Hi Letha,

The first thing you want to do is make absolutely sure that you're not overloading your mic (even a little) as there's no combination of gadgets or plugins that can fix that.

As Big Jim noted, you can record at a lower level and then normalize the signal in Audacity. Then you would compress the normalized signal to even things out (a 2:1 to 6:1 ratio will usually do the trick).

If you're recording in a noisy room, compression will boost the background noise so try to get away with the least amount possible. Also, if your mic has selectable polar patterns, make sure you're using the "cardoid" pattern and place your mic stand so the back of the mic is pointed towards the noise source (a computer for instance).

As far as using compression while you record; it's really not all that uncommon but I wouldn't recommend it until you have a solid understanding of compression and how to use it. Using a limiter is another option but, again, not until you have a better understanding of how to use it.


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