According to one embodiment, a pickup signal processing apparatus includes microphones, a sound determining unit, a signal level calculating unit, a setting unit, and a calculating unit. The sound determining unit determines whether pickup signals picked up by the microphones are signals from a neighboring sound source or a background noise signal. The signal level calculating unit calculates the signal levels for the microphones. The setting unit sets a gain value of at least one microphone and reduces a difference between the signal levels for the microphones on the basis of the signal levels for the microphones, when determined that the pickup signal is the background noise signal. The calculating unit multiplies the pickup signal of the at least one microphone by the gain value set by the setting unit.