Background noise is somewhat of a nuisance and can really become troublesome in post-production. Fear not, we have the answer on how to remove background noise in DaVinci Resolve. 

How to Remove Background Noise in DaVinci Resolve

Background noise can occur through many avenues. An example we often see is the issue of reflective surfaces. Surfaces like concrete, metal, or ceramic tiles can cause a lot of echoing that interferes with your audio. 

Another instance of background noise is the wind. It’s crazy how many times you get back to the post-production suite, and there’s a hint of wind. 

In this article today, we will look at what background noise is and how to remove background noise in DaVinci Resolve smoothly and succinctly. 

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Scroll below to find out how to remove background noise in DaVinci Resolve.

What is background noise?

Background noise is any additional sound that’s not the primary sound focus for your shot. Usually background noise is caused from reflective surfaces, for example metal, or concrete. 

Background noise is also caused on outdoor shoots by wind, cars, people and trains (And plenty more). Sometimes it’s good to have the ambience in the shot, especially in busy street scenes. But not if it’s an integral part of the film, and your protagonist is delivering the key line of the film, and there’s a siren in the background, completely unrelated. 

However, do not worry. When you get into post and that pain in the ass, background noise appears, it’s not the end. 

We’ve laid out intricate detais on how to locate the background noise, and remove the background noise in a few simple steps. 

You may also like to read: How to reduce background noise in premiere pro

How to remove background noise in DaVinci Resolve

Right, let’s get into how to prepare your audio clip for background noise reduction. Firstly we will prepare the clip to ensure you can pinpoint where the noise sits in your audio clip. Then we will move onto the removal of the background noise.

Here is how to remove background noise in DaVinci Resolve.

Preparing your clip for noise reduction

First of all, select the clip you wish to work with and add it to your timeline in DaVinci Resolve. Play the clip to make sure you know where the background noise creeps in and which parts you want to remove. 

Now click the Music Symbol in Green (The Fairlight Tab) down in the lower utility bar. The next step is to locate your Mixer and click on it, a menu will pop up select Dynamics.

We are doing this to add an Audio Gate. An Audio Gate controls what audio passes through a channel and to what degree. 

Preparing your clip for noise reduction
Preparing your clip for noise reduction

Now you can click “Gate.” Here, the vertical line shows the threshold. The threshold is the point where DaVinci Resolve begins to lower the volume of your clip. 

This tells you what the minimum decibel is and where the highest decibel is – once it has passed the audio threshold. 

Dynamics - Audio
Dynamics – Audio

Now you will want to set the threshold to around 32-33 on your timeline, and click the Output Selection Bar.

Now you will want to find the clip section where there is only background noise – check where this sits on the input measure.

You can now adjust your range and your threshold based on the results of the above. Keep tweaking until you start to hear a slight difference. 

Now we will move onto the noise reduction in DaVinci Resolve.

Noise reduction in DaVinci Resolve

Now it’s time to remove background noise in DaVinci Resolve. To begin removing the background noise, open the mixer and select Noise Reduction

Noise reduction in DaVinci Resolve
Noise reduction

You can now begin the process. The Auto Speech Mode is an easy way to remove background noise but usually causes the audio to be a little distorted. To avoid this, click on the “learn” button. 

Find an area of your track where you have located the background noise and simply select Learn. DaVinci Resolve will then locate the noise and reduce the frequency until it has removed any unwanted noise. 

It’s as simple as that; your background noise has been removed in DaVinci Resolve.

Additional DaVinci Resolve Resources

If you are looking for more tutorials, walkthroughs and troubleshooting on DaVinci Resolve, here are some additional posts about DaVinci:

We hope this article on how to remove background noise in DaVinci Resolve has been helpful to you, let us know what you think in the comments.

One Comment

  1. I’ve down these for a uni project, but to remove all of the noise, it’s now sounding muffled. I’ve also adjusted EQ & Dynamics. What else can I do other than rerecord?

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