Disclosed are technologies for processing a surround sound audio signal. The center channel is processed to generate a processed center channel. For each pair of corresponding left and right audio channels, mid and side channel signals are generated by taking the sum and difference of the pair, respectively. The side channel is outputted to a first signal pathway that features a dynamic range compressor. The mid channel is outputted to a second signal pathway and spectrally decomposed into a plurality of sub-band signals. Each sub-band signal is compressed by a dynamic range compressor and transmitted to a gain stage. The compressed sub-band signals are outputted from the gain stage and recombined. The outputs of the first and second signal pathways are then recombined and decoded to produce processed left and right audio signals. Each pair or processed left and right audio signals are output along with the processed center channel.