic. This is due to the fact that the T samples are in the future with respect to
the actual time n. Therefore, in order to address situations, where, due to the low delay
implementation, the future values are not available yet, s(n+T) is replaced by s as indicated
in Fig. 10. Then, the long term prediction filter approximates the long term prediction of
the prior art, but with less or zero delay. It has been found that the approximation is good
enough and that the gain with respect to the reduced delay is more advantageous than the
slight loss in pitch enhancing.
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 non-transitory data carrier
having electronically 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
program 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.
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 described
herein. The data stream or the sequence of signals may for example be configured 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
programmable logic device, configured to or adapted to perform one of the methods
described herein.
A further embodiment comprises a computer having installed thereon the computer
program 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
described 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,
therefore, 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.
Claims
. Apparatus for processing a decoded audio signal (100), comprising:
a filter (102) for filtering the decoded audio signal to obtain a filtered audio signal
(104);
a time-spectral converter stage (106) for converting the decoded audio signal and
the filtered audio signal into corresponding spectral representations, each spectral
representation having a plurality of subband signals;
a weighter (108) for performing a frequency selective weighting of the spectral
representation of the filtered audio signal by multiplying subband signals by
respective weighting coefficients to obtain a weighted filtered audio signal;
a subtractor ( 11 ) for performing a subband-wise subtraction between the weighted
filtered audio signal and the spectral representation of the audio signal to obtain a
result audio signal; and
a spectral-time converter ( 114) for converting the result audio signal or a signal
derived from the result audio signal into a time domain representation to obtain a
processed decoded audio signal ( 116).
2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a bandwidth
enhancement decoder (129) or a mono-stereo or a mono-multichannel decoder
(13 1) to calculate the signal derived from the result audio signal,
wherein the spectral-time converter ( 114) is configured for not converting the result
audio signal but the signal derived from the result audio signal into the time domain
so that all processing by the bandwidth enhancement decoder (129) or the monostereo
or mono-multichannel decoder (131) is performed in the same spectral
domain as defined by the time-spectral converter stage (106).
3. Apparatus of claim 1 or 2,
wherein the decoded audio signal is an ACELP-decoded output signal, and
wherein the filter (102) is a long term prediction filter controlled by pitch
information.
4. Apparatus in accordance with one of the preceding claims,
wherein the weighter (108) is configured for weighting the filtered audio signal so
that lower frequency subbands are less attenuated or not attenuated than higher
frequency subbands so that the frequency-selective weighting impresses a low pass
characteristic to the filtered audio signal.
5. Apparatus in accordance with one of the preceding claims,
wherein the time-spectral converter stage (106) and the spectral-time converter
(114) are configured to implement a QMF analysis filterbank and a QMF synthesis
filterbank, respectively.
6. Apparatus in accordance with one the preceding claims,
wherein the subtractor ( 112) is configured for subtracting a subband signal of the
weighted filtered audio signal from the corresponding subband signal of the audio
signal to obtain a subband of the result audio signal, the subbands belonging to the
same filterbank channel.
7. Apparatus in accordance with one of the preceding claims,
wherein the filter (102) is configured to perform a weighted combination of the
audio signal and at least the audio signal shifted in time by a pitch period.
8. Apparatus of claim 7,
wherein the filter (102) is configured for performing the weighted combination by
only combining the audio signal and the audio signal existing at earlier time
instants.
9. Apparatus in accordance with one of the preceding claims,
wherein the spectral-time converter (114) has a different number of input channels
with respect to the time-spectral converter stage (106) so that a sample-rate
conversion is obtained, wherein an upsampling is obtained, when the number of
input channels into the spectral-time converter is higher than the number of output
channels of the time-spectral converter stage and wherein a downsampling is
performed, when the number of input channels into the spectral-time converter is
smaller than the number of output channels from the time-spectral converter stage.
10. Apparatus in accordance with one of the preceding claims, further comprising:
a first decoder (120) for providing the decoded audio signal in a first time portion;
a second decoder (122) for providing a further decoded audio signal in a different
second time portion;
a first processing branch connected to the first decoder (120) and the second
decoder (122);
a second processing branch connected to the first decoder (120) and the second
decoder (122),
wherein the second processing branch comprises the filter (102) and the weighter
(108) and, additionally, comprises a controllable gain stage (129) and a controller
(130), wherein the controller (130) is configured for setting a gain of the gain stage
(129) to a first value for the first time portion and to a second value or to zero for
the second time portion, which is lower than the first value.
11. Apparatus in accordance with one of the preceding claims, further comprising a
pitch tracker for providing a pitch lag and for setting the filter (102) based on the
pitch lag as the pitch information.
12. Apparatus in accordance with one of claims 10 or 11, wherein the first decoder
(120) is configured for providing the pitch information or a part of the pitch
information for setting the filter (102).
13. Apparatus in accordance with claim 10, 11 or 12, wherein an output of the first
processing branch and an output of the second processing branch are connected to
inputs of the subtractor ( 11 ) .
14. Apparatus in accordance with one of the preceding claims, wherein the decoded
audio signal is provided by an ACELP decoder (1 0) included in the apparatus, and
wherein the apparatus further comprises a further decoder (122) implemented as a
TCX decoder.
15. Method of processing a decoded audio signal (100), comprising:
filtering (102) the decoded audio signal to obtain a filtered audio signal (104);
converting (106) the decoded audio signal and the filtered audio signal into
corresponding spectral representations, each spectral representation having a
plurality of subband signals;
performing (108) a frequency selective weighting of the filtered audio signal by
multiplying subband signals by respective weighting coefficients to obtain a
weighted filtered audio signal;
performing ( 112) a subband-wise subtraction between the weighted filtered audio
signal and the spectral representation of the audio signal to obtain a result audio
signal; and
converting ( 1 14) the result audio signal or a signal derived from the result audio
signal into a time domain representation to obtain a processed decoded audio signal
( 116).
16. Computer program having a program code for performing, when running on a
computer, the method of processing a decoded audio signal in accordance with
claim 15.