Binaural rendering method and apparatus for decoding multi channel audio

A binaural rendering method, comprising:

• extracting an early reflection component and a late reverberation component from a binaural filter;
• down-mixing a multichannel audio signal of N channels to a multichannel audio signal of M channels;
• generating a stereo audio signal by applying the early reflection component for each of M channels of the down-mixed multichannel audio signal and thereby performing binaural rendering;
• and
• applying the late reverberation component to the generated stereo audio signal.

A binaural rendering apparatus, comprising:

• a binaural filter converter configured to extract an early reflection component and a late reverberation component from a binaural filter;
• a binaural renderer configured to generate a stereo audio signal by performing binaural rendering of a multichannel audio signal base on the early reflection component;
• and
• a late reverberation applier configured to apply the late reverberation component to the generated stereo audio signal.