An encoding apparatus comprises a frame processor (105) which receives a multi channel audio signal comprising at least a first audio signal from a first microphone (101) and a second audio signal from a second microphone (103). An ITD processor 107 then determines an inter time difference between the first audio signal and the second audio signal and a set of delays (109, 111) generates a compensated multi channel audio signal from the multi channel audio signal by delaying at least one of the first and second audio signals in response to the inter time difference signal. A combiner (113) then generates a mono signal by combining channels of the compensated multi channel audio signal and a mono signal encoder (115) encodes the mono signal. The inter time difference may specifically be determined by an algorithm based on determining cross correlations between the first and second audio signals.