sound activated recording

I am making a recording with a microphone with Audacity.
The recording has to be sound activated, but after the recording has started it has to continue even in the pieces where there is no sound untill I press stop.
That does not seem possible.
The recording stops as soon as the sound is below the treshold.
I have tried to adjust the treshold but its painstaking and does not do the job.
Even if i get it working, in another environment with more or maybe less ambient sound the work has to be done agian.
Is there a way around this and if not: maybe a suggestion for the programmers.

No, Audacity can’t do what you want. Sound Activated Recording works as you describe and cannot be changed (without reprogramming) to start on detection and then continue forever.

Noted as a feature request.

– Bill