audacity background noise removal - how to remove background noise in audacity

 How to remove background noise in audacity (few steps)

With Audacity's Noise Reduction tool, you can take out background noise from audio that has been recorded. The program can attempt to isolate and eliminate background noise, for instance, if you record a guitar performance with an air conditioner running in the background. If there are a few seconds in your recording where only the background noise is audible, noise reduction will perform best.

Alternatively, if you have sections of audio that you want to make silent, you can do so quickly, with a single key combination.

Below are steps for removing unwanted noise from your recordings in Audacity, or silencing ambient sections. To begin, create a track and record your audio, or open a previously recorded audio file.

How to prevent background noise?

The best way to deal with background noise is to avoid it altogether. These tips help prevent the need for noise reduction and reduce your time spent editing.

Optimize your recording space

Where you choose to record audio is the most crucial factor in its quality. To improve your podcasting space, find a quiet, small room away from

1. HVAC units
2. Traffic
3. External hard drives
4. White noise
5.  Air conditioners

You can also improve your room tone by choosing a space with natural sound absorbers like curtains, rugs, carpets, and couches.

Silencing unwanted sections

If you have a section of audio that you want to reduce to complete silence, follow these steps.

1. Highlight the unwanted portion of your track using the cursor.
2. Silence the selection using the Ctrl+L keyboard shortcut (Command+L on macOS).

The silenced audio appears as a flat horizontal line, indicating that all audio data is erased for that section of the audio.

Minimize computer fan noise

Computers can make a lot of noise when they get hot. Turn your mic away from the computer to help mitigate this effect and reduce the amount of software running to prevent the fan from activating.

Remove background noise in Audacity (These steps)

Follow these steps to remove background noise within Audacity.

If you haven't already, download Audacity and go to File > Import > Audio to select the track you want to edit.

Step. 1. Get a noise sample

Help Audacity isolate the background noise you want to remove. In this example, we isolated some unwanted fan noise from the audio recording.

Then, we let Audacity know the frequency we want to remove. Make sure you select a section where no one's talking.

If you don't have a selection this big, find somewhere in the audio you can isolate. The important thing is to isolate a section with only the background noise, so it doesn't ruin your voiceovers, dialog, music, etc.

Now, click and drag your selection with the Selection tool.

1. In an Audacity track, highlight a segment of the audio (at least two seconds, if possible) containing only the ambient noise.

2. Select the Noise Reduction effect from the Effect menu.

3. Select Get Noise Profile to sample the noise.

4. Highlight the section of where you need the noise removed.

5. Select the Noise Reduction effect from the Effect menu.

6. Change the Noise reduction (dB) slider to change the volume of the noise.

7. Change the Sensitivity to determine what range of sounds it will filter out.

8. Select Preview to listen to your audio, and make necessary changes to the dB and Sensitivity.

9. Select OK to apply the changes.