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

Abstract: 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.