How to reduce background noise using Equalizer APO?

[Jenny mith]

Hi,

I have an USB mic and I had issues with the low sound recording, but Equalizer APO fixed that.
But even though other side can hear me better, background noise is more noticeable now (hsss sound like someone is playing with wrapping paper).
I tried different configuration and saw that "Rock" config works best for me regarding the clarity of the voice but background noise is annoying.
Since I'm not knowledgeable when it comes to using advanced options of the Equalizer, can you advise me which bar to slide up or down to reduce the background noise looking at the screenshot?

Thank you!

[Juha]

You should record the output (just the background noise, use high recording levels to get something recorded) and analyze it a bit to find the frequency area noise exists. When this is done it would be much easier to prepare a EQ preset for to improve the situation.
IIRC, you can do both tasks using Audacity but, if not then just use VB-Audio Voicemeeter BANANA deck for to record and Audacity for to analyze ... or attach the recorded file to here so we can do some analyzing.

[Peter Verbeek]

What Juha is proposing is the best option: Analysing the noise. But as you're using Peace you can play around on the Graph window to get the noise down:

1. Select "Equalizer Default" to flatten the equalizer.
2. Open the Graph window (button with green curve) and enable adjustment of frequencies and gains by checking both left bottom checkboxes.
3. Switch your mic on to listen to the noise.
4. Drag down and then to the sides one purple dot, say 4000 kHz, on the graph to find out (and reduce) some noise frequencies.
5. You may need to narrow the curve you get (which is a reversed peak) to get to one of the right noise frequency. Enter a larger Quality value, lower input field beneath the yellow marked slider.

[Matt Gore]

ReaFir VST has a mode called subtract to remove noise. However, I never got it to work with EQ APO. If someone knows how to set it up, then it might also be a good solution.

[Jonas Dahlinger]

I just downloaded it from https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/ (64 bit version) and ReaFIR just worked. I only tried its EQ mode.

[Matt Gore]

Sry, I wasn't specific enough; "Automatically build noise profile" isn't possible with the way VST work in EQ APO and I don't know if it's possible to import the necessary settings from a VST host that allows this option.

[Luan Fernandes]

Actually there's a way to do that using OBS, I've just discovered it (I'm assuming you kinda know how to use OBS, at least the basics):
1. Start up EqualizerAPO configuration editor and add up Reafir in subtract mode, then manually just click around a few times on this graph it's just to build the file correctly. Close the editor
2. Open up OBS, create your audio source and add your reafir filter (remember it's name) in Subtract mode, check automatically build noise profile ,wait a few secs so it picks up the noise and uncheck that box so it stops. You can close OBS now.
3. Open up this file on any text editor(assuming you are using OBS Studio as I am): %appdata%\obs-studio\basic\scenes[yourprofilescenesnamehere].json
4. Search for your audio source name, next to it you should see "chunk_data"
5. Copy everything between those "" (it should look like a buch of code)
6. Open up your EqualizerAPO config.txt, it should contain a line with your VSTPlugin and chunk data
7. Replace your manually created chunk data with your OBS chunk data and you are done!

Hope this helps you guys :). Actually I just created this account so I can comment this tutorial lol

[Matt Gore]

Wow, this sounds amazing! I tryed several VST hosts but none of them seemed to save the settings as "chunk_data". I will test this immediately :D

Edit: It sounds better than I expected, awesome. ^^ Thank you very much!

[Pedro Reyes]

Wow, ty my friend, this works very good , literally any background noise has disappeared

[Eric Lammertsma]

I made an account specifically to thank you - so, thank you! This has been a tremendous improvement!

As an added tip, when building the noise profile in OBS, set the FFT to the maximum of 32768. This way, the accuracy of the generated noise profile is high, filtering out narrower frequencies. The, when applying it in Equalizer APO, set it to something more reasonable, like 512 or 1024. The application of of the filter doesn't need that crazy accuracy. Setting the FFT too high in Equalizer APO will cost too much processing power during recording and cause a large delay and all kinds of unwanted effects.

While this is by far the best solution I've come across, barring buying an expensive USB audio interface with an XLR mic, it's certainly not perfect. Even after all of this, I can (of course) still tell there is some lossy audio processing going on, as my voice sounds much fuller without the noise reduction from ReaFir - but at least the noise is gone!

Such a shame that Microsoft messed up USB microphones in Windows 10 and has done nothing about it. The low input levels and high noise make USB mics such a pain to use with Windows. If I could drop Windows entirely, I would!

[realroal]

I know its been over two years since you made this post, but holy shit I really do appreciate it. I was wanting to play my ps4 through my PC because of the convience, but the remote play feature isnt working, and I didnt want to call my isp because I am lazy. Instead I just decided to hook up my ps4 to my monitor, and get a male to male aux cable so I can hear the ps4 using the same headphones for my pc. This worked, but I heard static. Thanks to you, I dont hear static anymore, and I actually can hear the ps4 noises as clearly as the static being there. Thanks again.

[John]

Hey guys I have found the BEST noise suppressor VST for MICs (equivalant quality to that of RTX Voice by Nvidia) - It is the Accusonus ERA 4 Noise Remover (low CPU usage too). Trust me i've tried all the noise supressors out there including auto expanders but they almost always have weird sound artifacts. One problem with ERA 4 noise remover - I can't get it to work with EQ APO!! - when you enable the plugin the playback just goes completely silent! Have we had any updates from the developer regarding enhanced VST support? This would be the perfect VST for noise suppression on microphones. Please somehow make this work!! p.s this VST can work with Voicemeter Banana via VST light host (thats how i have tested it to work very well).