Patent ID: 8488805

Claim:
A method for providing background audio during telephonic communication, the method comprising: receiving a noisy voice signal from a user via a microphone integral with a first telephony device, the noisy voice signal including a user voice signal and background noise from an environment; retrieving an audio track; performing noise reduction on the noisy voice signal utilizing characteristics of the audio track to reduce the background noise in the noisy voice signal to produce a clean voice signal, such that at least some distortion effects caused by the noise reduction are masked through the utilization of the characteristics of the audio track, so as to increase the level of noise reduction performed on the noisy voice signal or to decrease the perceived distortion of the clean voice signal, the characteristics including one or more of a level of the audio track, a spectral shape of the audio track, and an estimated signal-to-noise ratio of the audio track; executing instructions, using a processor integral with the first telephony device, to combine the clean voice signal with the audio track to produce a combined signal, the audio track providing background audio to the clean voice signal; and transmitting the combined signal from the first telephony device via a communications network.