If you record outside of a studio setting, it’s very likely that your audio will benefit from removing background noise. Contact us with the problem file, and if it's fixable, we will remove background noise for free. All we ask in return is that you credit podlad.com on your podcast.

First, it's essential to define what I mean by background noise. Background noise on audio typically refers to a consistent mechanical hiss, hum or room ambience. What I don't mean is loud music, people chatting, strong wind or anything very intrusive on the audio. These are usually too prominent and covers too many frequencies to allow removal without affecting the voice behind the mic.

In this article, I will explain a few options for removing background noise from your audio and, more importantly, how to avoid it in the first place.

Automatic removal tools such as Auphonic or anything similar don't work great. Proper noise removal involves sampling the noise on its own so that the removal tool can define what frequencies it's affecting.

You then tell the noise tool to remove these frequencies from the rest of the audio. Automatic tools cannot do this, so they guess where the noise is or just use a noise gate, which will only remove the noise when there is no vocal signal.

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Email or share your file by contacting info@podlad.com. We will remove the background noise from your audio for free if you mention this website on your podcast. Check out the before and after samples below.

Remove background noise with Audacity

It’s worth learning how to remove background noise with audacity. It’s easy to do and once you’ve done it a few times you will be able to do it quickly at the beginning of any edit session.

Audacity is free, open-source audio editing software that is great for beginners. You can download Audacity from www.audacityteam.org

Here is a quick video to show you how removing background noise with Audacity is easy:

Using a paid plugin

Izotope is considered the best industry tool for audio restoration. Izotope can work as a plugin or independent of any DAW. It would be best if you always avoided any illegal or cracked software as they infect your computer with all sorts of viruses and take money away from the industry and developers of these great tools.

If you use Adobe Audition, Pro Tools or any other high-end DAW that can run 3rd party plugins, you can purchase a noise removal plugin. The most affordable and effective noise removal plugin I have found is the Acon restoration suite which is a €100, once off payment.

I use Acon on almost every podcast recording I get. If you don't record in a studio, there is always some noise or ambience. Acon gets rid of it quickly while protecting the vocal you want to keep. In addition, it is a fraction of the price of Izotope. Check out the before and after samples below:

Use a free AI tool

There’s an AI tool for everything now, right? That includes audio restoration. Like most AI tools, I personally for that it’s a bit hit and miss and is used best in conjunction with traditional manual methods.

Adobe and Descript have launched AI tools for restoring audio.

Adobe Enhance - This is the easiest and best available, drag and drop the audio and it’ll clean it up for you. No need to download anything it works through a browser.

The results you get are mixed. Sometimes this can work wonders, other times it makes the audio very robotic sounding. I am now hearing a lot of podcasts using this tool on poorly recorded audio and I can hear it straight away, it sounds like robots talking.

Always worth giving this a go but don’t rely on it. A clever tip is to layer it with the original recording, play around with the levels on each track and see what kind of sound you can get!

How recording 30 seconds of ambience can help

With your microphone turned on, record 30 seconds of the room ambience. If your guest is remote, get them to do the same.

You will now have a clean sample of room ambience, making it easy to remove later.

All noise removal tools work best if they can read what you need to take out. So, it's helpful to have a segment of ambience recorded on its own. Then, you can later select this segment and tell the noise removal tool that you want what's heard here removed from the whole file.

Soundproofing secrets: getting the recording right at the source

I can’t emphasize this enough. Post-production is never a solution for badly recorded audio. If you have a bad, noisy or echoey recording, you need to question why and learn from it.

Here are the main reasons people end up with audio that needs restoration:

Recording with an unsuitable mic - When recording in a regular, non-treated room. It’s so important that you use either a dynamic or headset mic. I explain why in this blog post; why dynamic mics are the best choice for podcasters.

Incorrect positioning of a microphone - I can’t stress this one enough and it’s something I come across time and time again. Your mic needs to be about 2 inches from your mouth, or it will sound awful. The only exception to this is if you’re using a very expensive shotgun mic, and these are rarely used in podcasting.

Incorrect selection of mic in recording platform - whether your using zoom, riverside.fm, squadcast, zencastr or cleanfeed. Every platform gives you an option to select what microphone you want to use. Unless you tell the platform what mic you are on, there’s a big chance it’s recording the audio from something else like the built in mic or webcam mic.

Not using headphones or earphones - You should NEVER use speakers when recording a podcast and you should try to ensure your guests don’t either. This can be the cause of feedback loops, dips in sound and unintelligible audio. The type of headset you use doesn't matter. I cheap, in-ear pair of earphones are perfect and also look very smart if you are recording video.

Master the silence: equipment for avoiding bad audio

Jabnecter Noise Cancelling Headset mic

This is the easiest solution. For $25, plug it into a USB port and get clean audio. It will pick up some very light room noise, but it’s so low and light that it’s simple to remove with something like Audacity. The beauty of a headset mic is that the pickup will follow you around and you don’t need to be concerned about the positioning of the mic. This is perfect solution for a beginner and where I always recommend starting.

Samson Q2U USB mic

The next step up is a dymanic USB mic. I always recommend getting this with a boom arm because positioning is of the utmost importance. This should be about 1/2 inches away from your mouth. Again, it will pick up some level of low level noise but it will be very low compared to the voice signal which makes it easy to remove.

External Sound Card: M-Audio M-TRACK interface

An external sound card makes it so much easier to control levels and diagnose issues faster. You can plug a mic in via an XLR cable and your headphones will also be plugged in here. Now you can control gain and volume directly from a device in front of you instead of going into your Windows or mac settings. You can also hear yourself as you record, which is good practice. It will take some learning, but you will have a much safer recording system. The Samson Q2U mic above can act as USB or XLR, so you can use it in conjunction with a device like this by buying an XLR cable.