a system and method for reducing or entirely canceling background or ambient noise from a voice transmission from a communications device . a communications device , such as a mobile telephone , is configured with an ambient noise compensation signal generator that is connected between a microphone and a mixer . the original output of the microphone and a compensation signal generated by the ambient noise compensation signal generator are mixed together prior to being passed to a transmitter . in one embodiment a buffer is provided between the microphone and the mixer to help synchronize the timing of the signals to be mixed . in another embodiment a second microphone is employed to detect ambient noise .