Enjoy the Silence

Very few people have perfect conditions to record in. Audio recordings are often affected by noise from laptop fans, camera whines, air conditioning etc. But even those with superior/top-tier studios come across noisy amps, tape whistle, hiss, buzz and hum. Fortunately there are ways you can reduce the noise. There are different techniques and technology available specifically for this.

Reducing noise on several different sources (guitar amp, voice memo, synth and electric organ).

Different methods to the rescue

One technique for noise reduction is phase cancelation. Theoretically, you can cancel out noise by combining two identical signals with one signal's phase flipped in polarity. However, this is rather tricky in practice since the two signals must be completely identical to cancel each other out. Other methods are preparatory – to select the right mic and placing it properly, as well as setting the gain levels correctly before recording. But if you’ve ended up with a great take on your recording, there’s nothing you can do about mic placement afterwards. So instead you can use noise reducing technology. This is where our popular noise reduction plug-in Brusfri comes in handy.

What should a noise reduction tool do?

So what does one want in one's noise reducing technology? Well for starters, it’s significant that the noise reduction doesn’t affect the original quality of the sound, and low latency and CPU frugality is something you really don't want to compromise on in a utility tool (however great at what it does). If you need to use it on several tracks it shouldn’t lag your computer or delay the sound so you get phase or sync problems. Workflow efficiency and non-destructive editing is also practical, so that you can quickly find what settings sound best and move on in your creative process.

Getting rid of noisy ventilation on a vocal recording.

Conclusion

Even though clean recordings are great, not all noise is bad of course. The right noise in the right context can really add to the overall feeling of the soundscape. It's your audio and it’s up to you to decide when or how much noise you want to keep or reduce. But at least with Brusfri you have the ability to start out with a clean slate.

Here Jonas is putting Brusfri to good use on a fairly noisy guitar.