EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing 
Volume 2003 (2003), Issue 10, Pages 1043-1051
doi:10.1155/S1110865703304111

Efficient Alternatives to the Ephraim and Malah Suppression Rule for Audio Signal Enhancement

Patrick J. Wolfe and Simon J. Godsill

Signal Processing Group, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK

Received 31 May 2002; Revised 20 February 2003

Abstract

Audio signal enhancement often involves the application of a time-varying filter, or suppression rule, to the frequency-domain transform of a corrupted signal. Here we address suppression rules derived under a Gaussian model and interpret them as spectral estimators in a Bayesian statistical framework. With regard to the optimal spectral amplitude estimator of Ephraim and Malah, we show that under the same modelling assumptions, alternative methods of Bayesian estimation lead to much simpler suppression rules exhibiting similarly effective behaviour. We derive three of such rules and demonstrate that, in addition to permitting a more straightforward implementation, they yield a more intuitive interpretation of the Ephraim and Malah solution.