Audio Codec

Audio codecs compress and decompress audio signals, aiming to minimize data size while preserving audio quality. Current research focuses on developing neural network-based codecs, employing techniques like vector quantization, autoencoders, and transformer models to achieve high fidelity at ultra-low bitrates, even across diverse audio types (speech, music, environmental sounds). These advancements are crucial for efficient audio transmission and storage, particularly in applications like real-time communication, large language model training, and audio generation, while also impacting the robustness of audio-based systems against deepfakes and the effects of compression on downstream tasks like acoustic scene classification.