Noise Cancellation apps for Google Meet or Zoom

[X-53mph]

I know this is more of a music production board, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any Noise Cancellation apps that work in Google Meet or Zoom that cancel background voices which will work better than the integrated apps. I have to teach lessons in an open office environment and sometimes the noise from other teachers gets amplified by the Meet noise cancellation tab.

I've done my own research and found Krisp and Iris Clarity...however, I'm not happy about the idea of giving over all my personal data to these apps, or paying the monthly fee (I'm a teacher...I don't earn much).  

As a musician I have a shed load of apps from noise cancellation in music (Izotope, ERA Voice changer etc..) but I don't know if I can get these to work in Google Meet or Zoom realtime.

Any help would, as always, be appreciated.

Cheers

[TheMaartian]

This may not be helpful because it's not free, but the first thing I would recommend is getting the best directional mic you can afford. If you don't have an audio interface to plug a mic into, search for "best podcast usb mics 2024" or something like that. There are some good ones out there. Because you are teaching, you don't need a singer's mic. A podcasting mic is plenty. And you don't need to pay hundreds of dollars.

For example, here are two $99 options:

PreSonus Revelator Dynamic

Shure MV5

In case you hit a lottery ticket, here's a really good $250 option:

Shure MV7

You want to look for cardiod or unidirectional mics. Omnidirectional lets everything in. Bi-directional lets, no surprise, front and back in. There are headset USB mics, too.

Edited October 3 by John Maar

[mettelus]

+1 on the PreSonus Revelator Dynamic. That comes with its own software mixer (Universal Control), which includes a simple mixer and FAT Channel components (gate, compressor, EQ, De-Esser, etc.). This video walks through a major overview of the Universal Control app (which only works with PreSonus hardware, unfortunately). I grabbed both Revelator versions last year to run them through the ringer, and the dynamic version was rather impressive for streaming/video creation, and capturing multiple source streams. It even comes with its own OBS drivers (if desired), but the Universal Control allows you to tailor your mix before sending it to another application.

Caveat to the Universal Control installation... it offers the option to install drivers for ALL PreSonus hardware on installation... only install the drivers you actually have hardware for (it won't hurt anything, just makes a clutter otherwise).

Here is the quick review I posted on them last year if interested.

[X-53mph]

16 hours ago, John Maar said:

This may not be helpful because it's not free, but the first thing I would recommend is getting the best directional mic you can afford. If you don't have an audio interface to plug a mic into, search for "best podcast usb mics 2024" or something like that. There are some good ones out there. Because you are teaching, you don't need a singer's mic. A podcasting mic is plenty. And you don't need to pay hundreds of dollars.

For example, here are two $99 options:

PreSonus Revelator Dynamic

Shure MV5

In case you hit a lottery ticket, here's a really good $250 option:

Shure MV7

You want to look for cardiod or unidirectional mics. Omnidirectional lets everything in. Bi-directional lets, no surprise, front and back in. There are headset USB mics, too.

Thanks for that. 

I've got a Audio Technica at2020+ usb mic, which is great... it's just a hassle having to set it up in a hurry. I often just use some USB Creative Labs headphones because they're quick to plug in, but the ambient noise gets overwhelming at times. It's actually really annoying that Google Meet doesn't allow you to monitor the feed from your microphone like zoom does, so you often cannot hear how noisy it gets.

It might surprise some of you that, as a teacher, I'm not always sat at a desk. I'm often jumping from classroom to classroom and then going on line to teach, so I'm always lugging a backpack around with laptop and headphones that have to be set up in a flash, so as few technical things to set up as possible, the better.

Thanks for all the tips guys.

Edited October 4 by X-53mph

[mettelus]

Quick question... are you using only the audio stream from the mic and the meeting app (i.e., no mixer required for other apps)? Reason I asked is that when you mentioned "simple setup in a hurry" *if* you only need the mic/headphone combo, your simplest solution may be a "call center headset" like receptionists use. That may be another option to consider. I got a Logitech model 20 years ago for dictation that is not even made anymore, but there are a slew of options available these days (most models come with specific noise canceling by default because of how they get used).

[X-53mph]

4 hours ago, mettelus said:

Quick question... are you using only the audio stream from the mic and the meeting app (i.e., no mixer required for other apps)? Reason I asked is that when you mentioned "simple setup in a hurry" *if* you only need the mic/headphone combo, your simplest solution may be a "call center headset" like receptionists use. That may be another option to consider. I got a Logitech model 20 years ago for dictation that is not even made anymore, but there are a slew of options available these days (most models come with specific noise canceling by default because of how they get used).

Yeah, I was thinking of going that route. I might invest in some Bluetooth noise cancelling call centre headphones for ease of use. 

When I'm teaching from home, I have time to set up my mic with a full size stand, but on the move, I sometimes barely have desk space to put the mic on. I never take my mixer with me as that would just be extra weight and extra faff.

[TheMaartian]

11 hours ago, X-53mph said:

Thanks for that. 

I've got a Audio Technica at2020+ usb mic, which is great... it's just a hassle having to set it up in a hurry. I often just use some USB Creative Labs headphones because they're quick to plug in, but the ambient noise gets overwhelming at times. It's actually really annoying that Google Meet doesn't allow you to monitor the feed from your microphone like zoom does, so you often cannot hear how noisy it gets.

It might surprise some of you that, as a teacher, I'm not always sat at a desk. I'm often jumping from classroom to classroom and then going on line to teach, so I'm always lugging a backpack around with laptop and headphones that have to be set up in a flash, so as few technical things to set up as possible, the better.

Thanks for all the tips guys.

While I was looking for USB mic options, I noticed that a couple of them had a headphone jack for direct monitoring.

[mettelus]

6 hours ago, X-53mph said:

Yeah, I was thinking of going that route. I might invest in some Bluetooth noise cancelling call centre headphones for ease of use. 

When I'm teaching from home, I have time to set up my mic with a full size stand, but on the move, I sometimes barely have desk space to put the mic on. I never take my mixer with me as that would just be extra weight and extra faff.

The "on the fly" aspect really throws a wrinkle into your situation. Be sure to review headsets (especially the 1-star reviews). The Logitech headset I have had foam ear pieces that dry-rotted and crumbled to dust after a few years, and the faux-leather ones seems to exhibit the same behavior where the surface chips off and only leaves the underlying cloth (some said within months). I did a cursory check of some headsets after posting last night and some blatantly stated, "The noise cancellation feature doesn't work!" If you go that route, definitely get one from a vendor with a liberal return policy so you can test them thoroughly.

Quick edit: Another option is to use a cell phone. For those meetings I bought a phone case with a kick-stand on the back and some phones have better noise cancellation (especially with 2 mics built in). Bandwidth/connection and provider can become a concern that route, but I always do Zoom "on the fly" meetings from my cell.

Edited October 4 by mettelus

[X-53mph]

9 hours ago, John Maar said:

While I was looking for USB mic options, I noticed that a couple of them had a headphone jack for direct monitoring.

Yes, the at2020+ does too. It's actually really nice for monitoring. The biggest downside is that the at2020 picks up all room noises as it was really designed for music.

[X-53mph]

5 hours ago, mettelus said:

The "on the fly" aspect really throws a wrinkle into your situation. Be sure to review headsets (especially the 1-star reviews). The Logitech headset I have had foam ear pieces that dry-rotted and crumbled to dust after a few years, and the faux-leather ones seems to exhibit the same behavior where the surface chips off and only leaves the underlying cloth (some said within months). I did a cursory check of some headsets after posting last night and some blatantly stated, "The noise cancellation feature doesn't work!" If you go that route, definitely get one from a vendor with a liberal return policy so you can test them thoroughly.

Quick edit: Another option is to use a cell phone. For those meetings I bought a phone case with a kick-stand on the back and some phones have better noise cancellation (especially with 2 mics built in). Bandwidth/connection and provider can become a concern that route, but I always do Zoom "on the fly" meetings from my cell.

As I'm teaching, I need to be on a laptop to share lessons and didactic material. A mobile phone really isn't a good option for that. But thanks anyway. 

Has anyone used the Jabra headset?

[X-53mph]

Replying to my own thread here - I found a really elegant work around.

I came across a video on YouTube about using a VSThost and Virtual Audio Cable to clean up the background sound on AudioTechnica AT2020 mics. I'll post the link to the video for anyone who is interested (word of warning, it's long and boring, but ultimately fruitful). The advantage of using the VST host is that I can set up a custom made effects chain with Izotope and ERA tools to gate, filter, clean, and compress the signal so that my mic sounds like a pro podcaster mic, even if it is a cardioid condenser mic, and best of all, I don't have to buy any third party Ai app (which will harvest all my data) or custom made mic. I'm going to try out this method in the classroom to see if it works well in the field, but for now, this might have just saved me a hundred bucks or so.

 

[mettelus]

OBS Studio is another option that is gaining a lot of traction and also free. I did a quick search and it supports VST2 plugins (not VST3) but I have never tested that. I have only used OBS few times, and a lot of the setup revolves around the "scenes" you set up at the bottom left. Basically OBS allows you to "assemble" both audio/video streams resident in your machine and send to your desired output (streaming, video capture, etc.). I apologize that I mentioned OBS early on in this thread, but it is not bound to any specific hardware/software; it is its own thing.

I am glad you found something that works for you! Best of luck with everything!

[azslow3]

I have tried many approaches, including ReaFir, to remove noise for conference software. On the input I have DM, so gating/EQ/effects are available on the hardware side. In my case there are several personal mics connected, all of them are working fine. The problem is picking the discussion in the room, while removing the noise from the cooling system in the far corner.

And I have failed. Even when locally the result sounds great, "smart" communication software sometimes restore almost removed noise and sometime it think the whole discussion is just noise. So I recommend do everything possible to eliminate sounds you don't want on the input, so with right mic.