a method for detecting , in an audio signal including a stream of audio samples , ), ticks in a noisy environment , comprises the steps of applying the signal to a coarse tick detection processor arranged to decide whether it is likely that the signal includes a tick and , only then , enabling a fine tick detection processor to decide , by more thorough processing the audio signal , whether the audio signal represents an audio tick . the coarse processing step preferably includes buffering audio samples , ), determining the maximum and minimum values of each sample , forming their local range , delaying the local range with one or more samples and comparing the difference between the actual local range and the delayed local range with a threshold value , and , if the difference exceeds the threshold value , outputting a trigger for enabling the fine detection processor the fine processing step preferably includes buffering audio samples , ), computing , for each buffer content ), a fast fourier transformed buffer content ), determining the difference ) between the resulting frequency components , comparing the difference ) to the content of a previously trained fingerprint set ) and calculating a correlation coefficient ) between them , comparing the correlation coefficient to a threshold value and , if the correlation coefficient exceeds the threshold value , outputting a signal indication the presence of a tick in the audio signal .