Patent ID: 8103020

Claim:
A method for enhancing an audio signal, comprising: processing successive portions of the audio signal using a subband filter bank; determining a spectral magnitude for each successive portion of the audio; applying to the output of the subband filter bank for each successive portion of the audio signal to generate a modified subband filter bank output for each successive portion, a nonlinear modification that modifies portions of the audio signal that are characterized by a rapid change in spectral content; and processing the modified subband filter bank output for each successive portion using an appropriate synthesis subband filter bank to generate a modified time-domain audio signal; wherein applying the nonlinear modification comprises determining a modified spectral magnitude for each successive portion of the audio signal; applying the nonlinear modification to at least the modified spectral magnitude to obtain a modification factor for each successive portion of the audio signal; and multiplying the original, unmodified output of the subband filter bank for each successive portion of the audio signal by its corresponding modification factor.