How to Reduce Background Noise in Zoom, Teams & Discord

Background noise during video calls is one of the most common frustrations in remote work, streaming, and online communication. Whether it's the hum of an air conditioner, keyboard typing, barking dogs, or traffic outside your window, unwanted sound can derail even the most important meetings. If you've ever had to repeatedly ask "Can you hear me?" or watch colleagues struggle through a noisy call, you understand the problem.

The good news is that modern video conferencing platforms have built-in noise reduction tools, and there are powerful post-processing solutions available for cleaning up recordings. In this guide, we'll walk you through every strategy to eliminate background noise in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and other platforms, plus how to clean up recordings after the fact.

Why Video Calls Pick Up So Much Background Noise

Before jumping into solutions, it's worth understanding why background noise becomes such a problem on calls. Most standard microphones—whether built into your laptop, headset, or USB mic—are designed to pick up a wide frequency range. This sensitivity is great for capturing clear voice, but it also captures everything else in your environment.

The primary culprits are:

• Microphone placement and sensitivity: Default microphone gain is often set too high, amplifying ambient noise along with your voice.
• Room acoustics: Hard surfaces like tile floors, glass windows, and wooden desks reflect sound, causing echo and amplifying noise.
• HVAC systems: Air conditioners, heating units, and ventilation fans produce continuous low-frequency hum that's difficult to filter.
• Mechanical noise: Keyboard typing, mouse clicking, chair movement, and desk vibrations are common culprits.
• Environmental sources: Traffic, pets, family members, construction, and other external sounds all feed into your mic.

Understanding these sources helps you address noise at the root, before it even reaches the microphone. But even with the best setup, some noise is inevitable—that's where digital noise reduction comes in.

Real-Time Noise Reduction in Zoom, Teams, and Discord

All three major video conferencing platforms now offer native noise suppression features that work in real-time during calls. These are the first line of defense and require no additional software.

Zoom Noise Suppression

Zoom's noise suppression feature is surprisingly effective for a built-in tool. To enable it:

1. Open Settings and navigate to Audio Settings
2. Look for "Suppress background noise" or "Noise suppression"
3. Choose your preferred level: Low, Medium, or High
4. Test with a recording before your next call

The "Medium" setting provides good results for most environments. If you have a very noisy space, try "High," but be aware that aggressive noise suppression can sometimes make your voice sound slightly robotic or hollow. The key is testing before important meetings.

Microsoft Teams Noise Suppression

Teams offers multiple noise suppression levels that are accessible before and during calls:

1. In Settings, find the Audio Devices menu
2. Enable "Noise Suppression" and select either "Medium" or "High"
3. You can also adjust this during a call by clicking the microphone icon and selecting "Noise Suppression"

Teams also supports dedicated noise-suppressing microphones and headsets, which often provide superior real-time filtering if you're willing to invest in better hardware.

Discord Noise Suppression

Discord's approach is more automatic than other platforms. The app includes "Krisp" integration for members with Nitro subscriptions, which provides very high-quality noise suppression. For standard Discord users, the platform uses basic voice processing that's less sophisticated but still helpful.

Microphone Technique: The Most Underrated Solution

Many people don't realize that how you use your microphone matters just as much as the hardware itself. Professional broadcasters and podcasters use specific techniques to minimize noise capture, and you can apply the same principles to your video calls.

Proximity and Positioning

Position your microphone 2-6 inches from your mouth—close enough to pick up clear voice, but not so close that you're creating mouth noise or plosives. This proximity means your voice will be the loudest thing the mic captures, drowning out background noise by sheer volume difference. This is why podcasters and streamers position mics so carefully.

Angle the microphone slightly off-axis from your mouth (about 45 degrees) to reduce plosive sounds like "p" and "b" while still capturing clear voice.

Isolation and Damping

Prevent microphone vibrations from picking up desk noise by using a microphone arm or shock mount rather than setting your mic directly on a surface. Even a USB mic benefits from a basic stand. This simple change eliminates keyboard and desk vibration noise almost entirely.

Gain Control

Most people leave microphone gain at default, which is usually too high. Lower your input gain until your voice is loud but not distorting. Lower gain means less amplification of background noise. You should only need to raise gain if you're speaking quietly or far from the mic.

Room Treatment and Acoustic Basics

While you can't soundproof on a budget, basic acoustic treatment absorbs sound reflections and reduces noise. You don't need to spend thousands—even simple improvements help:

• Add soft materials: Heavy curtains, rugs, blankets, and foam panels absorb sound energy instead of reflecting it. These reduce room echo and standing noise.
• Create a corner studio: Setting up your call station in a corner with soft furnishings creates natural acoustics.
• Isolate noise sources: If you have control over your environment, move away from HVAC vents, fans, and other constant noise sources.
• Use a closet: Closets filled with clothes naturally absorb sound. Many remote workers find setting up calls in a closet eliminates echo and reduces overall noise dramatically.

Even small improvements compound. A corner setup with a blanket behind you, soft furniture, and a small foam panel can make the difference between a noisy call and a professional one.

Cleaning Up Recordings After the Fact

Sometimes despite your best efforts, recordings still contain background noise. If you're recording calls for training, compliance, or content creation, post-processing with AI-powered noise reduction can provide dramatically better results than real-time suppression.

The RemoveVocals noise-reducer uses advanced AI models to analyze your audio and intelligently remove background noise while preserving voice clarity. Unlike simple noise gates (which cut all quiet sounds), AI-based noise reduction preserves the natural dynamics of your speech while specifically targeting background noise.

Here's how to clean up a noisy recording:

1. Export your call recording as an MP3 or WAV file
2. Upload it to RemoveVocals noise-reducer
3. Process the file to remove background noise while preserving voice quality
4. Download the cleaned audio
5. If you're editing video, use the audio cutter to trim and adjust timing as needed

This post-processing approach is particularly valuable for producing podcast episodes, training videos, or conference recordings where audio quality is important but real-time noise suppression wasn't sufficient.

Advanced Tips: Combining Strategies for Best Results

The most effective approach layers multiple strategies:

1. Start with good hardware and microphone placement (proximity and isolation)
2. Enable real-time noise suppression at the medium or high setting on your platform
3. Apply basic room treatment (soft furnishings, away from HVAC)
4. Keep microphone gain at an appropriate level—not maximum
5. For recordings that matter, use post-processing AI noise reduction like RemoveVocals

This multi-layered approach ensures you're addressing noise at capture time (hardware and technique), during transmission (platform noise suppression), and in post-processing (AI tools).

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Before you wrap up, here are the most common mistakes people make when trying to reduce background noise:

• Maxing out noise suppression: Setting noise reduction to the highest level often creates artifacts and makes voice sound unnatural. Start with medium and adjust based on your environment.
• Using noise gates incorrectly: A noise gate cuts all sound below a threshold, which is too aggressive for calls. AI noise reduction is more selective and better.
• Ignoring microphone gain: High gain amplifies everything, including noise. Keep it reasonable.
• Placing the microphone poorly: Setting your mic on a desk directly, or facing background noise sources, defeats all other efforts.
• Not testing before important calls: Always do a test recording to hear how your setup sounds before critical meetings.

Conclusion

Reducing background noise in video calls and recordings is a combination of smart setup, technique, platform settings, and post-processing tools. Start with the easiest wins—better microphone placement and gain control—then enable real-time noise suppression on your platform. For recordings that need to be perfect, use AI noise reduction tools in post-processing.

The goal isn't perfection—it's clarity. When your audio is clear, people focus on what you're saying instead of being distracted by noise. That makes every call, recording, and stream better. Implement these strategies and you'll join the small percentage of remote workers and creators with genuinely professional audio quality.