An impulse event separating method, and an apparatus to perform the method, the method including dividing an input signal into frame units and dividing each frame into a plurality of frequency sub-bands; obtaining a power variation and phase variation of the signal of each of the frequency sub-bands, and detecting a plurality of local onsets using the power variation and the phase variation; obtaining a global onset from the local onsets and triggering a plurality of event components using the local onsets and the global onset; tracking and combining the event components in each of the frequency sub-bands to form events; and determining whether the events comprise an impulse event with reference to an impulse event property.