So, I saw a show the other day and didn't get levels set where I want. I was using an M10, recording in 24 bit, with CA14s and a CA9200 preamp. The preamp was set far too low to get a good level on the M10 through the line in jack. I was maxed on the M10 and levels of the show (guitar and voice) peaked at -17, most of the show was around -21. But applause was overloading and making the limiter go off. Interesting, the untouched applause sections still sound ok. The M10's limiter can handle short pops that are over reasonably well. Had I gotten the levels where I want (peaks about 5 db higher), I suspect I'd have a different problem, because then the applause would have way way over limit, and that would have made for different problems.
Anyway the problem is that the applause is 15 to 20 db above the music peaks, and I'm not sure what to do in post to get the sound loud enough to hear; playing the raw file though winamp results in silence where the music is. I noticed that hard limiting the music sections to -21 and then amplifying the music sections 20.9 db causes self noise to become apparant, and limiting the applause much below -10 db makes the applause sections distort, like the mic is being rapidly raised and lowered, an unpleasant fluttery effect. My thought was to limit those to -10, then normalize the rest as is, because that results in an amplification of about 15 db, which doesn't let the self noise become apparant. But the borders between the two different zones were very jarring, and so that's not likely the best solution. Knocking applause down 10 dband then normalizing will lead to about 10 dbs of amplification, which will leave the applause 7 to 10 db above the music, and the music still very soft. So I'm pretty stumped about how to make this recording listenable. Can anyone suggest a better course of action for me here?