A method comprising: receiving, by a decoding device, encoded audio information and metadata associated with an audio signal, the metadata including one or more decoding-control parameters, a measure of a loudness of the encoded audio information, and one or more first parameter values specifying dynamic range compression (DRC) according to a first profile associated with a first reference reproduction level, and one or more second parameter values specifying DRC according to a second profile associated with a second reference reproduction level higher than the first reference reproduction level and within a range of reference reproduction levels; specifying, for the decoding device, a reference reproduction level; applying, by the decoding device, a decoding process to the encoded audio information to obtain subband signals representing spectral content of the audio signal; modifying, by a degree controlled by the decoding device, the subband signals using the one or more second DRC parameter values specifying DRC according to the second profile to obtain modified subband signals representing spectral content of the audio signal with a reduced dynamic range, in response to specifying the reference reproduction level, for the decoding device, to the second reference reproduction level; applying, by the decoding device, a synthesis filter bank to the modified subband signals to obtain a time-domain audio signal; and using, by the decoding device, the loudness measure to adjust amplitudes of the time-domain audio signal to achieve the reference reproduction level for the decoding device. receiving, by a decoding device, encoded audio information and metadata associated with an audio signal, the metadata including one or more decoding-control parameters, a measure of a loudness of the encoded audio information, and one or more first parameter values specifying dynamic range compression (DRC) according to a first profile associated with a first reference reproduction level, and one or more second parameter values specifying DRC according to a second profile associated with a second reference reproduction level higher than the first reference reproduction level and within a range of reference reproduction levels; specifying, for the decoding device, a reference reproduction level; applying, by the decoding device, a decoding process to the encoded audio information to obtain subband signals representing spectral content of the audio signal; modifying, by a degree controlled by the decoding device, the subband signals using the one or more second DRC parameter values specifying DRC according to the second profile to obtain modified subband signals representing spectral content of the audio signal with a reduced dynamic range, in response to specifying the reference reproduction level, for the decoding device, to the second reference reproduction level; applying, by the decoding device, a synthesis filter bank to the modified subband signals to obtain a time-domain audio signal; and using, by the decoding device, the loudness measure to adjust amplitudes of the time-domain audio signal to achieve the reference reproduction level for the decoding device. <EOS>