Your Voice Audio Sucks. Instantly Fix It For Free.

Your voice audio sounds bad, and you want to know why? It's because you don't have an expensive microphone, dummy. So you might as well just give up.

Actually, that's not true. In the video above, none of the mics are even plugged in. One Dylan is recording on an iPhone with the default Voice Memos app sitting nowhere near him. Beach Dylan is using the crappy built-in camera mic. Sofa Dylan is recording next to his girlfriend vacuuming. And podcast-mic Dylan? That audio came from a DJI Pocket 3 in my pocket. The intro was too fun to make to cut, but every one of those shots is a real example of what this tool can rescue.

What Auphonic is

It's called Auphonic, and no, they're not paying me a dime for this. I made the video because whether you're a video creator, podcaster, or game designer, anything involving voice audio, this tool is the holy grail. It's the coolest service I've come across in a long time. It has saved me hours of tweaking audio in post, and it has saved numerous shots where I forgot a mic, my mic died, or there was heavy background noise on location. Best of all: 2 hours free every month, no credit card needed.

Real example: I was camped by a loud river in Kazakhstan and forgot to grab my mic (or was too lazy, one of the two). Unusable shot. Ran it through Auphonic and it came back clean. If you want, you can fully remove the background noise, then add your own ambient sound effects in post, which is exactly what I did for several intro scenes.

How it works

Upload your file, pick a preset (or just use the default), and their algorithm, which they designed and trained themselves, processes it. Hit download. Done.

And here's something really nice: if you change a setting after processing, reprocessing is free. Click Edit Production, adjust (say, less aggressive noise removal), and run it again without burning credits. You're only charged time when you upload and process new files. A few other services could learn from the people at Auphonic.

My recommended preset for talking head audio

Name the preset something like "Talking Head Audio," then go to Output Files. Change the format to WAV, 16-bit or 24-bit. 16-bit is fine for most purposes and 24-bit means bigger files. I also add "_auphonic" to the output filename so I always know which version has been processed.

Then head to Audio Algorithms:

Filtering: leave it on Voice AutoEQ most of the time. The other option is for audio missing chunks of frequencies (only lows and highs, say); it blends them together for a smooth, full voice. But usually, Voice AutoEQ.

Noise reduction: keep it on Dynamic generally. Switch to Speech Isolation if you need to strip music out of the background, or Static for constant noise like an AC hum. At 100 dB the background noise is fully removed; medium to high keeps a little of it; at 3 dB you'll hear more than you probably want.

Remove reverb: kills the echo. And the one that interests a lot of you: breath removal. 100 dB removes breaths entirely, or dial it partway to just soften them.

There's also automatic cutting: silences, filler words (the "ums," which I do a lot), and even coughs. Just coughs. Why not sneezes? Interesting choice, Auphonic. Then hit Save Preset.

Bonus features and pricing

You can also have Auphonic generate a summary and transcript of your audio, download SRT subtitle files, and even create YouTube chapters. Genuinely useful.

The free 2 hours a month actually lasts a surprisingly long time. Beyond that, you can subscribe OR buy standalone credits. In a sea full of subscriptions, I love that they give you that flexibility. Admirable company, admirable product. Check out Auphonic here.