How I Remove Noise From My Recordings

Nothing ruins a good song like noisy recordings — whether it’s a buzzing guitar amp or a vocal with AC hum in the background.

Your first instinct might be to accept defeat and live with the noise. But before you give up on that take, I’ve got three methods that can salvage even the messiest recordings.

Here’s the thing though — and I can’t stress this enough — the best way to fix noise is to not record it in the first place. If your recordings are extremely noisy, re-recording them will always give you better results than any post-processing magic.

That said, I know re-recording isn’t always possible. Maybe the session is over, the musician has left, or you’re working with stems someone else recorded. That’s exactly why I’m breaking down these three noise-fighting techniques.

Method 1: The Noise Gate — Your First Line of Defense

Every DAW comes with a noise gate, which makes this your most accessible option for cleaning up recordings.

Think of a noise gate like a door. When the audio volume crosses a certain threshold, the door opens and you hear the signal. When it drops below that threshold? Door slams shut — silence.

Setting Up Your Noise Gate

Let’s work with a high-gain guitar track that’s buzzing like crazy. Even when no notes are being played, you can hear that persistent amp noise in the background.

The key with noise gates is placement — put them before other plugins in your chain. In this case, I’m placing it before the amp plugin so it can catch the noise at its source.

Here’s what to focus on:

Threshold is your main control. Start around -50 dB and adjust from there. If you set it too low (like -100 dB), everything passes through and nothing gets gated. Too high, and you might cut off quiet parts of your playing.

For this guitar track, I found -46 dB worked perfectly — it eliminated the amp buzz during silent passages while letting all the guitar playing through cleanly.

The Other Controls Matter Too

Attack determines how quickly the gate opens once the threshold is crossed. Too slow and you’ll cut off the beginning of notes. Too fast might let through quick noise bursts.

Hold keeps the gate open for a set time regardless of the signal level. This prevents the gate from rapidly opening and closing on sustained notes with natural volume fluctuations. I usually set this around 40 milliseconds.

Release controls how quickly the gate closes after the signal drops below threshold. Set it too fast and you get choppy cutoffs. Too slow and noise bleeds through longer than necessary.

When Noise Gates Work Best

This method shines on instruments like electric guitars, especially high-gain tracks where the noise only really bothers you during the quiet parts. While the guitar is playing, that amp buzz gets masked by the actual musical content anyway.

The limitation? Noise gates don’t eliminate noise during the parts where your instrument is actually playing — they just hide it during the silent bits.

Method 2: Strategic EQ — Surgical Noise Removal

Different types of noise live in different frequency ranges. Air conditioners hum in the low end, computer fans whir in the mids, and electrical interference often sits up high.

If you can identify where your noise lives frequency-wise, you can often carve it out with EQ without hurting your actual recording.

The High-Pass Filter Approach

Most unwanted noise lives in the ultra-low frequencies — places where your vocals, guitars, and other instruments don’t really need to be anyway.

I pulled up a vocal that sounded clean on its own, but watch what happens when I add compression:

The compressor brings up the noise floor and suddenly you can hear this low-frequency hum that was hiding underneath. This is super common — processing often reveals noise that wasn’t obvious in the raw recording.

The fix is simple: high-pass filter before compression.

I’ll add an EQ before the compressor in my chain and dial in a high-pass filter. The trick is finding the sweet spot where you eliminate the noise without cutting into the meat of your vocal.

For most vocals, you can safely high-pass around 80-100 Hz without losing anything important. Keep sweeping upward until you start affecting the vocal’s body, then back it off a bit.

This technique works on almost every instrument except your bass and kick drum. In fact, I recommend high-passing everything else in your mix — it cleans up the low end and gives your bass and kick room to breathe.

Advanced Technique: EQ Notching for Resonant Frequencies

Sometimes your room creates resonant frequencies — spots where sound waves bounce around and create sharp, unpleasant peaks. These show up as spiky bumps on an EQ analyzer and can make your recordings sound harsh or honky.

Home studios are notorious for this, especially untreated rooms with hard surfaces.

To find these troublemakers:

1. Create a narrow, high-Q boost on your EQ (+15 dB or more)
2. Sweep it across your vocal’s frequency range
3. Listen for spots that sound particularly nasty when boosted
4. Once you find a resonant frequency, flip that boost into a cut

I found one around 3,100 Hz on this vocal. After boosting it to locate the problem, I cut it by about 3-4 dB to tame that harshness.

Dynamic EQ: The Better Way

Regular EQ cuts work, but they’re always active — even during parts where the resonant frequency isn’t actually causing problems.

FabFilter Pro-Q 3’s dynamic EQ feature is perfect for this. Instead of a static cut, it only reduces those frequencies when they get too loud.

Set up the same narrow notch, but this time:

• Cut by only 5 dB or so
• Enable the dynamic mode
• Set the threshold so it only kicks in when that frequency gets problematic

You’ll see the EQ curve move in real-time, only cutting when needed. This preserves the natural character of your recording while still controlling the problem areas.

Warning: Don’t go crazy with EQ notching. Too many cuts will suck the life out of your recordings faster than you can say “over-processed.”

Method 2.5: When to Use Dynamic EQ Over Static Cuts

I mentioned dynamic EQ briefly, but it deserves its own section because it’s such a game-changer for noise reduction.

Static EQ cuts affect your audio all the time, whether the problem frequency is actually causing issues or not. Dynamic EQ is smarter — it only cuts when those frequencies cross a threshold you set.

This is especially useful for:

• Resonant frequencies that only pop up on certain notes
• Noise that varies in intensity throughout the performance
• Preserving the natural character of the recording

The Pro-Q 3 makes this incredibly easy. Set your cut, enable dynamic mode, and adjust the threshold until it only kicks in when you actually need it.

Method 3: iZotope RX — The Professional Solution

When noise gates and EQ aren’t enough, it’s time for the heavy artillery: iZotope RX.

This isn’t cheap, but it’s the industry standard for audio repair. RX can handle noise problems that would be impossible to fix with traditional tools.

Guitar De-noise in Action

Going back to that buzzy guitar track, I loaded up RX’s Guitar De-noise module. Here’s how it works:

The plugin needs to “learn” what your noise sounds like. I played just the amp buzz (no guitar playing) so RX could analyze the noise profile.

Once it learned the noise signature, I let it process the full recording. The result? It actually removed noise during the parts where the guitar was playing — something the noise gate couldn’t do.

It’s not as dramatic as the gate’s complete silence during quiet parts, but it’s working on the actual musical content too.

Vocal De-noise: Extreme Makeover Edition

To really test RX’s capabilities, I took a vocal and added an insane amount of noise — way more than you’d ever encounter in real life.

The original was almost unlistenable with all that background noise. But RX’s Voice De-noise module worked through it in real-time, dramatically cleaning up the recording.

The before and after difference is striking. While it’s not perfect (nothing could be with that much noise), it transformed an unusable recording into something workable.

The RX Suite: More Than Just De-noise

RX includes modules for specific problems:

• Voice De-noise for vocal recordings
• Guitar De-noise for electric guitars
• Spectral De-noise for general noise removal
• De-click for removing mouth clicks and pops
• De-hum for electrical interference

Each module is specifically designed for its target application, which gives you better results than generic noise reduction.

The Reality Check: Recording Trumps Processing

I keep coming back to this point because it’s crucial: proper recording technique beats post-processing every time.

No plugin, no matter how advanced, can perfectly restore a badly recorded track. RX is incredible, but it’s not magic.

Here’s what actually matters for clean recordings:

• Acoustic treatment in your recording space
• Proper microphone technique and placement
• Good preamp gain staging to avoid noisy circuits
• Eliminating noise sources before you hit record

If you’re consistently dealing with noisy recordings, invest in your recording chain before you invest in cleanup plugins.

Combining Methods for Maximum Impact

These three methods aren’t mutually exclusive — you can absolutely use them together.

A typical noise-fighting signal chain might look like:

1. High-pass EQ to eliminate low-end rumble
2. Noise gate to handle quiet passages
3. Dynamic EQ for specific resonant frequencies
4. iZotope RX for final cleanup of remaining noise

Start with the free methods (gates and EQ) and only move to paid solutions like RX when you need that extra level of cleanup.

Your Next Steps

Clean recordings start with good technique, but when life gives you noisy tracks, you’ve got options.

Try the noise gate first — it’s free and surprisingly effective. Add strategic EQ to carve out problem frequencies. And when you need serious firepower, RX is waiting.

Just remember: these tools are meant to save already-decent recordings, not perform miracles on completely unusable audio. The best noise reduction happens at the microphone, not in the plugin.

Want to dive deeper into proper vocal recording technique? I’ve got a complete breakdown of my recording process that’ll help you capture cleaner takes from the start. Check out my free vocal presets while you’re at it — they include some basic noise reduction in the chain.