How to Use Krisp for Calls, Games, and Recording

Krisp is an AI-powered noise cancellation app for Windows and Mac that helps minimize background noise and echo from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications by recognizing human voices and isolating them for clarity. Krisp can remove unwanted noise from both ends of VOIP communications. This means your voice and the person you’re speaking with are heard noise-free.

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Krisp Features

Krisp can be used in any video conferencing application like Zoom, Slack, Skype, Hangouts, Teams, Webex, and Google Meet; as well as broadcasting/gaming clients such as OBS Studio and Streamlabs Desktop. In general, Krisp works on any application that allows you to select it as the input and output audio source.

Here’s what it has to offer:

AI-Based Noise Cancellation

Krisp uses deep learning to deliver crystal clear human voices to listeners. Its platform utilizes AI to recognize unnecessary noise and echo and isolate human voices. Its ability to isolate varying human voices is from its ability to work with multiple types of human voices and noises combined and do its job to repeatedly isolate those human voices.

The AI-based noise cancellation approach is far better than its traditional counterpart. Traditional noise cancellation uses signals that can sometimes be difficult to isolate. Specifically, traditional noise removal is ineffective when the noise signal overlaps with the clean signal due to both sounding similar.

HD Voice

You might have a high-quality mic that you use for VoIP communications, but the platform you’re using or your internet speed can heavily affect the quality it delivers to your listeners. For that reason, the Krisp app comes with an HD voice feature that maintains the quality of your microphone when communicating with peers at work, recording, or using your microphone for games.

However, you can’t use the app’s AI-based noise cancellation alongside HD Voice. So you’ll have to pick between HD Voice and Voice Cancellation in Krisp’s settings. Here’s how:

1. Click on Krisp’s icon in the notification area.

2. Click on the three horizontal dots at the top right of the app’s flyout and go to “Preferences.”

3. Now, go to the “Voice” tab. Make sure to uncheck “Voice Cancellation” to open the “Noise removal mode” dropdown and select “Best voice quality (HD).

Fortunately, Krisp works with any app that allows you to change your input device settings. Moreover, you can use it with any microphone — headset, condensers, or your laptop’s built-in microphone.

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Echo Cancellation

Room and acoustic echoes are two things you can’t get rid of if you’re using your microphone in enclosed areas. Room and acoustic echo are caused by sound waves bouncing back and forth between bare surfaces. Further, they emit a distinctive ringing sound that can make conversations difficult to hear, especially over the internet. Meanwhile, acoustic echo is the sound that emits from your microphone when catching your own voice from your output device.

Krisp works to filter out your voice from the sounds emitted by room and acoustic echo. The app eliminates repetition, muffling, and produces clarity for both yourself and the people listening to you.

Here’s how to turn on echo cancellation in Krisp:

1. Click on Krisp’s icon in the notification area.

2. Click on the three horizontal dots at the top right of the app’s flyout and go to “Preferences.”

3. Go to the “Voice” tab and check “Echo Cancellation” to turn the feature on.

Just like their HD voice feature, echo cancellation works with any app and microphone as long as the app allows you to change your input device.

Audio Recording

You can record the audio of your meetings without background noise and share it with other people. This is important when you need to go over previous calls and gather important information. If the audio you recorded is unclear, it will be difficult to take notes.

Using Krisp, you can instantly record audio of up to 1 GB for free and share the audio files. You can get up to 10 GB with their Personal Pro plan.

Like any other feature Krisp has, audio recording is compatible with any conferencing app.

To record audio, follow these steps:

1. Click on Krisp’s icon in the notification area.

2. Check the app being recognized by Krisp and click on the red circle to start recording audio.

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Virtual Background

Since online meetings became a thing for everyone, virtual backgrounds became a staple. It can be difficult for your peers to focus when people are moving behind you in your camera feed.

While this feature exists in almost every conferencing app out there, Krisp has it built-in with noise cancellation for easy access. The downside to this is that it’s still in beta, so it may not be as stable as you might like.

You can set this up in the “Video” tab inside the Krisp app flyout.

Downloading and Installing Krisp

The main market of Krisp is online conferencing app users. If you use Zoom, Google Meet, or other online conferencing apps a lot, you’re no stranger to having difficulties with understanding what your colleagues are saying.

Fortunately, Krisp comes to the rescue. You’ll learn how to set it up in a few, but first, you need to download and install the app. Here’s how:

1. Go to Krisp’s official website.
2. Download and install the app for Windows or Mac.
3. After the app launches automatically, click on “Get Started.”

If you already have an account or the app installed, just run it from your taskbar’s notification area on Windows. Simply left click on the Krisp icon.

4. Create an account or sign in with your Google account.
5. Once you’re logged in, you should be taken to the setup screen. Pick the apps you’ll use the app on. Note that Krisp’s compatibility isn’t limited to the apps listed on their setup screen, and you can use it with almost any conferencing app that allows you to change your mic and speakers settings.

6. For each conferencing app you click on, there will be an instruction video on how to connect and use noise-canceling on them.

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How to Set up Voice Cancellation on Krisp

Before you begin using Krisp for conferences, make sure to set up Voice Cancellation:

1. Launch Krisp from your notification area.
2. Go to “Preferences” by clicking on the three horizontal dots at the top right of the app flyout.

3. Go to the “Voice” tab and click on “Setup Voice Cancellation.”

4. Click on “Start Setup” to begin recording.

5. Select the microphone you want to use and click “Continue.”

6. Make sure your surroundings are quiet to allow the app to record your actual voice without issues. Once ready, click “Start recording.”

7. Read the text until you see the processing screen.

8. Click “Done.”

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How to Use Krisp for Conferencing Apps

1. First, make sure to choose the microphone and speaker you’ll use and click on the “Remove Noise” toggles to switch Krisp on.

2. When your conferencing app is running, you’ll see the app’s smaller and movable flyover on your screen. To make sure you’re using Krisp as output and input, open the audio settings – in this case of Google Meet, click on the three horizontal periods.

3. Go to “Settings.”

4. Go to the “Audio” tab. Select Krisp as your microphone and speaker.

These instructions should work for other conferencing apps Krisp didn’t provide a tutorial for. Just go to their audio settings and you should find the microphone and speakers settings there.

How to Use Krisp for Games

1. Make sure Krisp is running (green check on top of the notification area icon) and the Remove Noise toggle is turned on. Your gaming headset and microphone should be selected in the app’s flyout.
2. Launch your game and go to audio settings. Select Krisp as your microphone. You can also select it as your speaker to hear your teammates better in-game.

These instructions should be similar to other games that allow microphone use, just navigate to the audio settings and find and change the microphone and speakers to Krisp.

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How to Set Up Krisp for Recording and Streaming

If you use software such as OBS Studio, Streamlabs Desktop, or XSplit Broadcaster to record or stream videos, Krisp is a good addition to your creator tools. Setting it up to work with your software is simple:

OBS Studio

1. Launch Krisp and OBS Studio.
2. In the “Audio Mixer,” click on the gear icon under “Mic/Aux,” and select “Properties.”

3. In the “Properties for Mic/Aux” window, choose Krisp from the dropdown and click “OK” in the same window to apply changes.

Streamlabs Desktop

1. Launch Krisp and Streamlabs Desktop.
2. Under “Mixer,” click on the gear icon for “Mic/Aux.”

3. Select “Properties” to open the “Advance Audio Settings Window.”

4. Under “Mic/Aux,” select Krisp from the “Device” dropdown and close the “Advance Audio Settings Window.”

XSplit Broadcaster

1. Run Krisp in the background and launch XSplit Broadcaster.
2. Go to “Tools” and click on “Settings.”

3. In “Settings,” go to the “Audio” tab, and select Krisp from the device dropdown for “Mic/Aux.”
4. Click on “Apply,” then click “OK” to close the “Settings” window.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do I need to pay for a Krisp subscription?

If your weekly usage is under 240 minutes, you’re good with Krisp’s free subscription. It renews every week, so you don’t have to pay for anything if your weekly usage is under the free minutes. However, if you’re going to have lots of meetings and plan to use Krisp for other purposes, you’ll need to pay for a subscription.

2. Do I consume the free minutes by leaving Krisp running in the background?

If Krisp is running and you don’t have any app that uses the Krisp microphone or speaker, your free minutes won’t be deducted. To save your minutes, make sure to exit out of conferencing, broadcasting, or other apps that use the app on your computer.

If you’d like to be sure, click on the Krisp icon on your notification area and open the app flyout. You’ll see there if the minutes are decreasing and how many apps are using the app at that time.

3. Is Krisp available on Linux?

Krisp is currently only available for Windows and Mac. However, you can use oceanaudio and Audacity as Krisp alternatives. They are both free to use and also work on Windows and Mac.

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