I recommend leaving Make-up gain checked, and then using another tool to fix the peaks afterward. In general, the Threshold is the setting you'll see the most difference in modifying. You'll get the best results by playing with these settings until they make sense. All tracks are amplified by the same amount as in the Amplify effect. Make-up gain for 0 dB after compressing: Amplifies the resultant audio in all selected tracks after compression to a peak level of 0 dB. A long time value will tend to lose quiet sounds that come after loud ones, but will avoid the volume being raised too much during short quiet sections like pauses in speech. Release Time: How soon the compressor starts to release the volume level back to normal after the level drops below the threshold. Short attack times will result in a fast response to sudden, loud sounds, but will make the changes in volume much more obvious to listeners. If volume changes are slow, you can push this to a high value. The Ratio sets the slope of the blue line on the graph above the threshold.Īttack Time: How soon the compressor starts to compress the dynamics after the threshold is exceeded. The higher the Ratio the more the loud parts of the audio will be compressed. Firstly, you need to use 32-bit plugins with Audacity (at the time of writing, Audacity doesn’t support 64-bit plugins) so make sure you download the correct version.

There are a couple more considerations here. Now let’s have a look at installing a plugin on Windows. Ratio: The amount of compression applied to the audio once it passes the threshold level. How to Install a VST Plugin in Audacity for Windows. This is mainly useful when compressing speech, to prevent the gain increasing during pauses and so over-amplifying the background noise. Noise Floor: The compressor adjusts the gain on audio below this background level so as to prevent it being unduly amplified in processing. Threshold: The level above which compression is applied to the audio. The below is quoted directly from Audacity's manual, which is located at: While the default settings will often give you an improvement, you can really benefit from knowing how to set the values for your individual project.

This makes a big difference when you Normalize your track later. This reduces the dynamic range of the audio, which is to say the difference between the quietest and loudest elements of the track. It works by compressing (reducing the level) of audio that exceeds a certain threshold. In its most basic form, the Compressor is a simple tool that can take a lot of the heavy lifting out of correcting the levels of your vocal track.

Audacity hard limiter plugin download