The contestants: Audacity's built-in compressor, Chris's Dynamic Compressor, C3 Multiband Compressor, and Levelator. I was personally surprised by the winner.
Thanks to Alex for originally asking the question about the differences between compressors.
The audio compressor line-up
Audacity's built-in compressor
Default settings:
Chris's Dynamic Compressor
Default settings:
Daniel's usual settings:
Daniel's revised settings:
C3 Multiband Compressor
Default settings (requires turning on limiter and each band):
Levelator
No settings. Just drag and drop a WAV or AIFF file.
Real-life podcast tests
Please check out each of the podcasts below. Huge thanks for their contributions to this test!
Yes Music Podcast
Recorded with a Shure SM58 to Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC100 to XLR/3.5mm mic jack into Audacity.
Completely Comics
Recorded with an iPhone 4 using iTalk app.
The Wired Homeschool
Recorded with an iPhone 4 using iTalk app.
Who Dey Weekly
Recorded with an Audio-Technica AT2020 Cardioid Condenser Mic into a Tascam DR-05 external digital recorder.
Airplane Geeks
Host recorded with a PR40, Skype cohosts on various mics, through a mixer and into a digital audio recorder.
Kernels of Wheat
ElectroVoice EV-20 through a Mackie ProFX12 mixer with a Behringer MDX4600 compressor/limiter/gate (this is why my tests weren't as effective), into a Roland R-05.
George
Straight into a Roland R-05.
Jude and the Ten Commandments
Condensor mic straight into Audacity.
Conclusion
Audacity's built-in compressor uses standard terms, but it's not very effective.
Chris's Dynamic compressor does a great job with voices and gives easy control. But it's best run on audio with little or no background noise.
C3 Multiband Compressor does a great job, but frequently misses a peak, which throws off normalization (a required extra step).
Surprisingly, Levelator did a consistently fantastic job on the audio and handled background noise well. It gives no controls and may add an extra step if you don't record into WAV or AIFF. But it's easy (albeit slow) and very effective.
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