Background Noise Reduction helps reduce unwanted background noise during Gather conversations. In Enhanced mode, it can filter out a variety of annoyances, including keyboard clicks, barking dogs, and crying babies. 

Overview

Gather offers two types of Background Noise Reduction: 

• Standard: Basic noise cancellation from your OS and/or browser
• Enhanced: AI noise reduction and Background Voice Cancellation, powered by Krisp

To enable/disable Background Noise Reduction:

1. Click Microphone settings from the bottom navigation bar 
2. Click the toggle for Background Noise Reduction  
3. Select if you want to use Standard or Enhanced

Background Voice Cancellation

Background Voice Cancellation (powered by Krisp) detects and removes other voices around you, keeping your voice clear as you talk into your microphone. This is particularly useful when working from a busy physical location where others are talking, such as a coffee shop, coworking space, or physical office.

If you're using one of these Krisp-approved devices and have Enhanced Background Noise Reduction toggled on, Background Voice Cancellation (BVC) will automatically be applied.

If your audio input device is not included in that list, BVC will not be applied and will fall back to regular Enhanced Background Noise Reduction. 

If you're using a headset as your microphone with built-in noise cancellation, using Enhanced Background Noise Reduction might actually block out too much noise, causing your voice to sound muffled. We recommend testing the options to see what works best for your specific setup. 

Additional Microphone Settings

For more control over how you sound in Gather, you can go to Settings > User > Audio/Video.

You can also adjust the toggle for Background Noise Reduction from here, along with additional options such as Echo Cancellation and Automatic Gain Control. These settings are enabled by default and we only recommend turning them off in studio environments (e.g., if you're trying to share non-voice audio over your mic, like playing music).

Enhanced Background Noise Reduction is CPU intensive, and may cause audio, video, or other performance issues. If you experience any of those, try setting it to Standard. In extreme overload circumstances, it may turn itself off to allow you to continue using Gather uninterrupted.

Audio not working as expected? Check out our Troubleshooting Checklist for recommended next steps or review device recommendations from Krisp.