Audio signal processing

Disclosed is a method of transcoding encoded audio information comprising: receiving a first encoded signal conveying quantized spectral information and coded spectral information, wherein the quantized spectral information comprises first quantized scaled values and first scale factors representing spectral components of an audio signal, wherein each first scale factor is associated with one or more first quantized scaled values, each first quantized scaled value is scaled according to its associated first scale factor, and each first quantized scaled value and associated first scale factor represent a respective spectral component; deriving second scale factors; allocating bits according to a first bit allocation process in response to one or more first control parameters and obtaining dequantized scaled values from the first quantized scaled values by dequantizing according to quantizing resolutions based on numbers of bits allocated by the first bit allocation process; allocating bits according to a second bit allocation process in response to one or more second control parameters and obtaining second quantized scaled values by quantizing the dequantized scaled values using quantizing resolutions based on numbers of bits allocated by the second bit allocation process, wherein each second scale factor is associated with one or more second quantized scaled values, each second quantized scaled value is scaled according to its associated second scale factor, each second quantized scaled value and associated second scale factor represent a respective spectral component; and assembling the second quantized scaled values, the second scale factors and one or more second control parameters into a second encoded signal. The second scale factors are derived by performing one or more decoding processes responsive to from the first scale factors, the dequantized scaled values, and the coded spectral information, and wherein one or more of the second scale factors differ in value from corresponding first scale factors.