An MPEG-II audio decoder with a synthesis subband filter includes a fast IMDCT (Inverse Modified Discrete Cosine Transform) module and an IPQMF (Inverse Pseudo Quadrature Mirror Filter) module. The fast IMDCT module involves a butterfly stage of input subband samples which requires only about ¼ the amount of multiplier-accumulate computation of the ISO suggested method. The IPQMF module involves an efficient memory configuration which requires only half size of the standard synthesis subband filter bank.