Step 1: Accessing Your Zoom Recording

Before editing, you need to access your Zoom recording. Recordings can be stored locally on your computer or in the Zoom Cloud, depending on your settings during the meeting. To access your recordings:

• For Cloud Recordings: Log in to your Zoom account, navigate to the “Recordings” section, and you’ll find your cloud recordings listed there.
• For Local Recordings: Open the Zoom desktop client, click on “Meetings,” then “Recorded” to see a list of recordings stored on your computer.

Step 2: Choosing an Editing Software

Zoom does not provide built-in editing features for recordings, necessitating the use of external video editing software. There are several free and paid options available, including:

• Free Software: Open-source options like OpenShot or Shotcut offer basic editing tools suitable for most needs.
• Paid Software: More advanced software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro provides comprehensive editing features for professional-quality results.

Step 3: Editing Your Zoom Recording

After selecting your editing software, it’s time to edit your Zoom recording. Common editing tasks include:

• Trimming: Remove unnecessary portions from the start, end, or middle of your recording.
• Splitting: Divide your recording into separate segments for easier handling or to highlight different topics.
• Adding Text: Include titles, captions, or on-screen notes to enhance viewer understanding or highlight key points.
• Improving Audio: Adjust the audio levels, reduce background noise, or add background music to improve the overall listening experience.

Tips for Effective Editing:

• Keep It Simple: Focus on making your content clear and engaging without overcomplicating the editing process.
• Highlight Key Moments: Use effects or transitions to draw attention to the most important parts of your recording.

How Krisp Can Enhance Your Zoom Meetings

While editing can significantly improve the quality of your Zoom recordings, enhancing the audio quality during the meeting itself can reduce the need for extensive post-meeting edits. Krisp is an AI-powered tool that offers noise reduction, ensuring clear audio by removing background noise from your meetings. Here’s how Krisp can help:

• Noise Reduction: Krisp’s advanced AI filters out background noise from both incoming and outgoing audio, providing a distraction-free listening experience for all participants.
• Meeting Productivity: By improving audio clarity, Krisp helps participants focus better on the discussion, leading to more productive meetings.
• Easier Post-Meeting Editing: With clearer audio from the start, there’s less need to fix audio issues during the editing phase, saving you time and effort.

Integrating Krisp with Your Workflow:

• Before your next Zoom meeting, download and install Krisp from the official website.
• Select Krisp as your microphone and speaker in the Zoom audio settings to enjoy real-time noise cancellation.

In conclusion, editing your Zoom recordings can significantly enhance the value and clarity of your content. By following the steps outlined above and utilizing tools like Krisp, you can produce high-quality, engaging videos that meet the needs of your audience. For more information on improving your Zoom meetings, explore articles on Zoom noise reduction, transcribing Zoom meetings, recording Zoom meetings, and downloading Zoom recordings on the Krisp blog.

The post How to Edit a Zoom Recording appeared first on Krisp.

What is Noise Cancellation?

Noise cancellation is a technology designed to reduce unwanted sound. Whether it’s for enjoying music, enhancing concentration, or ensuring clearer conversations, noise cancellation makes it possible to tune out distractions and focus on what matters.

How Does Noise Cancelling Work?

Noise cancellation operates through different methods, each tailored to combat noise in unique ways. Let’s look at the main types:

Passive Noise Cancellation

Passive noise cancellation is about creating a physical barrier that blocks external sounds. This can be as simple as the design of over-ear headphones that naturally muffle noises. It’s straightforward and effective for blocking out general ambient sounds.

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)

Active noise cancellation takes a more sophisticated approach. It involves using microphones to pick up external noise and then producing a counter sound wave that neutralizes the noise. This “anti-noise” process is particularly effective against low-frequency sounds, such as the drone of an airplane engine. AirPods, for instance, have an Active Noise Cancellation mode. This relies on an outward-facing mic that analyzes and detects noise coming from the outside and an inward-facing mic that listens for and cancels noises that escape from the external mic.

Tip: We’ve got a step-by-step guide to help you decide which headphones are the right ones for your different use cases.

Adaptive Noise Cancellation

Adaptive noise cancellation builds on ANC by adjusting to changing noise environments in real-time. This ensures the level of noise reduction is always optimized, whether you’re in a quiet library or a noisy café.

Adjustable Noise Cancellation

With adjustable noise cancellation, you have the power to control how much of the outside world you let in. This feature is great for maintaining awareness of your surroundings while still enjoying the benefits of noise cancellation.

Transparency Mode

Transparency mode, sometimes called ambient mode, allows you to hear important sounds around you without removing your headphones. It’s a smart feature for those who want to stay connected to their environment.

Key Differences Between Noise Cancelling Methods

To give you a clearer picture, here’s a quick comparison:

Taking It a Step Further: Noise Cancelling Software

But noise-cancelling headphones don’t fix all of your problems. While you won’t hear your dog barking or electronic devices making buzzing sounds, others will.

That’s where new systems come in to end the noise problem.

While hardware-based solutions have significantly advanced noise cancellation, software solutions like Krisp represent a paradigm shift. Krisp utilizes artificial intelligence to identify and filter out background noise in real-time, offering a software-based approach to noise cancellation. This method is particularly useful in communication applications, ensuring clear audio transmission in calls and recordings, irrespective of environmental noise.

What Sets Krisp Apart

Krisp’s noise cancellation technology leverages deep neural networks to process audio in real-time, distinguishing between the human voice and background noise. Krisp’s technology stands out by not only removing incoming noise but also ensuring that the sound you transmit is crystal clear, free from any background disturbances. It’s a versatile solution that works across various platforms and devices, enhancing communication in professional and personal settings alike.

Here’s Krisp in action:

Features That Make Krisp’s Voice Clarity a Game-Changer

• Advanced Noise Cancellation: Krisp’s AI-driven technology filters out background noise in real-time, offering a superior noise cancellation experience.
• Echo Cancellation: It eliminates echo, making your calls sound more natural and clear.
• High Compatibility: Krisp works with a wide range of communication apps, making it versatile and easy to integrate into your workflow.
• User-Friendly: With a simple setup and intuitive interface, Krisp is accessible to everyone, regardless of technical expertise.
• Comprehensive AI Meeting Assistant: Alongside superior noise cancellation, Krisp provides automatic transcription, AI-generated meeting notes, and a recording feature, transforming it into an all-in-one platform for capturing and managing meeting details effortlessly.

Conclusion: Embracing the Quiet Revolution

Noise cancelling technology offers a respite from the noisy world around us. From passive methods to advanced solutions like Krisp, the ability to control what we hear is more accessible than ever. As we continue to navigate life’s soundscapes, technologies like Krisp ensure that we can do so with clarity and focus.

Whether you’re looking to improve your concentration or simply enjoy your music without interruptions, understanding how noise cancellation works, and exploring solutions like Krisp, can enhance your audio experience in profound ways.

For more insights into specific platforms, here are our best resources to help you get started with using noise cancellation:

• Why Noise Cancelling Headphones Aren’t Enough?
• Zoom Noise Cancellation Guide
• What is Acoustic Echo Cancellation?
• How to Suppress Background Noise in Microsoft Teams?
• How to Remove Background Noise in Google Meet
• How to Reduce Background Noise on Microphone

Frequently Asked Questions

The post How Does Noise Cancelling Work? appeared first on Krisp.

Communication is just as important in your work or business, as it is in your personal life and your relationships with your family, friends and loved ones. At any given point in time, it’s important that you’re passing the accurate messages across, it’s crucial that you’re not misunderstood. Hence, communication is key.

And in this day and age, you’ll have to agree with me that communication is majorly about phone calls (whether VoIP or otherwise), video conference calls, podcasts, video interviews, and whatnot.

But there’s one common thread that runs through every single one of these means of communication, and that is NOISE. Noise is like that vicious little mosquito that flies close to our ears and makes annoying hums that disrupt our focus. And just as we are about to squash it, it flies away only to return again and again and again.

There are countless tools, and noise cancelling software and apps that claim to be the best at noise canceling but in this post, let’s take a look at the top ones:

1. KRISP Noise Cancelling Software

In search of the best noise cancellation software? Look no further! Krisp stands out as a real-time noise-cancelling app for Windows 10, offering the capability to eliminate background noise during calls, setting it apart from tools that only address noise in recorded audio after the fact. A noise cancellation quality evaluation reveals that Krisp significantly enhances call clarity by actively suppressing background noises, making it superior to many alternatives. 

Basically, there are tools that help you remove noise from recorded audio (after the video has been recorded), but there is a serious shortage of tools that help you to remove noise in real-time such as while you are making or receiving a call. 

Here are a few features that set Krisp apart from others:

• Use with any communication app

It’s compatible with any conferencing, streaming, voice chat and recording apps that let you change audio devices. On the spot, it works with over 800 such apps, so you won’t have any trouble setting it up.

• Hear only human voice

With the help of machine learning, it identifies the voice of the person speaking into the microphone, locks on to it and removes every other sound in the surrounding that is not the speaker’s voice.

• Remove noise on both ends of a call

Krisp doesn’t just make you hear better by removing the noise from your caller’s end, it also removes the noise in your environment so that your caller can hear you better. So it works both ways your end and your caller’s end making it productive with bi-directional noise removal. So you can hear them as clearly and as noiselessly as possible even if they happen to be taking your call at an NBA game.

• Audio processing is done locally

Krisp also guarantees that all their audio processing is done locally, meaning your voice and audio data aren’t stored in or sent to any servers.

• Free to use

And in case you were wondering. Yes, it’s free. With the free plan, you get a set number of free noise cancellation minutes per day depending on your account type. For an unlimited usage, you can consider upgrading to a Pro plan. Check out the Krisp’s pricing plans for more information.

• It is currently available for download on Windows and Mac.
  

You can check out the demo below:

[demo-new]

2. IZOTOPE RX7

This is another noise cancelling software in the market, a lot of people go for it for its ability to pick up the most disturbing of audio recordings and transform them into clear and noiseless mirror images of what they once were.

It enjoys massive patronage from all across the board, from the newcomer to those who aren’t exactly newcomers but are also not veterans yet, to the industry veteran themselves.

It prides itself as being the tool of last resort, the one that solves the problems others could not.

The RX7 has an assortment of features that make it the foremost audio repair tool:

• Dialogue contour

With dialogue contour, you literally can improve the intonation in a spoken dialogue in order to polish and refine the recording.

• Dialogue de-reverb 

With the dialogue de-reverb, you can remove reverberant signal content from spoken dialogue thanks to a new machine learning-based algorithm that runs it. 

• De-rustle

As the name implies, de-rustle removes all forms of distracting rustle from your dialogue. An example of a rustle it removes is the noise from the body or clip-on microphone known as a lavalier microphone.

• Dialogue Isolate

This helps you to eliminate the background noise and allows your dialogue to speak more clearly.

• The Breath Control module 

Sometimes while recording, our breath is picked up by the microphone and that’s heard as noise. The breath control feature identifies and removes such noises in vocal recordings and dialogue.

• De-bleed 

The de-bleed feature prevents your audio entertainment from leaking out of your noise cancelling headphones.

There have been complaints that RX6 (the predecessor to RX7) might be problematic, in that it sometimes hangs when you click on quit and leaves you with no option than to force-quit it. There have been no such complaints about the RX7 (or at least not yet).

3. AUDACITY

Audacity is a free, open-source, cross-platform noise cancelling software that is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux computers.

Once downloaded, this noise cancelling software can be used by anyone looking to do some of the most basic editing and refining of their audio files, so whether you’re an entrepreneur just starting out and looking to jumpstart your own podcast or you’re a spoken word artist who’s looking to make a decent break into the markets. Audacity is your guy.

A few features that make it appealing are:

• Ease of use 

Although the user interface might be considered old and clunky by some, you can certainly rest assured that locating its important editing tools at the main menu bar is a breeze, the learning curve for this tool is pretty mild and gentle, as it’s easy to understand the way most of the controls work.

• Noise reduction

To get this app to do your bidding, all you need do is highlight the portion of the audio that you need to polish or edit, the tool then inspects the highlighted part and automatically eliminates any unwanted sounds or other distracting noises and just before it affects those edits, it allows you to check them with the preview function and decide whether or not you are satisfied with the edits as they are.

• Free

It’s free and requires no financial investment whatsoever down the road. So if you’re a newcomer and you’re confused by all the information about the so many different editing software you can potentially choose from, so much so, that you can’t seem to settle for one, then you might want to give Audacity a try first.

As it will get you familiar with the basics of audio editing and equip you with the knowledge that will enable you to make an informed decision about which audio editing software you should transition to when the time comes. Think of it as learning to drive a car, at a free driving school.

The tool does have its downsides, you might be unable to boot it up sometimes or it may crash while you’re using it at other times.

Also the recording you’ll get from this tool might not be as high-fidelity as those from other paid software in its category.

Read next: How to remove background noise in Audacity?

4. NOISE GATE Noise Cancelling Software

Why do we have gates? Pretty straightforward if you ask me, it is to restrict entry or exit. And in the case of Noise Gate, as the name implies, it does restrict entry or exit of noise.

it is one of the best noise cancelling software which when used with VoIPs like Skype can eliminate background noise, creating a much better calling experience for you whenever you make calls. 

The idea is for you to be able to call from just about anywhere. Even if that be on a matchday beside noisy NFL cheerleaders.  

• To work, this software routes audio through an audio input to an audio output, why? To be able to analyze the level of the audio and determine whether its average level is higher or lower than a certain threshold. 

If the audio level is found to be higher than the threshold, it is bypassed (allowed entry) however if it is found to be lower then the gate closes and the audio is cut (entry is restricted) all of these happens in real-time.

• To get more functionality you can decide to use the software with a virtual audio cable, as that enables it to act as a noise gate for either a sound input like a microphone or a sound output like speakers.
• Tools such as this can be used by people from all across the spectrum, whether they be the average Joe down the street who just wants to call his buddies and bring them up to speed with the latest happenings over the week, or the one who runs a call center with a lot of employees and noise is starting to become an issue.

One major drawback some users have complained about this noise cancelling software is that there are times when all of a sudden the software just stops working and then generates a pop-up, next thing you know it exits you from the page and leaves you wondering where you went wrong.

5. OCENAUDIO

This is an excellent free noise cancelling software that runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows. It is suitable for podcasters, spoken word artists or just about anyone looking to create audio entertainment from home.

It helps them to eliminate unwanted noise from their recordings. 

• Ease of use

It’s easy to make and edit recordings with Ocenaudio and unlike other tools, large files do not cause the application to hang, or crash.

• User interface

Ocenaudio has a pretty intuitive user interface that has a mild learning curve, all open files are arranged in a list on the lefthand side of the screen and you can click any one of the files to reveal its waveform.

• Usage

Just like Audacity, it allows you to left-click and highlight the parts of an audio file that you want to edit. Once highlighted you can click on the noise removal option to immediately eliminate all the noise from that section.

Also if you need to effect a similar change across different sections of the same audio file instead of doing it one after the other, Ocenaudio allows you to select all the affected parts at once and edit them all at the same time. It also allows you to work on different audio files at the same time.

The major drawbacks of this tool are that it is not open source. For a free tool of its stature, it’s better for it to be open source just so that more hands can tweak the codes and deliver even more powerful outcomes.

It also doesn’t currently support effect stacks.

6. ACCUSONUS ERA BUNDLE

This is another stellar noise reduction tool that runs well on Windows and Mac. It includes a set of excellent noise reduction plugins that helps you, in surgical terms, to take a scalpel and remove the numerous “bad cells” in your audio recording.

A few features that stand this tool out are:

• Noise remover 

With ERA noise remover you can easily reduce or outrightly remove unwanted noise from the air conditioner, fan, refrigerator or even the wall clock.

• Reverb remover

Reverb makes your audio sound as though it’s bathed in echoes. These echoes are usually caused by room acoustics. Reverb remover quickly removes the excess echo and put the spotlight back in the audio.

• Voice leveler

Sometimes during voice recording some gain inconsistencies appear. These are usually caused by the movement of the speaker or microphone or both but thanks to vice leveler you can remedy all that with a single turn of the knob.

• De-esser

Sibilant consonants (like “ch”, “z”, “s”, “sh” and “j”) are not very welcoming when heard in dialogues or audio recording. But not to worry, with the de-esser you can polish the audio and rid it of any signs of sibilance whatsoever.

OVER TO YOU

There is no perfect tool for the job. The tool to use depends largely on the nature of the job, and the budget you’re looking to work with.

Besides these tools, you can use AI noise-cancellation tools like Nvidia RTX Voice. The Nvidia RTX Voice plugin is an AI noise-cancellation tool tailored for Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards. Leveraging advanced AI capabilities, it excels at removing background noise from your video streams and calls.

Much like Krisp, RTX Voice establishes a virtual microphone and speaker system within your setup to effectively eliminate disruptive background noise.

Sometimes you might need more than one tool to get the job done and at other times you might just need one. So the key question is, what’s the job?

Have you ever used any of these pieces of software before? If yes, what was your experience with them? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section.

The post 6 Best Audio Noise Cancelling Software to Remove Noise appeared first on Krisp.

The goal of the test is to have objective comparative evaluations of Krisp standalone SDK and top competitors in the market – Zoom, Teams, Meet, Webex.

• For the sake of fairness and neutrality, we have collaborated with a 3rd party company, SigmaConnectivity Lab to develop the testing environment.
• The test conforms with MicrosoftTeams specification v4 chapter 4.4.1 Send Path – Send Quality In The Presence of Ambient Noise.

2) About SigmaConnectivity lab

SigmaConnectivity is a Swedish global tech-house that offers a wide range of design, testing, and measuring services for Audio products.

They provide access to their Anechoic and ETSI Rooms equipped with Head and Torso Simulator, Acoustic Simulations, and Field Measurements system that allows performing tests according to global standards.

Their Audio and Acoustics labs are capable to measure sound and vibrations and do various acoustic simulations. They also have the capability to design complex acoustic and audio systems in all kinds of products like mobile phones, loudspeakers, and headsets.

3) Test Setup

3-1) Devices under test

The following devices have been used for the testing.

• Headset: Jabra Evolve 40
• Headset: Plantronics Voyager Focus
• Personal Speakerphone: HP Firefly 15 G8 built-in Mic

3-2) Noises

Per MicrosoftTeams specification the noise types depend on the device type.

3-2-1) Noises for Headsets

• Mensa Binaural
• Work Noise Office Callcenter Binaural
• Male Single voice Distractor Binaural

3-2-2) Noises for Personal Speakerphone

• Mensa Binaural
• Work Noise Office Callcenter Binaural
• Male Single voice Distractor Binaural
• Cafeteria noise Binaural
• Train Station Binaural

3-3) App setup

For all the apps (except Krisp), we’ve made a call with the app and captured sending signal recorded from DUT on the Reference PC and used that as the processed file for 3QUEST evaluations. AGC was turned ON for each of the clients.

In order to get audio files with Krisp processing independent of the audio pipeline, we’ve used Krisp Test Noise Cancellation.

4) Test results

As per the specification, there are two quality levels – Standard and Premium which are defined based on minimal and average 3QUEST values of each use case.

For reference note that:

• N-MOS (Noise Mean Opinion Score) shows the quality of noise removal
• S-MOS (Speech Mean Opinion Score) shows the quality of preserved voice
• G-MOS (Global Mean Opinion Score) shows the overall quality including speech and background noise

Note that the difference of 0.2 points in any of the scores is perceived by humans and makes a real difference.

Below we’ll bring some conclusions based on the results. The processed audio quality depends on the captured signal, i.e. DUT. So we’ll analyze the results for each device separately.

4-1) Test results with Jabra Evolve 40

This chart illustrates the difference in the default settings of all the apps under test. It clearly indicates that with this device Krisp leads the list and has an impressive difference in all 3 scores.

• ahead by 0.15 points for G-MOS
• ahead by 0.2 points for S-MOS
• ahead by 0.13 points for N-MOS

It’s clear that there is always a tradeoff between the Noise removal and Voice keeping qualities of the models. Chat clients provide different options that allow controlling the NC level. When increasing the noise removal aggressiveness, there is always a decrease in speech quality. In the below chart, we bring comparative results for all available modes of the chat clients where we see this phenomenon – wherever N-MOS is increased we see a decrease in S-MOS value.

Nevertheless, Krisp leads the list and has the highest G-MOS score among the others.

Below is a detailed report per average and per minimum values for all the apps under test with the following color coding

• Green → Premium Quality
• White → Standard Quality
• Red → Below Microsoft spec standards

4-2) Test results with Plantronics Voyager Focus

The chart illustrating the difference in the default settings of all the apps indicates that Krisp has a huge in G-MOS, it’s:

• ahead by 0.4 points for G-MOS
• ahead by 0.13 points for S-MOS
• ahead by 0.13 points for N-MOS

Again Krisp leads the list of all possible modes of all apps.

Moreover, with the Plantronics headset, not all chat clients meet the minimum voice quality requirements, and Krisp is ahead here as well. You can see the overall distribution of scores in the table below.

4-3) Personal speakerphone: HP Firefly 15 G8 built-in Mic

The chart illustrating the difference in the default settings of all the apps in this case too indicates that Krisp has a huge in G-MOS, it’s:

• ahead by 0.42 points for G-MOS
• ahead by 0.14 points for S-MOS
• ahead by 1.08 points for N-MOS

Actually, the chart below shows that in the cases where the S-MOS value of other apps is close to Krisp’s result, N-MOS is extremely low (2.7-2.8) indicating a bad noise canceling quality of the model.

In fact, the built-in mic is the hardest case for all the NC algorithms, but again Krisp is the winner here. Interestingly Teams Auto outperforms Webex here which was in second place for both headsets.

5) Conclusion

What is clearly visible in all charts is that Krisp HQ is the absolute winner in all cases. Even Krisp LP outperforms the competitors – among all 3 devices and all test cases there’s only one case (min value with Built-in mic) where Krisp LP yields its honorable second place to Teams Auto with a difference of just 0.1 points in G-MOS and still outperforming the majority of others in both N-MOS and S-MOS.

The built-in mic is the hardest case for all the apps as there is lots of reverberation and noise in this case compared to headsets. And Krisp has a huge advantage in noise removal quality here, at the same time keeping good Speech quality.

In general, the performance of all the apps highly depends on the captured signal by the headset. And that’s the reason for the difference in results for Jabra and Plantronics. With Jabra, the results are flatter, which indicates a good quality of captured audio. Krisp’s advantage is in providing a similar NC experience with different devices.

ALL THE REFERENCE FILES AND RECORDINGS ARE AVAILABLE AND CAN BE SHARED UPON REQUEST – Krisp team

The post Krisp Noise Cancellation Comparison vs Zoom, MS Teams, Meet & Webex appeared first on Krisp.

And you’re definitely not alone in struggling to find quiet in your workday. In the 2019 Noise and Wellbeing at Work Survey, 65% of respondents said “noise in the workplace impacted on their ability to complete work in an accurate and timely manner,” and 44% said it hurt their overall wellbeing.

So what can you do to block out noise during your meetings? Below, we’ll go over noise cancellation solutions that will ensure your next call goes off without a hitch.

But first, do you actually need noise cancellation?

What Is Noise Cancellation? And Do You Even Need It?

Technically speaking, active noise cancelling occurs when a device picks up on background noise and then puts out certain frequencies that “cancel” the offending noise. These emitted frequencies are sometimes called “anti-sound.” That’s how Bose noise-cancelling headphones work; they actually create sound to block out sound.

But, in everyday conversation, people use “noise cancelling” to mean anything that eliminates or reduces sound, which could also be called soundproofing, such as when you put up double-pane windows to block outside sound. There’s also sound masking, such as when you play white noise to drown out disruptive sounds.

For the this article, we’ll consider any solution that minimizes or eliminates unwanted noise to be a “noise cancellation solution”—whether it’s technically noise cancellation or not. The goal here is to help you find ways to have productive online meetings without distractions!

How Do I Cancel Out Noise?

Before we dive into noise cancelling solutions for meetings (which can get pricey and complicated), let’s get the best part out of the way: There is an easy and free way to make sure your online meetings are noise-free: the Krisp app. With Krisp, you can get started with free noise cancellation minutes, and go unlimited by upgrading to a premium plan. Learn more about the available Krisp plans.

[demo-new]

Instead of shelling out money for fancy equipment or wasting time changing your office setup, you can have noise-free meetings in just a few minutes. And the best part is that Krisp works with more than 800 apps, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

Noise Cancelling for Meetings: 10 Solutions You’ll Wish You’d Tried Sooner

Noise Cancelling Headphones With Microphone

Did you know you can get headphones that have built-in active noise cancellation and microphones? An example of this is the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, which use a total of eight microphones inside and outside of the earcups that listen to your environment and then emit the exact frequencies that cancel unwanted noise, so you can hear your meeting attendees clearly. These headphones also pick up on your voice and suppress background noise so the attendees can hear you clearly too.

Check out our list of the top 7 noise cancelling headphones.

Noise Cancelling USB Microphones

Now, maybe two-way noise cancelling isn’t important to you. Maybe you just want to get rid of the sound coming from your environment so callers can hear you. In that case, you might want to invest in noise cancelling microphones that you can use during your meetings.

Yes, some microphones do come with built-in noise cancellation or voice-isolating technology, with varying levels of effectiveness. Just know that some of these microphones are quite expensive, up to the $400 range.

One fantastic candidate is the Shure MV7 USB mic. The MV7’s groundbreaking Voice Isolation Technology is unique in that it doesn’t use software algorithms. It’s surprisingly low-tech. As the Shure website explains: “It’s a fully passive system of carefully engineered airflow, which means it doesn’t need power to function.” 

It goes on to say, “At the core of the MV7 sits a cartridge built specifically for use at home, designed to keep as much room sound out as possible.” The MV7 particularly shines when it comes to low-frequency sounds such as air conditioners or traffic and is pretty good at reducing reverb too.

To use it for a meeting, plug the MV7 into your laptop’s USB port. Be sure to then adjust your web conferencing audio settings to the MV7 microphone as the input. You can then use the onboard speakers or plug in your headphones to listen to audio of the meeting.

Noise Cancelling Ceiling Microphone for Conference Rooms

Need a noise cancelling solution for your conference room? Here’s another cool innovation from Shure: the Stem Ceiling. It’s a sleek device that hangs from the ceiling and disguises 100 microphones. Incredibly, it has something called Audio Fencing that essentially creates an invisible bubble around you and other meeting participants sitting beneath it, blocking outside noise and keeping the focus on attendees’ voices. All that advanced technology costs a pretty penny. The Stem Ceiling has a price tag of $2,899. 

Noise Cancelling Software

Mentioned earlier, Krisp is noise cancelling software that eliminates background noise for you and for other meeting participants—even if they don’t have the software installed! How? The Krisp app eliminates noise as it enters your microphone and as it comes out of your speakers. That way, your meeting participants can hear you perfectly fine, and you can hear them as well. 

So how does Krisp work? Our technology uses Artificial Intelligence known as deep neural networks that have listened to thousands of sounds and learned how to identify background noise.

When you install Krisp on your laptop, during an online meeting, sound that enters your physical microphone is received by the Krisp app, which identifies and removes background noise before sending the audio to your communication app (such as Zoom). On the other end, the audio from your communication app is received by the Krisp app, which identifies and removes your attendees’ background noise before sending the audio to your physical speaker. All processing happens on your own device; audio data is never stored by Krisp or sent to any servers. 

The result? Crystal clear audio during your online meetings, even if you happen to work in a noisy environment.

Noise Cancelling Machines

If you want a broader solution that can cover an entire area, such as a home office, then you might consider noise cancelling machines. Just note that most of the time, when people talk about “noise cancelling” machines, they really mean sound-masking. But again, let’s not get bogged down in technical details. Below are some examples of noise cancelling solutions for your home or office.

Office Privacy Sound-Masking Machines

Office Privacy offers machines and DIY kits that provide sound-masking for offices of all sizes. By emitting what’s known as “white noise,” these machines effectively muffle the human voice, making conversations incoherent. Therefore, these sound-masking machines are particularly useful if you don’t want to be distracted by your office mates’ conversations while you’re on a call or if you want to ensure no one overhears your meeting. Office Privacy has noise cancellation solutions that range from a small $60 device made for your desk to a DIY kit made for coverage up to 1,800 square feet (price tag of more than $1,000) to complete sound-masking systems built for 72,000 square feet of office space.

Silentium Active Noise-Cancelling Systems

Silentium is true Active Noise Control (ANC) that uses algorithms that identify and eliminate up to 90% of sound in your environment, whether at home or in the office. Silentium solutions work best for low- to medium-frequency noise. 

Silentium offers two solutions:

• Quiet Bubble: The Quiet Bubble creates a zone of quiet around a particular area, such as around your headrest. Silentium offers a do-it-yourself kit that includes a sound generator, equalization, amplification, and adaptive sound processor that all work together to reduce sound by up to 10 decibels. There are two higher tiers than DIY, where Silentium designs solutions specific to your situation and environment.
• Quiet At-the-Source: As its name implies, At-the-Source cuts noise from within the offending object, such as a noisy HVAC system or home appliance. Like the Quiet Bubble, Silentium offers three tiers of solutions for At-the-Source, including one that is a DIY solution.

Silentium might be a good option for spaces where multiple people work, such as office buildings or coworking spaces, where everyone can enjoy the active noise cancellation.

Sound-Proofing, Acoustic Treatments, and Noise Reduction Solutions

So far, we’ve gone over noise cancelling solutions that create sound (either anti-sounds or white noise) to either eliminate or mask unwanted noises. Below, we’ll go over some solutions that technically fall under soundproofing, acoustic treatment, or noise reduction. Whatever their technical term may be, they’ll all help you have meetings with less noise.

Double- or triple-pane windows

If traffic on the street is the main culprit of background noise, then retrofitting your home or office with double- or even triple-pane windows is a long-term solution to consider. These windows have an extra sheet of glass that further blocks out sound from coming inside.

Soundproof window treatments

Another option for blocking out street sounds that doesn’t require replacing your windows is a soundproof window treatment. These range from thick, heavy blackout curtains to blinds.

Acoustic treatments on walls

Do you work in a big, empty space with high ceilings? Hanging soft material on your walls can help reduce room echo that can ruin your audio in an online meeting. There are specific devices made to do this, often called acoustic treatment or acoustic panels. You can hang these panels on your wall and enjoy better audio when you have a meeting. 

Soundproof flooring

To reduce room echo, consider laying more rugs around your home or office. The soft fabric will help to absorb sound so it doesn’t bounce around and disturb your meetings. 

If you live in an apartment and noise is coming from neighbors beneath you, you can take it a step further with special soundproof flooring that adds an extra layer between you and the noise-makers.

Noise Cancellation Solutions Do Not Have to Be Expensive

In this work-from-home era, background noise is inevitable—but thankfully, there’s plenty you can do about it.

From this article, you’ve seen that noise cancellation solutions can cost up to thousands of dollars and require intensive labor just to install them in your house or office. But, you’ve also seen that they don’t have to be expensive or complicated at all.

With Krisp, just $5 a month gets you unlimited noise cancellation and echo removal—without any of the labor or equipment. Installation takes just a couple of minutes, and after that, you don’t even have to think about it. Krisp works seamlessly with 800+ communication apps to bring you noise-free meetings—no matter where you work.

Get free noise cancellation for 240 minutes a week with Krisp.

The post Remove Meeting Distractions With These 10 Noise Cancellation Solutions appeared first on Krisp.

We’ve all been on a conference call where someone’s voice echoed during the meeting. Sometimes, it’s simply distracting and annoying, but other times the echo can be so bad that it’s impossible to understand the speaker. 

How many times have you had to interrupt a call to say, “Sorry, there’s a bit of an echo on your end!”

Speaker phones, conferencing devices, and laptops are offering better quality sound than ever, but they can still run into problems with echo on audio and video calls. 

That’s why Acoustic Echo Cancellation is so important. It’s a way of solving the issue and ensuring every call you have is clear and echo-free. Let’s take a look at this feature and why it’s a necessary part of any conference technology. 

What is Acoustic Echo?

First of all, let’s talk about what Acoustic Echo is and why it happens. This issue mostly occurs due to how sound is captured by the technology you are using to have the call.  

When you are on a call on speakerphone, the speech of the person you are talking to gets played out from the loudspeaker. This is referred to as “far-end speech.” Also, your own voice is captured by the microphone and sent across the network to the other end of the call. This is referred to as “near-end speech.” 

However, the microphones don’t just capture the near-end speech, they can also capture the far-end speech. If the far-end speech is transmitted to the other side of the call, the other person will hear their own voice, after a slight delay for network and processing. 

This problem often occurs when the caller is on speakerphone, and it’s possible to resolve the issue by using headphones. However, that’s not always the case. Acoustic Echo also can be an issue not only on speakerphones but also on mobiles and other handsets, due to the mechanical coupling of the earpiece speakers and microphones. 

This is the “echo” we are concerned with, and the length of the delay determines how annoying it will be. So, how long does an echo need to last until it becomes significantly disruptive to the phone call? 

Acoustic Echo vs Room Echo

When most people hear the word, “echo,” they immediately think of shouting into an empty room to hear their voice repeating back to them over and over again. And while this kind of echo, called room echo, is more familiar to us, it’s actually different than what you experience on a call or online meeting, which is acoustic echo.

How Much Echo is Too Much?

You might think that you’d be able to ignore a small echo, but it really does have quite an impact on your ability to listen to a call. Even a little bit of echo can be too much for most people to handle. 

How significant of a delay does there have to be for it to annoy the listener?

An echo with a delay of less than 40ms will most likely not annoy the listener. In fact, this type of delay is usually barely noticed. However, an echo of more than 40ms is enough to be perceived by the human ear. 

An echo of this length can make speech very difficult to understand. Over a full phone call, it can become incredibly annoying for all participants. Plus, it can result in callers not understanding each other and important information being missed. 

How Does Acoustic Echo Cancellation Work?

What do we need to do to cancel out the Acoustic Echo? Let’s take a closer look at how we combat this echo with Acoustic Echo Cancellation.  

In order to stop this from happening, you’ll need a mechanism that blocks the transmission of far-end speech back to the other party in the call. It should block any echoes, reverberations, and unwanted added sounds from the signal passing through the acoustic space. 

Acoustic Echo Cancellation works by creating a filter that can do exactly that. It’s based on an adaptive algorithm, which adapts this filter to model the acoustic path. The output of the filter is then removed from the acoustic path signal in order to create a “clean” signal output. Any echoes in the call environment are removed. 

For example, let’s say you’re having a call with someone, and you are on speakerphone. The filter will block out any echoes and reverberations in your space, so the person you are calling will only hear your voice. 

The filter can also detect any unrelated sounds in the acoustic path. For example, if music is playing in the near-end space, it can be picked up by the far-end signal. The adaptive filter will cancel the sound of the music. This allows for a clear conversation–even if there is music in the background. 

For instance, if you’re on a hands-free call in your car while music is playing, you won’t have to pause the music during the conversation. Both the music AND the voice of the other speaker will be eliminated from the signal that is being picked up by the microphone. At that point, only the local speaker’s voice is sent out on the far end. 

Krisp’s Acoustic and Room Echo Cancellation: Essential for Clear Communication 

If you’re trying to have an important phone call, whether it’s for work or to catch up with a loved one, you don’t want to be distracted by annoying echoes. That’s why it’s so important to avoid this echo with some sort of Acoustic Echo Cancellation. 

All video and audio conference technology needs to address this issue, or it is going to cause issues regularly on phone calls. 

In addition to making your calls clearer and easier to understand, having acoustic echo cancellation will save you a lot of money. You will be able to have excellent sound quality in any conference room, without having to invest in sound-absorbing construction and materials. 

The good news is that Krisp supports Acoustic Echo Cancellation! It works by not letting the echo captured by your actual microphone reach the other participants on your call. That means that you’ll be able to communicate online with total ease. 

Krisp removes room echo in real time during your call by having Room Echo Cancellation built right into our bi-directional Noise Cancellation. That means you can take a call in any room, even an echoey one, and you’ll still sound great. You’ll be able to take a call with multiple participants, all in different environments, with each one coming through loud and clear. 

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Still have questions about how Krisp’s Acoustic Echo Cancellation works? Feel free to contact us at any time in the comments section below or by contacting us at [email protected]i! 

The post What is Acoustic Echo Cancellation? appeared first on Krisp.

There has been a surge in working from home, placing the workforce in an entirely new circumstance: suddenly, office jobs are being performed in noisier or less specialized environments. Conferencing occurs in dining rooms, work calls happen on the living room couch, and telecommuting is all the rage.

With this change has come a new rise in technological savvy, as employees figure out how to navigate these circumstances professionally. Suddenly, noise reduction software, teleconferences, and reliable home technology is necessary.

A major source of interference in the workplace is background noise in audio or on calls, which can be especially prominent in the home. Background noises affect the quality of work, and can break your concentration.

Noise reduction software was not necessary for smartphones, but in many circumstances, using your laptop, for instance, can lead to a rise in background noises. Because dedicated microphones inlaid in a computer cannot be removed from the source of noise, downloading apps can help give you a clearer sound, so that you don’t get lost in background noises.

6 Best Noise Reduction Software

Krisp

Krisp gained a name for itself due to its versatility in the market of noise reduction software. Since it is able to work on over 800 different streaming, messaging, conferencing, and call apps, and works on both Windows and Mac systems.

This innovative app is useful for conference calls and audio recording because it removes noise in real time. By using an advanced deep neural network specialized to recognize background noise, Krisp clears background noise from both ends of the call, creating crystal-clear quality. Both features can work automatically and simultaneously. However, if for any reason you want to turn off Krisp, this can be done with the click of a button.

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When using Krisp, you can trust that your audio processing is safe, because the entire system happens from an app within your device. Straightforward and requiring no configuration, Krisp gets to work when you turn it on, removing background noise beneath a specific sound threshold on command. Krisp works on microphones, headsets, and speakers, and can be downloaded for free through their website.

Krisp also comes in different packages, providing more comprehensive services through their Pro accounts, as well as Team and Enterprise packages that prioritize businesses and call centers. 

The app is free to use, making testing Krisp accessible to any company or individual. The versatility of the app due to the number of applications it can work effectively on make Krisp a worthwhile noise reduction software to consider.

DSP Soundware

DSP Soundware, or the DSP Audio Filter, is a great choice for headphones users. Working primarily with Windows systems, it cancels outside noises.

Powered by an advanced algorithm that focuses on active audio files, DSP Audio Filter cancels interfering noises. Even in incredibly noisy environments, the DSP Audio Filter performs. This filter is not just useful for headphones, however, and is versatile enough to be used on microphones and speakers as well.

DSP Soundware takes noise reduction a step farther by directly enhancing the quality and intelligibility of audio. This noise reduction software provides several filters for you to choose from. These filters include two band pass filters, three notch filters, and two noise filters. This allows you total control over the sound that comes through your system.

However, the DSP system may fall short due to the amount of customization it requires. Where systems like Krisp automatically filter sound, you have to play with the DSP system in order to create the level of background noise that you want.

This gives you the benefit of not experiencing the some drawbacks, however, as the size of sound clips does not automatically cause them to become filtered.

If you are willing to put in a little bit of work and have a Windows machine, the DSP Soundware Audio Filter is a versatile and dependable noise reduction system.

NoiseGate, AKA NoiseGator

NoiseGate or NoiseGator is a system that filters background sounds and suppresses them in real time. Like the DSP system, NoiseGate allows you to choose the balance of noise yourself, increasing or decreasing clarity. If you are new to the noise suppression world, NoiseGate also comes with an automatic setting.

NoiseGate is what the name implies- a gate. As sounds are taken in through the microphone, if they are below a specific threshold, they are not allowed through the system. This app is lightweight, and can be configured onto a phone, a laptop, or any microphone or headphone system.

If you choose to configure the NoiseGate settings yourself, it may take a little bit of work in order to balance the outcome. The gate will block all sounds beneath a specific volume.

Opting into the virtual audio cable that NoiseGator provides allows you to gatekeep from your own microphone, or to connect your microphone to your speakers. Compared to the other noise reduction systems on this list, this is unique to the NoiseGate system.

Another unique quality of NoiseGate appears in the muting of most background noises when no one is speaking. If there is no sound input considered viable, NoiseGator severely restricts audio, cutting back on excess noise when they may be most evident. Microphone hiss is also cut back significantly by the design of the product.

Recording music is also prioritized by NoiseGator. It has become popular in the recording world as it can be employed to stop reverberation sounds on audio tracks.

Read next: Noise Gator Software Alternative for Noise Cancellation

SoliCall

SoliCall is a slightly different product on this list, as it was designed specifically for telephone calls. By using cloud-based echo cancellation, SoliCall minimizes background sound while simultaneously improving call quality. This noise reduction software works with a large number of systems, and was developed for call centers.

By using profile-based and reference-based technologies, it reduces the sounds present in the background. Their “Noise Firewall” system cuts ambient noises.

Profile-based noise reduction technology puts focus into the voice of the speaker, reducing the sounds of all other background audio clips. The speakers voice will be identified by the system and then separated from the audio signal for clarity.

Reference-based noise cancellation technology removes background noises directly, and can cut the sound of other voices in the background as well. This technology is perfect for call centers or other high-volume work settings where other conversations are occurring simultaneously and in close proximity.

If you are working from home and need noise reduction software solely for call purposes, SoliCall may be beneficial for you. SoliCall products, however, are priced competitively as the company also provides competitive customer service benefits.

Samson Sound Deck

This program is compatible with Windows and Mac systems, and works by improving quality and canceling repetitive sounds in the background of your audio. Inspired by military-grade communications technology in jets, Samson Sound Deck prioritizes dampening ongoing disturbances.

Samson Sound Deck works through a digital audio recording system, allowing you to save and export all of your recorded files. The multiple controllable filters offered by the app give you control of your sound.

If you need background noises such as typing, droning noises, car sounds, or clicking reduced, this can be achieved through employing separate controllable filters. Many of these filters can also clarify sound, so Samson Sound Deck gives you control over how much or little background noise can be heard.

Samson Sound Deck easily turns off as well.

The benefits of the Samson Sound system include its customizable programming. However, it is not as affective at blocking out sudden noises, or noises that are not repetitive or relatively constant in nature.

Samson Technologies is a steady provider of recording equipment, and many of their softwares and products are item-specific. When looking into Samson Sound Deck noise reduction software, be sure that you are picking a product that is compatible with items you have. There is a free downloadable version for the Samson Sound Deck available online.

Noise Blocker

The Noise Blocker program is compatible with Mac and Windows, and simplifies the noise reduction process through easy customization. Through using recorded samples, the Noise Blocker is able to silence specific audio files in a straightforward, no-nonsense fashion.

Much like NoiseGate, Noise Blocker works as an audio gate, preventing unwanted sounds from passing the microphone. To block a sound, simply record any noise that you wish to remove from your audio, and input it into the application. The Noise Blocker will then analyze all incoming noises against a database of blocked noises, and will mute unwanted sounds accordingly.

This occurs by Noise Blocker isolating the audio files you have requested to silence, keeping them from interfering with the rest of your audio input. Creating your blocked noise database is also straightforward. The simplified process

Overall, this is very effective for traffic sounds, keyboards, mouse sounds, and laptop fans. Noise Blocker also works effectively with all major communication tools. Because Noise Blocker does not have an automatic volume threshold or audio file size threshold, there is no chance that Noise Blocker will interfere with your voice as it monitors the audio. This is distinct from other products such as NoiseGate or Krisp.

The customizable quality of Noise Blocker does allow you to create a volume threshold, however. Another customization you can make through the Noise Blocker system is the release delay, where you can specify how many milliseconds your microphone stays on after the volume has dropped below your sound threshold.

Getting the most out of this app, however, may require a lot of work. Noise Blocker will not suppress an audio unless it has been inputted to the database or unless your settings are set to a volume threshold. So it may take a while for you to record and input all of the noises you’d want to minimize.

However, the clarity provided by the Noise Blocker is often considered to be worth the time investment. Your audio is clear, and if you want to make any changes to your sound database or threshold, the customization process is easy.

Downloading Noise Blocker costs about twenty dollars for a lifelong license, however there is a free trial available through the website. This free trial limits you to one hour of Noise Blocker access a day.

Noise Reduction Softwares Improve Your Audio

If you record audio in any type of noisy or unpredictable condition, consider downloading a noise reduction software. These softwares are available for every operating system, and range in prices from a free download to paid licensing with ongoing customer support.

Cutting back microphone static, computer fans, typing, clicking, or outside noises can make a drastic impact on the quality of your work. Silencing background sounds creates an air of professionalism, regardless of where you’re working from. Using these tools to silence echoes or reverberations can also increase the quality of any form of recording you’re doing, whether it’s a musical instrument or a plan.

The post Noise Reduction Software – 6 Best Apps for Audio Noise Reduction (Free) appeared first on Krisp.

Whether you are working from home and have consistent problems with being understood, you’re recording audio clips or music, or you’re just trying to have crystal-clear communication, there are several steps you can take to make sure that you are heard as well as possible. These range from physical to electrical to software or tools.

How can you reduce background noise on microphones? There are two solutions: you can change your setup, improve your hardware, or download additional software. Depending on what audio input device you are using to record sounds, you can minimize noise by adjusting the level of your microphone boost or ambient noise reduction inside of your laptop.

You can also remove the source of ambient noises, reduce exposure to outside sounds, adjust what is around your microphone, or use an appropriate noise reduction software. With a little bit of effort, you can figure out how to reduce background noise on a mic.

What Types of Background Noises Are There?

There are many typical types of background noises. These include:

• Impulse noises, including pops, that are typically high frequency but do not last long,
• Broadband noise, where a noise is carried over a wide range of frequencies, including buzzing,
• Narrow band noises, which are attributed to signal noises that remain steady
• Electrical noises, typically coming from the technology used to record the sound, and
• Irregular noises, which range from speaking to traffic to large sounds such as rumbling thunder and rain.

These sounds may all interrupt your recording or your conference. Learning to cope with them and develop an action plan in case of ambient noise is an important step in cleaning up your sound. 

How Can You Reduce Background Noise on a Laptop or Computer Microphone?

If you are using a laptop or desktop computer to record sounds, you can manually go into the device and control the level of background noise that your device picks up. Examples of background noise that you may find pervasive on microphone input from a laptop or desktop include keyboards, the laptop fan, clicking from the mouse, and more. How you adjust the ambient sound setting for your computer depends on your operating system.

If you have a Windows system, you can use the Control Panel to go to Hardware and Sound. After selecting sound, you will go to the recording section, then right click on the microphone bar. In the “properties” section, you’ll find the “levels” tab which will contain the Microphone Boost tool. To reduce sound, turn the dial on the microphone boost all the way down. Make sure to turn the microphone dial all the way up, as well.

After you’ve adjusted the microphones, go to the Enhancements tabs to make sure the acoustic echo cancellation box and the noise suppression box are checked. To check the noise, return to the recording menu and listen to the device.

If the computer you are using is an an iOS system, open system preferences and go to noise preferences. From there, check the box next to the Ambient Noise reduction tool. This dial can be moved up and down until you find a balance in sound reduction that makes you happy.

How to Use Software to Reduce Background Noise?

While adjusting the microphone settings is an option, there’s a better way to deal with and reduce background noise on microphone. Using a software application like Krisp for noise cancellation will let you to use any microphone and don’t worry about background noise.

Krisp uses the power of AI to recognize and remove unwanted sounds from your recordings. It adds a protective layer that filters noise and delivers a clean and crisp audio recording. Krisp seamlessly integrates with any communication and recording app that allows changing audio settings and selecting microphone.

The best part is that you can use absolutely any microphones and headphones for your recordings. Krisp works with all of them and will help you get a studio-like audio quality at your home.

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How Can You Reduce Background Noise on a Standard Microphone?

There are more factors that go into reducing noise on a standard microphone. These range from just outside noises that can be blocked by closing a door or a window to the electrical interference that can occur from chords.

To reduce ambient sounds while you’re using a standard microphone, do a quick sweep of your area. Turn off any fans, televisions, radios, or audio output systems that may be picked up by your microphone.

Make sure that any nearby devices aren’t causing interference as well. Another problem that you can solve by looking over the room quickly is that of electrical cables running over your audio input cables. This can create an electromagnetic force that interferes with the audio cable, causing interference.

By speaking directly into the microphone clearly, you can create an audio track in which you can reduce the ambient noises manually through a program later, if you desire to do so. If you also make sure you’re using the right form of microphone for your purpose, you can decrease ambient sounds.

Laptop microphones, for example, are fixed into another piece of technology, which can cause interference. General microphones may also not be sensitive enough for recording music, for instance, as well. By making sure your microphone is suited to your needs, you can control the level of excess noise.

Is Your Microphone Prone to Background Noise?

Sometimes, you truly need increased sound quality. If you find that you are not as crisp or clear as you would like, or if you are having problems cutting ambient noises, you may want to try investing in a higher quality mic.

Mic stands, mics, and a pop filter can be bought all together for under $100, meaning a small investment can make a big difference on your sound quality. This difference is typically in clarity of voice or in background noise.

How Can You Reduce Ambient Noise on a Headset or Headphones Mic?

If you are using a headset or headphones microphone, you can take several steps to reduce any background noise. Check to make sure that your headphones are fully plugged into their port. If the headphone jack is exposed, you could experience large amounts of ambient sound.

Using headphones as a microphone does not mean that the headphones can now be plugged into the audio jack. Make sure that your headphones are plugged into the headphone jack instead of the audio jack.

Say you plug your headphones into the headphone jack and the noise persists. If this is the case, try switching the power socket you are using. Some power sockets produce more feedback than others, and while all electrical circuits make some level of noise, some can be far louder than others.

When you are using a laptop and headphones, you may be experiencing audio interference if your laptop is plugged in. Unplug the laptop and allow it to work off batteries. Taking this step reduces the electronic noise, and therefore should remove some of the ambient noise.

How to Further Reduce Background Noises

If there is not a physical or electrical change that you can make to reduce your background noises with your microphone, you can take another step and download a noise reduction app. These are compatible with many different operating systems or recording systems, and can be downloaded for free as well as bought for a more comprehensive package.

There is no single sound editor that has perfect results for everyone, so you will need to determine what you are looking for and then try out the system. The differences in the systems come down to the programs being in two veins. The first is that the system allows you to edit out background sounds after you have recorded them. The second allows you to block the background sounds from being recorded in the first place.

If you have an iOS system, you already have GarageBand, and can use their sound editing to remove background noises from your recordings.

Ambient noises can be removed by editing the video or audio package, or by using software to silence the sounds. Please be sure when you download a tool to help with ambient noise that you are not accidentally downloading a noise reduction tool for photography.

Sometimes, you may need to try moving the furniture to get the results you want. Moving your microphones away from keyboard sounds, fans, air conditioning units, and other noise-prone tools will improve your ability to record without unwelcome ambient sounds. Closing windows and doors is a fundamental step as well. To further enhance your audio quality, consider adjusting your microphone’s obs noise gate settings to effectively remove unwanted background noise during recording or streaming.

Are There Tools to Stop Background Noises?

There are several major players in the noise reduction software department. The first and most prominent one is Audacity. This free online tool can be downloaded and allows you to remove the ambient sounds from your recordings. Krisp, Wavosaur the Samson Sound Deck, Wavepad and NoiseGate, as well as many others, can be downloaded in order to remove background sounds from your audio.

Wavosaur and Wavepad have similar functions to GarageBand or Audacity in which you can edit out ambient noises, while Krisp, the Samson Sound Deck, and NoiseGate function by blocking ambient noises from entering the recording.

Read more:

8 easy steps to improve voice quality in Audacity

How to remove background noise in Audacity

Try a Ground Lift Adapter

If you are using equipment for recording not within another device, such as a stand-alone microphone, you can invest in a ground lift adapter.

A ground lift adapter removes the equipment sound and shielding conductors from the cables that connect to equipment that produce audio. This opens the connection, and reduces electric hums and buzzes. This does not work in all circumstances, and can be dangerous. Using an improper ground lift adapter can injure you or your microphone, and can be a relatively shocking experience.

At the worst-case scenario, a fault can develop in some forms of equipment. When these faults occur, they can energize the equipment. This means that instrument strings or the microphone could electrocute you or the performer. With this level of safety hazard in mind, it is wiser to not engage with ground lifting unless you are a professional or are able to monitor the fault situations of your equipment. This is not suggested for your standard person.

Block Out Air Currents or Stabilize Your Equipment

Microphone attachments can block out the wind to prevent specific kinds of background noises that occur from small movements or air rushing over the microphone. These can be attached directly to the microphone, and can minimize the sounds of breath, wind, and small ambient noises.

These attachments can be pricy, however, if they are high quality. If they are incorrectly fitted, they may also create more noise than was previously present. Paying attention to size, shape, and brand of microphone can help prevent you from making this mistake.

If you are recording from a device that plugs in, such as a laptop, one way to reduce ambient noises is to make sure your power adapter is functional. If your power adapter is abnormal or aged, it may create a stronger background noise.

Another form of noise that can occur to a microphone is when vibrations shake the microphone stand, causing interference and audible noises. By investing in a shock mount, you can minimize the effects of vibrating on your recordings.

Other Factors That May Affect Your Recordings

There are other factors that may provide background noises in your recording. While downloading software, changing your hardware, or moving the recording equipment away from sources of ambient noise may greatly reduce most background noises, each performer, room, and microphone will react differently due to various sensitivities.

It is important to understand that every time you change one of these factors, you may have to adjust your recording setup to keep ambient sound off of your tracks. Irregular noises, such as traffic and people talking, may also increase or decrease based on the day. Limiting ambient noises is an ongoing process that one must commit to if they are attempting to reduce them in recordings.

By paying attention to your sound engineering, you can prevent background noises from affecting your recordings, video conferences, or professional calls. By paying attention to your physical surroundings, electric outputs, and equipment, you can get as clean a sound as possible.

The post How to Reduce Background Noise on Microphone appeared first on Krisp.

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Same thing happens when your water gets polluted by harmful substances.

But noise isn’t something a lot of people pay attention to simply because, in the short run, it doesn’t appear to be as harmful as these other pollution sources we run away from.

To bring you up to speed with the amount of havoc that noise can wreak.

Here are some of the facts and statistics about noise:

HEARING LOSS

1. Jazz Concerts, Traffic Noise, Explosive noise from quarry sites you name it,  if you get exposed to such noises for an extended period of time on a regular basis you stand a risk of losing your hearing slowly but surely. Sad part is: it’s irreversible once hearing is lost, it’s lost forever.

The scientific name for it is Noise Induced Hearing Loss NIHL. According to Dangerous Decibels, Out of 40 million cases of hearing loss that Doctor see in America 10 million of those are caused by Noise.

2. In America, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) about 30 million people are exposed to hazardous sound levels at their workplace every year.

Think about jobs that require working with high impact processes and you’ll start to get the picture. Jobs like flying commercial jets, or simply working in the airport, jobs like manufacturing, mining, construction and the military.

3. A 2017 report by the Centers for Disease Control CDC, America’s Health Protection Agency, has revealed that among all noise-exposed workers, 19% have hearing impairment.

It proceeds to describe hearing impairment as “hearing loss that impacts day-to-day activities, such as making it difficult to understand speech.”  The agency also revealed that, “some industry sectors such as Mining and Construction have even higher percentages of workers with hearing impairment.”

4. Hearing health Foundation reports that Hearing loss is the 2nd most prevalent health issue globally.  To help put it in a clearer perspective, the number of people with hearing loss is more than those living with Parkinson’s, Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and Diabetes combined.
5. Based on reports by the NIDCD Epidemiology and Statistics Program, roughly 10 percent of the U.S. adult population, or about 25 million Americans, has experienced tinnitus lasting at least five minutes in the past year.
6. In a pretty surprising study, Psychology Today reports that the leading cause for hearing loss is not aging, it’s noise. The elderly are at an even higher risk of further hearing damage caused by noise pollution. This is corroborated by a separate Hearing Health Foundation report that says 20% of teens ages 12-19 have reported hearing loss due to loud noise.
7. And to wrap this section up, Men are almost twice as likely as women to have hearing loss among adults aged 20-69, that’s according to JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery Journal.

CHILDREN

1. Studies published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, AAP, reveal that exposure to excessive noise during pregnancy may result in high-frequency hearing loss in newborns, and may be associated with prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation, that’s before the baby is born.

After birth, exposure to noise in the NICU, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit may result in cochlear damage, and might disrupt the normal growth and development of premature infants.

2. And even after infancy, noise pollution still poses a huge threat on children. According to a report in the Psychological Science journal, researchers studied children living close to an airport in Munich Germany for 24-months. And they came up with the following results:

They found, long-term memory, reading and speech perception had been impaired in the children exposed to noise near the airport. Furthermore, the reading and memory deficits in this group were more pronounced eighteen months after the opening of the new airport than after six months, suggesting a cumulative effect.

HEALTH

1.A 2018 study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, showed that people who are constantly exposed to noise for an extended period of time stand a risk of developing one or more of coronary artery disease, arterial hypertension, stroke, and heart failure.

A similar study, revealed that long-term exposure to traffic noise may account for about 210,000 coronary heart disease (CHD) deaths in Europe every year– that’s about 600 deaths per day.

2. 50% of teachers have experienced damage to their voice from talking over classroom noise. A study of teachers published in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research in 2004, revealed a pretty strange side-effect of noise pollution in classrooms. 50% of teachers have suffered irreversible damage to their voices. Why? Since teachers typically use their voice as the primary mode of instruction, When the environment gets noisier, they tend to speak louder and their condition worsens over time.

PRODUCTIVITY

1. A study conducted by Sound Agency found that when an office implemented sound-masking technology, there was a 46% improvement in its workers concentration.
2. Productivity is greatly affected by noise pollution, and it doesn’t take much. Just the sound of someone talking nearby as you work can diminish productivity by up to 66%. This was revealed in a 1998 study published in the British Journal of Psychology. Researchers found that when employees heard conversations around them, they got distracted and were less able to perform their duties

Note: There are ways to increase productivity and fight noise on your own. You could use productivity apps to help organize your work schedule and efficiency. You can also conduct remote meetings with the help of noise cancelling apps which will help remove background noise. One such noise cancelling app designed for conference calls is Krisp – it removes noise from both sides of the call in real time.

FINANCES

1. Small reductions in noise can become major economic savings for the US. A 5-decibel noise reduction would reduce the prevalence of high blood pressure by 1.4 percent and coronary heart disease by 1.8 percent. The annual economic benefit was estimated at $3.9 billion

OVER TO YOU

Obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list of the all the stats and facts about noise. These few ones are just meant to jump start the conversation.

So, which of the stats did you find most relatable?

The post Top 14 Interesting Scientific Facts About Noise appeared first on Krisp.

Ubiquitous Noise

Life is full of noises and you can’t always choose which ones you want to hear. When something is happening before you that you do not want to see, you can just close your eyes.
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However, if something you don’t want to hear is making a noise, you cannot just close your ears. Yes, you can always put your fingers in your ears or place your hands over them, but this will not reduce the noise completely. The problem with that is that some of the noises you don’t want to hear can cause you health issues.

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Noise and Stress

The biggest issue of noise and health comes in the form of stress. The thing is, noise arouses the human senses and so can easily distract. Being distracted from a stressful task at hand, in turn, causes further stress.

Noise pollution, as such, can have a negative impact on the human nervous system as the body is overwhelmed with the confusing array of incoming sounds. The brain is always able to hear, yet humans have evolved in such a way with our auditory capabilities designed to operate within natural environments. These environments are generally less audibly overwhelming.

Conclusive Evidence

Reports like one from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that millions of lives are lost annually due to noise pollution. In fact, the WHO’s study puts the figure at one million lives lost annually due to traffic-related noise. Obviously, traffic noise can be distracting and distressing.

This can lead to confusion and accidents on the road which ultimately lead to death. Other studies show that a quarter of all Europeans (125 million people) experience noise levels above 55 decibels on a daily basis and this is generally considered a level which can interrupt sleep.

Urban Noise Pollution

Following industrialization, people poured into the cities and with industrialization came heavy, noisy industry. People residing in cities actually become accustomed to the noise around them, acclimatizing to it. Although, urban dwellers often employ certain instruments and tools to reduce the noise around them.

Whether this be noise cancelling headphones for themselves, or noise cancelling apps for those that they speak with via mobile devices.

In fact, you will notice the great many people in our cities with earphones in, drowning out external noise. Perhaps this is just the natural reaction to the noise pollution that is endured on a day to day basis.

Irritation

There are studies which show that increasing noise in our daily lives is leading to higher blood pressure, which can lead to life-threatening issues such as heart disease and stroke. There are even studies which have shown that loud noises can lead to heart attacks.

This isn’t hard to believe as loud noises can get our heart racing and cause people to jump out from their skin (not literally, of course!). Noise exposure on a constant basis, such as that from a crying baby can really irritate and cause sleep problems.

In short, noise is a harmful aspect of modern life. We can try to avoid it and create quiet spaces for ourselves where we can, but what if our workplace is the source of the most harmful noises?

Noisy Professions

There are some professions in which noise exposure is unavoidable. We’ve all read stories about roadies on rock band tours becoming deaf from exposure to sounds of deafening volume. But also think about those working on airport runways, motorways or building sites.

Of course, nowadays we have some really great equipment to reduce the harmful effects of the noise emitted by machines, such as earplugs, or special headsets that reduce noise. But what if you need your ears to work and yet work in a noisy environment.

Deafening Call Centres

One noisy profession that doesn’t come immediately to mind when compiling a list of jobs which can harm hearing is call centre operator. A study from 2018 entitled “Noise exposure and hearing status among call center operators” published by Noise and Health, showed the hearing of workers in such environments regressing the longer they worked in call centres.

The participants in the study reported their hearing becoming gradually impaired. Some reported complaints that they had difficulty comprehending what someone was saying when they were whispering, what others were saying in noisy environments, and still others complained of tinnitus after work.

Tinnitus: a ringing noise in the ears or head, usually after experiencing loud noises.

NIHL

There is some background noise that can be so loud that it can deafen. This is caused by Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL), which can occur from being in near proximity to loud bursts of sound, such as an explosion. This extreme volume can rupture the eardrum and cause permanent deafness.

So how can you protect yourself?

As mentioned above, you can buy yourself some earplugs. As I wrote in a previous article about protecting oneself from noise pollution, there are other methods in which you can reduce noise for yourself and others around you. One of the solutions for yourself was to keep a set of earplugs on your keys so that they are always handy.

A good point of note here is when you are out on a weekend in a noisy club or concert that you can ask for earplugs.

Having a dedicated space where you can cut yourself off from the noise of city life can really be helpful. You could soundproof a room in your house or invest in double-glazed windows to turn your home into a noise-free home.

However, total silence should also be avoided as we are not built to live in environments where sound is totally absent. Presumably, this is why sleep aids generally have natural, soothing sounds.

The main idea to prevent the harmful effects of noise pollution is to turn the volume down on life, not mute it.

The post Negative Effects of Background Noise on Health appeared first on Krisp.