how to remove echo sound and wind sound in audacity 2021
If you want to host a podcast, share your music with the world, or record any other type of audio, Audacity is among the best software options out there.
The only problem is that the room you’re recording in isn’t likely to provide you with complete silence. Unless you can afford to completely sound-proof the room, you’ll likely notice at least some background noise.
This can be quite irritating, and you don’t want something like this to stain the final product of your hard work. Luckily, it doesn’t have to. Here’s how to remove background noise and let your talent shine:
Removing Background Noise After You’ve Recorded
Quick Links
Audacity offers various editing options that can let you fine-tune your work. Removing background noise is quite simple and it only takes a few easy steps.
- Select a section of your audio where there’s nothing but background noise.
- Go to Effects > Noise Removal
- Click Get Noise Profile, then select all the audio from which you want to remove background noise.
- Open the Noise Profile menu again.
- Optionally, you can adjust the settings (the default setting should work well enough), then click OK.
In some cases, the audio might sound like it’s underwater. If this happens, just tweak some settings in the Noise Removal menu and try again.
Preventing Background Noise
Background noise is easier to prevent than to repair after the recording is created. The best way to make sure there’s no background noise in your audio is to try and block any unwanted sounds at the source.
Here are a few tips you should consider:
Turn Off Everything That Makes Noise
Your microphone might pick up noises you’ve gotten so used to that you don’t hear them anymore. This includes computers, refrigerators, A/C, and all other appliances that might create enough noise to disturb your audio.
Let Your Computer Fans Slow Down
When the computer’s components have to work hard for you to use the machine, their fans keep them from overheating. If you’re using a desktop, the best way to reduce fan noise is to simply move your microphone away from it.
If you’re using a laptop and can’t move away from it, you can make the fans slow down by reducing the amount of software you use while you’re recording.
Use a Dynamic Microphone
This tip is especially useful for podcasts hosts and everyone to whom audio range isn’t highly important.
Condenser microphones are generally much more capable, but also more prone to picking up on background noise. On the other hand, dynamic microphones offer a narrower audio range, so they’re not likely to register quieter background sounds.
However, if you’re a musician, a dynamic microphone might not be able to capture the quality you need. In this situation, it’s better to record with a condenser microphone and then do some post-production editing.
Use a Surge Protector
When you have a lot of hardware plugged into different outlets, you’re likely to get electronic interference. Even if you might not be able to hear it, your microphone will pick up on it.
If this is the case, a surge protector is your safest bet. Simply plug everything into one outlet, and you won’t have to deal with interference anymore.
Try a USB Adapter
One of the best ways to silence computer interference noise is to convert analog signals to digital before the sound reaches your computer. To do this, you can either use a 3.5-mm jack or a USB adapter.
Time to Start Recording
Now that you know how to get rid of annoying background noise, you can enjoy all the functions that Audacity offers and start creating all kinds of audio content with ease.
Remember to always check whether there are any sources of background noise when you start recording. It’s also a good idea to create a demo audio file just to check if there’s some noise you can’t pick up.
If you can’t reduce background noise in the room you’re recording in, try using a different location for your recording sessions. Obviously, the best way to eliminate all noise is to sound-proof your room, so think about investing in this move. It’s a sure-fire way of getting the silence necessary for your work.
But until you can invest in sound-proofing, there’s always the Noise Removal feature and its various settings. It’s not perfect, and might mess up the audio a bit, but once you get the hang of how it works, you’ll have clear, high-quality audio at your disposal.
How to Remove An Echo In Audacity?
Sometimes, all it takes is just a slight mistake in the setup to completely sabotage your recording and fill it with excessive amounts of echo and reverb. Enter Audacity, a free little program that helps you edit your audio files and is available on both Windows and Mac.
Whether you prefer using plug-ins or not, Audacity might help reduce the echo, even though it’s impossible to completely remove it. We’re going to show you how you can do this both with and without using a plug-in.
Starting Notes
Before we proceed, make sure that you have Audacity downloaded and installed on your computer. If that’s not the case, you can always download it from its official website.
Also, note that this process is very complex and requires a high understanding of how sound recording works. Otherwise, you’ll just have to make do and experiment with all the features until you’re satisfied with the result.
Reducing Echo Without a Plug-In
After downloading and running Audacity, follow the next steps:
- When you run Audacity, you’ll see that there’s no file open for editing. Click the “File” menu at the top of the screen.
- Select “Open.” A new window will appear. Note that there’s an option at its bottom that says “Files of type.” Change it to “All supported types” to make finding the audio file easier.
- Click on the file you want to edit and then click the “Open” button inside of this window to open it.
- Before applying an effect, make sure to select the segment of the audio file you’d like to edit. You can do this by clicking on one end of the segment and dragging the mouse until you reach the other. If you want to edit the whole file, press Ctrl+A (Command+A on Mac).
- Open the “Effect” menu at the top of the screen.
- Select “Noise Reduction.”
- You’ll see that there are sliders for Noise Reduction, Sensitivity, and Frequency Smoothing. By just increasing the former, chances are you’ll improve the sound quality already. If you’re not handling a very large file, you can also use the Preview button to see how the audio file currently sounds. However, if you are, prepare for long loading and saving times.
- Noise Reduction might also decrease the sound volume. If this happens, go to the effects menu and choose “Amplify.” Its only use is to increase the volume of the whole file or just its segment.
- Find the compressor in the effects menu. Its goal is to reduce the distance between lows and peaks of a waveform. The main thing you should do is change up the ratio, but you can also change up the noise floor and threshold if necessary.
- Depending on your current sound pitch inside of the file, you might need to use a low pass or a high pass filter. They are located in the bottom half of the Effects menu. A low pass filter helps if your audio is too high-pitched, while a high pass filter comes in handy if the audio sounds too low or too muffled. Stick to changing just the Rolloff and using the Preview button should the need be. Their settings windows are pretty much the same.
- Find the Equalization effect and switch from “Draw Curves” to “Graphic EQ.” You may find the latter simpler to use because it gives you control over the sliders and lets you set their values that way, while the former forces you to draw the equalizer yourself. If you need to fix up your low tones, focus on the sliders to the left. The middle bars affect the mid-tones, while the bars on the right should be altered to affect the higher tones.
- Note that you can repeat any of these processes. Do that if you find it necessary. If you don’t, proceed by clicking the “File” menu on top of the screen and going to “Export Audio.”
- Before you save the file, choose its type in the “Save as type:” menu. The best-known ones are mp3 (compressed) and wav (lossless). Also, make sure that you don’t accidentally overwrite the old file.
- Go to the “File” menu and select “Save Project As” to save the Audacity’s project file. You should definitely do this if you’re planning on applying additional edits in the future.
Reducing Echo with a Plug-In
There are lots of free Plug-ins for Audacity, but for this particular issue, Noise Gate is the one you need, as it helps improve the sound quality and can help reduce the echo.
Here is how to install it:
- Download the plug-in directly from this link.
- Put the downloaded file (.ny file extension) in the Plug-Ins folder. Make sure that Audacity is closed while doing this.
- Run Audacity. You should find this effect in the Effects menu, just like other ones.
To reduce the echo, start with an “Attack/Decay” of 75, “Gate threshold” of -30, and a “Level reduction” of -100. Use these settings as a starting point. If the echo doesn’t change, increase the Gate threshold until the echo is reduced. If important audio gets cut, reduce it.
What’s most important is that you set the gate threshold. After you do that, tweak the level reduction and attack/decay settings until you’re satisfied with the result.
Hearing Clearly
It’s impossible to completely remove the echo, but it isn’t impossible to reduce it. This is a quite difficult process, but if you’re skilled or persistent enough, you might find the results satisfactory. Just keep in mind that this requires lots of playing around with all kinds of different values and effects because different recording settings require different approach methods.
Were you successful in reducing the echo of your audio file? Which method did you find more helpful? Let us know in the comments below.
