Topic: Reducing handclaps on a SBD recording w/ Audacity?

[bbernardini]

I've been recording speeches and such where I work from the board into an Edirol R-09 (that's not really important, I guess). I've found that some speakers have a tendency to clap directly in front of the mic, which makes it tough to bring up the level of the file with Audacity. I was wondering if any of you Audacity wizards have any techniques for reducing the volume of these handclaps without the level changes being very obvious going in and out of the clapping sections. (If that makes no sense, I'd be happy to clarify.) Thanks!

[Shawn]

a compresser with a fast attack should help bring down the level of the peaks.

[Brian Skalinder]

Same issue as here (http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,97250.0.html) and a lot of other threads.  Shawn's suggestion to apply compression is a good one.  Unfortunately, last I checked (~6 mos ago), Audacity's compressor didn't work.  So, you're left with the volume envelope (VE) option.  It looks like this:



See the small white dots along the dot purple line?  Those are VE reference points.  Set a VE point where you want to start decreasing the applause.  Set another VE point and move it horizontally to control the range over which the VE is applied and move it vertically to control the slope of the volume decrease.  To create a curved slope, set multiple points between the start point and end point of the range you'd like to modify and adjust the slope independently between each pair of points.  (I'm not sure how they created a curved slope with only two points in the image above.  Maybe the feature has improved since I used it and there's now user control over the curve between two points.  Or maybe the compressor's fixed in the latest version.)

[capnhook]

yeah, what's with the curves?   

[Shawn]

Brian I believe I downloaded some of the VST plug-in effects from the audactiy website and there is a compressor in that bundle that works. The quality may be debatable, but I do believe it at least functions.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/plugins