DEV Community

802.11 Savage
802.11 Savage

Posted on

Removing Background Noise from Pre-recorded Audio

So you recorded your podcast and everything went great! You open up your recorded files and notice some pretty nasty background noise. You have a few options on removing this noise:

  • Use some noise gates to get rid of it => Wont be able to remove everything, especially noises mixed with the voice
  • Manually edit it out => still doesn't work with mixed audio
  • cry

There are tools that work while recording (such as krisp.ai) but not once you have a recording.

...unless you use some audio wizard!

1. Download Loopback

From Loopback's website:

With the power of Loopback, it's easy to pass audio from one application to another. Loopback can combine audio from both application sources and audio input devices, then make it available anywhere on your Mac.

So using this app we will be able to send audio from one application (whatever is playing your video) as an input to another application (krisp.ai to remove the background noise)

2. Download krisp.ai

This app will enable use to us AI to remove the background noise from your audio

3. Set up Virtual Capture Device

Once you have loopback installed we will need to set up a virtual device. This will make the Descript Audio virtual device available to other applications.

Routing audio from Descript into a Loopback virtual device

4. Set krisp.ai's Input to Descript Audio

Now set krisp.ai to use our virtual device as its input. This will enable krisp to remove the audio from the other app once we start recording.

Make sure the switch the Remove Noise option on.

Alt Text

5. Use QuickTime for Capture

Now that we have our audio routing set up all that's left to do is actually capture it!

Open QuickTime and start a new audio recording (File => New Audio Recording).' Then using the dropdown select krisp microphone as the capture device.

Alt Text

6. Start Capture

Now all you have to do it hit the Record button in QuickTime and start playing you audio in whatever application you are capturing. While this is happening you won't hear anything come out of your speakers because QuickTime is capturing it.

Wait until your video is done and stop recording. You know have you audio with all the background noise removed! 🎉

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
josh_stewart_a943955aaaf6 profile image
Josh Stewart

I am a videographer/editor who was looking for a way to use Krisp to remove wind noise from some previously recorded video. Your article popped up in a google search and it appeared doable with only 6 easy steps.

Except there was basically zero instructions on how to do the things you wrote about. Oh yeah, just download Loopback and set up a virtual device to Descript Audio? Where is that in the Loopback app? Is that another app I'm supposed to have? What is it?

I spent hours failing to get this to work and I'm thinking maybe next time put some disclaimer in there in case people stumble on your article from different industries or who may not have the background to fully understand these 6 simple steps.

Collapse
 
atechguy profile image
aTechGuy

This is a really helpful post. I have found some more apps that helps to reduce noise during audio recording