Software for Compressing the Dynamic Range of Sounds on PC?

[K.A.]

Hi friends

I, like many of you, unfortunately do not respond well at the time to sudden loud-but-not-actually-very-loud sounds. The "suddenness" or "dynamic range" of it is particularly difficult for me.

I work on a computer most of my day, and the increase in the use if online-meetings has been huge of course the last year. Most of the time it fares ok enough, I try to use a low audio volume and no headphones - only desktop speakers at some distance. However, sometimes there are people in the conversations that makes things difficult, for example people suddenly coughing or sneezing loudly, children suddenly yelling in the background (they are able to sneak up due to people using filters or not having on the videocamera), phones ringing very loudly from a close distance to the microphone, people accidentally dropping something very close to or hitting their microphone, etc.

Especially difficult when there are some loud/risky persons mixed with some who talks very quitely, I have to increase the volume up and down all the time (and hope nothing happens when the quiet ones talk).

My question is, does anyone know about some software (or device/external soundcard) I could use that cuts out the sudden high sounds. Maybe even "normalizes" the sound levels of each participants?

Thank you for any input

 

[dbeats]

What you're looking for is called a limiter. In audio production, one normally uses a limiter as an effect to ensure that the audio doesn't clip (distort). If you find a desktop software for this, you probably can set the "ceiling" to a more comfortable level, which will reduce the maximum volume to set ceiling.

 

[SibilantRange]

Yes.

Oeksound Spiff.

It's a VST3 plug in.
You need a host or DAW to run it.
It has a free trial.

It's far better than a limiter/compressor.
It slows down transients and dynamics without breaking fidelity.

You're welcome.

 

[K.A.]

I would like to share some info with you that I was told in the search of headphones (for making work related phone calls and video conference calls) that limits "sudden" noise, like a sneeze or someone dropping their phone or having a child or dog making a loud sound while they talk quietly that everyone has had to turn up their volume...

The product is called Jabra Engage 75.
"Jabra Engage 75 Wireless work headset features high levels of hearing protection, which is key for heavy users. This includes PeakStop which eliminates potentially harmful sudden sound spikes while IntelliTone 2.0 maintains average sound levels below predefined thresholds throughout the day."

Only downside imo is that it does not cover the ears completely or have active noise cancelling, which I believe would be even better to reduce the need for turning up the volume.

If someone has any contacts at all in Bose or Sony or similar, please tell them I will buy the programmer a nice bottle of red wine if they implement these features in a firmware-update for their products...