Audio encoding/decoding scheme having a switchable bypass

An apparatus for encoding comprises a first domain converter (510), a switchable bypass (50), a second domain converter (410), a first processor (420) and a second processor (520) to obtain an encoded audio signal having different signal portions represented by coded data in different domains, which have been coded by different coding algorithms. Corresponding decoding stages in the decoder together with a bypass for bypassing a domain converter allow the generation of a decoded audio signal with high quality and low bit rate.