An audio signal processing decoder having at least one frequency band and being configured for processing an input audio signal having a plurality of input channels in the at least one frequency band, wherein the decoder is configured to analyze the input audio signal, wherein inter-channel dependencies between the input channels are identified; and to align the phases of the input channels based on the identified inter-channel dependencies, wherein the phases of input channels are the more aligned with respect to each other the higher their inter-channel dependency is; and to downmix the aligned input audio signal to an output audio signal having a lesser number of output channels than the number of the input channels.