A hybrid parametric-waveform approach to bit stream scalable audio coding

In this paper we present a wideband (44.1 kHz sampling rate) audio and speech coder that combines two different strategies, namely, parametric and waveform coding. It is shown how this approach can be used to design a layered bit stream scalable coder offering a wide variety of decoding bit rates with little scalability loss. Moreover, the bit rates associated with the different layers are competitive, in terms of quality, to those of standardized coders (MP3, AAC) tuned at a particular bit rate.