I have read several different threads about this, tried a few things, but I'm not happy with the results. I recorded a quiet acoustic show--the music peaks at -32db, and the applause goes up over -22.
Using the compressor in Audacity, I tried a few settings, ended up here:
threshold: -32
noise threshold: -40
ratio: 6.5:1
attack time .2
decay time 1.0
make-up gain for 0db after compressing – yes
compress based on peaks – no
It generally seems to work, but the compressed applause sections sound pretty funky, lots of "pumping". I can live with that, but thought I'd throw this out here first.
Should I go with different settings? A different route entirely? I only have Audacity on the machine I'm working with, but might be able to use soundforge or CEP. Thanks for any advice!