I am a little confused about the term "dynamic range". When I mix I watch my Dynamic Range Meter pretty close as this shows how much the signal is being compressed or squashed. Depending on the genre I see somewhere between 6db and 12db. Hopefully I am not showing my ignorance
As others have explained, there are two different dynamic ranges involved. When we talk about, for example, what 16 bit digital can represent, we are talking about absolute dynamic range - the ratio between the noise floor and the loudest possible signal ("FS" or Full Scale). What dynamic range meters show is calculated/perceived dynamic range (often called "program loudness"), based on ignoring (short-timed) extremes and averaging, as a weighted analog meter would do. There are different algorithms such as AES-17, the most recent standard is EBU R-128 that introduces a standard units LU (Loudness Unit) and LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale).