How to Stop Your Mic Picking Up Background Noise and Other People
Your mic picks up the whole room because most microphones hear in every direction and sit too far from your mouth. You can cut a lot of it with placement, and remove the rest, including other people talking, with real-time noise cancellation. Here is how.
Start with placement and settings
- Move the mic closer. The closer it is to your mouth, the more it favours your voice over the room. A headset boom mic is ideal.
- Lower the input gain. A mic turned up too high strains to hear everything, including the background.
- Use a directional mic if you have one. Cardioid mics mostly hear what is in front of them.
- Turn on your app's noise suppression as a first layer.
When placement is not enough
Placement helps with steady noise, but it cannot remove a housemate talking, a TV in the next room, or a colleague on a nearby call. For that you need software that isolates your voice from everything else.
A noise-cancellation app like Krisp (opens in a new tab) does exactly this: it keeps your voice and removes the rest, in real time, on any calling app. Because it cleans both directions, it also strips the noise coming from other people on the call, not just your side.
Let the call hear only you
Krisp isolates your voice and removes background talking and noise, live, on any app. Free for 7 days, no card, to test on a real call.
The short version
Fix placement first: closer mic, sensible gain, a directional mic if you have one. When the noise is other people or an unpredictable room, add real-time noise cancellation so your mic sends only your voice.