Audio encoder for encoding a multichannel signal , comprising: a linear prediction domain encoder ; a frequency domain encoder ; a controller for switching between the linear prediction domain encoder and the frequency domain encoder , wherein the linear prediction domain encoder comprises a downmixer for downmixing the multichannel signal to obtain a downmix signal , a linear prediction domain core encoder for encoding the downmix signal and a first joint multichannel encoder for generating first multichannel information from the multichannel signal , wherein the frequency domain encoder comprises a second joint multichannel encoder for generating second multichannel information from the multichannel signal , wherein the second joint multichannel encoder is different from the first joint multichannel encoder , and wherein the controller is configured to perform the switching such that a portion of the multichannel signal is represented either by an encoded frame of the linear prediction domain encoder or by an encoded frame of the frequency domain encoder , wherein the audio encoder further comprises a linear prediction domain decoder for decoding an encoded downmix signal output by the linear prediction domain core encoder to obtain an encoded and decoded downmix signal ; and wherein the audio encoder further comprises a multichannel residual coder for calculating and encoding a multichannel residual signal using the encoded and decoded downmix signal , the multichannel residual signal representing an error between a decoded multichannel representation obtained using the first multichannel information and the multichannel signal before downmixing. a linear prediction domain encoder ; a frequency domain encoder ; a controller for switching between the linear prediction domain encoder and the frequency domain encoder , wherein the linear prediction domain encoder comprises a downmixer for downmixing the multichannel signal to obtain a downmix signal , a linear prediction domain core encoder for encoding the downmix signal and a first joint multichannel encoder for generating first multichannel information from the multichannel signal , wherein the frequency domain encoder comprises a second joint multichannel encoder for generating second multichannel information from the multichannel signal , wherein the second joint multichannel encoder is different from the first joint multichannel encoder , and wherein the controller is configured to perform the switching such that a portion of the multichannel signal is represented either by an encoded frame of the linear prediction domain encoder or by an encoded frame of the frequency domain encoder , wherein the audio encoder further comprises a linear prediction domain decoder for decoding an encoded downmix signal output by the linear prediction domain core encoder to obtain an encoded and decoded downmix signal ; and wherein the audio encoder further comprises a multichannel residual coder for calculating and encoding a multichannel residual signal using the encoded and decoded downmix signal , the multichannel residual signal representing an error between a decoded multichannel representation obtained using the first multichannel information and the multichannel signal before downmixing. <EOS>