Patent ID: 8374361

Claim:
A method of controlling an audio signal in a decoding apparatus of an audio signal, the method comprising: receiving an input signal and reference information controlling a volume of the input signal; determining a gain from a volume of the input signal and the reference information, by using a non-linear gain curve which controls a dynamic range of an output signal, the non-linear gain curve indicating relations between an input volume and output volume; and adjusting the volume of the input signal by applying the gain to the input signal, wherein the non-linear gain curve is generated by using non-linearity information including information on a compression strength of volume, information on an expansion strength of volume, information on a maximum compression volume and information on minimum compression volume, and wherein the reference information comprises at least one of metadata indicating characteristics of the input signal, output environment information indicating characteristics of an environment in proximity to the apparatus and stored reference information being transmitted from a memory.