Remove Background Noise From Voice Recordings and Videos

A great interview recorded next to a humming fridge. A lecture with the projector fan whirring. A video message with traffic in the background. Noise makes speech tiring to listen to and harder to understand. Noise reduction can rescue most recordings, though preventing noise in the first place always works best.

What noise reduction can (and can't) do

Modern noise reduction is very good at removing steady background sounds that differ from a voice:

• Fans, air conditioning, computers.
• Electrical hum and hiss.
• Traffic rumble and room noise.

It's less effective with sounds that resemble speech or overlap it strongly: other people talking, music with vocals, a TV in the background. Heavy noise reduction can also make a voice sound thin or slightly robotic.

Remove noise

1. Open Remove Background Noise and add an audio file or a video.
2. Choose how much to remove. All the noise it can gives the cleanest background; Most or Some keep part of the original sound for a more natural voice.
3. Listen to the result and compare it with the original.
4. Save.

The tool uses RNNoise, a noise-reduction model that runs on your device. It isn't cloud AI: nothing is uploaded.

Fine-tune the sound

After noise reduction, a little equalisation often helps:

• Remove rumble: cut the lowest frequencies, where traffic and handling noise live.
• Add clarity: a gentle boost in the upper mids makes speech easier to understand.

The Audio Equalizer has presets and a 5-band EQ for this, and lets you hear the result on the page before downloading.

Record cleaner audio next time

Five minutes of preparation beats an hour of repair:

• Test first. The Mic Test shows a live level meter and plays back a 5-second recording, so you hear what listeners will hear.
• Get close to the microphone. Your voice gets louder compared with the room. A headset or a clip-on microphone near the mouth makes a huge difference.
• Turn off noisy things: fans, air conditioning, notifications.
• Choose a soft room. Curtains, carpets and furniture reduce echo; bare rooms and kitchens are echoey.
• Record a few seconds of silence at the start, which helps you hear the room's noise level.

Order of operations

For the best result:

1. Trim the recording.
2. Remove noise.
3. Equalise.
4. Adjust the volume or normalise last, because making audio louder also makes remaining noise louder.

What to expect with common noises

• Fans, air conditioning, computer hum: usually removed very well; they're steady and unlike speech.
• Electrical hum and hiss: usually removed well.
• Traffic and distant city sound: greatly reduced; sudden horns or sirens may remain.
• Keyboard typing and clicks: reduced, but sharp clicks can survive.
• Other voices, TV or music with singing: hard to remove, because they resemble the voice you want to keep.
• Echo: not what noise reduction is designed for.

If the result sounds watery or robotic, choose a lighter setting.

Common questions

The voice sounds thin after cleaning. What can I do? Choose a lighter setting, such as Most or Some, which keeps part of the original sound.

Can it remove echo? Noise reduction targets steady background noise. Echo (reverberation) is much harder to remove after recording; prevention is the cure.

Does it work on videos? Yes. Add the video, and the cleaned sound is put back with the picture.

Can I remove music from a recording? No. Music overlaps the voice too much. Noise reduction is for steady background sounds.

Private

Recordings of interviews, meetings and family moments are personal. The noise model runs in your browser, and the file never leaves your device.