10.4: Use ambient noise reduction on 10.4.8 Intel Macs

Nov 17, '06 07:30:05AM

Contributed by: robg

Someone pointed me to Daniel Gattermann's blog post, which discusses a new and seemingly little-mentioned feature (there's almost nothing about it to be found via Google) on Intel-powered Macs running 10.4.8 -- ambient noise reduction.

You'll find this setting on your Intel Mac in the Sound System Preferences panel, and it looks like this:




It appears that the ambient noise reduction feature is designed to remove the background noise that the microphone would otherwise pick up. It should make a difference in any app in which you use the microphone, making your voice clearer while diminishing unwanted noises. Audio chats (in iChat or Skype) seem like an obvious beneficiary, as but one example. Daniel tested iChat with and without the ambient noise reduction enabled, and wrote:
Without this option the voice was clear but there was also a lot of noise from the MBPs fans and some static to hear. With this option enabled the sound seems to be a bit "softer" but more pleasant to listen to.
It seems this is definitely Intel-only; it's nowhere to be seen on either my G5 or older 12" PowerBook G4. I haven't had the chance to test it yet myself (audio chats in the household are frowned upon during the early morning hours when I'm working on hints!), but will do so later today.

Update: Per the comments, this isn't new in 10.4.8, and it's applicable to only the MacBook and Mac Book Pro, it seems.

Comments (10)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20061113163546355