Patent ID: 8194889

Claim:
A loudness-compensating volume control method for applying a volume setting to an audio signal by processing the audio signal in both the digital and analog domains, comprising calculating, as a function of the volume setting [s v ], a wideband gain component [G], and calculating, as a function of the volume setting [s v ], and the audio signal, frequency- and time-varying gain components, wherein calculating the wideband gain component and calculating the time- and frequency-varying gain components comprises determining a target specific loudness corresponding to a specific loudness of the signal scaled by said volume setting, calculating a multiband time-varying gain that when applied to the audio signal results in a modified audio signal whose specific loudness is substantially equal to said target specific loudness, calculating the wideband gain component of said multiband time-varying gain, and calculating the frequency- and time-varying gain components of said multiband time-varying gain, wherein when both gain components are applied to the audio signal, changes to the perceived spectrum are reduced when the perceived loudness is changed as a function of the volume setting, applying in the digital domain modifications to the audio signal based on said frequency- and time-varying gain components to produce a partly-modified audio signal, and applying in the analog domain modifications to the partly-modified audio signal based on said wideband gain component.