The Best Tools For Podcast Silence Removal 2023

Manually removing silence from a podcast can eat up valuable time that you’d probably rather spend focusing on the creative process or moving on to plans for your next episode.

That’s why finding a tool with a good silence remover (preferably one that does all the work for you automatically) can greatly improve the efficiency of the audio editing process. Also, unsurprisingly, the right software will generally come with an array of features that can increase your post-production efficiency more.

At Cleanvoice, we know just how valuable efficiency can be and the many benefits of using the right silence remover. In this guide, we’ll explain what a silence remover is in more detail, why these tools matter, and review the best silence remover tools on the market. Let’s begin!

What is a Silence Remover?

To ensure a high-quality podcast that remains engaging and captivating throughout the episode, it’s important to remove unnatural and inevitable pauses. The purpose of a silence remover is to rid an audio file of silent or low-sounding moments to create a more professional podcast where conversations flow better.

Automatic/AI-powered silence removers are designed to detect and delete sections in a file that meet certain criteria for silence.

These tools can massively simplify the editing process as it means you can effectively outsource a ton of tedious and time-consuming work to an AI. However, not all audio tools feature automatic or fully automated silence removal.

While it’s important that you record a podcast professionally, without a good edit, whether in relation to silence removal, background noise removal, or otherwise, no amount of top-notch studio recording equipment can guarantee an attentive audience.

Why Silence Remover Tools are Important?

Silence remover tools offer an array of benefits including:

  • Enhanced audio quality with fewer distractions that can take away from the listener’s experience.
  • Can save you plenty of time since these tools remove silence automatically.
  • Ultimately, with a more-polished listening experience (and a lack of human error in the process), you’ve better chances of keeping listeners engaged. This can also make listeners more likely to come back for future episodes.

Top Silence Remover Tools

Here are the best audio editing tools for Mac:

  • Cleanvoice - Perfect for automating the essentials and some more.
  • Pro Tools - Great for high-end editing.
  • Adobe Audition - Another high-quality editing tool.
  • REAPER - Perfect if you want a lifetime license (thus a one-time fee)
  • Audacity - Best free silence remover.

#1 Cleanvoice

Cleanvoice is an AI-powered tool that can enable podcasts to rid their audio files of silence, filler sounds, mouth sounds, stuttering, and more! You can also use Cleanvoice to audit podcasts. Other features relate to the development and pre-production stage with the help of additional AI features.

Relevant Features

  • Silence Remover

Our dead air remover tool is great for ensuring that your podcast stays as engaging as possible. Also, this feature can even edit based on context! For example, our AI-powered silence remover can make the pause shorter if the speaker is thinking but longer between topic changes. Yes, the future is here.

  • Filler Words Remover

‘Ums’, ‘ahs’, and ‘you knows’ are not only what your teacher told you to avoid during a class presentation but words that often plague initial podcast recordings. However, our filler words remover feature can automatically remove filler words and even do so on a multilingual basis!

  • Background Noise Remover

Another Cleanvoice feature that offers automatic audio enhancement is our background noise remover. Whether it be traffic sounds, white noise, cafe noise, or otherwise, a background noise remover can further enhance the quality of your podcast.

Pricing

Cleanvoice is available in two payment forms, subscription and pay-as-you-go. We also offer a free trial, allowing you the chance to get an idea of the Cleanvoice experience before committing to a paid package.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • User-friendly and easy to use
  • SaaS, meaning no need to download or install anything
  • May improve your podcast’s SEO (with show notes, transcriptions, podcast summary etc.)

Cons:

  • May lack specific audio editing features you’re after
  • Internet connectivity always needed

#2 Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition is a popular audio recording and editing software allowing podcasters, musicians, and more to edit, mix, record, and restore audio.

Relevant Features

  • Silence remover

Adobe Audition can automatically remove silence. There is a several-step process involved which includes setting your preferred presets.

  • Audio mixing and mastering

Use this feature to mix and master each of your audio projects. Among the advantages of this feature is the ability to streamline your audio editing, control audio, and eliminate white noise.

  • Record podcasts

Create killer podcasts with Adobe Audition by benefiting from a range of features including levels adjustment and multitrack recording (perhaps for a more creative podcast).

Pricing

Adobe Audition comes in various packages. Most podcasters will be satisfied with the $20.99 per month edition, however, podcast companies will prefer the costlier Business package.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Can offer top-notch studio-quality sound
  • Fantastic plugins and automations
  • Superb features (e.g., EQ and noise reduction)

Cons:

  • Pretty steep learning curve
  • May not scrub the timeline to your expectations

Reviews

4.7 stars out of ‎191 reviews

#3 REAPER

REAPER is a full digital audio production PC application that provides full multitrack audio and MIDI recording as well as editing, mixing, processing, and mastering toolset.

Relevant Features

  • Remove silence

REAPER’s silence remover, while effective, involves more manual work on your part (e.g. selecting the right presets) than is the case with the AI features provided by service’s like Collabstr.

  • Routing diagram

View your project and edit routing through a high-level graphical patchbay emulation.

  • Produce

Drag and drop to import, arrange, and render with ease. You can also benefit from fully automated recording, playback, and editing support.

Pricing

REAPER, while in a similar category to Adobe Audition, it’s cheaper and thus will prove far more appealing to low-budget/no-budget independent podcasters. To clarify these are lifetime licenses!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Easy to set up and use
  • Great option for those on a budget
  • Greater workflow and interface

Cons:

  • Default color scheme may not be for you
  • May still involve a bit of a learning curve

Reviews

4.7 stars out of ‎50 reviews

#4 Audacity

Audacity is the perfect cross-platform audio software for low-budget and no-budget podcasters since it's totally free.

Relevant Features

  • Silence remover

It’s possible to automatically remove all silence between joined audio tracks using Audacity. To do this, highlight the track and use the ‘truncate silence’ effect to automatically rid your podcast of silence!

  • Recording

You can also use Audacity to record your podcasts in the first place.

  • Editing

It’s super easy to edit through cut, copy, paste, and delete to adjust your various tracks in order to perfect your podcast!

Pricing

As mentioned, you can download Audacity for free!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Totally free
  • User-friendly interface
  • Covers all the basics

Cons:

  • Still has plenty of limits that may not be enough for some podcasters
  • Not the best for noise separation
  • Could have better-standardized support avenues

Reviews

4.5 stars out of ‎361 reviews

Conclusion

In today’s guide, we looked at the best tools for removing silence from your podcast to ensure they flow better and more naturally.

Sign up for Cleanvoice today and begin automating tasks such as silence removal to speed up the editing process. That way you can free up time for the more creative and engaging parts of the process!