A new spectral enhancement algorithm in MP3 audio

This paper proposes a new blind method of spectral (high frequency) enhancement of MP3 audio. Due to the protocol constraint, the audio bandwidth of MP3 is restricted to 16 kHz at 128 kbps and 12 kHz at 64 kbps. Although band-restricted MP3 audio provides savings of storage space and network bandwidth, it suffers a major problem of a loss in high frequency fidelity such as localization, ambient information, and bright nature of audio. In contrast to previous works, this paper suggests a couple of new approaches such as dynamic cut-off finding, harmonic compensation and the gain-controlled high frequency compensation. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm requires less computational power with better high frequency enhancement capability compared to the previous works. The proposed algorithm is implemented on TI TMS6713 DSP platform and tested with IFP 800 model MP3 player. Audio quality of the proposed algorithm is reported and compared using spectrum analysis.