Both tools take a noisy voice recording and make it sound cleaner. Adobe Podcast does it in your browser after you upload the file. Gleam Audio does it on your own computer with no upload at all. The right pick depends on where your audio can go and how many files you have.
Gleam Audio cleans speech on your computer
Gleam Audio is a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. All the work happens on your machine, and it runs fully offline. It goes online only to check for app updates and your license.
Remove noise uses a deep learning model trained on human speech. It drops fans, hum and traffic and keeps the voice. There is no noise sample to find first. A Strength slider lets you keep a bit of the room when full strength sounds too clean.
Enhance evens out loudness with presets for podcasts, audiobooks, music streaming and broadcast. It also clears the low rumble a desk or traffic puts under a mic. Cut and Split work on one file at a time, on a picture of the sound. Convert saves to mp3, wav, m4a, flac, ogg, opus and more. The 1.1.0 release notes list the newer formats.
Remove noise, Enhance and Convert all run on a whole list at once. That works on the free plan too. The app is free for personal use, up to 20 files a week. A license for paid work costs what you choose, from $5, and you pay once. The source is on GitHub under the AGPL.
Adobe Podcast Enhance Speech is a browser filter
Enhance Speech is Adobe’s free AI filter for spoken audio. You sign up for a free Adobe account, drop in a file and download the cleaned version. Adobe says it removes background noise and echo, balances volume and improves clarity.
It takes common audio files such as mp3, wav, m4a, flac, ogg and aac. The result comes back in the same format you uploaded. It works in Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox, on desktop and on mobile.
The plans page sets out the limits. The free plan takes audio only, one file at a time, with no strength adjustment. Each file can be up to 30 minutes and 500 MB, and you get 1 hour a day.
The Firefly Pro plan is listed at $19.99 a month. It adds video, bulk upload and control over how strong the effect is. It raises the limits to files up to 2 hours and 1 GB, and 4 hours a day. Adobe Podcast also has Studio, for recording guests and editing a transcript in the browser.
Where the two overlap, and where they part
Both clean spoken audio with AI, and neither needs a noise sample. Both even out the volume. For one short, noisy clip, either tool can give a good result.
The split is local against cloud. Adobe needs an upload and an internet connection for every file. Gleam Audio keeps every file on the machine. The other split is how you pay for volume. Adobe limits free use by minutes per day and keeps bulk upload for the paid plan. Gleam Audio counts files per week, and batch runs on the free plan.
One honest limit from each side. Gleam Audio has no separate echo or reverb tool. Remove noise is tuned for speech, so on music it can take out too much. Adobe’s free plan has no strength control and stops at 30 minutes per file. A long episode needs splitting or the paid plan.
When Adobe Podcast is the better pick
Adobe Podcast is the easier choice in plenty of cases:
- The recording has a lot of echo. Enhance Speech treats echo as well as noise, and Gleam Audio has no echo tool.
- You want to try a fix right now with nothing to install. A browser and a free account are enough.
- You are on a phone or a computer you cannot install apps on. Enhance Speech runs in mobile and desktop browsers.
- You need to clean the sound in a video file. The Firefly Pro plan takes MP4, MOV and more.
- You already pay for Firefly Pro. Bulk upload and strength control come with it, so there is nothing new to buy.
- You also want to record remote guests or edit by transcript. Adobe Podcast Studio does that in the same place.
The trade is that every file goes to Adobe first. On the free plan, the 1 hour daily cap and one file at a time can slow down a big job.
When Gleam Audio is the better pick
Gleam Audio fits when the audio should not leave your computer. Client work, unreleased episodes and anything under an NDA are simpler when nothing is uploaded. It also keeps working on a plane, in a studio with no Wi-Fi, or when the connection drops.
It suits a creator who cleans a stack of files each week. Drop in a whole recording day and run Remove noise, Enhance and Convert on all of it. There is no daily cap on minutes and no monthly bill. Personal use is free up to 20 files a week, and a work license is a one-time payment from $5.
It also does the jobs around cleanup. Enhance sets loudness for where the audio is going, and What is LUFS? explains those targets. Cut and Split trim and divide a recording, and Convert saves it in the format a host or client asks for.
For a step-by-step pass, see the offline voice cleanup guide. For other tools that run without an upload, see the best offline noise removal apps. To compare Adobe Podcast with a free editor, read Audacity vs Adobe Podcast. If you are weighing another cloud service, Gleam Audio vs Auphonic covers that choice.