Paper ID: 2312.08069

Improving Spatial Resolution of First-order Ambisonics Using Sparse MDCT Representation

Denis Likhachov, Nick Petrovsky, Elias Azarov

The paper presents a method for improving spatial resolution of first-order ambisonic audio. The method is based on time/frequency decomposition of the audio with subsequent extraction of a directed plane wave from each frequency component. The method develops the basic ideas of high angular resolution planewave expansion (HARPEX) and directional audio coding (DirAC) taking advantage of real-valued sparse decomposition. Real-valued frequency components as opposed to complex-valued introduce simpler and more stable direction of arrival estimates, while sparse decomposition introduces an accurate and unified approach to describing sounds of different nature from transient to tonal sounds.

Submitted: Dec 13, 2023