Audacity: Remove noise

With the free tool “Audacity” you can easily remove noise from your recording – without any in-depth expertise.

Removing noise in Audacity: The first step

Audacity offers you a precise way to remove annoying noise. The best way to do this is to use the integrated “Noise Reduction” effect.

Open your audio file in Audacity.
Find a place in the audio where only noise is heard. This area will serve as the noise profile.
Select this area and choose Noise Reduction from the Effect menu.
Click “Detect Noise Profile”. Audacity will analyze the highlighted area and detect the noise.
Now select the entire audio range you want to clean.
Go to “Effect” again and then to “Noise Reduction”. In the window that opens, you can adjust the settings for the noise reduction. Move the “Noise Reduction (dB)” slider to adjust the strength of the reduction. Experiment with the “Sensitivity” to find the best possible balance between noise reduction and sound quality.
Confirm with “OK” and listen to the result. Repeat the process if necessary until the noise is satisfactorily removed.

It's worth getting familiar with the different noise reduction parameters in Audacity, as they offer finer control and better results.

Noise Reduction (dB): This control determines how much noise is attenuated. A higher setting removes more noise, but may also result in a loss of fine detail.
Sensitivity: Depending on the sensitivity value, Audacity will detect more or less noise. A value that is too low will not remove everything, and a value that is too high could falsely identify important parts of the audio, such as the voice, as noise.
Smoothing bandwidth (Hz): This setting helps smooth out the audio signal after noise reduction. A higher value may make the sound more natural, but may also result in a lower level of noise reduction.