I also agree with @onhwy61.
I suspect your source material. The stage microphones are designed to reject sound that doesn't originate directly in front of the mic and especially that which originates from the rear of the mic such as applause. Also proximity to the mic makes a big difference. The farther away you are from the mic the less sensitive it becomes and the less realistic the sounds that they pick up become. I am also pretty sure that separate mics are used to record the audience and have their own dedicated channels on the mixing console and even though these mics are aimed at the audience they will still be along distance from them and will still suffer from the proximity affect. Thirdly with with most of the applause being on dedicated channels on the recording I highly doubt that either the recoding engineer, the mixing engineer or the mastering engineer are spending much if any time making sure that these tracks sound realistic
Lastly the frequency range of hands clapping is going to be in the same range of the upper harmonics of a vocalists, your melody instruments and the fundamental and harmonic range of the cymbals especially the hi-hat, so any adjustment you make that affects the tone of the applause will also affect the tone of everything else in that frequency range.
I suspect your source material. The stage microphones are designed to reject sound that doesn't originate directly in front of the mic and especially that which originates from the rear of the mic such as applause. Also proximity to the mic makes a big difference. The farther away you are from the mic the less sensitive it becomes and the less realistic the sounds that they pick up become. I am also pretty sure that separate mics are used to record the audience and have their own dedicated channels on the mixing console and even though these mics are aimed at the audience they will still be along distance from them and will still suffer from the proximity affect. Thirdly with with most of the applause being on dedicated channels on the recording I highly doubt that either the recoding engineer, the mixing engineer or the mastering engineer are spending much if any time making sure that these tracks sound realistic
Lastly the frequency range of hands clapping is going to be in the same range of the upper harmonics of a vocalists, your melody instruments and the fundamental and harmonic range of the cymbals especially the hi-hat, so any adjustment you make that affects the tone of the applause will also affect the tone of everything else in that frequency range.