The Adobe Podcast suite may still be in beta, but some of its most popular features can go toe-to-toe with established audio editors. One of these tools includes Adobe Podcast: Enhance — an AI program designed to eliminate background noise from raw audio recordings.
This guide explains everything you should know about Adobe Podcast: Enhance, including what it is, how it works, and when you might want to use it. We also highlight viable Adobe Enhance alternatives so you can decide whether or not it’s the right tool for your podcast.
- What is Adobe Podcast: Enhance?
- How to use Adobe Podcast: Enhance
- The differences between Enhance Speech free and paid plans
- When to use Adobe Podcast: Enhance
- Alternatives to Adobe Podcast: Enhance
- The bottom line on Adobe Podcast: Enhance
What is Adobe Podcast: Enhance?
Adobe Podcast: Enhance, also called Enhance Speech, is one of three tools available on the Adobe Podcast suite. It was designed to reduce distracting background noise and enhance your speaker’s audio so you can ‘sweeten’ any voice(s) before mixing them into your show.
Keep in mind Adobe Podcast: Enhance comes after recording your recording. It’s not something you need to be running LIVE while recording your podcast.
You can access the Adobe Podcast: Enhance tool directly from your browser. This means you don’t need to edit your files in a DAW or study the deeper complexities of audio editing.
A few notable features of Adobe Podcast: Enhance:
- It’s browser-based, so no need to download additional software.
- It’s free to use (if you’re comfortable going without certain features).
- It’s intuitive and simple; you don’t need a working knowledge of DAWs.
How to use Adobe Podcast: Enhance
The basic version of Adobe Podcast: Enhance is 100% free, which means you can get started with audio editing almost immediately.
Here’s how to enrich your podcast audio with Adobe Podcast: Enhance
- Navigate to podcast.adobe.com/enhance (and if you don’t have an Adobe account, make one now).
- Upload an audio file into the selection box (this could be .wav, .mp3, .aac, .flac, .ogg, .oga, or .m4a).
- Ensure your audio file is less than 500 MB and under 30 minutes long.
- Click ‘enhance’ (some files take up to 10 minutes to process).
- Listen to your enhanced audio recording (or switch between the enhanced and unenhanced versions to compare quality).
- If you’re happy with the quality, click ‘download’ to obtain the enhanced file (as a .wav)
- Tap ‘upload another’ to edit another file (Although keep in mind you can only enhance 1 hour of raw audio every 24 hours)
An Adobe Podcast premium plan comes with a few additional features, such as an AI adjustment bar for changing the level of ‘enhancement’ provided to your audio. This can be very helpful as not all audio requires the same amount of treatment and adjusting the level of enhancement can prevent over processing which can leave the audio sounding too unnatural.
Keep reading for a more complete breakdown of the free versus paid plans.
The differences between Enhance Speech free and paid plans
As mentioned, the basic version of Adobe Podcast: Enhance is completely free. However, there’s also a paid plan called Express Premium that offers some additional functionality.
The paid plan unlocks your ability to:
- Batch upload multiple files
- Adjust the strength of your audio enhancement
- Upload video files as well as audio files (including .m4v, .mov, and .mp4)
- Increase file limits (up to four hours of 1 GB files)
Express Premium plans start at $9.99 USD per month and come with a 30-day free trial.
So: is Adobe Express Premium worth it?
If you’re producing an audio podcast or video podcast with frequent shows, we recommend going for the Premium version.
But if you’re just starting to dabble in the podcasting world, or if you know you won’t have episodes longer than 30 minutes, the free plan might make more sense for you.
When to use Adobe Podcast: Enhance
Adobe Podcast: Enhance is an incredibly useful tool, but it may not be the perfect solution in every situation.
You may want to use Adobe Podcast: Enhance if:
- You’re capturing remote recordings with call-in guests
- You’re unfamiliar with digital audio workstations (like Adobe Audition or similar podcast recording software)
- You’re working with a limited budget
Alternatively, you may want to choose a different tool if:
- You’re already capturing high-quality audio
- You already own a DAW or audio editing platform
- You don’t already have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription
Do you fall into the latter category?
Let’s take a look at some Adobe Podcast: Enhance alternatives.
Alternatives to Adobe Podcast: Enhance
If Adobe Enhance Speech isn’t a good fit for your podcast, one of these popular editing tools may be a better fit.
Hindenburg PRO
Unlike many other types of audio editing tools, Hindenburg PRO was designed for the spoken word. This podcast editing software serves three different audiences: students, businesses, and independent professionals.
With Hindenburg PRO, you can edit, normalize, or enhance your podcast with a suite of in-software sounds. You can also transcribe audio directly inside a word processor to increase accessibility to your podcast.
Just keep in mind you can’t control Hindenburg PRO to the same degree you can with other DAWs. This is an excellent beginner-friendly platform, but it may not be a favorite for experienced podcasters. If you want a low-effort workflow for creating quality audio, Hindenburg may be your best bet.
GarageBand Podcast Software
There’s a good chance you recognize the name ‘GarageBand’ — this legacy macOS tool debuted as early as 2004. Since then, GarageBand has developed into a globally-recognized solution for musicians and pocasters around the world.
GarageBand offers all the basics you need to get started, like audio effect plug-ins, visual EQ, and compression tools. It’s also 100% free like Adobe Podcast: Enhance so you don’t need to spend extra on a DAW.
Just keep in mind you must be a macOS owner to use GarageBand. If you don’t own an Apple computer, tablet, or phone, you may need to look for a podcast editing alternative.
Spreaker Studio
Spreaker Studio is a no-frills podcast editor with both a desktop and mobile app. It’s simple to connect with other podcast audio interfaces and compatible with call-in software like Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet.
The biggest drawback of Spreaker Studio is its limited interface — it may be difficult to get granular or tweak everything exactly the way you want. If you’re not a professional audio editor and mostly unfamiliar with DAWs, this could be a no-fuss way to get quality audio for your podcast.
Descript Podcast Software
Descript is an audio and video editor for podcasts, interviews, and transcription tasks. You can also use this software for storing meetings and reports so everyone on your team can stay in the loop.
Studio Sound is Descript’s closest alternative to Adobe Podcast: Enhance — it removes background noise and echo so you don’t need to manually clean up your audio. However, with Descript’s Free plan users can only apply Studio Sound on files up to 10 minutes in length. While paid users can apply Studio Sound on files up to 60 minutes in length.
Adobe Podcast: AI tools
The Adobe Podcast suite offers several podcast editing tools beyond Enhance Speech. This includes two AI solutions: Mic Check, and the Adobe Podcast Studio.
With Mic Check, you can evaluate your microphone setup and avoid echo, background noise, and quiet audio. With Adobe Podcast Studio, you can transcribe your audio, capture 16-bit 48k tracks, and add royalty-free music to complete your podcast.
Just keep in mind these are in-browser editing tools, so they may not offer the same power or granularity as dedicated DAWs. The Adobe Podcast Studio may also be tricky to connect with your podcast mixer, which can slow down your workflow or get in the way of production timelines.
Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition is a professional audio workstation for editing, mixing, and exporting podcast audio. It’s also included with the Adobe Creative Cloud, which means you can use it alongside Premiere Pro and Photoshop.
But you should know Adobe Audition doesn’t come with a free version, and you won’t be able to try it out unless you’ve paid for a plan. It’s also more expensive than Adobe’s Express Premium plan — prices start at $22.99 monthly.
Audacity
Audacity is a free and open-source tool for basic audio editing on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix-like operating systems. Unlike Adobe Audition, it doesn’t cost anything to use. It can also perform more complex edits than Adobe Podcast: Enhance.
You can use Audacity to remove background noise, then add free effects and samples to finalize your podcast. There’s also plugin support for experienced editors who want to use tools like Nyquist (for sound synthesis) or Muse FX (for chorus, reverb, and more).
The bottom line on Adobe Podcast: Enhance
Adobe Podcast: Enhance is a simple way to sweeten podcast audio before publishing it online. It may not offer the complexity of a fully-featured DAW, but it’s still a cost-effective way to create professional-sounding audio.
Just keep in mind the Adobe Podcast suite isn’t a one-stop-shop for all podcast editing tasks. If you’re looking for a more streamlined way to produce a business podcast, you can rely on The Podcast Consultant to handle your new podcast launch, publishing, promotion, and more.
Ready to enhance the quality of your show? Learn more about our services by scheduling a Discovery Call.