Do you know? How to Stop Mic From Picking up Background Noises? While on a glimpse this doesn’t sound like a big deal, I’m sure everyone wants to have the best out of their microphone.
The quality of your recording is very important. When you record audio for public consumption, it becomes even more crucial.
In this digital era, it is so easy to make an audio or video recording on your own. You can create digital audio from the comfort of your room.
But as easy as it is, some issues can arise while creating the audio.
If you already try to record some audio or videos, you might have noticed that your mic will pick more than just your sound. It is also picking up some background noise.
In this post, I’m going to share some really useful tips to reduce the background noise from your mic.
Contents
How to Stop Mic from Picking up Background Noise?: Step By Step a Complete Guide
3-Sources of Noise That You Need to Know
Before we go any further, let me first share 3 different types of noises that can ruin the quality of your recording.
- Wind Noise
You don’t always record audio in a sound-proof chamber, especially when you record a video. There are times you go outside.
But the thing is, outdoor recording can compromise the quality of your audio. The wind will generate an extra low frequency when it interacts with your microphone diaphragm.
When the weather is very windy, your mic can pick a noisy rumble. And the noise can dominate the sound of your recording. When the rumble is there, it will jeopardize the quality of your recording.
To prevent this from happening, keep your mic in a sheltered position. Also, consider using the microphone windshield to protect the quality of your audio.
- Ground noise
Ground noise is the kind of noise that is distributed via a physical connection. This kind of noise usually causes when some connected equipment plugs into different power sockets.
Since the ground values for the equipment are different, it can create a buzzing sound. To remove ground noise, you need to plug all the equipment into a single power socket.
- Background Noise
You must have already aware of the background noise. It is any of the sounds that go with the sound of your main source. There are different ways that you can choose to stop your mic from picking up the background noise.
Buying a noise-canceling microphone might be the easiest option to deal with this problem. Unfortunately, a high-quality noise-canceling microphone can cost you more than a hundred dollars.
Reducing Microphone Background Noise on Your PC
Normally, the microphone will pick up some background noise to an extent. But there are a few steps required to reduce the noise.
If you’re using a laptop as your recording device, here are some tips to stop your mic from picking up the background noise.
11- Simple Steps to Reduce Background Noise on Your PC
- Right-click the microphone icon on the right bottom of your screen
- Click “Open Sound Setting”
- Enter the Sound Control Panel by clicking on the right side
- Click the “Recording” tab on the sound manager
- Now, right-click on your microphone and click “Properties”
- Go to the “Listen” tab
- Tick “Listen to this device” option then click “Apply”
- Then go to the “Levels” tab and make sure that the Microphone boost goes all the way down then click “Apply”
- Now go to the “Enhancement” tab and tick the “Disable all sound effects”
- Then click on the “Advanced” tab
- The last step is to figure out which of the format available that suits you best. To do this, you must select from the list, click Apply, and test your mic.
Here’s a video showing how you can easily reduce background noise on your pc
If tweaking the sound setting in Windows doesn’t give the result you expected, you can also use a noise-canceling application.
Reducing Background Noise with an Application
While the steps above can be very easy and useful to stop your mic from picking up background noise, the result may be limited to a certain quality.
If you want to step it up and get a clearer recording sound, you can remove the noise using an application.
Audacity is a free audio recording application that you can use to record audio on your PC.
You can also edit the result of your recording using this application and one of the features you can use is noise reduction.
By editing your recorded audio with Audacity, the result would sound more professional.
How to Reduce Background Noise Using Audacity
You can either record new audio using the app or import audio you already recorded. After you have recorded or imported audio, follow these steps to filter out the noise:
- Go to “Effect” and choose “Noise Reduction”
- Click the “Get Noise Profile” button
- You can select all audio or specific parts of the recording that you want to edit. To select the entire track, you just need to press Ctrl + a. If you want to select only some part of the audio, drag your mouse on the part you want to edit.
- Open “Effect” dialog then click “Noise Reduction”
- To apply the filter, click the OK button
- You can adjust the noise reduction setting if necessary
You can also refer to this video on how to remove background noise using Audacity.
How to Minimize Background Noise When Making a Call
With the current advancement in technology, many people use their phones for more than just making calls and sending the text. Still, we all use this basic function of the phones.
But you can’t just rely on the built-in noise cancellation on your phone. It is because it wouldn’t filter the background noise very well. Thus, you need to consider using an app to filter out the unwanted background noise.
There are more than a few noise cancellation apps available on the market nowadays. One of the best noise-canceling applications out here is Krisp.
This app works by using AI to clean up your audio. Krisp will create a protective layer between your microphone and the app you’re using to filter out the background noise.
Krisp works with any conferencing app like zoom. During this situation, many people are working from home. So this app is extremely useful to make you look more professional during a conference call.
Unfortunately, Krisp doesn’t work on Android. It only works on iOS. But you can use it on your PC since it works for both Windows and Mac. So if the above ways don’t solve your problem, you can try to install Krisp on your PC
Here are 5 steps to easily set Krisp on Zoom
- After downloading the Krisp, open your zoom application.
- Open “Setting” then select the “Audio” tab
- Select “Kris Speaker” from the speaker drop-down list.
- Do the same for the microphone
- Now you can turn on the “Mute Noise” when making a Zoom call
Microphone Accessories to Optimize Recording Quality
Other than using software to cancel background noise, you can also use microphone accessories to reduce background noise. Here are some of the accessories you can use.
Microphone Windscreen
Microphone windscreen made from a foam material. It is useful to protect your microphone from dirt and moisture. But other than protecting your microphone, the windscreen can also help to remove background noise.
By covering your microphone with a windscreen, you can filter out the unwanted sound. The quality of your recording will increase since it filters out the unwanted noise.
The kind of noise that it filters includes breathy sound, clicks, pops, or hiss sound. So if you want to produce a high-quality recording, you better make sure that there’s a windscreen snuggle on your mic.
Pop Filter
Similar to the windscreen, a pop filter is also useful to filter the unwanted noise that can ruin your recording. However, there’s a slight difference between the two.
While windscreen is more focused on blocking wind and breathy noise, a pop filter can filter the plosive sounds. Plosive sound is the sound that contains letters such as ‘B’ and ‘P’.
When you use a condenser mic, it is necessary to use a pop filter. A condenser mic is usually much more sensitive than the dynamic mic.
Therefore, it is common for condenser mic to pick some amount of background noise.
Usually, a pop filter is placed several inches away from the microphone. There are so many low-cost pop filters in the market.
But if you want to get a professional recording result, it will be better to invest in a high-quality pop filter.
Shock Mount
The main use of microphone shock mount is to isolate the microphone from transmitting noise. Just like the name, it will protect your mic from shocks and vibration.
Also called spider mounts, shock mounts will provide basic protection to the microphone and prevent it from damage. Using shock mount can improve the quality of your recording.
Usually, a quality manufacturer will produce a dedicated shock mount for a specifics microphone model. This is important to allow maximum shock absorption of the noise.
So if you want to make a rumble-free recording, find a dedicated shock mount for your particular mic model.
How to Produce a Clean, High-Quality Audio
To produce a high-quality audio recording, there are some basic things that you need to ensure.
Record in Quiet Environment
If you are using a condenser mic to create the recording, then you need to make sure that you are in a quiet environment. These are essential requirements for this type of microphone.
Because condenser mic is very sensitive and able to easily pick the sound of your environment.
So if somebody around you is clapping or laughing, the mic will pick up the sound, even if the person is standing behind the mic.
The thing is, sometimes we don’t always notice the sound in the process of recording. But once you do the editing, you can hear a slight buzzing noise.
To determine if your environment is quiet enough for you to make a recording, take a walk around your room with your microphone.
Make sure you amplify the gain of your microphone before starting. Then listen to the result through your headphone. If there’s any interfering, you will be able to catch the sound.
Check the Condition of Your Cables
Other than checking the environment, you also need to check your cables shield and connector. It’s not necessary to buy an expensive cable, but you need to make sure that the cable has a proper connector and shielding.
Ensure that your cable is in good condition. If there’s any damage to the cable, it can cause sound pollution and affect the quality of your recording.
FAQ
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How can I reduce the background noise on my PC?
You can reduce the background noise on your PC by doing a little tweak on the sound setting. We have included the useful steps to do this early in this post.
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What software can I use to reduce the noise in the recording?
Yes, there’s some useful noise-canceling software that you can use to minimize the background noise of your recording. One o them is audacity. Just follow the step by step process above to reduce recording noise using audacity.
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How to stop mic from picking up background noise?
Other than using software, you also need to make sure that your record in a quiet environment. Use noise-canceling mic accessories for better results.
Verdict
You can stop your mic from picking up background noise in several ways. There are software-related enhancements like optimizing sound settings on your PC and using software to reduce the noise.
Other than for recording, there’s also software to reduce background noise for conferencing apps which is very handy during this situation.
You can improve the quality of your recording further by using microphone accessories. This is especially important when you are using a condenser mic to record the audio.
If possible, do the recording in a quiet environment. And don’t forget to check all the cables that are connected to your recording device.
