How to Reduce Background Noise in Apple Final Cut Pro 11

All three NLEs – Final Cut, Premiere and Resolve – provide audio tools to remove background noise. Most use machine learning to achieve this.

• Here’s how to reduce background noise in Adobe Premiere Pro 2025.
• Here’s how to reduce background noise in DaVinci Resolve 20.

While these are advertised as “removing” noise, a more accurate term is “reducing” noise. Both background noise and human speech occupy the same frequency range. Removing too much background noise will damage the voice quality of the speaker.

So, when applying these effects, you are looking for a balance between removing as much noise as necessary without damaging the speaker’s voice.

NOTE: If you need an absolutely clean background, you should re-record the audio in a studio using ADR techniques. Most of the time, though, we like a bit of background because it creates the feeling of being on location.

Here’s our sample mono audio clip. It is an interview recorded at a trade show with a lot of background noise, as you can see from the raised waveform at the beginning  of the clip.

Here’s how to minimize background noise in Final Cut.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Audio enhancement in Final Cut works on the component level, not the clip level. If your audio clip has more than one audio component (for example, a dual mono clip), select an individual component, then proceed with the enhancements. (What Apple calls “components,” the rest of us call “channels.”)

AUTOMATICALLY REMOVE ON IMPORT

This checkbox, in the Media Import window, will analyze all imported audio and, if the noise is severe, will remove it from the clip automatically. While this noise reduction is applied automatically during import, you can adjust or remove this later.

Apple’s Help notes: When you import a clip with the “Analyze Audio: Fix audio problems” import option selected, only severe audio problems are corrected. If the clip contains moderate problems, these appear in yellow next to Audio Analysis in the Audio Enhancements section of the Audio inspector after the clip is imported. To correct these problems, you need to automatically enhance audio in the Audio inspector.

REDUCING NOISE

If you have a mono audio clip, that is, a clip with only one audio channel, containing excessive background noise select the clip, then, in the Audio Inspector, hover over Audio Enhancements and click Show (red arrow).

Enable Noise Removal. This decreases background noise without changing the voice – much.

Drag the Amount slider to find a setting where the noise is as quiet as possible while the voice still sounds full and rich. Every clip is different and there is no perfect setting.

If you have a clip with two or more channels, edit it into the timeline, then choose Clip > Expand Audio Components (shortcut: Control + Option + S).

Select the channel (component) with the noise, then enable Audio Inspector > Noise Removal.

Repeat this process for every channel containing noise you want to reduce.

OPTIMIZE VOICE AND REDUCE NOISE

Voice Isolation is the latest audio feature in Final Cut. It not only reduces noise but also, using machine learning, optimizes the human voice.

As before, select the component (channel) in the timeline, then check Audio Inspector > Voice Isolation. Adjust the Amount slider to optimize the sound of the clip.

SUMMARY

In general, don’t use both Voice Isolation and Noise Removal on the same channel. Pick the one that works the best for that channel.

Voice Isolation is newer and should be your first option when you need to reduce noise. Noise Removal is more subtle and yields more nuanced results.

Remember, if you are working with clips that contain more than one audio channel, you need to select the channel, not the clip, before applying any of these settings.

Finally, your audio will sound the best if you reduce the background noise, rather than try to remove it totally. As long as the speaker’s voice is clear, some background noise will add believability and a sense of “being there” with them on location.