A system comprising: a first logic stored in a computer-readable medium and executable by a processor that partitions and stores a frequency spectrum of sound data comprising a number of bins of real and imaginary data into a smaller number of sub-bands than the number of bins; characterized by: a second logic stored in the computer-readable medium and executable by the processor that executes a lossy compression that compresses said frequency spectrum of sound data based on a designated magnitude of one bin in each sub-band that is representative of that sub-band and a designated phase of one bin in each sub-band that is representative of that sub-band, such that magnitude data and phase data of every bin of the frequency spectrum is not maintained by the lossy compression, where the second logic processes a plurality of frames of sound data and designates a common bin in each sub-band as a representative phase for each frame of sound data the system processes, where an index of the common bin whose phase is preserved for each sub-band is constant from one frame to a next frame; and a third logic stored in the computer-readable medium and executable by the processor that renders a lossless compression by decompressing lossy compressed data rendered by the second logic and providing magnitude data and phase data not maintained by the lossy compression based on original spectral relationships contained within the frequency spectrum stored in the computer-readable medium, where the original spectral relationships indicate original magnitude and phase relationships relative to the bin preserved for each sub-band. a first logic stored in a computer-readable medium and executable by a processor that partitions and stores a frequency spectrum of sound data comprising a number of bins of real and imaginary data into a smaller number of sub-bands than the number of bins; a second logic stored in the computer-readable medium and executable by the processor that executes a lossy compression that compresses said frequency spectrum of sound data based on a designated magnitude of one bin in each sub-band that is representative of that sub-band and a designated phase of one bin in each sub-band that is representative of that sub-band, such that magnitude data and phase data of every bin of the frequency spectrum is not maintained by the lossy compression, where the second logic processes a plurality of frames of sound data and designates a common bin in each sub-band as a representative phase for each frame of sound data the system processes, where an index of the common bin whose phase is preserved for each sub-band is constant from one frame to a next frame; and a third logic stored in the computer-readable medium and executable by the processor that renders a lossless compression by decompressing lossy compressed data rendered by the second logic and providing magnitude data and phase data not maintained by the lossy compression based on original spectral relationships contained within the frequency spectrum stored in the computer-readable medium, where the original spectral relationships indicate original magnitude and phase relationships relative to the bin preserved for each sub-band.