Reverb Remover

How to remove reverb from audio

1. Upload a track. MP3, WAV, M4A or FLAC, up to 10 minutes. A vocal, a podcast take, an interview or a full song all work.
2. Press Remove the reverb. The price shows on the button before anything runs. It costs 1 credit per minute of audio, and new accounts get 5 credits when they sign in with Google.
3. Wait a minute or two. Processing usually takes 1 to 3 minutes, longer when many people are using it.
4. Listen and download. You get two files: Without reverb and Reverb only. Click either one to hear it alone, and download each as a 320 kbps MP3.

If processing fails, your credits are returned.

What is reverb?

Reverb is the sound of a space. When you clap in a bathroom or a stairwell, the sound bounces off the walls and takes a moment to fade. Your ear hears that fading tail as part of the sound. In music, the same thing is added on purpose with a reverb effect to make a voice or an instrument feel like it is in a hall, a room or a cave.

Echo is related but different. Echo is a clear, separate repeat of a sound, like shouting into a canyon. Reverb is many repeats so close together that they blur into one wash. In everyday talk, people say "echo" when they mean either one, so this tool handles both when the sound is a room-style wash.

When this is the right tool

• A vocal recorded in a bare room. Home recordings in a bedroom, kitchen or garage often have a hard, hollow sound. Taking the room out makes the voice sound closer.
• A podcast or voiceover with room echo. Easier to follow, and easier to edit.
• A vocal you want to remix. An acapella with its own reverb is hard to place in a new mix. Remove the reverb and add your own.
• A song where you want the dry sound. Singers use it to study how a part was sung without the effect on top.

You can also keep the Reverb only file. Some producers use it to hear how much reverb was on a track, or to reuse that tail as a texture.

What to expect

The model separates the direct sound from the tail behind it. It does this well on vocals and on recordings where the reverb is moderate.

• Heavy, long reverb such as a cathedral or a large hall can leave traces. Parts of the tail may stay in the dry file.
• Reverb that is part of the instrument, as on a spring-reverb guitar, is harder to pull apart.
• A dry sound that was never recorded can't be invented. If the recording is thin, the result will be thin.
• Live recordings with crowd noise and several instruments leave more residue than a single voice in a room.

Reverb is not noise. If your problem is hiss, hum or a fan in the background, use the Vocal Noise Remover instead. If the voice is buried inside a song, try the Acapella Extractor first and then remove the reverb from the vocal.

Tips for a better result

• Start from the cleanest source you have. A WAV or a high-quality MP3 gives the model more to work with.
• Process a vocal on its own when you can. A full song has more things overlapping.
• Compare both files. If Without reverb still has an echo, listen to Reverb only. It tells you what was taken out and what was left.
• Check the ends. Reverb tails fade out slowly, so listen to where a phrase ends.

If the problem is an old, dull or low-quality file rather than room sound, the Audio Upscaler is a better fit.