How to Reduce Echo in a Room: Fixes That Work (and a Rescue)

To reduce echo in a room, add soft things that soak up sound: rugs, curtains, bookshelves, a couch, thick blankets. Echo happens when sound bounces off bare, hard walls and floors. The more bare surface a room has, the longer the sound hangs in the air. If you already recorded in an echoey room, the Reverb Remover can take much of the echo out afterward.

Why a room echoes

Sound spreads out from your voice in every direction. It hits the walls, floor and ceiling, and hard surfaces send most of it back. Your ear hears the direct sound first, then a blur of bounces right behind it. That blur is what people call echo.

Strictly speaking, a clear single repeat is an echo, like shouting at a cliff. The hollow wash in a bedroom or a kitchen is reverb, which is many bounces so close together that they run into each other. Most people use the word echo for both, and the fixes are the same.

Empty rooms are the worst. Bare walls, a hard floor and no furniture give the sound nothing to land on. Small square rooms with parallel walls also tend to sound boxy.

Start with what you can add

You do not need to build anything. Start by putting soft things in the room, then see how it sounds. Clap your hands once and listen to how long the sound lingers. Do that again after each change.

• Rugs. A thick rug on a hard floor helps a lot, because the floor is one of the biggest bare surfaces.
• Curtains. Heavy curtains work better than thin ones. Close them, even over a window you do not use.
• Furniture. A couch, an armchair and a full bookshelf all break up the sound. Books on a shelf scatter sound in a useful way.
• Soft wall coverings. Blankets, quilts or moving blankets hung on the wall behind you or beside you.
• Bedding. A bed with a thick duvet is one of the quietest, deadest spaces in a house.

Put the soft things where the sound travels. The wall behind the microphone and the wall in front of the speaker matter most.

Acoustic panels

Acoustic panels are fabric-covered boards, usually filled with foam or mineral wool, made to absorb sound. They work, and they look tidier than blankets. They do not need to cover the whole room. A few panels at the first spots where sound bounces will make a clear difference.

To find those spots, sit where you talk or sing. Have a friend slide a small mirror along the wall. When you can see the speaker or your mouth in the mirror, that spot is a first bounce point. Put a panel there. Treat the walls on both sides first, then the wall behind you.

A tip about foam: thin foam sheets mostly cut high-pitched sound. They will not fix a boomy room. Thicker panels handle lower sounds better.

Fix the way you record

You can also record less of the room. This is often faster than changing the room.

1. Get closer to the mic. The closer your mouth is to the microphone, the louder your voice is compared with the room sound. A few inches closer can make a big difference.
2. Pick a directional mic. Most singing and speaking microphones pick up mainly what is in front of them. Point the back of the mic toward the noisiest, most reflective wall.
3. Face a soft surface. Stand so your voice goes into the couch or a curtain, not into a bare wall.
4. Move out of the middle. The center of a room often sounds worst. Try a corner of the room that has furniture in it.
5. Use a blanket. For a quick voiceover, drape a blanket over your head and the mic stand, or record in a closet full of clothes. It looks silly. It works.

Quick fixes for a video call

If the goal is a clearer call rather than a recording, the same ideas apply. Add a rug, close the curtains, sit closer to your mic or headset, and avoid an empty room. A headset with the mic near your mouth picks up much less echo than a laptop mic across a desk.

If the recording already has echo

Sometimes the take is done and the room was bad. Maybe you recorded a vocal in a bare apartment, or a podcast in a hall. You can still do something about it afterward, though it will never be as good as a dry take.

The Reverb Remover is made for this. It takes the reverb and room echo out of a vocal or a recording that already has it. Here is how it goes:

1. Upload the recording. MP3, WAV, M4A or FLAC, up to 10 minutes. A single voice works best.
2. Press the orange key. It reads "Remove the reverb" and shows the price before anything runs. Each minute of audio costs 1 credit. New accounts get 5 free credits when they sign in with Google.
3. Wait a minute or two. Most jobs take 1 to 3 minutes.
4. Listen to the two files. You get "Without reverb" and "Reverb only". Click either reel to hear it alone, then download each as a 320 kbps MP3.

The "Reverb only" file is a handy check. It plays back exactly what was taken out. If you hear the voice in it, the tool took too much. If you can still hear the room in the first file, some echo stayed behind.

If something goes wrong during processing, the credits are returned.

What to expect from the rescue

Moderate room echo on a voice usually comes out much drier. A cathedral or a big empty hall is a different story. Very long reverb can leave a trace. The tool also cannot invent a dry sound that was never recorded, so a thin recording stays thin.

If your problem is a fan, hiss or a hum instead of echo, that is noise, not reverb. The Vocal Noise Remover cleans noise from vocals. It is only for vocals, not for any recording. If the voice is buried in a song, pull it out first with the Acapella Extractor, then remove the echo.

For a clean take next time, try the room fixes above. Even a rug and closed curtains change how a voice sounds. The best echo removal is the echo that never got recorded.

FAQ

What is the cheapest way to reduce echo in a room?

Add what you already own. Lay down a rug, close heavy curtains, and move a couch or a bookshelf against a bare wall. Hang a blanket behind the microphone. These cost little and help a lot.

Do egg cartons or thin foam stop echo?

Not much. They are thin, so they mostly affect high-pitched sound and leave the boomy part of the room alone. Thick, soft materials like rugs, curtains and real acoustic panels do more.

Can you remove echo from a recording after the fact?

Yes, to a degree. The Reverb Remover takes out room echo and reverb and gives you a "Without reverb" file and a "Reverb only" file. Heavy, long reverb can leave traces, so a good take in a treated room is still better.

How much does it cost to remove echo from a recording?

It costs 1 credit per minute of audio, and the price is shown on the button before you start. New accounts get 5 free credits, enough for a recording up to 5 minutes long. Failed jobs are refunded.

Why does my voice echo only in some rooms?

Bare, hard rooms bounce sound back. Rooms with carpet, curtains and furniture soak it up. Small rooms with flat, parallel walls often sound the worst, and bathrooms sound the most hollow of all.