Methods and systems for avoiding partial collapse in multi-block audio coding

A method of coding an audio signal to reduce compression artifacts in an audio codec, comprising:

• dividing frames of the audio signal into a plurality of tiles, wherein each tile comprises data from a particular segment of time and a particular set of frequencies of the audio signal;
• combining or separating the tiles into tile partitions based on a variable time-frequency resolution method;
• determining whether or not any of the tile partitions represents a hole in a frame of the audio signal due to insufficient bits available to code a particular tile partition by examining a state of a frequency coefficient derived for the particular tile;
• and
• filling any tile partition that does not contain a non-zero frequency coefficient with pseudorandom noise.

A system for coding an audio signal in an audio codec, comprising:

• a segmentation component partitioning the audio signal into a plurality of tiles, wherein each tile comprises data from a particular segment of time and a particular set of frequencies of the audio signal;
• a band energy component determining an energy value for each tile corresponding to a signal component in a respective tile;
• an encoder flag tracking component marking a tile as not collapsed or collapsed based on the energy value in that tile;
• and
• a decoder flag-tracking component filling all tiles marked as collapsed with pseudorandom noise.