When it comes to YouTube videos, I’ve heard it said that audio quality is actually more important than video quality. I happen to agree as, if I can’t hear the person speaking clearly, I’ll turn of a video whereas I’m more forgiving if the picture isn’t great. And while this doesn’t mean that the audio needs to be studio-level and as pristine as possible, it’s always nice when you can sound better. That’s why I was excited to find and experiment with a new tool that makes it really easy to do just that.
Introducing the Adobe Podcast Enhance. Although the tool has apparently been kicking around for a few months, I only discovered it this week and was kind of blown away. Even though there’s a demo on the site itself, I was left skeptical of the whole thing. So, I decided to give it a try for myself.
To see how the tool really worked, I initially tried a short clip of a live stream I did with some friends. That worked pretty well, but I wanted to give it a “real” task. So, I let it enhance the raw audio of my latest YouTube Short and then used that version in the finished product.
If you’re curious, you can hear my under-a-minute reviews of the Amex Platinum card and the Amex Gold card — which were recorded under nearly identical recording conditions and using the same equipment but sound vastly different as the latter was processed using Adobe’s tool.
Without Adobe:
With Adobe:
Pretty crazy, right? As you can hear, the regular one sounds distant and thin while the enhanced version is far more robust. In fact, it sounds a lot closer to the microphone I use for my of my main videos instead of the small shotgun mic I’ve been employing for my Shorts.
Of course, like most AI these days, the tool isn’t 100% perfect. In particular, if you’re doing a podcast and there’s cross-talk, it can struggle. Also, you may notice a bit of roboticism (is that a word?) at points, if my experience is anything to go off of. However, aside from these issues, I’ve been really impressed with what Enhance is able to do.
Considering that the Adobe Enhance feature is currently free (although you will need to create an Adobe account if you don’t have one already), I think it may be worth experimenting with if you’re a creator. After all, rather than investing in a pricey microphone, you may very well be able to get away with using an onboard mic or other affordable option and then clean it up a bit using this tool. As for downsides, the tool only allows for recordings up to an hour for now, so those making really long content (like a podcast) may need to split their tracks before running them through. Also, while it kind of goes without saying, Adobe could eventually start charging for this service — or at least bundle it into the Creative Cloud subscription. But, until that happens, you may want to give it a try.