How to Remove Background Noise from Your Audio Recordings

Is your audio ruined by a constant, annoying hum from your air conditioner or other background noise? You don’t have to re-record! You can fix it easily with a free and powerful audio editor called Audacity.

The key to cleaning up your audio is using Audacity’s “Noise Reduction” effect. This tool works by first learning what the unwanted noise sounds like and then removing that specific sound from your entire recording.

Here is a simple, step-by-step guide to get started:

Step 1: Get the Noise Profile First, you need to find a short section of your audio that contains only the background noise you want to remove (for example, the sound of the AC humming with no one speaking).

1. Open your MP3 file in Audacity.
2. Select a few seconds of the background noise.
3. Go to the Effect menu, select Noise Reduction, and then click the Get Noise Profile button.

This action tells Audacity to “learn” the unique sound of your background noise.

Step 2: Reduce the Noise Now that Audacity knows what to remove, you can apply the effect to your entire audio track.

1. Select the entire audio track you want to clean.
2. Go back to the Effect menu and select Noise Reduction again.
3. This time, you’ll see a pop-up window with sliders for Noise Reduction (dB), Sensitivity, and Frequency Smoothing (bands).
4. Adjust these sliders to your liking. You can preview the result before applying it.
5. When you are satisfied with how the audio sounds, click OK to apply the noise reduction.

Step 3: Export Your Clean Audio Once the noise has been removed, you can export the clean file. Simply go to File > Export > Export as MP3 to save your new, improved audio.

For more detailed information and advanced techniques, be sure to check out the official Audacity support page on Noise reduction & removal.