Remove buzz and hum from audio

Remove electrical buzz and hum from a recording in your browser: the 50 or 60 Hz mains tone and its harmonics, found automatically. Voice or music. Free, no upload.

AudioRinse · buzz & hum removerOn-device · 0 B uploaded

Drop audio or video here

MP3 · WAV · M4A · MP4 · MOV · WEBM — up to 60 min. Nothing is uploaded.

How it works

  1. Drop your recording onto the box above: audio or video, voice or music.
  2. AudioRinse finds the buzz's exact frequency on your device and cuts it out with narrow notches.
  3. Compare with the original. If some buzz is still there, try Strong; for the lightest touch, Gentle.
  4. Download the file without the buzz. Stereo stays stereo, and a video keeps its picture.

Before / after

Hear it before you drop anything

“After” is AudioRinse at its default settings. The voice is synthetic, so we can share it freely.

A 60 Hz mains hum with its harmonics was added to this recording, as a ground loop would.

What buzz and hum are

Electrical hum is a steady low tone at the frequency of the power grid: 50 Hz in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, 60 Hz in the Americas and parts of Asia. Buzz is its harsher form: the same tone plus its harmonics at 2, 3, 4 and more times the frequency, up into the thousands of hertz. Both get into recordings the same ways: a ground loop, a USB microphone on a laptop that's charging, long or unshielded cables, dimmers and fluorescent lights, and guitar amps or pickups near a power supply.

Because buzz and hum sit on exact frequencies that don't change, they can be taken out precisely. AudioRinse measures it to a hundredth of a hertz in the quiet parts of your file, where nothing else covers it, then cuts a notch a few hertz wide at the hum and at each harmonic that stands out. Everything between the notches passes through as it was.

Gentle, Standard or Strong

  • Gentle: only the harmonics that clearly stand out, up to 1 kHz. The least change, for a soft hum under a voice.
  • Standard: every harmonic of the hum it can find, up to 2 kHz. Right for most recordings.
  • Strong: every harmonic up to 2 kHz, even where music covers it, and any that stand out up to 6 kHz, with wider notches. For buzz from a dimmer, a guitar amp or a bad cable, and for hum under music that never pauses.

When it can't help

It removes hum at the mains frequency and nothing else. Hiss, fans, traffic and room noise spread across every frequency instead of sitting on one tone; the background noise remover handles those. A whine from a charger or a camera's motor runs at its own frequency, not the grid's, so it isn't found either.

If no 50 or 60 Hz tone stands out in your file, AudioRinse says so instead of changing anything.

Questions

Is my recording uploaded anywhere?

No. AudioRinse finds and removes the hum inside your browser, on your own computer. Your file never leaves your device, so there's no upload to wait for and nothing stored on a server.

Does it work on music?

Yes. It doesn't use the speech model: it only cuts narrow notches at the hum's frequencies, so guitars, vocals and everything else come through. Stereo stays stereo.

Why does my microphone buzz?

Almost always a ground loop: the microphone, the computer and its charger or the speakers are earthed through different paths, and the mains current leaks into the signal. Unplugging the charger while recording, using a USB isolator or plugging everything into one power strip usually stops it at the source. For a recording you already have, this tool removes it.

Will it remove any buzz?

It removes buzz from the mains: a tone at 50 or 60 Hz and its multiples, which is most electrical buzz (ground loops, chargers, lights, amps). A buzz from a phone lying next to the microphone, a fan or an insect sits at other frequencies; try the background noise remover for those.

50 Hz or 60 Hz: do I have to choose?

No. It measures the hum in your file and works out which it is, to a hundredth of a hertz. The result shows what it found and how much hum is left.

What about hiss, fans or traffic?

Those aren't hum: they spread across all frequencies instead of sitting on one tone. Use the background noise remover for them; on a voice recording it takes most hum along with the rest.

Is it free?

Cleaning and listening are free and unlimited. You get 3 free downloads a month for audio files up to 10 minutes (1 without an account). Pro adds unlimited downloads, files up to 1 hour and video.

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