Patent ID: 7146324

Claim:
A method of encoding an audio signal (x), the method comprising providing a respective set of sampled signal values for each of a plurality of sequential segments; analysing the sampled signal values to generate one or more sinusoidal components (f k ,f k+1 ) for each of the plurality of sequential segments; providing an indicator (a i , P 1 k ) of the frequency variation of said sinusoidal components within each of the plurality of sequential segments; linking sinusoidal components across a plurality of sequential segments according to the difference in the slope of frequencies (δ 4 ,δ 6 ) of sinusoidal components to which respective indicators (a 1 ,P 1 k ) are applied; generating sinusoidal codes (CS) comprising tracks of linked sinusoidal components for each of the plurality of sequential segments; and generating an encoded audio stream (AS) including said sinusoidal codes (CS).