Remove clicks, pops and crackle from a recording

How to remove clicks and pops, step by step

The Click / Pop Eliminator window opens as soon as your file has loaded.

1. Click Open a file to declick, or use File ▸ Open… (Ctrl+O), and choose your recording.
2. Select the passage with the clicks, or leave nothing selected to process the whole file.
3. Open Effects ▸ Noise Reduction ▸ Click / Pop Eliminator… if the window is not already open.
4. Start with the default values: Detection Threshold 8 and Max Click Width 24 samples.
5. Press Preview and listen. Preview plays the first 12 seconds of the selection, so select a short passage with clicks to check it.
6. If clicks remain, lower Detection Threshold; if drums or consonants start to sound dull or smeared, raise it again.
7. Click OK and save the result with File ▸ Save As… in the format you need.

What the two settings do

The effect compares every sudden jump in the waveform with the average movement of the audio just around it. A jump many times bigger than that average counts as a click, and the samples it covers are replaced by a straight line between the good samples on either side.

• Detection Threshold, from 2 to 30: how much bigger than its surroundings a jump must be. Lower values catch quieter clicks but can also touch drum hits, consonants and other sharp attacks.
• Max Click Width, from 1 to 100 samples: the longest click it repairs. 24 samples is about half a millisecond at 44.1 kHz, and 100 samples is just over 2 ms.
• Because each repair is so short, the effect suits clicks and crackle, not longer thumps or bumps.

Vinyl crackle, mouth clicks and other sources

Switch to View ▸ Spectral to find clicks: they show as thin vertical streaks reaching up into the high frequencies. Zoom in with View ▸ Zoom In (=) and each one appears in the waveform as a sharp spike.

• Vinyl crackle: process the whole side at the default settings, then lower Detection Threshold a step at a time for worn records. Louder pops may need a second pass.
• Mouth clicks in speech: select only the phrase with the click and use a lower threshold there, rather than over the whole voice, so plosives and sharp consonants stay intact.
• A single click left over: zoom in, select a few milliseconds around it and apply the effect with a low threshold.

Related tools for hiss and noise

On old recordings, clicks are often only part of the problem. Remove the clicks first, then deal with the steady noise underneath.

• Effects ▸ Noise Reduction ▸ Hiss Reduction… lowers tape and record hiss without a noise profile, with the Light Hiss, Tape Hiss and Heavy Hiss presets.
• Effects ▸ Noise Reduction ▸ Noise Reduction… removes steady noise such as motor hum or room tone, after you capture a profile from a quiet groove or pause with Effects ▸ Noise Reduction ▸ Capture Noise Profile (F6).