Batch processing to remove silent gaps

[TheMammal]

I need to monitor a bunch of recordings of interviews. I increased the tempo to speed up listening (1.5x). However, a large part of the recordings are dead air. Operationally, if all gaps could be removed, say by applying rule on dB level, it would save me a huge amount of time. I would really appreciate any suggestions on how I might do this.

Many thanks,
The Mammal

[steve]

In Audacity 1.3 there is an effect called "Truncate Silence" that will do this.
(the threshold must be set higher than the maximum sound level in the "dead air" parts).

[kozikowski]

And you can install both 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine as long as you only use one at a time.

Koz