1. A method of encoding an audio signal by an encoder operated by a central processing unit, the method comprising: generating, by the encoder, at least one audio data frame having at least one channel, wherein each channel is divided into a plurality of blocks; selecting, by the encoder, a sub-block partitioning scheme; selecting, by the encoder, a number of sub-blocks into which the block is to be partitioned, the selected number of sub-blocks being chosen from numbers of sub-blocks available for the selected sub-block partitioning scheme; partitioning, by the encoder, the block of audio data into sub-blocks according to the selected number of sub-blocks; and coding, by the encoder, the partitioned sub-blocks according to a selected entropy coding scheme, wherein the selected entropy coding scheme is one of a Rice code scheme and a Block Gilbert Moore Code (BGMC) scheme, and if the entropy coding scheme is the BMGC scheme, the sub-block partitioning scheme is one of (i) a first partition scheme providing for selecting between no partitioning and partitioning the block into four sub-blocks, and (ii) a second partition scheme providing for selecting among no partitioning, partitioning the block into two sub-blocks, partitioning the block into four sub-blocks, and partitioning the block into eight sub-blocks, wherein the number of the sub-blocks is selected based on the entropy coding scheme and the sub-block partitioning scheme.