Stereo to mono down-mix is a key component of parametric stereo coding to drastically reduce the bit rate, but at the same time it is also an irreversible process that is a potential source of undesirable artifacts. This paper aims to reduce typical distortions induced by down-mixing, such as signal cancellation, comb filtering or unnatural instabilities. Two down-mixing methods are designed with different trade-offs between natural timbre and energy preservation based on simple rules that ensure low complexity. The results of a listening test show that both the proposed methods have a substantial advantage over the passive down-mix, while being very competitive compared to more computationally demanding active down-mixing approaches. The proposed methods are, therefore, particularly well suited to low complexity stereo coding schemes, such as those required for communication applications.

Authors: Maben, Pallavi; Borß, Christian; Edler, Bernd; Fuchs, Guillaume
Affiliations: Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, Erlangen, Germany; Ittiam Systems Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru, India(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 152 (May 2022) Paper Number: 10578
Publication Date: May 2, 2022 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Audio Synthesis & Audio Effects
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=21691

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