Blending loud/quiet sections & making quiet louder

[Kyra1]

I have several pieces of audio that I need all about the same volume throughout, but many of the files have both very loud and extremely quiet parts in them.

How can I make the super quiet parts louder without having the sharp noise change when it gets to the naturally loud sections? without blowing out the loud parts?

audio version of fading?

I've tried just selecting the quiet parts and moving the "Adjust Amplitude" circle floating at the bottom, but that creates a cliff that sounds really choppy

I have tried the "Match Volume" auto thing, but it isn't working throughout the entire sequence, leaving some areas still super quiet

I'm completely youtube-taught on Audition (knowledge ultra basic)

Audition CC 2014, Windows

[ryclark · Accepted solution]

Audio 'compression' is the effect that you need. So try some of the presets in Audition's Amplitude and Compression/Dynamics effect. In essence a Compressor allows you to turn up the volume of the quiet passages but at the same time stops the louder parts becoming too loud. In other words it reduces (compresses) the dynamic range of the audio.

You will probably need to do some online research into how and what compressors do. Then in order to get the best out of the audio that you already have you will need to experiment with the settings and also try some of the other Compressor/Limiter effects provided in Audition.