Background noise is one of the most common audio complaints for gamers, streamers, and remote workers. If you’re here, your teammates have probably said something like “there’s a hum on your mic” or “your keyboard is drowning you out.” You want to know how to remove background noise from your microphone — ideally without buying new hardware or paying for yet another subscription.
This guide covers every practical method, from free software settings to hardware solutions, with honest trade-off comparisons so you can pick the right fix for your specific situation.
TL;DR
- Software noise suppression (Discord, OBS, VoxBooster) handles most common noise types for free
- AI-based suppression outperforms old-school noise gates — it removes continuous hum without cutting your voice
- NVIDIA RTX Voice is excellent if you have a compatible GPU; Krisp works well but requires a subscription for full use
- VoxBooster does real-time suppression locally — no cloud processing, no extra cost on top of the base plan
- Hardware fixes (better mic, acoustic foam, mic placement) address the problem at the source before software even touches it
- A combination of hardware and software gives the cleanest result
Why Your Microphone Picks Up Background Noise
Before reaching for a suppression tool, it helps to understand what kind of noise you’re dealing with. Different noise types respond to different solutions.
Continuous tonal noise — PC fans, air conditioning, refrigerator hum — is the easiest to remove. It has a stable frequency profile, so software can learn it quickly and subtract it.
Transient sharp noise — keyboard clicks, mouse clicks, desk bumps — is harder because it’s sudden and overlaps in frequency with consonant sounds like “t,” “k,” and “p.”
Room echo and reverb — sound bouncing off bare walls and hard surfaces — is the hardest to fix in software. Suppression can reduce diffuse reverb but struggles with distinct slap-back echo. This one really benefits from physical acoustic treatment.
Electrical hum (50 or 60 Hz ground loop) — caused by USB power issues or a bad cable — sounds like a constant low drone. It’s a hardware problem that software can mask but not fully fix.
Knowing which of these is your main problem shapes which method to try first.
Method 1: Enable Built-In Noise Suppression in Your Apps
The fastest path to cleaner audio is using suppression that’s already built into software you have.
Discord
- Open Discord and go to User Settings (the gear icon).
- Click Voice & Video in the left sidebar.
- Scroll to Noise Suppression. Discord uses Krisp under the hood — set it to High for heavy fan noise or Low/Medium for lighter environments.
- Also enable Echo Cancellation and Advanced Voice Activity.
This costs nothing and works immediately. The trade-off: Krisp running inside Discord can occasionally clip consonants or add a faint digital quality at the “High” setting.
OBS Studio
OBS has a noise suppression filter built in that’s solid for streaming even if you don’t want to run a separate app.
- In OBS, click the + under Sources and add your microphone as an Audio Input Capture if it isn’t already there.
- Right-click the source and select Filters.
- Click + under Audio Filters and choose Noise Suppression.
- OBS offers two modes: Speex (CPU-light, lower quality) and RNNoise (neural-based, much better). Use RNNoise.
- Set the suppression level to -30 dB as a starting point and test against your actual room noise.
See the OBS documentation for full filter configuration details.
Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet
These all have built-in suppression in their audio settings. In Microsoft Teams: Settings → Devices → Noise suppression → High. In Zoom: Settings → Audio → Suppress background noise → Aggressive. These are fine for video calls but run in the cloud and have no effect on your mic signal in other apps.
Method 2: NVIDIA RTX Voice / RTX Broadcast
If you have an NVIDIA GPU, NVIDIA RTX Broadcast is among the best free suppression options available. It uses a dedicated AI model trained specifically on voice vs. background separation.
What you need:
- An NVIDIA GPU (RTX series officially; GTX 10xx+ works via the driver workaround)
- The NVIDIA RTX Broadcast app (free download from NVIDIA’s site)
- Reasonable VRAM — at least 4 GB is recommended
Setup steps:
- Download and install RTX Broadcast from NVIDIA’s official page.
- Open it and go to the Microphone tab.
- Select your microphone as the input.
- Toggle Noise Removal on. Set level to your preference (start at 80%).
- RTX Broadcast creates a virtual microphone — “NVIDIA RTX Microphone” — in your device list.
- In Discord, OBS, or your game, set the input microphone to NVIDIA RTX Microphone.
Strengths: Excellent keyboard and fan noise removal. Works across all apps via the virtual device. GPU-accelerated so minimal CPU impact.
Limitations: Requires an NVIDIA GPU. The virtual device approach means you have to switch inputs in each app. Doesn’t run on integrated graphics. Doesn’t handle echo and reverb as well as it handles continuous noise.
Method 3: Krisp (Standalone)
Krisp works without a specific GPU and processes audio on CPU. It’s popular among remote workers and has solid double-talk handling (it cleans both your voice and the voices coming from your speakers so your teammates don’t hear their own echo from your end).
The free tier allows 60 minutes of noise cancellation per week, which is not much if you’re a daily streamer or gamer. After that, you need a paid plan. Krisp is worth the cost if you’re on video calls all day at a job that reimburses software, but for gaming it’s an awkward fit.
Method 4: Real-Time Noise Suppression with VoxBooster
VoxBooster’s noise suppression feature runs entirely on your local machine — no audio sent to a server, no cloud dependency. It sits in the same pipeline as the rest of the audio processing (voice changer, soundboard, effects), which means suppression happens before any other transformation touches your signal.
Why this matters: If you run a separate suppression app alongside a voice changer, you’re chaining two virtual audio devices together and processing twice. Quality degrades. Running them in one integrated stack avoids this.
Setup:
- Download VoxBooster from voxbooster.com/download.
- Open the app and go to Settings → Audio Processing.
- Toggle Noise Suppression on.
- Use the suppression strength slider — for PC fan noise, 60-70% is usually enough. Crank it to 90%+ if you’re recording near HVAC.
- Your real microphone stays selected everywhere. VoxBooster intercepts the signal before it reaches Discord, OBS, or any other app.
No virtual device to configure. No switching inputs in each app. If you’re already using VoxBooster for voice effects, cloning, or the soundboard, the noise suppression is just a toggle — it doesn’t require a separate subscription tier for basic use.
The Discord setup guide covers how VoxBooster integrates with Discord without any driver juggling if you want the full walkthrough.
Method 5: Add a Noise Gate
A noise gate is different from suppression. Instead of removing noise while you’re talking, a gate silences audio completely when your signal drops below a threshold. This is useful if your background noise is mostly present during your silences (fan hum, air conditioning) but you don’t want it riding under your voice.
In OBS:
- Add your microphone source.
- Filters → + → Noise Gate.
- Set Close Threshold to just above your ambient noise level (measure it by being quiet for 5 seconds and watching the level meter).
- Set Open Threshold 6-10 dB above Close Threshold.
Gates work best when there’s a clear gap between your voice level and your noise floor. If your noise is nearly as loud as your voice (like a very loud fan close to the mic), a gate will cut your voice — use suppression instead.
Method 6: Fix It at the Hardware Level
Software can compensate for a lot, but physics wins in the end. A few hardware changes make everything downstream easier.
Mic placement. Get your microphone within 6-8 inches of your mouth and position it slightly off-axis (aimed at the corner of your mouth rather than straight at your lips). Cardioid microphones have a polar pattern that naturally rejects sounds coming from the sides and rear — using that pattern correctly gives you passive rejection of room noise before any software runs.
Use a cardioid dynamic mic. Dynamic microphones are less sensitive than condensers, which means they require you to get closer but pick up less ambient sound. For loud gaming environments or home studios without acoustic treatment, a dynamic mic like the Shure SM7B, Audio-Technica ATH2100x, or even budget options in the $50 range can outperform an expensive condenser in a bad room.
Acoustic treatment. This sounds expensive but doesn’t have to be. Thick curtains behind your setup, a bookshelf full of books, a moving blanket draped over a frame — all of these break up the bare wall reflections that cause slapback echo. Recording inside a closet full of clothes is a legitimate technique that actually works.
Fix electrical hum. If you have a constant 60 Hz (North America) or 50 Hz (Europe) hum that sounds like a low electrical buzz, it’s likely a ground loop. Try: using a different USB port, plugging your PC and audio interface into the same power strip, using a different USB cable, or adding a USB isolator (around $10-20).
Comparison Table: Noise Suppression Methods
| Method | Cost | CPU / GPU Use | Works Across All Apps | Handles Echo | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discord Krisp (built-in) | Free | CPU (via Krisp) | Discord only | Partial | Quick Discord fix |
| OBS RNNoise filter | Free | Low CPU | OBS recordings/streams | No | Streaming/recording |
| NVIDIA RTX Voice | Free | GPU (NVIDIA only) | All apps via virtual mic | Partial | NVIDIA GPU users |
| Krisp standalone | Free (60 min/wk) / Paid | CPU | All apps via virtual mic | Yes | Remote work calls |
| VoxBooster | Included with plan | CPU (local AI) | All apps, no config change | Partial | Gamers/streamers with full voice stack |
| Hardware (mic + treatment) | $50–$300 one-time | None | N/A | Yes (treatment) | Long-term permanent solution |
Picking the Right Combination
The most effective setups layer hardware and software:
- Cheapest effective setup: Cardioid mic + Discord’s built-in Krisp suppression. Gets you 80% of the way there for free.
- Best for NVIDIA GPU users: RTX Broadcast for noise removal + your choice of effects on top.
- Best for streamers with a full audio stack: VoxBooster for integrated suppression + voice effects + soundboard in one pipeline, feeding a clean signal into OBS.
- Best for call-heavy remote work: Krisp standalone — handles double-talk well and works on any hardware.
For a mic that pairs well with a voice changer, a cardioid pattern (whether condenser or dynamic) gives you the best starting point regardless of what software stack you run on top.
Common Mistakes That Make Background Noise Worse
Stacking suppression on suppression. If Discord Krisp is running AND RTX Broadcast is active AND you have an OBS filter, you get triple-processing: artifacts, digital warbling, and a voice that sounds like it’s coming from the bottom of a well. Pick one primary suppression path.
Aggressive noise gate settings. Setting your gate’s close threshold too high cuts the first syllable of every word when you start speaking. The gate hasn’t “opened” fast enough because your attack time is too slow — increase the attack speed (lower the attack time value) in the gate settings.
Suppression compensating for a bad mic position. If you’re two feet from your mic, software is fighting physics. Move the mic closer first; then tune suppression.
Forgetting about gain. A mic cranked to 100% gain amplifies your noise floor along with your voice. Set gain so your voice peaks around -12 to -6 dB, leaving noise naturally further below the threshold.
Frequently Asked Questions
See the FAQ section above for: removing background noise for free, causes of mic noise, whether suppression affects voice quality, combining suppression with a voice changer, RTX Voice compatibility, noise gates vs suppression, and mic price considerations.
Wrapping Up
How to remove background noise from a microphone comes down to: identify what kind of noise you have, fix it as close to the source as possible (mic placement, hardware), then use software suppression for what remains — not as a substitute for the physical fixes.
For most setups, a combination of a decent cardioid mic and one software suppression layer (Discord built-in, OBS RNNoise, or VoxBooster depending on your workflow) gives you clean audio without spending much. If you’re already using VoxBooster for voice effects or the soundboard, the noise suppression is already there — just turn it on. If you want to see how it integrates with the rest of the audio stack, the Discord voice filters guide is a good next read.
Clean audio makes a bigger difference than most people expect. Your teammates hear you more clearly, you’re easier to listen to on stream, and your recordings need less post-processing. The fixes aren’t difficult — they just take a few minutes to set up correctly.