METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING FROM A COEFFICIENT DOMAIN REPRESENTATION OF HOA SIGNALS A MIXED SPATIAL/ COEFFICIENT DOMAIN REPRESENTATION OF SAID HOA SIGNALS

There are two representations for Higher Order Ambisonics denoted HOA: spatial domain and coefficient domain. The invention generates from a coefficient domain representation a mixed spatial/coefficient domain representation, wherein the number of said HOA signals can be variable. A vector of coefficient domain signals is separated into a vector of coefficient domain signals having a constant number of HOA coefficients and a vector of coefficient domain signals having a variable number of HOA coefficients. The constant-number HOA coefficients vector is transformed to a corresponding spatial domain signal vector. In order to facilitate high-quality coding, without creating signal discontinuities the variable-number HOA coefficients vector of coefficient domain signals is adaptively normalised and multiplexed with the vector of spatial domain signals.