How to Use Noise Suppression and Noise Gate in OBS

When recording your screen using OBS Studio, you have to avoid a lot of troubles, such as the noises. Luckily, OBS Studio offers you some sound filters that help you reduce the noise. How to use those filters to get rid of the noise? This post will guide you through that step by step.

It's well known that OBS Studio is one of the most popular screen recording and streaming programs worldwide. This software offers you many advanced tools to get better results in streaming or recording, such as the audio mixer with per-source filters. With its help, you can reduce the noise in the background or even totally get rid of it.

However, many of you may feel it's too hard to utilize this professional software and have no idea about how to choose the filter properly. Luckily, this post will give you enough information and guide you through using the audio mixer with simple clicks. Some alternative software will also be introduced.

1. How to Use OBS Audio Filter to Remove Background Noise

A powerful and full-featured audio mixer is built in OBS Studio, and you can directly find it on the main interface. First of all, this audio mixer enables you to choose the sound source freely, and you can capture audio from both the desktop and a microphone device. As it allows you to customize the advanced settings, you can choose the soundtracks following your needs and adjust the channel balance. 

The audio filters OBS offers are worth noting. When the audio source is quiet, the "Gain" filter will help you increase the volume. On the other hand, if you are in a noisy environment, "Noise Gate" and "Noise Suppression" are what you need to remove or reduce unwanted sounds. There are slight differences between those two filters, and this part will tell you how to choose from them.

How to Use Noise Gate and Noise Suppression OBS:

Step 1. Download the launch OBS Studio on your device.

Step 2. Find the "Audio Mixer" module on the main interface and click on the gear icon to adjust the audio settings. It's notable that you need to adjust the settings of desktop audio and microphone audio respectively. Choose the "Filter" option and select the audio filters you want to use.

Step 3. Hit the "+" icon in the bottom left corner and choose anyone from the filter list. 

Step 4. After adding all the filters you need, click on the "Close" button to apply them and back to the main interface.

• Noise Suppression: This filter is suitable for reducing mild background noise, and it's not effective enough to handle a large amount of noise. There are two methods of noise suppression: RNNoise for better quality and more GPU usage, and Speex for lower quality and less GPU usage.
• Noise Gate: Using this filter, you need to set the close and open threshold values, and OBS will filter out any sound that does not belong to this range of volume. This filter is competent when there is too much noise.

Although OBS is versatile and powerful, it's noticeable that OBS Studio only supports capturing the audio along with the PC screen. If you only want to save the audio file, it would be better to extract audio from the captured video. There is a post that can teach you how to extract audio from the video with simple clicks.

2. How to Use Alternative Noise Gate Software

Besides recording and streaming, the Noise Gate software is also needed in many other situations. For instance, if you are having audio and video calls with others via Skype or any other app, noise-canceling software is necessary to remove the background noise. Noise Gator is one of the apps you can not miss for many reasons.

Firstly, this is an open-source app that is free to use. And you don't even need to install it on your device, all you should do is download the .exe file and run it in a proper environment. Noise Gator requires Java 7 or higher for Windows and Java 6 or higher for Mac. If you want to use it with VOIPs, a virtual audio cable is indispensable. 

How to Use the Alternative Noise Gate Software to OBS Studio:

Step 1. Before using this software, it's necessary to install virtual drivers on your device and create the JAVA Runtime Environment.

Step 2. Launch the .exe file and choose "CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual)" on the "Input" dropdown menu. If you cannot find it, please check if you installed the virtual driver properly.

Step 3. Adjust the settings. You need to set the threshold value to filter out the unwanted sound that is below that volume. Other options are also available, such as the "Voice clarity filter."

Step 4. Launch the software you want to use with Noise Gator, such as Skype, and set "Cable Output" in the audio settings. Finally, open Noise Gator again and click on the "Activate" button to use it.

Bonus: Windows/Mac Recorder that Supports Capturing Audio Only

As mentioned above, OBS Studio is capable of recording and streaming with a powerful audio mixer that helps you reduce or cancel unnecessary sound. However, OBS only allows you to capture the audio and screen at the same time. In other words, the output recordings of this software are all in video formats, and that causes problems for people who only require audio files. Don't worry. You can find some audio recorders that only capture sound for you.

EaseUS RecExperts is one of those audio recorders that are compatible with both Windows and Mac. This software supports recording screen, audio, and webcam separately or simultaneously, and you can capture sound from many sources, including the system sound, microphone sound, or both of the two. Moreover, you can directly save the sound file in the audio format you like, ranging from MP3, AAC, to FLAC.