On the choice of wavelet filters for audio compression

Abstract

We address the issue of choosing an optimal wavelet packets transform for audio compression. We present a comparison method based on a perceptual approach, which provides an entropic bit-rate for "transparent" coding of a given audio signal. The test with different wavelets leads to the conclusion that the most significant synthesis criterion for audio compression is the so-called "coding gain", while frequency selectivity, regularity and orthogonality seem less relevant.