How to remove Background Noise and extract clear voice from Audio Files with Audacity

During any family function or any stage show, we try to capture whole moments in our mobile phone. But when we try to record it we mostly face the problem of having background noise in our audio because of noisy environment.

Unless you have used professional and well-placed microphones, you will find yourself with an audio file in which in addition to the voice and the music, there will also be a certain amount of background noise.

In digital audio, when we talk about background noise we mean a constant noise or noise in an audio track.

Although this background noise is apparently insignificant, it could still be a problem for the sound cleaning of the vocal recordings, or when you decide to use that sound to create an excellent quality video.

How to Remove Background Noise from Audio Files

To get rid of background noise from the audio files it is necessary to have a specific program.

There are many software available in the market, but my advice is to use Audacity, a totally free program that can be downloaded by connecting to the Audacityteam site.

Once you have downloaded and installed the Audacity program you will need an additional plugin called LAME MP3 which allows you to save your recordings in MP3 format.

Then connect to the Internet site of MP3 LAME and click on Lame v3.99.3 for Windows.exe to download it.

How to eliminate the background noise of a Mp3 audio file with Audacity

There are several steps you can take to improve an audio file with Audacity.

1. First of all, import the audio file to be edited within the application by selecting the Open item from the File menu or create a new recording directly in Audacity by pressing the REC button.

2. Identify the part of the audio track that contains only the background noise;

3. Select with the mouse the part of the track where you hear only the noise to be eliminated (without the voice or other sounds above) and open the Noise Removal function from the Effects menu.

4. Click on the ” Process noise profile ” button, in this way Audacity will analyze the background noise you want to remove. The window will close automatically.

5. Select the entire audio track by going to the “Edit”> “Select”> “All” menu. Go back to the ” Effects ” menu and click again on the ” Noise Removal ” item.

6. At this point, adjust the various settings available according to your needs. You can listen to a preview of the audio file without noise before applying the changes by clicking the Preview button.

7. Click on the OK button; Audacity will analyze your entire audio file and remove background noise.

When you are a beginner, a very frequent mistake is to set excessive parameters and, above all, to alter all the values to look for better sound effects and total cleaning from the background noise.

In reality, it is highly inadvisable to use parameters that are too high (or too low) because they can also have repercussions on the audio itself.

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