AuditionPerfecto

🔉 How to Remove Background Noise in Adobe Audition

Even a great recording can be ruined by background noise — computer fans, air conditioning hum, or street sounds creeping into your mic.
Thankfully, Adobe Audition makes it easy to clean up your audio with powerful noise reduction tools that preserve clarity while eliminating distractions.
In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to remove unwanted noise and produce crisp, professional-quality sound every time.

1. Identify the Type of Noise

Before removing noise, take a moment to identify what you’re dealing with. Common culprits include:

  • Constant low hum (from electronics or AC)
  • Hiss or white noise (from preamps or microphones)
  • Background chatter or environmental sounds

🎧 Pro Tip: Listen carefully with headphones and note the quiet moments — that’s where noise is most visible and easiest to isolate.

2. Open the Spectral Frequency Display

Switch to Spectral View for a clearer visual of the noise:

  • Press Shift + D, or
  • Click the Spectral Display icon below the waveform window.

You’ll see the noise appear as colored bands — low-frequency hums near the bottom, high-frequency hiss near the top.

3. Capture a Noise Print

A Noise Print tells Audition what you want to remove.

  1. Highlight a small section of your recording where only the noise is audible (no speech or music).
  2. Go to Effects → Noise Reduction / Restoration → Capture Noise Print.
  3. Click OK when prompted.

Audition now “learns” the noise profile from that sample.

4. Apply Noise Reduction

With the print captured, it’s time to clean the entire track:

  1. Select the full clip (Ctrl/Cmd + A).
  2. Go to Effects → Noise Reduction / Restoration → Noise Reduction (Process).
  3. Adjust these settings as a starting point:
    • Noise Reduction: 50–60%
    • Reduce By: 10–20 dB
    • FFT Size: 2048 (for detail)

Press Preview to hear the difference, then fine-tune until the background noise disappears naturally.

💡 Pro Tip: Avoid setting “Noise Reduction” too high — it can make your audio sound metallic or robotic.

5. Use Adaptive Noise Reduction (for Variable Noise)

If your background noise changes over time (e.g., a moving car or shifting environment), use Adaptive Noise Reduction instead.

  1. Go to Effects → Noise Reduction / Restoration → Adaptive Noise Reduction.
  2. Start with the Default preset, then adjust the “Noise Floor” and “Signal Threshold” to refine the result.

This effect adapts automatically throughout your clip, great for interviews or outdoor recordings.

6. Combine with DeReverb for Best Results

Noise and reverb often go hand in hand — especially in home studios.
After noise reduction, open Effects → Noise Reduction / Restoration → DeReverb and reduce the Amount to 10–20%.

This smooths out echo and makes voices sound closer and cleaner.

7. Batch Clean Multiple Files

If you have several recordings with similar background noise:

  • Save your settings as a preset in the Noise Reduction window.
  • Use Batch Process (Window → Batch Process) to apply it to multiple clips automatically.

Conclusion

With Adobe Audition’s Noise Reduction and DeReverb tools, you can turn noisy, amateur recordings into clean, professional audio.
Once you get comfortable with Noise Prints and Spectral Editing, background noise will never ruin a project again.

Next up: “How to Use the Essential Sound Panel for Quick Fixes.”

Ben Kemp
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