Apparatus for encoding a multi-channel audio signal comprising at least two channels, comprising: a time-spectral converter for converting sequences of blocks of sampling values of the at least two channels into a frequency domain representation having sequences of blocks of spectral values for the at least two channels, wherein a block of sampling values has an associated input sampling rate, and a block of spectral values of the sequences of blocks of spectral values has spectral values up to a maximum input frequency being related to the input sampling rate; the apparatus being characterised by comprising: a multi-channel processor for applying a joint multi-channel processing to sequences of blocks of spectral values or to resampled sequences of blocks of spectral values of the multi-channel audio signal to obtain at least one result sequence of blocks of spectral values comprising information related to the at least two channels, wherein the joint multi-channel processing comprises a downmix operation; a spectral domain resampler for resampling the blocks of the result sequences in the frequency domain or for resampling the sequences of blocks of spectral values for the at least two channels in the frequency domain to obtain a resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values, wherein a block of the resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values has spectral values up to a maximum output frequency (1231, 1221) being different from the maximum input frequency; a spectral-time converter for converting the resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values into a time domain representation or for converting the result sequence of blocks of spectral values into a time domain representation comprising an output sequence of blocks of sampling values having associated an output sampling rate being different from the input sampling rate; and a core encoder for encoding the output sequence of blocks of sampling values to obtain an encoded multi-channel audio signal. a time-spectral converter for converting sequences of blocks of sampling values of the at least two channels into a frequency domain representation having sequences of blocks of spectral values for the at least two channels, wherein a block of sampling values has an associated input sampling rate, and a block of spectral values of the sequences of blocks of spectral values has spectral values up to a maximum input frequency being related to the input sampling rate; the apparatus being characterised by comprising: a multi-channel processor for applying a joint multi-channel processing to sequences of blocks of spectral values or to resampled sequences of blocks of spectral values of the multi-channel audio signal to obtain at least one result sequence of blocks of spectral values comprising information related to the at least two channels, wherein the joint multi-channel processing comprises a downmix operation; a spectral domain resampler for resampling the blocks of the result sequences in the frequency domain or for resampling the sequences of blocks of spectral values for the at least two channels in the frequency domain to obtain a resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values, wherein a block of the resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values has spectral values up to a maximum output frequency (1231, 1221) being different from the maximum input frequency; a spectral-time converter for converting the resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values into a time domain representation or for converting the result sequence of blocks of spectral values into a time domain representation comprising an output sequence of blocks of sampling values having associated an output sampling rate being different from the input sampling rate; and a core encoder for encoding the output sequence of blocks of sampling values to obtain an encoded multi-channel audio signal. a multi-channel processor for applying a joint multi-channel processing to sequences of blocks of spectral values or to resampled sequences of blocks of spectral values of the multi-channel audio signal to obtain at least one result sequence of blocks of spectral values comprising information related to the at least two channels, wherein the joint multi-channel processing comprises a downmix operation; a spectral domain resampler for resampling the blocks of the result sequences in the frequency domain or for resampling the sequences of blocks of spectral values for the at least two channels in the frequency domain to obtain a resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values, wherein a block of the resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values has spectral values up to a maximum output frequency (1231, 1221) being different from the maximum input frequency; a spectral-time converter for converting the resampled sequence of blocks of spectral values into a time domain representation or for converting the result sequence of blocks of spectral values into a time domain representation comprising an output sequence of blocks of sampling values having associated an output sampling rate being different from the input sampling rate; and a core encoder for encoding the output sequence of blocks of sampling values to obtain an encoded multi-channel audio signal.