Noise reduction using a soft-decision sine-wave vector quantizer

Noise reduction is performed in the context of a high-quality harmonic zero-phase sine-wave analysis/synthesis system which is characterized by sine-wave amplitudes, a voicing probability, and a fundamental frequency. Least-squared error estimation of a harmonic sine-wave representation leads to a soft decision template estimate consisting of sine-wave amplitudes and a voicing probability. The least-squares solution is modified to use template-matching with nearest neighbors. The reconstruction is improved by using the modified least-squares solution only in spectral regions with low signal-to-noise ratio. The results, although preliminary, provide evidence that harmonic zero-phase sine-wave analysis/synthesis, combined with effective estimation of sine-wave amplitudes and probability of voicing, offers a promising approach to noise reduction.<>