Sound Level Issues

Hi all,

I'm new here so pardon me if I've posted in the wrong forum!

I recently did some editing for a major project at work, which comprises of some broadcast footage and a series of audio histories recorded by on-site staff on portable recorders.

I've come across a rather serious problem with sound levels. Unfortunately, when the portable digital recorders were taken out, they were literally just set up and the record button hit, with no regards to recording levels and environmental issues. Therefore, some of the audio histories have come out incredibly loud and distorted where the levels had been much too high.

Of course, this now has a bearing on the finished product, with some parts of it being much louder than the rest. I've tried changing the sound levels on the project in FCP to no avail. I've been importing the rendered version of the project into Soundtrack Pro and adjusting the louder clips (via the compressor and amplification tools) so they match the levels of the quieter files that got recorded properly. This seems to work to a certain extent, but as I'm no audio professional (yet!!) I was wondering if you guys knew of any extra filters and such I could run the clips through to make the difference between the louder clips and the normal clips a little bit smaller.

Thanks in advance!!