Compressing some tracks but not others

Setup:
Windows 10, version 1909
Audacity 2.3.3
Dell Inspiron 17 laptop; 64-bit operating system; x64-based processor
Intel Core i7 8550U CPU
8 GB RAM

My problem:
I have some multi-track recordings of sound (2 tracks), with other tracks ‘hidden’ under the sound. I can only see two tracks in Audacity, possibly because I don’t know how to access the hidden tracks. The hidden tracks contain wave patterns to generate particular mental states (e.g. studying, creativity, sleep etc.). For the sleep recording, the sound variability is more than I like, i.e. when the soft parts are almost inaudible, the loud parts are still too loud. So I’d like to flatten the sound without reducing the hidden tracks. Any suggestions as to how to proceed?

Thanks for any help and insights.

To scroll down to other tracks, either use the mouse wheel (if you have one), or drag the vertical scroll bar on the right side of the main Audacity window.

Effects are applied to “selected” audio only. See here for how to select audio: Selecting Audio - Audacity Manual

Steve - thanks for the reply. I’ll try to attach two files: 10 secs of the recording, and a JPEG of the Audacity track window, showing gray below the two tracks and no ability to use the scroll bar.
Two track image.jpg

From that JPG I can see that you have either TWO mono tracks, or ONE stereo track.
The file “Snippet-Peaceful-Ocean.wav” is a stereo file, so my assumption is that your project contains one stereo track.

This is what a stereo track looks like:




I don’t see any evidence of anything ‘hidden’ under the sound.

Thanks, Steve. I understand your analysis and diagramming, and will give up my quest to compress one set of content without the other, though I’m sure they’re both there because of the effect of the track.

if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you”.

The “hidden” wave patterns are visible on the spectrogram display


Constant 49Hz sine tone on the left & constant 41Hz sine tone on the right