Remove Background Noise From a Screen Recording on Mac

To remove background noise from a screen recording, start before you hit record. Get the mic close to your mouth, switch off fans and other steady noise, and decide whether to use macOS Voice Isolation. Whatever noise is left can be reduced afterward. In Screen Bolt, open the Audio panel in the editor with ⌘4 (Command-4) and switch on Noise Reduction under Audio Enhance. It runs on your Mac and only processes your microphone track.

Prevent noise before you record

Noise reduction removes noise, but it can also take a little of your voice with it. The less noise you capture, the less processing the audio needs.

• Get the mic close to your mouth. Your voice gets louder relative to the room, so the room matters less. A headset or a clip-on mic a hand's width away does better than a laptop mic an arm's length away.
• Avoid the built-in laptop mic if you can. It sits right next to the keyboard, trackpad and fans, so it picks up every click and fan spin-up. Our guide to choosing a microphone for screen recording covers the options.
• Turn off steady noise sources. Fans, air conditioning, a humming fridge or a noisy external drive are easy to switch off for 10 minutes and hard to remove completely afterward.
• Wear headphones if you record system audio. If app sounds play through your speakers, the mic picks them up as a faint echo. Screen Bolt captures system audio directly, so you don't need speakers to get it into the video.
• Soften the room. Hard, bare walls add echo. Curtains, a rug or a smaller furnished room all help, and echo is much easier to prevent than to remove later.
• Check your level first. In Screen Bolt, a thin level meter appears at the bottom of the Mic button while the mic is on and you aren't recording. You can also use our free microphone test. Then record 10 seconds and listen back on headphones.

Recording with AirPods? Read using AirPods to record screen audio before you start.

Use macOS Voice Isolation while recording

Voice Isolation is a macOS mic mode that emphasizes your voice and filters out the sound around you. macOS applies it to the mic signal before the app records it.

1. Turn the microphone on. In Screen Bolt, pick your mic from the Mic menu in the recording bar.
2. Click Control Center in the menu bar.
3. Click Mic Mode and choose Voice Isolation.

Mic Mode only appears while an app is using the microphone, and not every app or mic offers every mode. The Control Center layout also varies a little between macOS versions. If you don't see it, check that the mic is actually in use. Our Voice Isolation guide has more detail.

Before you rely on it:

• It's baked into the recording. Voice Isolation processes the signal at capture time, so you can't turn it off afterward. If it makes your voice sound processed, you have to record again.
• Screen Bolt detects it. If Voice Isolation is active when the recording starts, Screen Bolt remembers that and skips its own noise reduction for that recording, so your voice isn't denoised twice. The editor shows: "Skipped for this recording: macOS Voice Isolation already denoised the mic at capture."
• Screen Bolt doesn't apply Voice Isolation itself. It only detects whether it was on.

If you want to keep the choice open, leave Voice Isolation off and use noise reduction in the editor instead. That stays a toggle you can switch off at any point.

Remove background noise from a screen recording in Screen Bolt

Screen Bolt records your microphone as its own audio track, separate from system audio. Noise reduction only touches your voice, so app sounds, music or notification chimes in the system audio track stay as they were.

1. Record with the mic on. When you stop, the editor opens (unless you set After recording to Export to file).
2. Press ⌘4 or click the Audio icon in the sidebar.
3. Under Audio Enhance, switch on Noise Reduction.
4. Wait for the progress readout "Enhancing audio… NN%" to finish.
5. Press Space to play the recording and listen. The enhancement is used in the preview, so what you hear is what gets exported.
6. Click Export when you're happy with it. Noise reduction uses DeepFilterNet 3, a noise-suppression model bundled with the app. If it can't run, Screen Bolt falls back to RNNoise. Both run on your Mac, and the audio is never uploaded.

Auto Audio Enhance switches on all three options at once: Noise Reduction, Volume Normalization and Voice Clarity. After that, each one is its own toggle, so you can turn any of them off again. All three are off by default.

If you clean up audio the same way in every video, save it as a preset. A preset stores the enhance toggles and audio volumes along with the visual look (Presets ▸ Save Current as Preset...). See keeping recordings on-brand with presets.

The free version of Screen Bolt includes the full editor. Free exports are limited to 3 minutes at 720p and carry a watermark; Pro removes those limits for a one-time $79 (as of November 2026). Download Screen Bolt to try it on your own recording.

Fix a muddy or uneven voice with Voice Clarity and Volume Normalization

Noise is only one problem. A voice can also sound boomy, get lost in the mix, or rise and fall in volume. The other two Audio Enhance options deal with that.

The 100 Hz high-pass in Voice Clarity cuts low rumble such as desk bumps and traffic while leaving most of the voice alone. The compression evens out the gap between loud and quiet words.

The Microphone volume slider in the Audio panel runs from 0 to 100%. To bring a quiet voice up to a consistent level, use Volume Normalization rather than the slider. For background on the measurement, see what loudness normalization (LUFS) is.

If the problem is in the system audio track (a loud notification sound or a video playing in a browser), Audio Enhance won't change it. Lower the System Audio volume in the Audio panel instead. To drop that track entirely, right-click the system audio row on the timeline and choose Remove System Audio.

When noise reduction makes things worse

Every noise filter has to decide what counts as voice and what counts as noise, and it sometimes gets that wrong. Watch for these signs:

• Watery or metallic voice. This usually happens when the noise was loud relative to your voice and the filter had to work hard. Turn Noise Reduction off and compare. A little natural noise can sound better than heavy processing, and the real fix is moving the mic closer next time.
• Clipped word endings or missing breaths. Quiet sounds at the end of words can be mistaken for noise. Listen to sentences that trail off.
• Sudden sounds still there. Steady noise like a fan or hiss is the easiest to reduce. A door slam, a dog barking or loud keyboard clicks are harder for any denoiser. Cut those moments on the timeline instead: set an In point (I) and an Out point (O), then press Delete. This removes the video for that stretch too, so use it on pauses, not mid-sentence.
• Noise between sentences got louder. Normalization and compression raise the quiet parts, including the room noise in the gaps. If you turn on Volume Normalization or Voice Clarity, keep Noise Reduction on as well.
• Over-processed voice after Voice Isolation. Screen Bolt skips its own noise reduction on those recordings. If the voice still sounds processed, that came from Voice Isolation at capture, and only a new recording fixes it.

Before and after checks

Spend two minutes on these before you export:

1. Solo the mic. Click the S button on the microphone row of the audio track. You'll hear only your voice, without system audio covering up the noise.
2. Toggle and compare. Play the same 10-second stretch with Noise Reduction on, then off. If you can't hear a difference, leave it off.
3. Listen to the quiet parts. Pauses, the first second and the last second show leftover noise most clearly.
4. Use two kinds of speakers. Headphones reveal artifacts. Laptop speakers show how many viewers will hear it.
5. Keep the original. Right-click the microphone row and choose Export Microphone Audio…. This saves the raw mic track as an .m4a file with no enhancement or volume changes, so you have a clean source if you want to redo the cleanup in another app.

Compare the methods

If you already edit in Descript, a text-based video and audio editor where you edit by changing the transcript, you may prefer to clean audio there. As of November 2026, third-party pricing pages list a free plan and per-user subscription plans. We haven't checked its noise-cleanup tools for this guide, so see Descript's site for what each plan includes.

If it doesn't work

"Skipped for this recording" under Noise Reduction. Voice Isolation was on when you started recording, so Screen Bolt left the mic alone. If you'd rather use the editor's noise reduction, switch Mic Mode back to Standard before your next recording.

Enhancement or export seems stuck on a long recording. The first export after you turn on enhancement for a long recording can show progress in big jumps. Give it time before you cancel.

Clicks or crackle that noise reduction doesn't fix. An amber banner after recording that mentions "break(s) in the microphone timeline, which can sound like brief clicks or crackle" points to a capture problem, not room noise, and a denoiser can't repair it. Free up disk space, close heavy apps and record again. Our guide to choppy or laggy screen recordings has more fixes.

No voice at all. If an amber banner said "Recording without microphone", the mic couldn't be opened, often because another app was using it. Close the other app, check the Mic menu and record again. If a red banner says "Microphone access is required to record mic audio.", grant Screen Bolt microphone access in System Settings (search for "Microphone"). Our guide to fixing a Mac screen recording with no sound covers the rest.

The wrong mic was recorded. Open the Mic menu in the recording bar. The system default is marked "(default)". Pick your external mic by name instead.

FAQ

Does Screen Bolt upload my audio to clean it? No. Noise reduction, voice clarity and normalization all run on your Mac. Recordings are processed locally and never uploaded.

Can I undo the noise reduction? Yes. The Audio Enhance options are toggles you can switch off at any time, and Export Microphone Audio… saves the untouched mic track. Voice Isolation is the exception, because it is applied at capture.

Will noise reduction remove typing sounds? It can reduce them, but sharp, sudden sounds are harder to remove than steady hum. Placing the mic away from the keyboard does more than any filter.

Does Audio Enhance change the system audio? No. It only processes the microphone track. Adjust or remove system audio separately in the Audio panel.

If you'd rather record your narration separately from the screen, see how to add a voiceover to a screen recording.