Remove Unwanted Noise From Your Recording

Make Your Audio Sound Better

In the world of sound recording, whether it's about recording guitar, voice, or another instrument, we often encounter various obstacles. They come as unwanted environmental noise picked up by microphones while recording the audio. In previous decades, it was challenging to create a controlled environment where the background noise was absent. With the constant development of technology in all directions in recent times, we can process problematic recordings with advanced tools.

They allow us to reduce the background noise to a minimum. The tool that most people reach for is the Noise Gate effect. However, this effect is harsh and can quickly become destructive. Alternatively, there are some more sophisticated tools available that, when used properly, can clean the recording less harshly and artificially. To sum up, the best noise reduction is always the minimum amount you can get away with.  

Removing Background Noise

In the following tutorial, I will demonstrate how to clean up a noisy movie dialogue using a VST plugin called X-Noise by Waves Audio. This particular tool always works great for me when dealing with messy guitar recordings or similar material. In this case, I have chosen a movie voice recording because I think the effect will be most apparent. First, let me play you a short movie dialogue recording that I decided and imported into a newly made audio channel within SoundBridge.  

~Voice with X-Noise off

As you can hear, there is a lot of background noise that dominates the whole recording. To fix this, I will apply an X-Noise plug into the channel. The magic behind X-Noise is that it uses a frequency domain analysis to detect and reduce unwanted noise from the source audio with minimal induced artifacts. It works by learning the character of the noise and creating a noise profile. This helps to distinguish the noise from the audio signal.

Consequently, I will loop the part of the recording in which only the noise can be heard and let it play for a few seconds. Engaging the Learn button will help the plugin learn the noise profile to distinguish it from the voice.  

 

Tweaking The Values

Afterward, with the Learn button disengaged, we understand what is going on. First, we see different curves representing the Noise Profile, Input, and Output. On the right side, there are Threshold and Reduction faders. They are in charge of the amount of the applied effect. In addition, there are Attack and Release values that can be tweaked.

Nevertheless, I like to keep them as they are. In my opinion, to get the best result, you should use the High-resolution profile. After having everything set, let's hear the difference between unprocessed and processed recording. In the end, by clicking the "Difference "button in the lower right corner of the X-Noise GUI, we will hear how much of the background noise we got rid of.  

~ Voice with X-Noise off

~ Voice with X-Noise on

~ Eliminated background noise