Why noise matters more for cloning
When you clone a voice from a sample, the model doesn't know which parts of the sound are the voice and which are the room. Hiss, hum and echo become part of the voice it learns, and they turn up in every line it reads. A noisy sample doesn't give you one noisy recording; it gives you hundreds.
Identify the noise
| Noise | What it sounds like | Fix it at the source |
|---|---|---|
| Hiss | A steady "sss" under everything | Turn the mic's gain down and move closer, so your voice is louder than the electronics. |
| Hum or buzz | A low, steady tone | Unplug laptop chargers and lamps near the mic; try another USB port or cable. |
| Echo | A hollow, "in the bathroom" sound | Record in a smaller room with soft furnishings, or hang a duvet behind you. |
| Rumble | A low roar: fans, air conditioning, traffic | Turn off what you can, close the window, and record at a quieter time of day. |
| Clicks and taps | Short, sharp sounds | Mic on a stand, not your desk; no typing, no jewellery; sip water to stop mouth clicks. |
Fix the room first
- Get closer. Halving the distance to the mic makes your voice much louder against the room, and lets you turn the gain down, which cuts hiss too.
- Add soft things. Curtains, cushions, a rug, a bed, a wardrobe of clothes. Bare walls and hard floors make echo.
- Turn things off. Fans, heaters, air conditioning, the fridge if you can hear it, and your phone's notifications.
- Record a test. Record five seconds of silence and listen with headphones turned up. Whatever you hear there is in your sample too.
Then clean up gently in Audacity
If a little steady hiss remains, Audacity (free, for Windows, Mac and Linux) can reduce it. Keep it light: the aim is less noise, not no noise.
- Remove rumble. Select everything and apply Effect › EQ and Filters › High-Pass Filter at about 80 Hz. It removes low rumble without touching most voices.
- Teach it the noise. Select a second or two where nobody is speaking, then open Effect › Noise Removal and Repair › Noise Reduction and press Get Noise Profile.
- Reduce it. Select everything, open Noise Reduction again and apply it with a modest setting, around 6 to 12 dB of reduction.
- Listen. If the voice now sounds watery, metallic or "underwater", undo and use a lower setting. If you can hear the processing, so will the clone.
- Export as WAV with File › Export Audio.
Echo is much harder to remove than hiss. De-reverb tools exist, but they rarely leave a voice that clones well. For echo, re-recording in a softer room is nearly always quicker and better.
Still hearing noise in your takes?
The voice settings don't add noise; the clip does. If takes are still noisy after a cleaner recording, check that you replaced the voice's clip rather than adding a new voice, and generate the line again: lines you saved earlier keep the take they were made with. For other problems, see fixing common AI voice problems.