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This article will show you how to Remove Echo in Audacity. There are a lot of things to keep in mind when working with audio, especially if you have a home studio or record a podcast in different places. If you aren’t careful, your microphones could pick up unwanted background noise that would be hard to get rid of later.
It might be hard to get rid of echo in your audio, but you can use some tools to cut down on echo and improve the quality of your audio. Some are in paid software, while others are VST plug-ins. There are also some good free alternatives. One of the most popular free audio editors is Audacity, which is strong, easy to use, and free.
Also, if you want to get rid of background noise, there aren’t many free tools that give you more than one way to cut down on unwanted sounds. It’s easy to record audio with Audacity, but you might get an echo if you’re recording phone calls, interviews, meetings, etc.
Ways to Remove Echo in Audacity
Reducing Echo with a Plug-In
There are many free Plug-ins for Audacity, but Noise Gate is the one you need for this problem because it improves the sound quality and can help get rid of the echo. Here’s how to put it together:
- Download the plug-in directly from this link.
- Put the downloaded file (.ny file extension) in the Plug-Ins folder. Make sure that Audacity is closed while doing this.
- Open Audacity.
- Go to Effects > Add/Remove Plugins.
- Select Noise Gate and hit Enable.
Reducing Echo Without a Plug-In
- Click File at the top of the screen.
- Select Open.
- A window will appear. At the bottom of the window, change Files of type to All supported types.
- Click on the file you want to edit, then click Open.
- Select the segment of the audio file you’d like to edit. You can do this by clicking on one end of the segment and dragging the mouse until you reach the other. If you want to edit the whole file, press Ctrl+A on Windows or Command+A on Mac.
- Open the Effect menu at the top of the screen.
- Select Noise Reduction.
- Increasing the Noise reduction slider should greatly improve audio quality.
- If turning up noise reduction decreases the volume, go to the effects menu and choose Amplify to increase the volume.
- Find the compressor in the Effects menu. The main thing you should do is change up the ratio, but you can also change up the noise floor and threshold if necessary.
- You might need to use a low pass filter or a high pass filter, depending on the pitch of the sound in the file. The bottom half of the Effects menu is where you can find them. If the sound is too high-pitched, a low pass filter can help. If the sound is too low or muffled, a high pass filter can help. Don’t change anything but the Rolloff.
- Find the Equalization effect and change the Draw Curves setting to the Graphic EQ setting. You might find the second one easier to use because you can control the sliders and set their values that way, while the first one makes you draw the equalizer yourself. Focus on the sliders on the left if you need to fix the low tones. The middle bars affect the mid-tones, while the bars on the right should be altered to affect the higher tones.
- Proceed by clicking the File menu on top of the screen and going to Export Audio.
- Choose the file type in the Save as type menu. The best-known ones are mp3 (compressed) and wav (lossless). Make sure that you don’t accidentally overwrite the old file.
- Go to File and select Save Project As to save the project file.