How to Clean Up Audio from a Phone Recording: Step-by-Step Guide

Mobile phones have evolved so much that the built-in microphones are better and better with each release; many hardware and apps include noise cancellation, AI to enhance audio recordings, and basic audio editing tools. You can basically turn your phone into your pocket recording studio.

However, regardless of how good your recording device is, you'll always need to clean up your audio files, be it because of that unexpected barking dog, traffic noise in the background in outdoor recordings, hisses from interference or electronic devices, and hums from AC and fridges in home recordings.

In this article, I’ll show you a few methods for cleaning audio recordings, list the best apps for removing audio background noise, and provide tips and mistakes to avoid when recording and cleaning up audio.

Pick your worst phone audio recording, and let’s get it fixed!

How to Clean Your Audio from a Phone Recording

Start by applying an EQ and compression to your audio. Each digital audio workstation (DAW) comes with EQ and compression plug-ins that can enhance the quality of your audio recordings; with an EQ, you can decrease unwanted frequencies while boosting the sounds you want to highlight, which will improve your mixes’ balance.

That said, there are a plethora of applications, tools, and software that help you clean your audio recordings. Some applications are specific for a type of noise, and others feature comprehensive tools to handle multiple noises.

The first thing to do is to identify the type of unwanted noise present in your audio recording to clean up audio recordings better. We’ll look at a few methods to enhance audio quality and remove background noise, echo, reverb, and other unwanted sounds.

CrumplePop Voice Enhance

Our first method is CrumplePop Voice Enhance, an advanced AI-powered audio plug-in that quickly tackles multiple issues to improve audio quality and is supported by most digital audio workstations (DAWs). It works to remove background noise, improve clarity from interviews and Zoom recordings, and fix the poor quality of built-in microphones.

1. Download and install CrumplePop, then launch your DAW. Import your phone recording to your project and drag it to the timeline.
2. Search your VST/AU plug-in library for CrumplePop Complete and drag the plug-in to your audio clip. In some DAWs, you can add Voice Enhance to the whole track to apply it to multiple clips in the same track. This will simplify the process if you have a phone recording split into various clips.
3. Click the VoiceEnhance plug-in to launch the UI.
4. Select the ML model according to your environment in the Mode dropdown menu. You can choose outdoors, indoors, or noisy indoors, and Voice Enhance will analyze and automatically improve your audio according to the ML model selected.
5. Use the Strength slider to adjust the amount of the effect applied to your phone recording until you find a good result.
6. The Refine setting can help you reduce audible artifacts that may appear after the effect is applied and fine-tune the result. Adjust Refine only if you find too much distortion. Otherwise, try reducing the Strength slider.
7. Adjust the Output slider to balance the output volume if it’s too low or too high aafter Voice Enhance is applied.

• Adobe Audition

  Our second method is popular among podcasters, vloggers, and content creators. Audition has a diagnostic tool and noise reduction effects to fix distortion and remove background noise. The noise reduction effect can remove tape hisses, mic noises, hums, and any constant noise.

  1. Import the audio from a phone into Audition and listen to the audio file to identify the range you want to clean.
  2. Go to Effects > Noise Reduction/Restoration > Noise Reduction.
  3. Select the range in the wave editor to tell Audition what to consider noise and click “Capture Noise.”
  4. Adjust the noise reduction amount in the settings below the graphic. Play the audio file to listen to the result, and increase or reduce the noise reduction effect until the audio is clean.

  Under the Noise Reduction/Restoration menu, you can explore other noise removal tools, such as DeReverb, DeNoise, Hiss Reduction, and Click/Pop Eliminator, with different audio recordings with background noise.

• Audacity

  Audacity is an excellent tool for both beginners and experienced audio editors. It's free, open-source, and cross-platform. Second, it features a user-friendly noise reduction tool that performs remarkably well and is easy to set up.

  1. Open Audacity and import your audio file. To avoid irreparable damage to the source file, make a copy of the original file before importing the file.
  2. Listen to the audio file and observe where the background noise is. Zoom in and out to get a better look at the waveform.
  3. Select the part of the clip where background noise is present, preferably in a part where you're not speaking, to generate the noise profile.
  4. Go to Effect, select Noise Reduction, and click "Get Noise Profile." The noise profile will be generated and returned to the main screen.
  5. Go to Effect > Noise Reduction again, and now check the part below. Adjust how much noise reduction to select the volume reduction.
  6. Adjust Sensitivity to apply noise reduction.
  7. Preview your audio and adjust the settings until you hear clean audio.

• iZotope RX

  If you want to work with more advanced noise reduction software, iZotope RX is one of the best for complex background noise removal. It has a steep learning curve and is harder to master than the other methods, but it can save many noisy audio files.

  1. Import the file for audio cleaning into the iZotope RX app. If you use the plug-in version, import audio files into your DAW.
  2. Select the module to use from the list. If you are using iZotope RX as a plug-in, each module will appear in your VST/AU plug-ins folder starting with RX.
  3. One effective option for cleaning audio recorded from a phone is RX Dialogue Isolate, which enables you to remove reverb and noise from your recordings. However, it is only available in RX 11 Standard and Advanced and RX Post Production Suite.

  RX offers audio cleaning modules, including Dialogue Isolate, De-Plosive, Mouth De-Click, De-Noise, De-Reverb, and more. Choose the appropriate module for your specific noise type and adjust its settings. You can preview the results before rendering the module.

  When dealing with problematic audio files, it’s better to render multiple instances of a module with lower settings rather than trying to fix the audio in one attempt with higher module settings.

Best Background Noise Removal Apps

We already looked at the steps to remove background noise using different methods, but now, let's overview some other popular options for noise removal apps.

• CrumplePop

  

  CrumplePop is a comprehensive plug-in with tools for specific noise types. It features Voice Enhance to improve your vocal audio quality and remove unwanted sounds instantly, noise reduction tools for echo, mic bumps, hisses, hums, rustle, wind, traffic, and clipping, and an audio leveler tool. CrumplePop plug-ins use in-house AI models that process your audio locally in real-time, protecting your privacy and allowing you to work offline.

• Adobe Audition

  

  As with many other Adobe apps, Adobe Audition is bundled with the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps subscription or available as an individual subscription. It has many noise reduction tools, such as DeClipper and DeHummer effects, to fix distortion and background noise. Adobe Audition is only available as a subscription but offers a 7-day free trial.

• Audacity

  

  Audacity is the best entry-level audio editor and noise-reduction software. It is free for multiple platforms, light with a friendly user interface, and has a big community with many tutorials available to clean up audio, edit podcasts, record, and export files. Audacity's noise reduction tools can get the job done for free, but it also provides VST support to work with more advanced noise removal plug-ins. The only downside is that it's destructive software, meaning all changes are made directly to the file. However, you can avoid this by working with a copy of the original file.

• Adobe Podcast

  

  Adobe Podcast is an AI-powered tool for recording, fixing, and enhancing audio for podcasts and voiceovers in your browser. It's super user-friendly, and you can access it from mobile devices, including your mobile phone. The downside is that it only works online, and you must upload your files to the cloud for processing.

• iZotope RX 11

  

  iZotope RX is a studio-quality noise reduction software top professional audio editors use. Its modules are intuitive, but you require technical knowledge and skill using EQs and reading the spectral editor to achieve the best results. Its main features are the Dialogue Isolation module, which allows you to fix audio in real-time, repair assistant, music rebalance, spectral de-noise, and loudness optimization. You can get a 10-day free trial of RX to explore and see if it suits your needs.

Things to Avoid When Cleaning Up Audio

Now, let's discuss some do's and don'ts when cleaning up audio recorded from a mobile phone.

• Prevention is Better Than the Cure

  Most recording issues can be avoided before the recording process. If you must record outdoors, try to find a quiet place far from parks, schools, and busy streets. Or find a time of day when background noise will be minimal.

• Microphone Placement

  When using your mobile phone to record audio, place the microphone close to your mouth. Recording from a phone using an external microphone will provide better-quality audio with less distortion. If needed, you can attach a lapel microphone to your shirt collar and conceal it.

• No Soundproofing in the Recording Room

  When you record at home or in a designated location, soundproof the room to prevent sound from bouncing off other surfaces and being captured by your microphone.

• Overuse Audio Cleanup Tools

  It can be tempting to apply the maximum noise reduction to an audio clip to remove all the noise, but most of the time, doing this will make your audio sound unnatural and robotic. It's best to start slowly with a light approach and to use several passes of the effect. Remember that nothing is perfect, and keeping some noise to maintain quality is usually better.

• Not Using the Right Tools for the Right Type of Sound

  Don’t necessarily try to fix everything at once with one single tool. Most software, like CrumplePop, Audition, and RX, offers multiple tools to target specific audio-related issues. Try general noise reduction, and if that does not work, experiment with the others.

• Rushing the Cleanup Process

  Don’t rush the process. Audio cleanup is an arduous task, and even with tools that streamline it, you still need to listen and re-listen to get the best version of your audio recording.

• Not Backing Up Audio Files

  For every major change you make, save a copy of your project or audio file, especially when working with destructive software like Audacity. Even with non-destructive software, backups are recommended as reference tracks to listen to the original noise and compare it with the edited audio.

• Not Listening Before Delivering

  Listen to the final audio before delivery. Use different audio devices to catch things your audience can hear on other devices, such as mobile phones, computers with built-in speakers, earbuds, and car speakers.

Final Words

So, what does background noise removal sound like? Simply put, audio cleanup is the number one step in most audio post-production; without it, the rest of the process won't improve your audio and may worsen it. Starting with polished and clear audio will enhance intelligibility and increase engagement with your audience with pleasant audio. Always aim to achieve the best audio quality, but keep a balance between the original and processed audio, and don't forget to back up your audio files.

FAQ

Difference Between Noise Cancellation and Noise Suppression?

Noise cancellation uses inverse soundwaves to block environmental sounds. Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) is usually found on headphones that use microphones to capture sound and ambient noise. Then, it generates an inverse soundwave to cancel each other, leaving only the desired sound audible. Noise cancellation works best in environments where constant noises like hums and hums are in the recording room.

Noise suppression reduces background noises by filtering the audio signal. It analyzes the audio signal, determining the primary sound and background noise and removing the noise. It's best used for loud noises during an audio recording, such as traffic, a baby crying, cell phone rings, and shouts.

Why Does My Microphone Pick Up So Much Background Noise?

If you're recording all surrounding sounds equally, you're probably using an omnidirectional microphone. However, you must be aware of the different types of microphones and their pickup patterns. Recording with an omnidirectional pattern will capture all the surrounding sounds. Directional microphones with a cardioid pickup pattern are best for voice recordings.

Directional microphones capture sounds primarily from the front. The cardioid pattern, often called the heart-shaped polar pattern, is more sensitive to sounds coming from the front and sides while picking up very little from the back. Cardioid microphones are best for podcasts and voiceovers because they can attenuate all unwanted noises from other sides and are easy to clean in post-production.