Please clarify: is Ricks original upload a *.wav file and called 15 cm distance from mic. I’ve just downloaded it and again Normalized to -6db and then a bit of compression. It sounds perfect. The only conclusion I can draw is that Audacity is not drawing the waveform properly, and showing it very flattened.
Short distances to the microphone can cause P-Popping and other mouth noises assuming the microphone is straight in front. You can help this a bit by placing the microphone up slightly as most breath noises go forward and down. Even better push the microphone off center as in Oblique Positioning.
This is a natural limit of quiet “home” microphones. Maintain comfortable microphone distances and produce very low volume performances which then become noisy when the artist tries to boost them for the job. So the artist gets closer and louder to overpower the background trash and that causes breath sounds, mouth noises, and P-Popping.
Please do post another clean performance with the new microphone positioning and system settings. If you get close enough, there are standard audiobook tools that can be used for publication.
Do not go back and change old forum postings. Those get lost. Always work forward in Replies.
ACX Audible has a rejection failure called “Overprocessing.” So you can’t start with trash and “clean it up” later. Most of the cleaning tools cause some damage and ACX is looking for that damage. It is highly recommended that you produce a perfect recording as close as possible before you apply filters, effects or corrections.
Compressor’s job is to reduce the difference between loud and quiet sounds. It compresses the difference. It also makes background noise worse.
There is another caution assuming your goal is still reading for audiobooks. Pay close attention to the submission standards.
https://www.acx.com/help/acx-audio-submission-requirements/201456300
They’re not crazy-complicated, but you do have to meet them. There have been several forum posters who got rejected from publication for not leaving the right number of seconds of silence before and after each chapter. They got everything else right, but didn’t read that one sentence in the instructions. It’s not rocket science—you have to pay attention.
And while we’re preparing the work for submission, the Audacity default MP3 standard is Variable Bitrate, but the ACX requirement is Constant Bitrate, Minimum 192.
Koz
Thank you very much kozikowski, ISSAACC and Trebor !!! 
After trying all the suggestions now the recording works. So much better! Now the background noise is practically absent and the signal over 50% on the vertical scale.
And I have learned quite a bit in the process.
VERY MUCH appreciated help!!!
You are very welcome, on behalf of my self all members of the A-team
Still trying for audiobooks?
We publish ACX-Check which inspects the technical standards of your sound files and is a cousin to the ACX Audiolab testing.
We check noise. That’s the standard that most home performers fail. No surprise, right?
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Nyquist_Analyze_Plug-ins#ACX_Check
And the Audacity Audiobook Mastering Suite. If you get close enough in your reading, apply Mastering and it will produce a technically compliant sound file.
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Audiobook_Mastering
That’s the college course. It’s really just three tools.
Note the first tool, Filter Curve is a rumble filter. Remember the first complaint at the top of this message?
If you submit that voice test to the forum again with your new settings, I can apply the tools and see how you do.
Koz
Audacity has its own built-in tool - the Contrast Analysis. Could you explain why audio books and courses enter this thread!
Could you explain why audio books and courses enter this thread!
Up at the top of the thread, the poster said the microphone was for voice-only. That’s the signature posting of the audiobook or voice-over people.
I asked him several times down the thread if he was reading for audiobooks and not once did he correct me and say what the real job was. Maybe I missed it.
Yes. Analyze > Contrast can be used to measure “RMS” loudness—and compare two of them. That used to be one of the very few tools that even admitted RMS existed. That made meeting a loudness specification for a customer very entertaining.
Koz
Thank you ISAACC and kozikowski,
sorry kozikowski, forgot to answer that question about the Audiobook. It is not for audiobooks or voice-over, just recording voice. Spoken words, not singing or other.
But useful infos about the Audiobooks. You made me think about possibly doing that.
Thank you again all for all infos and help!
You made me think about possibly doing that.
Step one. Write a book and have it published on Amazon in either paper or e-Book. That’s built into the ACX application.
Step two. You can’t read a cookbook or anything else on this list (scroll down).
https://www.acx.com/help/200878270
Next, prepare the zest of three lemons!!!
Nope. Sorry. Gotta have plot, character, and setting.
You can’t read a motorcycle manual, but you can totally read a book about you fixing your motorcycle.
Koz
Thank you kozikowski
It sounds like you know quite a bit about it. Have you done it yourself? If so, what kind of revenue can you expect when you start? I know that is a classic “how long is a piece of string” question, but just for curiosity, some rough data points/examples.
Thank you
Have you done it yourself?
When I tried it, ACX still offered full technical evaluation and human quality control on a short test submission. They don’t do that any more. My sound file was practically perfect in every way, but they didn’t much like my tongue ticks, lip smacks, and other mouth noises.
I still have the day job.
They offer ACX Audiolab for technical evaluation which is a cousin to Audacity ACX Check. We check noise which is a very common home failure. They still check for theatrical presentation to make sure your voice doesn’t scare the horses, but now they do it after you read and submit the whole book.
That’s the kind of thing that happens when everybody on earth submits for audiobook publication and half the ACX staff calls in sick.
Koz
Thank you for all the infos!