Concept for Combining Multiple Parametrically Coded Audio Sources

According to the present invention, multiple parametrically encoded audio signals can be efficiently combined using an audio signal generator (100), which generates an audio output signal (120) by combining the down-mix channels (110a, 112a) and the associated parameters (110b, 112b) of the audio signals directly within the parameter domain, i.e. without reconstructing or decoding the individual input audio signals prior to the generation of the audio output signal (120). This is achieved by direct mixing of the associated down-mix channels (110a, 112a) of the individual input signals. It is one key feature of the present invention that the combination of the down-mix channels (110a, 112a) is achieved by simple, computationally inexpensive arithmetic operations.