METHOD FOR THE CASCADED CODING AND DECODING OF AUDIO DATA

In a method for the cascaded coding and decoding of audio data the spectral components of the short-time spectrum associated with a data block are formed for each data block with a certain number of time input data, the coded signal is formed, by quantization and coding, on the basis of the spectral components for this data block and using a psycho-acoustic model to determine the bit distribution for the spectral components, whereupon time output data are obtained by decoding at the end of each codec stage. To prevent a deterioration in the sound quality in codec cascades with a plurality of stages, an identification code is added to the coded signal at an initial stage to mark the start of the data block; furthermore, the subsequent codec stages divide the data blocks to be coded on the basis of this identification code.