Hush and Gleam Audio both clean up speech on your own computer. Neither one uploads your audio. The difference is the job each one is built for. Hush repairs dialogue on a Mac, and Hush Pro brings that into Pro Tools. Gleam Audio cleans a batch of speech on Mac, Windows or Linux, then helps you finish the files.
Gleam Audio cleans a batch and finishes the files
Gleam Audio runs on macOS, Windows and Linux. Every file stays on the machine, and the app works offline. It has five tools: Remove noise, Enhance, Cut, Split and Convert.
Remove noise uses a deep learning model trained on human speech. You do not need a sample of the noise. One Strength slider sets how much to take out. 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. Convert saves to mp3, wav, m4a, flac, ogg, opus and more.
Remove noise, Enhance and Convert run on the whole list at once. Cut and Split work on one file at a time, on a picture of the sound.
The app is free for personal use, up to 20 files a week. A license adds commercial use and removes the limit. You pick the price, from $5, and you pay once. The source is on GitHub under the AGPL, so you can also build and run it yourself.
Hush and Hush Pro repair dialogue on a Mac
Hush is the work of one developer, and it comes as two products.
Hush is a standalone Mac app for spoken audio. It removes steady noise like fans, appliances, traffic and wind. It also reduces room reverb, with a dial to blend some dry sound back in. And it goes after short sounds many tools miss, like birds, barking dogs and car horns. Hush takes single files or whole batches and saves the results to a folder you choose.
On Apple silicon Macs, Hush runs on the Neural Engine. It works on Intel Macs too, but its page says rendering may take much longer. It needs macOS 12 or later.
Hush Pro is for post-production. It is a pair of AudioSuite plugins for Pro Tools, called Hush Mix and Hush Split. Hush Mix gives you separate faders for speech, reverb and noise, with real-time previews. Hush Split renders speech, reverb and noise into separate lanes, so you can edit each one. Pro Tools is the only supported host today. Hush Pro needs an M-series Mac and macOS 13.1 or later.
Both run locally on your Mac. Both are one-time purchases with free updates through version 1.x. Both have a full 21-day trial. Hush costs $89.99 on the Mac App Store. Hush Pro costs $249, or $179 as an upgrade for Hush owners.
Where the two overlap, and where they part
Both clean noise out of speech with machine learning. Both keep the audio on your computer. Both handle a batch of files in the desktop app. Both are paid for once, not by the month.
They part on three things. Hush reduces reverb, and Gleam Audio does not. Hush Pro works inside Pro Tools, and Gleam Audio has no plugin version. Gleam Audio runs on Windows and Linux as well as Mac, and it also levels, cuts, splits and converts.
One honest limit from each side. Gleam Audio’s Remove noise is tuned for speech, so on music it can take out more than you want. A lower Strength keeps more of the room. Hush runs only on a Mac, and Hush Pro also needs Apple silicon and Pro Tools.
When Hush is the better pick
Reach for Hush when the job looks like this:
- Your recording has echo from a bare room or a big hall. Hush reduces reverb, and Gleam Audio has no de-reverb tool.
- You fight short sounds like birds, dogs or car horns. Hush names these as a strength.
- You edit dialogue in Pro Tools. Hush Pro runs as AudioSuite plugins on the clip, with real-time previews.
- You want to rebalance speech, reverb and noise with faders, or keep them in separate lanes. Hush Mix and Hush Split do that.
- You work on an Apple silicon Mac and want the work to run on the Neural Engine.
- You teach or study pro audio. Hush offers a 30% education discount.
The trial is full featured for 21 days. You can test Hush on your own worst take before you buy.
When Gleam Audio is the better pick
Pick Gleam Audio when you work on Windows or Linux, or move between computers. It is the same app on all three, and Hush has no Windows version.
It also fits a creator who cleans a batch each week and then has to finish it. After Remove noise, Enhance brings each file to podcast or audiobook loudness. Split turns a long session into chapters. Convert writes the format your host or client asked for. If loudness targets are new to you, What is LUFS? explains them.
The price is low, and you choose it. Personal use is free up to 20 files a week. A work license is one payment from $5. Scott, a podcast editor who uses Gleam Audio, put it this way:
“Saving around four times what I used to pay for Hush.”
The two can also work together. Run the batch through Gleam Audio for noise, loudness and format. Keep Hush for the takes with heavy echo. For more local options, see the best offline noise removal apps. If cleanup leaves a voice sounding thin, why noise reduction makes voices sound robotic shows what to change. For a cloud tool on the same job, read Gleam Audio vs Auphonic.