# Clean Up Audio — Remove background noise from audio on Mac

Reduce background noise and even out loudness. Part of OneMacTools, 151 private tools in one native Mac app (macOS 26 or later); category: Audio. Runs on your Mac; nothing is uploaded.

Reduce hiss and hum, remove low rumble and normalise loudness to a broadcast-friendly level, in one pass. Works on audio files and on the soundtrack of videos.

Page: https://www.onemactools.com/tools/clean-up-audio · Download: https://www.onemactools.com/download · Pricing: https://www.onemactools.com/pricing

## How to use it
1. **Drop your recordings.** Drag in voice memos, podcast recordings or lecture audio. You can also drop videos to clean up their soundtrack.
2. **Choose what to fix.** All three clean-ups are on by default: background noise, low rumble and loudness. Turn off any you don't need.
3. **Click Clean Up.** Each file is processed in one pass, with “cleaned” added to its name.
4. **Listen to the result.** The cleaned files are saved in a new dated folder in Downloads › OneMacTools. Play them with the Preview (eye) button or use Show in Finder. Your originals are untouched.

## Options
- **Reduce background noise:** On by default. Lowers steady background noise such as hiss, fan noise and air conditioning. It works best on constant sounds, not on sudden ones like a door or a dog barking.
- **Remove low rumble:** On by default. Cuts sound below 80 Hz, which removes traffic rumble, desk bumps and handling noise without touching voices.
- **Normalise loudness:** On by default. Evens the overall volume to −16 LUFS, the usual level for podcasts and spoken audio, with peaks kept below −1.5 dB so nothing clips.

## Tips
- Leave all three on for spoken recordings. Together they fix the most common problems with phone and laptop recordings.
- Turn off Reduce background noise for music. It's tuned for speech and can dull cymbals and other quiet detail.
- Clean up recordings before you merge them, so every part ends up at a similar level and sound.
- No clean-up can rescue a voice that's buried in noise. Recording closer to the microphone always helps more.
- Keep the original. If the cleaned version sounds too processed, try again with fewer options turned on.

## Questions
**How do I remove background noise from audio on a Mac?**
Drop the recording onto Clean Up Audio with Reduce background noise on and click Clean Up. Steady noise such as hiss, hum and fans is reduced.

**How do I make a quiet recording louder?**
Leave Normalise loudness on. It raises the whole recording to −16 LUFS, the usual level for podcasts, without letting the loudest parts clip.

**Can it remove a dog barking or people talking?**
No. It reduces steady background noise. Short, changing sounds such as barks, traffic horns or other voices stay in the recording.

**Can I clean up the audio of a video?**
Yes. Drop the video in and you get its cleaned soundtrack as an M4A. To put it back into the video, use Replace Audio.

**What is −16 LUFS?**
It's a measure of average loudness. −16 LUFS is the common target for podcasts and spoken audio, so your recording sits at the same level as most shows.

**Does it change the file format?**
No. MP3 stays MP3, WAV stays WAV and so on. Only videos change, because you get their soundtrack as an M4A.