Compressing/normalizing audio from a round table conference

Audacity 3 Help Forum
1

Hi Everyone,

I have a task of reducing the dynamic range of an audio file taken from a round table conference that used a number of microphones around a table.

The audio level depending on the speaker ranges from loud and clear to just barely discernible.

Thankfully air-conditioning background noise was not an issue as the really quiet passages can be amplified to a reasonably good quality.

My issue is that in the 20 minutes of audio the sound levels changes over 50 times as each talker has their 2 cents worth of speaking and I want to process this file automatically to smooth and lift up the quiet bits and limit the louder talkers. I have the odd book dropping onto the table and an annoying pencil tap occasionally.

I would appreciate any pointer in this regard.

Thanks Peter

2

For such tasks I use Leveler. You can use any Leveler you can find. Leveler by Thomas Mundt is a very cool

3

there’s a plugin for Audacity called LevelSpeech2.ny

or a free stand-alone program called Levelator.

4

Thank you so much, I will give that a try.