A decoder receives(501) a bitstream comprising an encoded mono signal and stereo data. A time scale processor(503) generates a time scaled mono signal. A time-tofrequency processor generates frequency sample blocks of the time scaled signal, the block length being fixed and independent of the time scaling. A parametric stereo decoder(509) generates a stereo signal for the frequency sample blocks and these are converted to the time domain by a frequency-to-time processor(511). A synchronization processor(515) synchronizes the stereo data with the time scaled signal by determining a time association between a parameter value and a frequency sample block. The parameter value and time association is used to determine synchronized stereo parameter values for that and other frequency sample blocks. The invention is particularly suitable for low complexity generation of time scaled stereo signals from MPEG-4 encoded signals. |