method and apparatus for encoding and manipulating digital signals are provided . the method , and associated apparatus , includes sampling the signal waveform to obtain a series of discrete samples and constructing therefrom a series of frames ; multiplying each frame with a windowing function ; applying a fast fourier transform to each frame producing a frequency - domain waveform ; convoluting the resultant frequency domain data with a variable kernel function ; locating local maxima and surrounding minima in the magnitude spectrum of each convolved frame , each local maxima and associated minima defining a plurality of regions corresponding to a frequency component of the signal ; and analyzing each of the regions in the frequency domain representation by summing the complex frequency components of bins falling within the defined regions into a single vector . the variable kernel function may be varied with frequency to achieve a differing tradeoff between frequency and temporal resolution across the range of the signal .