High quality audio coding using a novel hybrid WLP-subband coding algorithm

In this paper, a high quality audio coding scheme based on a novel hybrid algorithm combining warped linear prediction (WLP) and subband coding is proposed. In the proposed scheme, subband coding is used to quantize the WLP residual. A modified bit allocation algorithm is used for subband bit allocation so that the overall quantization noise to masking threshold ratio (NMR) in the coded signal is minimized. The proposed codec is capable of providing high quality audio output at low bit rate. Subjective tests have shown that the proposed codec is able to provide a performance comparable to that of the MPEG audio layer II while operating at a lower bit rate.