Adobe Speech Enhancement vs Descript Studio Sound: A Shootout
Adobe Speech Enhancement vs Descript Studio Sound – Who are they, what do they do, how do they do it, and which one sounds best to us?
Ideally, this comparison post will help you decide which tool to roll with when considering processing your audio with AI.
We’re going to hit on what these tools are, what they do, how they do it, as well as what makes them unique in their own right.
Also, we’re got some sound sample comparisons at the bottom of this post.
Scroll down if you’re interested in hearing those.
What Is AI Speech Enhancement?
Before we get into our Adobe Speech Enhancement vs Descript Studio Sound, showdown, we’re going to talk about how AI speech improvement works.
These AI tools use algorithms to analyze audio recordings and enhance them by removing background noise, reducing echo, leveling out dialogue, adding eq, adding compression and more.
Essentially, they clean up audio, beef it up and get it sounding as “good as possible”, based off the original recording.
AI Speech Processing Limits
Now, as you’ll learn in this article, there are limitations to speech enhancement.
There’s no free rides!
You should aim to capture excellent audio while you’re recording.
If the recording is shit, AI can work some magic, but it can only do so much.
Additionally, in this post, you’ll learn that you can’t just throw your tracks into Adobe Speech Enhancement or Descript Studio Sound and crank the processing to 100% hoping your tracks will sound amazing.
Overdoing it with AI speech processing actually ruins the audio with dropouts, quirky sounds, blips and other weird stuff. We have examples of this below.
You’ve got to dial in the AI processing setting just right to get it to sound good.
Armed With AI Audio Knowledge
Ok, now that you’ve got a high level overview of what AI audio processing does, and some of its limitations we can proceed.
Let’s get into it.
Adobe Speech Enhancement Overview
Adobe Speech Enhancement is a web-based tool designed to improve audio quality by reducing background noise and enhancing speech clarity.
It beefs up the speakers voice and improves it, even if the original recording is subpar.
Originally designed for podcasters, but it can certainly be used for voice over, narration, TV/Film dialogue, video game dialogue and more.
We haven’t tested it with singers, but we imagine it would still work well in that environment.
Applying 46% speech enhancement
How To Use Adobe Speech Enhancement
Upload
Users upload their audio files to the Adobe website.
Processing
The AI processes the audio using a slider. Moving the slider to the right increases the level of processing, with 100% providing the maximum enhancement and 1% applying the minimum.
This enables you to dial in the perfect amount of speech enhancement. BUT, this feature is only available on the paid plan.
If you’re on the free plan, you cannot adjust the strength of the AI speech enhancement.
We don’t know how much processing is done on the free plan. It’s unclear if the system decides how much to enhance the audio after checking the file, or if it uses the same setting for all free users.
Download
The cleaned audio is available for download for 30 days. After this period, the files are automatically deleted.
Who Is Adobe Speech Enhancement For?
Podcasters, video creators, Voiceover artists, and anyone needing high-quality audio can benefit from Adobe’s advanced noise reduction and speech enhancement.
It provides a polished final product that sounds as if it were recorded in a professional studio, even if the original recording conditions were less than ideal.
Adobe Speech Enhancement Free Features
This is what you get with the free plan.
- Enhance audio only, no video support
- No bulk processing, upload one file at a time
- No strength adjustment
- 30 minutes max duration (up to 500 MB), 1 hour max per day
Adobe Speech Enhancement Paid Features
The paid version of Adobe Speech Enhancement falls within the Adobe Express Package. These are the add-ons you get if you shell out some money.
- Video support: Upload video files like mp4, mov, and m4v
- Bulk upload: Upload files and come back when they’re all done
- Adjust strength: Control enhancement for a more natural sound
- Enhance more: Up to 4 hours a day, with files up to 1 GB
Additionally, if you sign up for this plan, you’ll also get access to the additional goods in the Adobe Express plan. At the time of writing this the Adobe Express Plan costs $9.99 per month.
Adobe Speech Enhancement V2
As of November 2024, Adobe updated their Speech Enhancement tool to a new version, V2. The user experience remains the same; you just need to select V2 from the dropdown menu, if it isn’t already selected.
After using V2, we’ve found that we can’t tell the difference between audio processed in V1 and audio processed in V2.
However, on the Adobe Reddit, a user noted, “v1 specifically created a podcast/broadcast-like output, v2 uses a different LLM, which better isolates voice and noise, and preserves the original characteristics of the voice, without significant coloration.”
What is Descript Studio Sound?
Much like Adobe, Descript Studio Sound is an audio enhancement feature within the Descript software, designed to improve the quality of spoken audio by removing noise and refining voice quality.
It’s an huge part of Descript’s all-in-one editing platform, which offers transcription, text based audio/video editing, and more.
How Descript Studio Sound Works
Import
Descript Studio Sound works a bit differently compared to other audio enhancement tools.
First, you need to sign up for Descript, a platform offering a wide range of features beyond just Studio Sound.
Once you have an account, you can upload both audio and video files into Descript. One of the standout features is its ability to handle both formats.
Processing
After importing, Descript will transcribe your audio. The time this takes depends on the length of the file, but it’s usually quick for shorter files.
For longer files, like a 45-minute or hour-long podcast, it may take a bit more time (same as Adobe Speech Enhancement BTW).
Once the transcription is complete, you need to navigate to the audio effects tab on the right-hand side and turn on Studio Sound.
Editing an episode with Studio Sound on
Studio Sound will analyze your file and automatically set the enhancement intensity to 100%. After this initial analysis, you can adjust the intensity to your preference, from 1% to 100%.
Descript’s editing capabilities allow you to edit your audio while listening to it with Studio Sound enhancement, providing a clear idea of what your final product will sound like.
This integrated approach makes it easier to fine-tune your audio to achieve professional results.
Download
To download your processed file, you hit “Publish” in the top right corner, followed by Export. Select your export options and download your audio enhanced file.
Who Is Descript For?
Descript’s all-in-one editing platform, combined with Studio Sound, offers podcasters a comprehensive tool for both editing and enhancing audio.
This streamlines the production process, saving time and effort while ensuring high-quality results. Thus, Descript is really for all types of content creators.
Descript Pricing and Plans
Check out the full array of Descript costs and features. To access Studio Sound, you need to sign up for Descript’s Pro Plan, which costs $30 per month or $288 annually.
What’s great is that you also get these additional features in the Pro Plan:
Everything in the Descript Free Plan:
- 1 watermark-free export / month
- 1 transcription hour / month
- 1 remote recording hour / month
- Up to 720p video quality
Everything in the Descript Creator Plan:
- Watermark-free video export
- 10 transcription hours / month
- 10 remote recording hours / month
- Up to 4k video quality
- Automatically remove “uh” and “um”
- AI voice cloning with 1,000 word vocabulary
Plus Descript Pro Plan Features:
- 30 transcription hours / month
- 30 remote recording hours / month
- Automatically remove 18 filler words and repeated words
- Unlimited use of AI effects – Studio Sound, Eye Contact, and Green Screen
- Unlimited use of AI voice cloning, text to speech, and stock voices
- Full access to premium stock video, photo, GIF, music, and sound effects library
The Shootout – LFG
Now for the fun part. We processed a recording using both Adobe and Descript platforms, applying different levels of processing.
The recording has been processed at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% on each platform.
This lets you hear how each platform sounds at the same levels of processing with the same recording.
You can compare how the recording sounds with Adobe and Descript at each level: 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. Listen for noise reduction, eq, leveling, etc…
Descript Studio Sound Sample
This clip starts off with a fairly noisy raw recording and as the track plays we mention when the processing is pumped up to 25%, then 50%, 75% and finally 100%.
Headphones are recommended but not required.
What do you think?
Adobe Speech Enhancement Sound Sample
Here is the same audio clip in the exact same format as above, but this one is with Adobe Speech Enhancement.
Can you hear the difference?
Here’s what the processed audio looks like from Adobe and Descript at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%
Adobe Speech Enhancement vs Descript Shootout Results
It’s funny, we started this post to do a shootout, sharing audio samples and letting you decide which one sounds better. However, after using both platforms for various client podcasts, we’ve concluded that Descript Studio Sound is superior.
It introduces fewer artifacts and to us, sounds more natural.
One key point to note is that applying too much AI speech processing can negatively affect audio quality. We found that Adobe Speech Enhancement made the audio overly compressed and muddy, with too much low end and a loss of high-end clarity.
In contrast, Descript Studio Sound maintained a natural sound and didn’t significantly alter the audio levels.
Descript also offers additional features that are valuable for content creators and podcasters, such as text-based editing, EQ, compression, and limiting. While it is more expensive than Adobe, the extra features and better sound quality make it a clear winner in our eyes.
Adobe’s Speech Enhancement is cheaper and part of Adobe Express, but it doesn’t sound as good. This could be because Adobe is newer to the podcasting game compared to Descript, which has been refining its tools for a longer time.
Adobe Speech Enhancement vs Descript Studio Sound Shootout
Choosing the right audio enhancement tool can significantly impact the quality of your podcasts. When analyzing Adobe Speech Enhancement vs Descript Studio Sound offer powerful solutions to improve your audio, each with unique strengths.
Adobe Speech Enhancement is perfect for users needing a quick, easy, web-based solution that excels in noise reduction.
Descript Studio Sound, on the other hand, is ideal for those seeking an integrated editing and enhancement tool with robust features and willing to invest time in learning the platform.
Understanding how AI speech enhancement works is crucial. Both tools use advanced algorithms to analyze and enhance audio by removing background noise, reducing echo, and balancing dialogue.
However, it’s important to remember that AI has its limits. Over processing can ruin your audio, so finding the right balance is key.
Adobe Speech Enhancement offers ease of use with a slider to adjust processing levels, but its full capabilities are only available on the paid plan.
Descript Studio Sound provides an all-in-one editing platform, allowing you to edit your audio while listening to it with enhancements applied, which helps you achieve professional results.
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