Patent ID: 7986789

Claim:
An apparatus for generating a parameter representation of a multi-channel input signal having original channels, the original channels including a left channel, a right cannel, a center channel, a rear left channel, and a rear right channel, comprising: a parameter generator for generating a first balance parameter, a first coherence parameter or a first time difference parameter between a first channel pair, for generating a second balance parameter between a second channel pair, and for generating a third balance parameter between a third channel pair, the balance parameters, coherence parameters or time parameters forming the parameter representation, wherein each channel of the three channel pairs is one of the original channels or a weighted or unweighted combination of the original channels, and wherein the first balance parameter is a left/right balance parameter, and wherein the first channel pair includes, as a first channel, a left-channel or a left down-mix channel and, as a second channel, a right channel, or a right down-mix channel wherein the second balance parameter is a center balance parameter and the second channel pair includes, as a first channel, the center channel or a channel combination of original channels including the center channel, and, as a second channel, a channel combination including the left channel and the right channel, and wherein the third balance parameter is a front/back balance parameter and the third channel pair has, as a first channel, a channel combination including the rear-left channel and the rear-right channel and, as a second channel, a channel combination including a left channel and a right channel.