6 Best Paid & Free Noise Reduction Plugins (2026)

Unwanted noise can ruin even your best recordings. Whether you’re cleaning up vocals, fixing podcast dialogue, or removing hum from a guitar track, noise reduction plugins have become essential tools for anyone working with audio.

The best noise reduction plugins use advanced processing to remove background noise, hiss, hum, and other unwanted sounds while keeping your main audio clean and natural.

This guide covers both paid and free noise reduction plugins at the end that actually work. You’ll find professional tools with AI-powered processing alongside free plugins that handle basic noise problems surprisingly well. I’ve included options for different budgets and skill levels, plus a breakdown of how these noise removal plugins actually process your audio so you can make better decisions about which one fits your workflow.

Noise reduction is a delicate balance between suppression and signal integrity. I’ve tested these plugins and here are my findings.

1. Klevgrand Brusfri – for Constant Background Noise Removal

When you need to clean up recordings with constant background noise, Brusfri is one of the first noise reduction plugins you should try.

What makes it different from most noise reducers is how it works. Instead of using phase cancellation or spectral subtraction (which can make your audio sound weird or thin), Brusfri uses targeted gating across different frequency bands. This means it mutes the noise without messing up the phase or tone of your actual recording.

The workflow is really simple. You hold down the Learn button while playing a short section that has only noise (no voice or music). Brusfri captures that noise profile, then you hit play and it removes that same noise from your whole track. I’ve cleaned up laptop fan hum, air conditioner buzz, and even headphone bleed with just a few clicks.

The interface is clean and easy to understand. You get controls for Threshold, Attack, Release, and a few others that let you fine-tune how aggressive the noise reduction is. There’s also a Mix knob so you can blend the processed signal with the dry one if full reduction sounds too harsh.

Main features:

• Learn-Based Noise Profiling

This is the core of how Brusfri works. You feed it a clean noise sample by holding the Learn button while that section plays. From that sample, it builds a profile of what to remove. Once you’ve done that, you just let your track play and Brusfri suppresses that exact noise pattern across the entire recording. It’s fast and doesn’t require any complicated setup or frequency graphs.

• Minimal Artifacts & Transparent Sound

Because Brusfri uses gating instead of phase-based processing, it keeps your audio sounding natural. I’ve used it on vocal recordings, acoustic guitar, and dialogue tracks, and it doesn’t leave that hollow or metallic sound you sometimes get with other noise reducers. As long as you don’t push the settings too hard, the results are clean and invisible.

• Simple Controls That Work

After you’ve learned the noise, you adjust a few key parameters. Threshold controls how much noise gets removed, Attack and Release shape how fast the gating reacts, and Edge tweaks the crossover between frequency bands.

There’s also a high-pass filter and HF boost if you need to restore brightness after reduction. The whole noise removal plugin is designed to get you results quickly without overwhelming you with options.

2. Accentize dXRevive Pro – Great for Dialogue Rescue & Frequency Reconstruction

dXRevive Pro actually reconstructs missing frequencies and restores clarity that other plugins can’t touch.

It  feels more like a dialogue rescue tool. If you’ve ever recorded a podcast guest over a poor internet connection or dealt with a voiceover tracked on a cheap USB mic, you know how frustrating it is when EQ and compression just aren’t enough. This noise removal  plugin goes deeper than that.

The interface keeps things simple with just a few main controls, but underneath you get multiple processing algorithms and the ability to split your audio into bands. That means you can target specific problem areas without affecting the whole recording. I appreciate that balance between easy to use and powerful when you need it.

Features:

• AI-Powered Speech Restoration

dXRevive Pro uses machine learning to analyze your dialogue and rebuild it from the inside out. You’re not just cutting out noise, you’re actually filling in gaps where frequencies went missing due to poor recording conditions or codec compression

• Studio, Natural, and EQ Restore Algorithms

The plugin gives you different processing modes depending on what you’re dealing with. Studio mode works great when you want that polished, professional sound. Natural mode keeps more of the original character intact while still cleaning things up. The variety means you can match the restoration to your specific material instead of forcing everything through one algorithm.

• Multiband Processing Control

This is where dXRevive Pro really shines for me. You can split the audio into up to four frequency bands and process each one independently. Maybe your low end is fine but the highs are full of hiss, or you’ve got reverb muddying up the mids.

Being able to target specific ranges gives you way more control than a single-knob solution. It’s especially useful when working with different voices or recording environments across the same project.

3. Supertone Clear – Essential for Real-Time Voice Separation & Noise Suppression

Supertone Clear uses AI to separate voice from noise and reverb instead of just masking things with a gate. That approach gives you way more control than traditional noise reduction tools.

The plugin splits your audio into three separate components: voice, ambience, and voice reverb. You adjust three simple knobs to balance these elements, which means you can clean up dialogue without making it sound lifeless or processed.

I really appreciate that Clear runs in real-time, so you’re not stuck waiting for renders. If you’re recording vocals, streaming, or editing podcasts, you get instant feedback. The interface stays simple, but the AI doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes is surprisingly smart.

• AI-Powered Voice Separation

Clear doesn’t just reduce noise. It actually identifies and isolates the voice from everything else in your recording using neural networks.

That means background hum, room noise, and unwanted reverb get separated cleanly without destroying the natural quality of your voice. I’ve used it on home recordings that sounded pretty rough, and the results were way better than basic noise gates or EQ tricks.

• Three-Knob Simplicity

You get three controls: Voice, Ambience, and Reverb. Turn up Voice to bring clarity, dial down Ambience to remove background noise, and reduce Reverb to tame room reflections. It’s incredibly fast to use because you’re not hunting through complex menus or parameters.

• Real-Time Processing for Live Use

Since Clear processes audio in real-time, you can use it while tracking vocals, during live streams, or while editing without bouncing files. This makes it perfect for podcasters and streamers who need clean audio on the fly.

• De-Voice Mode for Ambience Extraction

Here’s a cool twist: you can flip the process and remove the voice entirely, leaving only the background ambience. This comes in handy for sound design, creating atmosphere tracks, or extracting room tone for post-production work.

• Low CPU & Broad Compatibility

Clear supports AU, VST3, VST, and AAX formats on both Windows and Mac, including native Apple Silicon support. There’s also a low-CPU mode, so you can run multiple instances without your computer struggling.

4. Waves Clarity VX Pro – Good choice for fast, AI-Powered vocal noise reduction

Waves Clarity VX Pro noise reduction plugin changed how I think about fixing noisy vocal recordings. It’s powered by AI-trained neural networks that recognize the difference between voice and everything else, including fans, street noise, room hum, or even people talking in the background.

What makes this plugin different is how fast it works. You drop it on a track, turn a single knob, and watch the noise disappear while your voice stays clean and natural. No bouncing or rendering required. Everything happens in real time inside your DAW, which saves me a ton of time when I’m editing podcasts or cleaning up dialogue for video projects.

I also appreciate that it doesn’t force you into a one-size-fits-all approach. If you need quick cleanup, the single knob does the job. But when you want more control, you can dig into six-band multiband processing where each frequency range can be adjusted separately.

Main features:

• AI-Powered Voice Separation Clarity

VX Pro uses Waves Neural Networks technology trained on millions of voice files. This means it can tell the difference between your voice and background noise without you having to teach it anything. You just load it up and it already knows what to keep and what to remove

• Real-Time Processing Inside Your DAW

This is one of my favorite parts. You can edit and mix while the plugin works in real time. All your video and audio tracks keep playing, so you stay in context and don’t lose momentum.

It’s fully automatable too, so if the noise level changes throughout a recording, you can automate the cleanup to match. This workflow is way faster than older plugins that make you stop, analyze, render, and then check your results.

• Multiband Control & Ambience Tools

When I need surgical precision, I switch to the multiband view. You get independent control over six frequency bands, each with its own processing amount, bypass, solo, and gain controls.

There’s also a “Reflections” control that brings back some natural room tone after noise reduction. Without it, voices can sound too dry or lifeless. I would use this feature when I want the vocal to feel like it still belongs in a space, just without the mess.

• Multiple Neural Network Modes Clarity

VX Pro includes four different neural network options depending on what you’re working with. Broad 1 keeps both primary and secondary voices, which works great for group recordings. Broad 1 HF preserves high frequencies better, so airy voices and breath details stay intact. Broad 2 is more aggressive and handles heavier noise or separates main voices from background chatter.

Broad ECO is the low-CPU version for when you’re running dozens of instances in a big session.

Plugin also comes with trial you can try here. However, if you consider buying you can greatly support this site by buying with it here ❤️

5. Acon Digital Extract Dialogue – For Speech Isolation from Noisy Recordings

Another noise reduction plugin by Acon Digital. This one is built specifically to pull speech away from all the annoying stuff that sneaks into recordings – wind, traffic, hum, rustle, clicks, and pops.

Instead of using old-school noise gates or static profiles, it was trained on thousands of voice recordings and noise samples, so it knows how to tell the difference between what’s dialogue and what’s junk. That means you get cleaner results without manually drawing out problem frequencies or fiddling with threshold settings for ten minutes.

The interface is super simple. You’re not buried in controls or menus. Most of the time, you load it up, adjust the sensitivity if needed, and let it do its thing in real time. I love that it includes a solo noise feature so you can actually hear what’s being removed. It keeps me from accidentally stripping out parts of the voice I actually want to keep.

Important – in the meantime, there was a version 2 being released so consider checking it right here.

Features:

• Deep Learning Algorithm for Speech Isolation

The plugin uses a neural network trained on real-world audio to automatically identify and separate dialogue from background noise. You don’t need to teach it what noise sounds like or set up side chains. It just listens and figures it out on its own, which saves me a ton of time when I’m editing podcasts, interviews, or location recordings where the background wasn’t controlled.

• Frequency Band Sensitivity Controls

While the plugin does most of the heavy lifting automatically, you still get manual control over three frequency bands—low shelf, mid peak, and high shelf. This lets you dial in how aggressive the noise reduction is in specific areas.

If there’s low-end rumble or high-frequency hiss that’s harder to remove, I can target just those zones without affecting the full signal. It’s a nice balance between automatic processing and hands-on tweaking.

• Maximum Attenuation Limiter

Sometimes you don’t want to completely kill the background. Maybe you’re working on a documentary and need to keep some room tone for realism. The adjustable attenuation control lets you limit how much noise gets reduced, so you can preserve natural ambience without over-processing the dialogue. I would recommend it if you want audio to feel clean but not sterile

• Solo Noise Monitoring & Spectrum Analyzer

Being able to solo the removed noise is a game changer for quality control. You can listen to exactly what’s being taken out and make sure it’s not grabbing any voice content by mistake. The built-in spectrum analyzer shows you both the input signal and the noise being removed, giving you a visual reference that helps you make smarter decisions without guessing.

6. Hush Audio Hush Pro (Mac Only) – Solid choice for Field Recording Cleanup

What makes Hush Pro plugin unique is its machine-learning engine that actually understands the difference between speech and unwanted noise. Instead of hunting for noise profiles or tweaking endless threshold sliders, you just load your audio and Hush Pro figures out what’s voice, what’s reverb, and what’s noise.

I appreciate how Hush Pro handles location recordings that would normally take hours to clean. Traffic rumble, room reflections, wind hits, all the chaos from field recording gets separated cleanly without making the voice sound hollow or robotic.

Main features:

• Two Processing Modes for Different Workflows 

Hush Mix gives you three faders for dialogue, reverb, and noise. You can rebalance these elements in real time and preview changes before rendering. It’s perfect when you need fast cleanup and want to keep everything on one track.

• Adaptive Processing Without Noise Profiles

The plugin analyzes your recording automatically and adapts its processing on the fly. You don’t need to capture a noise print or set up side-chain triggers. Quiet sections stay untouched while noisy parts get cleaned up dynamically. This approach preserves more natural character in the voice and avoids that pumping or gating artifact you get with older tools.

• Real-Time Preview and Apple Silicon Optimization

Even though Hush Pro is an AudioSuite plugin, you get smooth real-time preview with click-free looping. Changes feel instant because it’s built specifically for Apple Silicon Macs and uses the Neural Engine for processing.

The ML model runs much deeper than CPU-only plugins, which is why the separation quality feels more refined. Just know it’s Mac-only right now and requires Pro Tools.

• Minimal Artifacts with Natural Results

I’ve pushed Hush Pro hard on really messy recordings, outdoor interviews, traffic-heavy scenes, and it consistently delivers clean results without that underwater or overly processed sound.

The voice keeps its presence and tone instead of sounding like it’s been squashed through a noise gate. That’s rare when you’re doing aggressive noise reduction.

Hush Split takes the same audio and renders it to three separate tracks. This gives you way more control because you can treat each element individually, pull room tone for fills, or rebuild ambience from scratch. I use Split mode when I need surgical precision or want to keep my edits non-destructive.

Freebies

1. Chaos Audio Eclipse

Eclipse plugin is a free noise reduction plugin that actually delivers without making you jump through hoops or compromise your workflow.

You get three simple controls and that’s it. No intimidating menus, no complex routing, just pure noise suppression that works. When you’re tracking guitars late at night or cleaning up a vocal take with annoying room hum, Eclipse handles it without drama.

The plugin works across macOS and Windows in AU, VST3, and AAX formats. I’ve thrown it on vocals, DI guitar tracks, synth pads, even podcast recordings. It doesn’t care what you feed it. As long as you have steady background noise like hiss, hum, or that annoying buzz from your computer fan, Eclipse can clean it up.

What you get:

• Threshold, Decay & Reduction Controls

Eclipse gives you exactly what you need and nothing more. Threshold sets the level where noise gets reduced, which means you tell the plugin when to start working. Decay controls how quickly the suppression releases after your signal rises above the threshold, so you avoid choppy, unnatural cuts.

Reduction determines how much the noise gets turned down when it drops below your threshold. Push Reduction to maximum and Eclipse becomes a full gate, completely silencing everything below your threshold. I usually keep Reduction moderate to preserve the natural feel of my recordings.

• Lightweight & CPU-Friendly

It’s genuinely lightweight, which matters when you’re working on a laptop or running dozens of plugins in a session

• Transparent Noise Suppression for Multiple Sources

Eclipse doesn’t color your sound when you use it right. I’ve cleaned up everything from breathy vocals to noisy guitar DIs, and as long as I don’t get too aggressive with the Reduction knob, my tracks sound natural. It’s especially good at handling constant noise like electrical hum or ambient room tone.

The plugin won’t solve every noise problem, but for steady, predictable background noise, it does the job without making your audio sound gated or lifeless.

2. Bertom Denoiser

Bertom Audio split their denoiser into two versions: Denoiser Classic (free) and Denoiser Pro (paid). The free Classic version gives you everything you need for basic noise cleanup without spending a dime. It works on Windows, Mac, and even Linux, which is rare for free plugins.

Instead of using complex FFT processing that can mess with your audio’s phase, Bertom VST uses a time-domain approach that sounds more natural. You don’t need to capture a noise profile like older plugins require. Just load it up, tweak a few knobs, and you’re cleaning up audio in seconds.

I use this regularly on guitar DI recordings, vocal takes with room noise, and even synth tracks that picked up hum from my interface. It’s become one of those noise removal vst plugins I install on every new system.

• Zero-Latency Processing

This is huge if you’re tracking live or working in real-time situations. Bertom Denoiser adds no latency at all, so you can monitor through it while recording without any delay. I’ve used it during live streaming sessions and podcast recordings where latency would’ve been a dealbreaker. Most noise reduction plugins force you to render offline or deal with processing delay, but not this one.

• 5-Band EQ with Custom Noise Shaping

You get a 5-band EQ built right into the plugin that lets you shape which frequencies get noise reduction applied. This gives you way more control than simple threshold-based denoisers.

If your noise sits mostly in the high end, you can target that without affecting the low mids where your vocal body lives. I found this especially useful on acoustic guitar recordings where finger noise and string buzz live in specific frequency ranges.

• Simple Interface for Quick Results

The interface is clean and straightforward. You’re not drowning in controls or confusing parameters. There’s a threshold slider, reduction amount, and your EQ bands. That’s basically it. When I’m in a creative flow and just need to clean something up fast, I don’t want to spend ten minutes learning a complicated interface. Bertom gets out of your way and lets you focus on your music.

3. ToneLib Noise Reducer

I’ll be honest, finding a noise reduction plugin that’s actually free and still useful can feel impossible. ToneLib Noise Reducer changed that for me.

It combines two separate units in one rack. You get the Studio Rack Unit for broader noise reduction and the EasyGate Unit that’s modeled after guitar pedals. Both tackle unwanted noise but in different ways, which gives you flexibility depending on what you’re cleaning up.

The automatic mode is where I spend most of my time. You just adjust the threshold slider and let the plugin do its thing. It monitors your input signal and automatically suppresses noise when things get quiet. For quick cleanup work on guitar tracks or demo recordings, this saves me a ton of time.

Things you will get:

• Two-Unit Noise Reduction System

This free noise reduction plugin gives you both a Studio Rack Unit and an EasyGate Unit working together. EasyGate is good when you are dealing with guitar hum or amp noise since it’s designed like a pedal gate. The Rack Unit handles broader cleanup tasks across different instruments. Having both options in one free plugin means you can handle most basic noise problems without reaching for anything else.

• Automatic Mode with Simple Controls

This is my go-to feature. The automatic threshold control listens to your signal and decides when to reduce noise. You’re not wrestling with complicated spectral editing or frequency-specific controls. Just set your threshold, tweak the sensitivity if needed, and you’re done.

Perfect when you’re working fast or don’t want to get lost in technical settings.

• ADSR Envelope Shaping

The ADSR envelope controls let you shape how the noise reduction kicks in and out. I adjust the attack and release times to avoid that choppy, unnatural gating sound. This keeps instrument tails and natural room ambience intact while still cutting the noise floor between phrases.

• Cross-Platform Support & Low CPU Usage

ToneLib made this plugin available as 64-bit VST, VST3, and AU for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. It runs as a standalone app too. The CPU load is incredibly light

How Noise Reduction Plugins Work

Noise reduction plugins analyze your audio signal to identify and remove unwanted sounds like hum, hiss, or background noise. They use digital signal processing to separate the clean audio you want from the frequencies you don’t, though the method varies between different plugin types.

Common Techniques Used in Noise Reduction

Most noise reduction plugins I’ve used rely on a few core approaches to clean up audio.

Spectral noise reduction is probably the most common method. It works by learning what your noise sounds like from a sample section, then subtracting those frequencies from the rest of your recording. You capture a noise profile, usually from a quiet part where only the unwanted sound exists, and the plugin uses that as a reference.

Broadband noise reduction tackles constant background sounds across the entire frequency spectrum. This works great when you’re dealing with air conditioning hum, computer fan noise, or that steady hiss from a preamp. The plugin applies reduction across all frequencies at once rather than targeting specific bands.

AI-powered noise reduction has become more popular recently. These plugins use machine learning to distinguish between voice or instruments and noise. They’ve been trained on thousands of recordings, so they can often make smarter decisions about what to keep and what to remove without you needing to capture a noise profile first.

Digital Signal Processing Basics

When you run audio through a noise reduction plugin, it breaks your signal down into tiny pieces to analyze it.

The plugin uses Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to convert your audio from a time-based waveform into a frequency-based spectrum. This lets it see exactly which frequencies contain your desired sound and which ones are just noise.

You’ll usually see controls like threshold and reduction amount. Threshold tells the plugin how loud something needs to be before it’s considered signal instead of noise. Reduction amount controls how aggressively the plugin removes what it identifies as unwanted sound.

Attack and release settings determine how quickly the plugin responds to changes. Faster settings catch noise quickly but might sound unnatural. Slower settings sound smoother but may let some noise through during quiet moments.

Avoiding Audio Artifacts

The biggest challenge I face with noise reduction is keeping my audio sounding natural while removing enough noise to matter.

Over-processing creates artifacts that sound worse than the original noise. You might hear a watery, garbled quality or a metallic ringing. I always start with subtle settings and only increase reduction until the noise becomes less noticeable, not until it disappears completely.

Preserving transients matters when you’re working with drums, guitar picks, or consonants in vocals. Aggressive noise reduction can dull these sharp, quick sounds. Most quality plugins have options to protect transients or high frequencies from being processed too heavily.

I recommend using real-time monitoring while adjusting settings. Many plugins let you listen to only what’s being removed, which helps you catch when you’re cutting into your actual signal instead of just noise.