Podcast and Spoken-Word Audio

How to reduce background noise in a podcast in REAPER

By StudioRescue Editorial

Published July 21, 2026 · Updated July 26, 2026

Background noise is one of the fastest ways a podcast starts to sound amateur, and it is also one of the more fixable problems if you catch the right kind of noise. Everything on this page uses plugins that ship with REAPER, so you can clean a noisy episode without buying anything.

Before you touch a plugin, it helps to know what kind of noise you actually have, because the fix is different for each. Reducing noise well is mostly about matching the tool to the problem and then stopping before you damage the voice.

First, figure out what kind of noise it is

Solo the track and listen to the quiet gaps between sentences. What you hear there tells you which tool to reach for.

• Steady, broadband noise. A constant "shhh" or "whoosh" from a fan, an air conditioner, or general room hiss. This is the noise ReaFIR is built to reduce, and the main focus below.
• A steady hum at a fixed pitch. A low buzz or drone rather than a hiss usually means electrical hum at your mains frequency. That is a different fix. See how to remove hum from a recording in REAPER.
• Sudden or random sounds. A dog barking, a chair creak, a passing truck, a keyboard click. Noise reduction cannot cleanly remove these. They are better edited out by hand or ducked, not processed away.
• Room echo or reverb. If the room sounds hollow or distant, that is reflections, not noise, and the tools here will not remove it.

If the gaps are a steady hiss or hum of a machine, keep reading. If the problem is one-off sounds or roominess, no free plugin will make it disappear, and the honest fix is editing or re-recording.

Capture a clean sample of the noise first

ReaFIR works by learning what the noise sounds like and then subtracting that fingerprint. To do that, it needs a stretch of audio that is only noise, with no talking.

The fix, step by step in REAPER

Add these to the track’s FX chain in this order. All three ship with REAPER.

1. High-pass the low rumble

Add ReaEQ, set the first band to a high-pass shape, and place it around 70–100 Hz for a typical spoken voice. This clears rumble, HVAC thump, and desk vibration that sit below the voice. A deep male voice may want the filter closer to 70 Hz so you do not thin it out; a lighter voice can often go up to 100 Hz or a little higher.

2. Subtract the steady noise with ReaFIR

Add ReaFIR after the EQ. ReaFIR is a stock EQ and dynamics processor with a built-in spectrum analyzer, and one of its modes is designed for exactly this job.

1. Set Edit Mode to Precise and leave FFT size at 1024 to start.
2. Change Mode from Gate to Subtract.
3. Check the box labeled Automatically build noise profile (enable during noise).
4. Play your noise-only section on loop. ReaFIR listens and draws the noise fingerprint. Let it loop two or three times.
5. Uncheck that box. ReaFIR now holds that profile and subtracts it from the whole track, including under the voice.

Now play a talking part. The steady hiss should drop noticeably while the voice stays.

Aim to make the noise quieter, not gone. Chasing total silence is what causes the damage. If one pass is not enough, a second gentle pass on another ReaFIR instance often sounds cleaner than pushing a single one hard.

3. Optional: quiet the gaps with a noise gate

ReaFIR reduces noise everywhere, including under the voice. A noise gate does something different: it silences the track when the level drops below a threshold, so the pauses between sentences go quiet while the words play through untouched.

Add ReaGate and set the threshold just above the noise floor and below the level of the quietest speech, so normal talking opens the gate but the room noise alone does not. A little pre-open (a few milliseconds) helps the gate open before the start of each word so nothing gets clipped off. Keep a small amount of the dry signal, or use a gentle setting, so the gaps do not turn into unnatural dead silence.

What noise reduction will not fix

Stock plugins do a lot here, but it is worth being clear about the limits before you spend an hour fighting a file.

• It will not remove sudden or random sounds like coughs, clicks, or a passing car. Those need editing, not a noise profile.
• It will not remove room echo or reverb. That is reflected sound, a separate problem, and subtracting a noise profile does nothing for it.
• It cannot rescue a voice that is buried in noise. If the noise is nearly as loud as the speech, any reduction strong enough to help will also wreck the voice.
• It will not undo clipping or distortion that was recorded into the take.

Better still: stop the noise at the source

Every bit of noise you avoid recording is noise you never have to fight later, and prevention always sounds better than repair.

• Turn off fans, AC, and anything that hums while you record, even for a short session.
• Get closer to the mic and turn the input gain down, so your voice is loud relative to the room.
• Record in a soft space. Soft furnishings, a closet of clothes, or blankets cut both noise and echo.
• Capture a few seconds of silent room tone at the top of every session. It makes ReaFIR profiling trivial and gives you natural fill for edits.

If it still sounds off

Quick troubleshooting order when the result is not improving:

1. The voice sounds robotic. You subtracted too much. Drag the ReaFIR profile down, or lower the FFT size, and settle for less reduction.
2. The noise is still there. Your profile may have included speech. Rebuild it from a section that is truly noise-only.
3. The gate chops words. The threshold is too high or the attack too slow. Lower the threshold and add a little pre-open.
4. It is not a hiss at all. If the noise is a steady pitch, it is hum, and a notch works better than subtraction. See the hum guide.