Loudness enhancement system and method

1. A method for processing a portion of an audio signal to be played back by an audio device, comprising:

determining an overload associated with the portion of the audio signal, wherein the overload comprises an amount by which a level of the audio signal exceeds a maximum desired output level, the maximum desired output level being a level that when exceeded introduces distortion;

determining a compression limit associated with the portion of the audio signal as a function of the overload, wherein the compression limit exceeds the maximum desired output level; and

compressing the portion of the audio signal to generate a compressed portion of the audio signal having a level that exceeds the maximum desired output level and that does not exceed the compression limit.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the overload associated with the portion of the audio signal comprises:

determining a level of the audio signal after application of a gain thereto; and

subtracting the maximum desired output level from the determined level.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the gain comprises all applicable gains to be applied to the portion of the audio signal by a digital signal processing component.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the gain comprises at least one of an automatic gain control gain, an automatic volume boost gain, a user volume gain and an echo suppression gain.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the compression limit associated with the portion of the audio signal as a function of the overload comprises:

determining a compression boost as a function of the overload; and

adding the compression boost to the maximum desired output level.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein determining the compression boost as a function of the overload comprises applying a function that increases the compression boost as the overload increases.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

applying soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate a soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

applying hard clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate a hard-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

applying adaptive soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate an adaptively-soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein applying adaptive soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal comprises modifying a soft clipping function to be applied to the compressed portion of the audio signal based on the overload.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein applying adaptive soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal comprises:

applying soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate a soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level;

applying hard clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate a hard-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level;

weighting the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal based on the overload to generate weighted versions thereof; and

combining the weighted versions of the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein weighting the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal based on the overload comprises increasing a weight applied to the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal as the overload increases and reducing a weight applied to the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal as the overload increases.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

applying one or more of spectral shaping and dispersion filtering to the portion of the audio signal.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

applying one or more of spectral shaping and dispersion filtering to the compressed portion of the audio signal.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

constraining a rate at which a waveform envelope associated with the audio signal increases towards digital saturation.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein compressing the portion of the audio signal comprises:

adaptively adjusting a compression attack speed.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein adaptively adjusting the compression attack speed comprises adaptively adjusting the compression attack speed based at least on background noise information.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising applying adaptive soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal, wherein the adaptive soft clipping is controlled based at least on the compression attack speed.

19. A system for processing a portion of an audio signal to be played back by an audio device, comprising:

overload determination logic configured to determine an overload associated with the portion of the audio signal, wherein determining the overload comprises determining an amount by which a level of the audio signal exceeds a maximum desired output level, the maximum desired output level being a level that when exceeded introduces distortion; and

compression logic configured to determine a compression limit associated with the portion of the audio signal as a function of the overload, wherein the compression limit is greater than a maximum desired output level, and to compress the portion of the audio signal to generate a compressed portion of the audio signal having a level that exceeds the maximum desired output level and that does not exceed the compression limit.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the overload determination logic is configured to determine the overload associated with the portion of the audio signal by determining a level of the audio signal after application of a gain thereto and subtracting the maximum desired output level from the determined level.

21. The system of claim 19 , wherein the compression logic is configured to determine the compression limit by determining a compression boost as a function of the overload and adding the compression boost to the maximum desired output level.

22. The system of claim 21 , wherein the compression logic is configured to determine the compression boost as a function of the overload by applying a function that increases the compression boost as the overload increases.

23. The system of claim 19 , further comprising:

soft clipping logic configured to apply soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate a soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level.

24. The system of claim 19 , further comprising:

hard clipping logic configured to apply hard clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate a hard-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level.

25. The system of claim 19 , further comprising:

adaptive soft clipping logic configured to apply adaptive soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate an adaptively-soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level.

26. The system of claim 25 , wherein the adaptive soft clipping logic is configured to modify a soft clipping function to be applied to the portion of the compressed audio signal based on the overload.

27. The system of claim 25 , wherein the adaptive soft clipping logic comprises:

soft clipping logic configured to apply soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate a soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level;

hard clipping logic configured to apply hard clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate a hard-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level; and

a combiner configured to weight the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal based on the overload to generate weighted versions thereof and to combine the weighted versions of the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the combiner is configured to increase a weight applied to the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal as the overload increases and to reduce a weight applied to the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal as the overload increases.

29. A method for processing a portion of an audio signal to be played back by an audio device, comprising:

determining a characteristic associated with the audio signal; and

applying adaptive soft clipping to the portion of the audio signal to generate an adaptively-soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed a maximum desired output level, wherein the adaptive soft clipping is controlled based on at least the characteristic, adaptive soft clipping comprising:

combining a weighted version of the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and a weighted version of a hard-clipped portion of the audio signal.

30. The method of claim 29 , wherein determining the characteristic comprises:

determining an overload associated with the audio signal.

31. The method of claim 30 , wherein applying adaptive soft clipping to the portion of the audio signal comprises modifying a soft clipping function to be applied to the portion of the audio signal based on the overload.

32. The method of claim 30 , wherein applying adaptive soft clipping to the portion of the audio signal based on the overload comprises:

applying soft clipping to the portion of the audio signal to generate the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level;

applying hard clipping to the portion of the audio signal to generate the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed a maximum desired output level; and

weighting the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal based on the overload to generate the weighted versions thereof.

33. The method of claim 32 , wherein weighting the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal based on the overload comprises increasing a weight applied to the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal as the overload increases and reducing a weight applied to the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal as the overload increases.

34. The method of claim 29 , further comprising:

applying one or more of spectral shaping and dispersion filtering to the portion of the audio signal.

35. The method of claim 29 , further comprising:

applying one or more of spectral shaping and dispersion filtering to the adaptively-soft-clipped portion of the audio signal.

36. The method of claim 29 , further comprising:

constraining a rate at which a waveform envelope associated with the audio signal increases towards digital saturation.

37. The method of claim 29 , wherein compressing the portion of the audio signal comprises:

adaptively adjusting a compression attack speed.

38. The method of claim 37 , wherein adaptively adjusting the compression attack speed comprises adaptively adjusting the compression attack speed based at least on background noise information.

39. The method of claim 37 , further comprising applying adaptive soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal, wherein the adaptive soft clipping is controlled based at least on the compression attack speed.

40. The method of claim 29 , further comprising:

compressing the portion of the audio signal prior to applying adaptive soft clipping thereto.

41. A system for processing a portion of an audio signal to be played back by an audio device, comprising:

characteristic determination logic configured to determine a characteristic associated with the portion of the audio signal; and

adaptive soft clipping logic configured to apply adaptive soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate an adaptively-soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed a maximum desired output level, wherein the adaptive soft clipping is controlled based on at least the characteristic, the adaptive soft clipping logic comprising:

a combiner configured to combine a weighted version of the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and a weighted version of a hard-clipped portion of the audio signal.

42. The system of claim 41 , wherein the characteristic determination logic comprises:

overload determination logic configured to determine an overload associated with the portion of the audio signal.

43. The system of claim 42 , wherein the adaptive soft clipping logic is configured to modify a soft clipping function to be applied to the compressed portion of the audio signal based on the overload.

44. The system of claim 42 , wherein the adaptive soft clipping logic comprises:

soft clipping logic configured to apply soft clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed the maximum desired output level; and

hard clipping logic configured to apply hard clipping to the compressed portion of the audio signal to generate the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal having a level that does not exceed a maximum desired output level;

wherein the combiner is further configured to weight the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal and the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal based on the overload to generate the weighted versions thereof.

45. The system of claim 44 , wherein the combiner is configured to increase a weight applied to the soft-clipped portion of the audio signal as the overload increases and to reduce a weight applied to the hard-clipped portion of the audio signal as the overload increases.