Best Podcast Editing Plugins 2025: Our Top Picks & What to AVOID!
Let's talk plugins. If you're editing podcasts or any kind of dialogue, you know the right tools can make a huge difference – but the wrong ones? They're just a waste of time and money.
This week, Matt and I are opening up our plugin folders. We're covering our absolute go-to's for getting clean, clear, professional-sounding dialogue, the ones we've tried and kicked to the curb, and why having a few quality plugins you actually know how to use beats a giant collection of stuff you barely touch.
We'll be hitting on some big names like Sonible, Waves, FabFilter, Plugin Alliance, Universal Audio, and others, comparing what works, what doesn't, and what we think really moves the needle for podcast and dialogue editing.
Here's what we're getting into:
• Our "desert island" plugins: The essentials for any dialogue editor.
• Why we pick certain plugins (Sonible, FabFilter, DX Revive Pro) for specific tasks like noise reduction, EQ, and compression.
• Plugins that disappointed us (and why you might want to avoid them).
• The "quality over quantity" rule for building your plugin toolkit.
• Are expensive plugins like those from Waves or Plugin Alliance always worth it?
• Our top recommendations for de-essing, de-clicking, and other crucial dialogue cleanup.
• How smart plugin choices can seriously speed up your podcast editing workflow.
0:00 Countdown
2:15 Introduction: Talking Podcast & Dialogue Editing Plugins
3:31 Meet the Hosts: Jesse (Podcast Editor/Coach) & Matthew Bliss (Podcast Editor/Producer)
5:00 Why Dialogue Editing Matters: Listenability & Audio Priority
5:43 Disclaimer: Plugin Choices are Subjective (No Judgment Zone!)
6:39 Low-Effort Quality Improvers (Adobe Enhance) vs. Pro Tools
7:27 Community Welcome & Call for Questions
8:19 Do You Need Expensive DAW Plugins? (Stock Tools are Often Enough)
9:32 Buying Plugins with Purpose (vs. Collecting Digital Dust)
10:32 Quality Over Quantity: Mastering a Few Tools vs. Owning Hundreds
12:14 Matt's Plugin Philosophy: Skepticism, Trusted Reviews & Regrettable Purchases (Gullfoss)
14:28 Matt's Core Plugin Stack (Waves, DX Revive Pro, iZotope RX)
15:45 Building a Core Plugin Toolkit: Key Categories (Noise/Reverb, EQ, Compression, etc.)
17:39 The Essential: Mouth De-Click (Why RX is Still Relevant)
19:00 Do You Need Multiple Plugins Per Category? (When to Upgrade)
20:28 Case Study: Switching from FabFilter to Sonible (Time Savings vs. Sound)
22:24 Cautionary Tales: Plugins That Don't Live Up to the Hype (Sonible Pure Vocal, iZotope VEA)
27:28 The Waves Saga: Brand Reputation, Marketing, & Subscription Controversies
33:01 Waves Sibilance & SEO: Naming Plugins for Their Purpose
34:48 The "Inshittification" of Plugin Business Models
37:17 Waves Update Plan (WUP): Misconceptions & Realities
38:17 Mixing Vocals for Music vs. Dialogue for Podcasts (Different Needs)
41:42 Q&A: Do Company Reputation/Practices Factor into Plugin Choices?
44:35 Finding Reliable Tools from Trustworthy Companies
47:10 The Risk of Rushed Software Releases (MVPs & Public Beta Testing)
48:17 "Vibe Coding" & The Proliferation of Low-Quality AI-Generated Apps
49:47 Q&A: Single Knob Simplicity vs. Multi-Option Complexity in Plugins
52:10 Choosing EQs: When One-Knob/AI is Better (Monitoring & Experience)
55:05 The Car Test & Mixing for Multiple Playback Systems
57:05 Fresh Air Plugin: A One-Knob Presence Booster (Use Sparingly!)
57:59 AI & One-Knob Solutions: Replacing Manual Mixing Skills? (DX Revive Pro Example)
01:00:35 Is In-Depth Mixing Knowledge Becoming Obsolete for Dialogue?
01:04:29 The Value of Foundational Knowledge (Learning the "Old Ways")
01:08:46 Learning What You Want vs. What You Need for Good Results
01:10:42 Final Disclaimer: We're All Different (Personal Choices)
01:11:19 Plugin Developer Closures: The ERA Plugins Example (Bought by Meta)
01:12:44 Business Risk: Relying on AppSumo Deals & Unsupported Software
01:16:37 Q&A: Plugins That Surprised in a GOOD Way (Sonible, DX Revive Pro, New Gen Denoise)
01:19:47 DX Revive Pro: Pays for Itself in Time Saved & Quality Improvement
01:20:48 Dialog Enhance vs. DX Revive Pro (You Get What You Pay For)
01:22:26 Why Noise & Reverb Reduction are Worth Investing In
01:24:55 Q&A: Plugins That Disappointed (Why Was This Released?) - iZotope Nectar, RX Updates, Hindenburg 2
01:32:40 The Importance of Demoing Plugins & Due Diligence
01:34:29 Final Calls to Action & Matt's Upcoming Podcast Transformation
01:35:40 Wrapping Up & Thank You
#PodcastEditingPlugins #DialogueEditing #AudioPlugins #Sonible #WavesPlugins #FabFilter #PluginAlliance #PodcastProduction #AudioEngineering #MixingDialogue