I used to have a motherboard with Realtek HD Audio drivers. Although the driver and bundled software were clunky, annoying, and redundant, surprisingly it had features for Noise Suppression and Echo Cancellation when using microphones.

I have been taking this for granted as I work in data centers throughout the week, and I need to make calls over skype/google. Unfortunately the receiving end hears the blasting noise of air conditioners in the background.

I later switched to a computer that uses VIA drivers, also with a bundle of clunky drivers. Unfortunately, they don't have any of these features.

So I've been looking hard, but can't find any software that can perform the noise cancellation. It seems like it would need to hook in the driver level, but maybe this can be a generic filter that is used by applications that need to interface with the microphone.

Any information would be useful.

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4 Answers

Try to use SoliCall Pro and Voice Shaper.

Voice Shaper:

SoliCall Pro:

I hope this information would be helpful :)

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There are basically two scenarios here, noise reduction and echo suppression, which are very different beasts.

I am more familiar with echo suppression (AEC), and to do this properly it needs to be done at the lowest level possible as close to the captured mic input and playback hardware as possible.

Ideally the device driver would be the perfect place to put it, but few windows drivers support it probably because most good AEC algorithms cost money to license.

It can be done at the program/application level if you can access the buffer immediately as it has been recorded, and the buffer that has just been played. This is usually done in the application, and each application does it slightly differently if at all.

So the answer to the echo cancellation is No I do not believe there is generic software or filters that can do AEC.

Noise suppression is a different issue and requires some well understood algorithms be applied to the recorded microphone data before passing onto the application, so in this case I think it would be possible to apply a filter to the mic and generic application level software (or drivers) should be available, unfortunately I am not aware of any.

Skype has noise & echo cancellation built in.

See: Call quality issues

I believe there are simple adjustments you can make to skype as well. One that I've played with before is "Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels". I've had better success turning that off in some situations.

Also, use a headset mic where possible. It will help immensely to cut down unwanted background noise because the mic sensitivity doesn't need to be so high with the mic so near your mouth.

Right click the Speaker option in the task bar and choose Playback devices. Choose the default running device and then open it's properties. Go to enhancements and choose Voice cancellation which will reduce the redundant noise and works exactly like noise reduction.

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