A method of expanding a dynamic range of an audio signal comprising: receiving an audio signal; and expanding the audio signal to an expanded dynamic range through an expansion process comprising: dividing the received audio signal into a plurality of time-segments using a defined window shape, calculating a wideband gain for each time-segment in the frequency domain using a non-energy based average of a frequency domain representation of the audio signal, and, for each time-segment, applying the calculated wideband gain to the time-segment to obtain the expanded dynamic range audio signal, wherein the application of the wideband gains amplifies time-segments of relatively high intensity and attenuates time-segments of relatively low intensity, wherein the time segments are overlapping, wherein a first filterbank is used to analyze the audio signal to obtain the frequency domain representation, and the defined window shape corresponds to a prototype filter for the first filterbank, wherein the wideband gain for each time segment is calculated using subband samples in a first subset of subbands of the first filterbank and applied to a second, different subset of subbands of the first filterbank in the respective time segment, wherein the second subset of subbands includes the first subset of subbands. receiving an audio signal; and expanding the audio signal to an expanded dynamic range through an expansion process comprising: dividing the received audio signal into a plurality of time-segments using a defined window shape, calculating a wideband gain for each time-segment in the frequency domain using a non-energy based average of a frequency domain representation of the audio signal, and, for each time-segment, applying the calculated wideband gain to the time-segment to obtain the expanded dynamic range audio signal, wherein the application of the wideband gains amplifies time-segments of relatively high intensity and attenuates time-segments of relatively low intensity, wherein the time segments are overlapping, wherein a first filterbank is used to analyze the audio signal to obtain the frequency domain representation, and the defined window shape corresponds to a prototype filter for the first filterbank, wherein the wideband gain for each time segment is calculated using subband samples in a first subset of subbands of the first filterbank and applied to a second, different subset of subbands of the first filterbank in the respective time segment, wherein the second subset of subbands includes the first subset of subbands. dividing the received audio signal into a plurality of time-segments using a defined window shape, calculating a wideband gain for each time-segment in the frequency domain using a non-energy based average of a frequency domain representation of the audio signal, and, for each time-segment, applying the calculated wideband gain to the time-segment to obtain the expanded dynamic range audio signal, wherein the application of the wideband gains amplifies time-segments of relatively high intensity and attenuates time-segments of relatively low intensity, wherein the time segments are overlapping, wherein a first filterbank is used to analyze the audio signal to obtain the frequency domain representation, and the defined window shape corresponds to a prototype filter for the first filterbank, wherein the wideband gain for each time segment is calculated using subband samples in a first subset of subbands of the first filterbank and applied to a second, different subset of subbands of the first filterbank in the respective time segment, wherein the second subset of subbands includes the first subset of subbands.