How to compress applauses?

Report · Jul 13, 2019

I need to descrease the applause´s volume of some mp3 conferences. Those applauses are too mucho loud and they hurts the ears of all the listeners, because the sound go until the peak and it bursts. I can´t do it manually because I too much audios (I have more seven hundred conferences, with, in average 1 hour and 1/2 each one, where I have to do this).

A friend tried to use a compressor, but it affect also the conferencist´s voice.

Can someone tell me if there´s an automatic Audition effect that can help me?

Thank you!

Report · Jul 14, 2019

Using a compressor or limiter is the correct approach. But it needs to be set correctly so as not to alter the voice, only the high level applause.

Report · Jul 14, 2019

If you don't want to alter the voice, then the only thing you can do with a compressor is to set the threshold of the compressor to about the peak level of the speaking voice, and flatten the slope above that - this creates a limiter. But the best you will do with this is to limit the peak level of the applause to the peak level of the speech, and that may not be enough.

The only other thing I can think of trying is a bit sneaky, and there's no guarantee that it will work. Since all applause sounds pretty much the same, and it has significantly different characteristics to speech, there's a chance that getting Audition to learn the sound model of it will let you automate the process to an extent. Worth a try, but as I said, absolutely no guarantee of success. You'll find this available in Effects>Noise reduction. First you teach it the sound, and then activating the effect will open up the control panel and the preview screen, so you can test it and adjust the settings. It might well take a few goes to get anywhere near what you need, even if it works at all.

Report · Jul 14, 2019

Thank you for the answer! I´m very happy because you found the solution to my doubt.

However, I have another problem: I don´t know how tho apply those explanations. In fact, I just installed Audition in my comupter, but I have no idea how to use it...! I´m acccustomed to use only Premiere Pro, but no Audition.

Can you explain me, please? Or, if possible, I can send you an example of one audio (just 5 minutes) that I have and you work on it , making a video tutorial. I think it will be faster, because you won´t need to write anything, just recording. And, for me too, if I could have those explanations illustrated, it will be easier to understand how to resolve the problem. In this case, how can I send you a mp3 file? I will send you just 5 minutes, to get an example, then I will apply this in the entire audio, and also in the other hundreds of conferences that I have.

Thank you very much!

Report · Jul 15, 2019

Can you post one of your clips for us to take a look at so that we can advise the best way to contain the applause? Unfortunately Adobe's Forums don't have any way of posting audio files so you will have to use something like Dropbox or Google Drive and post a link to it here.

Report · Jul 16, 2019

Here´s the link:

Dropbox - Applauses example - Simplify your life

In put there 2 mp3 files: the first one is a part (5 minutes) of the original audio, with applauses. Can you do the video tutorial based on this mp3 audio, please?

The second one, is the same audio, but worked in Premiere Pro. That's how I would to have all my audios. But, I decreased the applauses manually, it was hard, it took me a lot of time (may be one hour) and I edited just 5 minutes of the original audio (the entire conference has 1 hour 1/2 of recording); imagine! I had to go peak by peak, decreasing each one with the pen tool.

Thank you very much!

Report · Jul 16, 2019

Just use the fader automation in Premiere, you can spool through the speaking bits and just manually mix the applause. A well setup dynamics will smooth it all out.

Report · Jul 16, 2019

No, it´s not that good!

If you want, you can try with the link above and then tell me how was your experience.