To provide a bit stream processing method for an audio signal which is adaptive to wide-range bit rates while evading the complexity of processing on a decoding side, a recording medium where the processing method is recorded, and a processor.

Scale factor information sf in one block is compared and a relatively large part is put in a bit pool for unpack information. Then a spectrum component is extracted from component data cd and a spectrum component of an area corresponding to the scale factor information sf stored in the bit pool is stored in a bit pool for component data from the extracted spectrum component. This processing is repeated until the bit pools overflow and the scale factor information of and component data stored in the bit pools right before they overflow can be outputted as a bit stream.