Remove background noise from a recording

Noise removal is always a trade: everything you take away takes a little of the voice with it. It is worth knowing both halves — the clean-up afterwards and the capture settings that mean you need less of it.

Clean up a recording you already have

1. Open the recording in the player.
2. Tap Noise reduction in the tool row.
3. Choose how hard to work — light for hiss, heavier for a constant hum.
4. Play the preview and listen to the voice, not the noise. If it starts to sound underwater or hollow, back off a step.
5. Save as a copy.

Stop it getting in

• Record in Meetings & lectures mode, which runs noise suppression, echo cancellation and automatic gain while capturing.
• Move closer. Halving the distance to the speaker helps more than any filter.
• Turn off the fan, the air conditioning and anything with a motor.
• Put the phone on a solid surface, away from a laptop's fan and out of a bag.

What can and cannot be fixed

• Steady noise — hiss, hum, air conditioning — comes out well.
• One-off noise — a door, a cough, a phone — is better cut out than filtered.
• Echo in a bare room cannot be removed afterwards. It is captured as part of the voice.
• A recording where the voice is below the noise cannot be rescued. Record it again if you can.