4th Gen. Focusrite Scarlett Series Interfaces – Solo, 2i2 and 4i4
October 19, 2023
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I briefly tried out the new and free Adobe Podcast Speech Enhancement algorithm. It’s a web page where you can upload your audio, the algorithm will process it, and then you can download the processed audio.
The algorithm removes background noise, room reverb, plosives and microphone handling noise, among other things. It also makes voices sound closer (proximity) if they were originally recorded further away from a microphone.
My first test, which was a bit unfair, I uploaded an obscenely and disgustingly bad piece of audio which the algorithm cleaned up considerably, but the resulting audio sounded pretty bad and kind of destroyed (which is also normal with all other de-noise plugins when trying to fix incredibly bad audio).
Then I watched several YouTube videos of other people testing the speech enhancement, including this one which was helpful.
When removing a small or moderate amount of noise and reverb, etc., the algorithm works well; it can definitely save mildly-bad recordings.
When removing a large or extreme amount of noise and reverb, etc., the algorithm simply can’t make it sound good — actually, no current algorithm can. That’s just too difficult of a job for these algorithms.
In the YouTube video I watched, the host processed his normal microphone sound which was already excellent quality, and the algorithm significantly worsened the quality of the audio. It removed lots of clarity.
DO NOT rely on any plugins or processors to make your audio sound good. When recording podcasts capture high quality audio that is free from significant background noise, reverb, plosives, etc. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure 😉
Have you tried Adobe Podcast Speech Enhancement yet? Comment below!
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2 Responses
I’ve tried it several times, starting a number of months ago when it was known as Shasta.
For audio recorded on a cell phone in an untreated room, I thought it did a remarkable job considering how easy it is to use.
But for audio that is well recorded in a proper environment, the audio lost more than it gained.
I haven’t used it yet for an actual podcast or video, but I can see times in the future when I’m on location and need to quickly output useable audio, it could be a time saver. But I don’t think audio editors have too much to worry about yet. It seems to me the market for this is low budget podcasters that wouldn’t be paying an editor anyway, and for them, it may be a godsend.
Good points!