5 Ways to Clean Up Your Vocals After Recording

Did you capture the perfect moment–That careful balance between raw power, and heartfelt emotions? Or maybe your quick-paced spoken word lick was on point. But then, when you listen back you realize that your track has some background noise, and needs some serious tweaking…You try and repeat the performance, but no matter how hard you try, you can’t recreate the moment's magic.

This scenario is an artist’s worst nightmare. But luckily, there’s a solution: Vocal cleanup tools.

Vocal Clean-Up To the Rescue

“I feel like vocals are to music what portraits are to painting. They're the humanity. Landscapes are good and fine, but at the end of the day, everyone loves the Mona Lisa”. -Grimes

Did you capture the perfect moment–That careful balance between raw power, and heartfelt emotions? Or maybe your quick-paced spoken word lick was on point. But then, when you listen you realize that your track has some background noise, and needs some serious tweaking…You try and repeat the performance, but no matter how hard you try, you can’t recreate the moment's magic.

This scenario is an artist’s worst nightmare. But luckily, there’s a solution: Vocal cleanup tools.

Soundtrap’s tools allow you to remove distracting background noise, balance uneven frequencies, and enhance clarity without compromising the emotional heart of your recorded performance. With these tools, you can transform a ‘just-ok ’recording into a polished work.

Ways To Clean Up Vocals In Soundtrap

• Vocal Cleanup

• Noise Gate

• Manual Editing 

• Equalization, Deessing, Compression

Inside Soundtrap, background noise can be removed quickly and easily with the AI-powered vocal cleanup tool or a noise gate. There are other, more subtle tools and tweaks you can make to make your tracks shine. But first: Let’s talk about how a vocal track may come to need cleanup in the first place, as well as mistakes producers can make to amplify the issues.

What Not To Do: Things That Amplify Noise

• Appling effects before cleanup leads to more muddiness

• Poor equalization

Too much reverb, especially big wide cathedral-ish ‘verbs, will highlight noise if you don’t get rid of it first. A quiet track with a high noise-to-sound ratio plus a large reverb is a recipe for disaster. The same goes for distortion, delay, or any other bold effect. Then there’s EQing: If your settings are off, it can result in enhanced unwanted sounds. 

Left With Messy Tracks? Remember These Tips For Next Session

• Invest in yourself: Get decent equipment

• Consider the space before you begin

• Don’t record too loudly: or quietly

• Find value in the learning curve

A good microphone, proper placement, and a quiet room will save you from loads of headaches. If you’ve found yourself editing vocals for quite some time, take this in stride and use it as a lesson. Invest in yourself, and get a mid-grade microphone, a pop filter, and an interface. This can reduce hiss and plosives, as well as time spent mixing in the future.

And while you don’t have to have a perfect room, keep in mind that uncontrolled and unwanted reflections can cause issues by muddying up your sound. 

Another issue that you might run into is the result of recording too loud (or from having the gain up too high). This can cause clipping or distortion. On the other hand, recording too quietly can make it very difficult to isolate the noise from the music. 

Finally, if you end up with an audio that you just can’t save: Remember that you’re still learning and that mistakes happen. 

The good news is, that with the right tools, most all messy vocal tracks can be rescued.

 Enter: Soundtrap. 

Step 1: Make Manual Edits Early On

• Cut out silences

• Remove breaths

• Zoom in to identify any clicks and pops

• Utilize fade-ins and fade-outs

If you have the time, manually editing your vocals will go a long way in enhancing the quality of the track. This is the first step I do when I’m cleaning up any track, whether it’s vocals, flute, or guitar. 

To trim audio in Soundtrap, hover over the edge of a clip and drag it in. You can also cut a track by using the ‘split audio’ tool.

First, cut out all of the silences, as closely to the audio as you can without removing any starting syllables. Also, be sure to cut out the silences that are in between your words. Cut out most of the breaths too; only keep the ones that add something to the recording.

 Next, use fade-ins and fade-outs at the end of each line to make it more polished. Taking the time to cut out and fade sounds prevents noises from lingering, and causing problems later down the road in post-production.

To read more on how to cut audio, read up on this article: How to Use The Audio Trimmer 

Step 2: Use Vocal Clean-Up

This Vocal Clean-Up is now one of my go-to tools. It is powered by AI and was made using an advanced algorithm. If you need to get rid of noise or echo, this is a must-have.

To access vocal clean-up inside Soundtrap, head to the audio section at the bottom of the DAW. You can also access it by right-clicking on a single track and selecting the tool from the dropdown. 

Inside the vocal cleaner tool, choose from one of three options: Light, medium, or heavy cleanup. There’s a toggle that allows you to listen to the original audio vs. the edited audio, so you can make sure that the track is improving. Each track processes in just a few seconds: In my experience, it is far faster than any other AI-based music tool I’ve used so far. 

Vocal clean-up helps remove background noise like fans and the sound of cars driving outside, but it can also help reduce unwanted natural reverb and reflections in recordings. I discovered this by accident when I placed vocal clean-up on an audio I thought was already good to go. Once the AI-powered clean-up removed the unwanted reverb from a pre-existing loop I had, I was able to replace it with a reverb that I liked better.

Quick tip: You can do a second pass of light vocal clean-up if the track needs a bit more noise removal.

Step 3: Try a Noise Gate

Another way to filter out background noise, or isolate and reduce an unwanted sound is a noise gate. A noise gate (aka an audio gate) is a music production tool that can mute a signal that is below a defined threshold.

Noise gates are helpful for cleaning up vocals that were recorded live. The main difference between a noise gate and the vocal clean-up tool is that a noise gate is only on sometimes, whereas the clean-up tool is noise reduction, and is on/active for the entire track.

Quick tip: Avoid using a noise gate on a very soft recording, otherwise, you might lose some of your vocal track.

When To Use Vocal Clean-Up Vs. A Noise Gate

Use a noise gate on your voice when: You have a vocal track with relatively even dynamics, but it has background noise. Use vocal clean-up for background noises…or even when you have a subpar microphone placement. You can also experiment with using both of the tools in tandem!

Step 4: Even It Out With The Dynamic Compressor

One tool I mentioned in my last article (My Favorite Vocal Plugins) is getting an honorable mention again. A dynamics compressor works by evening out a track's audio levels. This means, that by using it, you can reduce unwanted spikes and combat sibilances that might not be fully taken out with a de-esser. 

Quick Tip: When using this tool, pay close attention to the knee knob. This will help determine how fast the compressor comes on once the threshold is reached, and can make the transition smooth, or sudden.

Step 5: Follow Standard Vocal Production 

Once you’ve removed most background noises and corrected unwanted reflections, use the standard vocal production tools: Equalizer, deesser, and compression. Remember that a hiss should be removed by pulling down the high end, and a hum, by editing the low end.

Remove the rest of the unwanted sounds with the visual equalizer. Then, combat sibilances with the deesser, and finally, put the icing on the cake with a bit of light compression.

Polish Up Your Vocals in Soundtrap

“Good production is like a beautiful marriage. It makes a happy home”. -Timbaland

Give your vocals the professional touch they deserve—without having to re-record them. Whether you’re working from a computer in your home studio setup or even from a phone, the above vocal cleanup tools can be used to reclaim your best takes! Make arduous audio tasks quick and easy: Clean up your vocals today, and try Soundtrap for free here. 

Want to learn more about how to get stellar vocal takes? Check out this article: 7 Pro Tips to Get Flawless Vocal Recordings Every Time

About the author

Aleah Fitzwater is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, music journalist, and blogger from Temperance, United States. Aleah holds a Pk-12 instrumental music education degree. Her main instruments are flute, piano, drums, bass, and guitar.