How to Reduce Background Noise in Audacity

Channel:

Max Dalton

Subscribers:

186,000

Published on June 20, 2019 3:55:47 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsurO1nIF1U

Category:

Guide

Duration: 3:09

619 views

14

This video shows you how to reduce background noise in Audacity.

See more videos by Max here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MaxDalton

Video Transcript:
Nothing makes your recorded audio sound as unprofessional as background noise -- or white noise. White noise in your audio takes the focus of people away from your great content and causes them to focus on that instead. Common sources of white noise can be your computer's fan, an air conditioner, a running fan, or people talking distantly in the background. Thankfully, you can use Audacity after the fact to help reduce and remove these background noises to clean up your audio and make sure the focus stays on you.

Now let's walk through the steps to reduce background noise in Audacity.

Step 1. Record at least 10 seconds of white noise at the beginning of your audio recording. This will give you a sample of audio you can use later when editing in Audacity to remove the background noise from your recording. If you're working with an audio file you already recorded where you didn't do this, don't worry. I'll talk you through how to handle that later in this process.

Step 2. Open the audio recording for editing in Audacity. In this example, I'll click the "Audio Track" drop-down to the left of the audio track, and then choose "Waveform DB" to get a better view of my audio recording.

Step 3. Highlight the white noise you recorded at the beginning of your audio file. Alternatively, if you didn't record a white noise sample at the beginning of your audio file, highlight the longest stretch of white noise you can find in your audio file. Click "Effect" in the menu in the upper left corner of the screen to open a drop-down menu, and then choose "Noise Reduction" in the drop-down menu. The Audacity Noise Reduction window appears on the screen.

Step 4. Click "Get Noise Profile" in the Noise Reduction window. The Noise Reduction window closes and you're returned to your audio file.

Step 5. Double-click inside of your audio file to select the entire audio file.

Step 6. Click "Effect" and "Noise Reduction" again to navigate back to the Audacity Noise Reduction window. Adjust the settings in the Step 2 section to adjust how you want the background noise reduced. You'll need to play around with these settings to find what works best for you. After adjusting these settings, click "OK." A small Noise Reduction window appears on the screen, showing you the progress of the noise reduction being applied to your file. The size of the audio file you're editing determines how long it will take the noise reduction process to run. The box closes after the process is complete, and you're returned to your audio file. The file should sound cleaner, and the background noise in your Audacity file should be greatly reduced.