Noise Reduction

Taking the room out.

Getting a clean recording out of a noisy one — what the quality setting really changes, how to hear when cleanup has gone too far, and the problems no amount of processing will fix.

Start with lesson one Open Noise Reduction

The curriculum

Read them in this order

Each lesson assumes the one before it. The third is the one that matters — every tool guide can tell you which button to press, and almost none tell you when the tool will not work.

01Your first cleanupA noisy recording in, a cleaner one out. What Noise Reduction costs, what it hands back, and why the first run should leave the one control exactly where it is.start · 4 min read
02How much to removeCleanup takes the noise and some of the voice with it. What the Quality menu really controls, how to hear an over-processed recording, and why the lightest result that solves your problem is the one to keep.core · 7 min read
03What it cannot fixClipping, room reverb, a bad microphone and a door slam all finish as successful jobs and still cost credits. Which problems AudioPod's noise reduction genuinely solves, which it cannot, and when to re-record instead.core · 8 min read

Before you spend anything

What a cleanup will not fix

None of these produce an error. The job finishes, the credits go, and the recording has the same problem it started with — which is why the third lesson exists and why this list is on the front page of the track.

The recording is distorted because it was recorded too loud.: Re-record with the input level lower. If you cannot, accept the distortion: a cleanup will remove some hiss around it and leave the distortion exactly where it was.
It sounds like it was recorded in an empty room, or a bathroom.: Record somewhere softer — a room with a rug, curtains and furniture, or a closet full of clothes — and get closer to the microphone. That change is worth more than any amount of processing.
The voice is thin, boxy or muffled to begin with.: Fix it at the source: a better microphone, or the same microphone closer to the speaker and out of the path of a fan. Then clean up what is left.
The background is louder than the person talking.: Re-record if you can. If it is a recording you cannot repeat, run it and judge the result against the original honestly; sometimes the noisy version is the more listenable one.
You want it to sound louder, fuller or more produced.: Do the cleanup here first, then take the result into the editor for levelling — the completed job has a button that hands it straight over.
You want to pull two people, or a song's instruments, apart.: Those are different tools: speaker separation for a conversation, the stem splitter for a piece of music.

Free to start

Read it with the tool open

You do not need a plan to work through this track. Noise Reduction has no tier gate at all — a free account can run every lesson here against the tool you will be looking at.

Create a free account

1,000 credits every month. No card required.