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Need Audacity help in reducing spike

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taylordb:
I recently recorded Umphrey's McGee and need some advice on how to handle a situation with Audacity.  Right now the entire show is in one large wav file.  The last thing I will do is break it up into individual tracks.  To bring the levels up so I don't have to crank up my playback system I want to select the entire file and either normalize or amplify (I still need to figure out what the real difference is) to the maximum extent without clipping.  My problem is that I have one very small instant in the recording where there is a spike.   This spike will control the amount of amplification that will be made to the entire show (because the spike is the part that will clip 1st).  Is there any way in Audacity to reduce that one spike to a lower level?  I have looked into the draw function, but I have to be zoomed in so tight that I loose perspective in what I am doing.  Just wondering if anyone has experience in this.

Thanks so much in advance for any help!

Brian Skalinder:
At least two options:

Volume envelope or compression (either soft-knee or limiting).  Not positive Audacity's compression works properly, but I think the limiting does (just doesn't sound as good to my ears as softer compression).

taylordb:
Thanks Brian.  I'm guessing that I apply the volume envelope or compression to just the affected region?  The spike region is very very small so I'm not sure that the degradation would be too noticeable.

capnhook:
If the spike is small, like you say it is, do what I do............zoom in and highlight the spike, and use Amplify ----- but amplify a negative amount of dBs (say, -9dB).  You'll fix it and never even hear what you did, if you do this right.  I weed out loud clapping spikes like this all the time.

Like Brian says, the compressor function is either broken or doesn't work at all (V1.2.4).

VIVE` AUDACITY!

 ;D

gratefulphish:
In SF8, as well as Audacity, I use the draw function to correct isolated problems like this.  Once you get used to what the waveforms look like zoomed in, you can easily see where the problem is.  You can always zoom out a little, and then back, if you feel lost.

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