The field of audio and signal processing is moving towards the development of efficient neural network models that can operate on low-cost and low-compute devices. Researchers are exploring innovative approaches to reduce model complexity and improve performance, such as using single quantizers, residual scalar-vector quantization, and hardware-software co-optimization. These advancements have the potential to enable real-time communication, improve audio quality, and enhance the overall efficiency of audio and signal processing systems. Notable papers in this area include:
- One Quantizer is Enough: Toward a Lightweight Audio Codec, which presents a lightweight neural audio codec that achieves audio quality comparable to multi-quantizer baselines while reducing resource consumption by an order of magnitude.
- A Streamable Neural Audio Codec with Residual Scalar-Vector Quantization for Real-Time Communication, which proposes a streamable neural audio codec that achieves decoded audio quality comparable to advanced non-streamable neural audio codecs with a fixed latency of only 20 ms.