A schematic block diagram of an audio encoder 2 for encoding a multichannel audio signal 4 is shown. The audio encoder comprises a linear prediction domain encoder 6, a frequency domain encoder 8, and a controller 10 for switching between the linear prediction domain encoder 6 and the frequency domain encoder 8. The controller is configured such that a portion of the multichannel signal is represented either by an encoded frame of the linear prediction domain encoder or by an encoded frame of the frequency domain encoder. The linear prediction domain encoder comprises a downmixer 12 for downmixing the multichannel signal 4 to obtain a downmixed signal 14. The linear prediction domain encoder further comprises a linear prediction domain core encoder 16 for encoding the downmix signal and furthermore, the linear prediction domain encoder comprises a first joint multichannel encoder 18 for generating first multichannel information 20 from the multichannel signal 4.