Convention Paper
Stereo Audio Coding Improved by Phase Parameters
AES Convention 129 · Paper 8289 · November 2010
Abstract
The parametric stereo coding exploiting phase parameters in a bit-efficient way is a part of MPEG-D USAC (Unified Speech and Audio Coding) standard. This paper describes the down-mixing and up-mixing scheme to further enhance the stereo coding in strong out-of-phase or near out-of-phase signals. The conventional down-mixing as a sum of left and right channel for parametric stereo coding has the potential problems, phase cancellation in out-of-phase signals which results in audible artifacts. This paper proposes the phase alignment by estimated overall phase difference (OPD) parameter and inter-channel phase difference (IPD) parameter. Furthermore, this paper describes the phase modification to minimize the phase discontinuity of down-mixed signal by scaling the size of the stereo channels.
