MULTICHANNEL AUDIO ENCODE AND DECODE USING DIRECTIONAL METADATA

The disclosure relates to methods of processing a spatial audio signal for generating a compressed representation of the spatial audio signal. The methods include analyzing the spatial audio signal to determine directions of arrival for one or more audio elements; for at least one frequency subband, determining respective indications of signal power associated with the directions of arrival; generating metadata including direction information that includes indications of the directions of arrival of the audio elements, and energy information that includes respective indications of signal power; generating a channel-based audio signal with a predefined number of channels based on the spatial audio signal; and outputting, as the compressed representation, the channel-based audio signal and the metadata. The disclosure further relates to methods of processing a compressed representation of a spatial audio signal for generating a reconstructed representation of the spatial audio signal, and to corresponding apparatus, programs, and storage media.