How to remove background noise from audio.
Start with a copy of your recording, apply speech-focused cleanup, and compare what changed. A quieter recording is useful only if the voice still sounds right.
1. Choose the right recording
QuietTake is designed for spoken audio, including podcasts, interviews, voiceovers and voice notes. Use a mono or stereo audio file under five minutes and 50 MB. If you are editing video, export its audio first; this tool downloads audio rather than a finished video.
2. Begin with Balanced cleanup
Choose your file in the workspace and leave the strength at Balanced. Click Remove noise. The browser decodes your recording to 48 kHz and applies a speech-focused noise suppression model locally. It does not upload the recording.
3. Compare the same passage
Listen to a section containing speech and a section containing a pause. Switch between Original and Cleaned, then press play. Check that consonants remain clear and the voice does not sound thin, watery or clipped. The comparison keeps your playback position when you switch versions.
4. Adjust rather than overprocess
If the cleaned voice sounds unnatural, choose Gentle and process it again. If too much background sound remains, try Strong. A stronger setting can change the voice as well as the noise. Hiss and fan noise are reasonable cleanup targets; overlapping voices, severe wind and room echo can remain.
5. Save a WAV copy
Download the cleaned recording as a 16-bit WAV file. Keep the original alongside it. WAV is uncompressed and may be larger than an MP3 input; it is useful for further editing or for replacing an audio track in a video editor.
Make the next recording easier to clean
- Move closer to the microphone and farther from fans or air-conditioning.
- Record in a room with curtains, soft furniture or other surfaces that reduce reflections.
- Keep enough input headroom to avoid clipping. Distorted speech cannot be recovered reliably by noise suppression.
- Use headphones when comparing the result so your room noise does not hide the difference.