# A Full-Bandwidth Audio Codec With Low Complexity And Very Low Delay

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.05311 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05311/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 19 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 17 Feb 2016.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [MelTok: 2D Tokenization for Single-Codebook Audio Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.01903/) (2025)
- [Multi-channel Opus compression for far-field automatic speech recognition with a fixed bitrate budget](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.07994/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose an audio codec that addresses the low-delay requirements of some applications such as network music performance. The codec is based on the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) with very short frames and uses gain-shape quantization to preserve the spectral envelope. The short frame sizes required for low delay typically hinder the performance of transform codecs. However, at 96 kbit/s and with only 4 ms algorithmic delay, the proposed codec out-performs the ULD codec operating at the same rate. The total complexity of the codec is small, at only 17 WMOPS for real-time operation at 48 kHz.