Descript Reviews – The Fastest Way To Edit Podcasts Like Pros

Descript Review

So, you heard about Descript and you want to understand it just a little bit more before you buy it? You’ve come to the right place. I’ll give you in-depth Descript reviews (mine and others).

If you are on the edge, then keep reading.

You’ll get a walkthrough of Descript and the comparison with other software too.

So far, I have edited 44 episodes with my podcast and I could not have done it without Descript.

Table of Content

If you’re a busy scanner, here’s a TLDR version for you:

Pro:

  • It’s great for podcast editing and saves you time.
  • The studio sound, magic editor, word-bar, and editing will take you from beginner to pro very quickly.
  • You can easily edit via words instead of audio and video.
  • Pricing is creator-friendly but good for enterprises too.
  • Support is top-notch and provides a response within 60-180minutes based on the timezone you are in.

Cons:

  • Transcription may need more “accents” and “languages adjustments.
  • Editing video is way slower than expected.

Already convinced?

Descript CTA

 

 

 

Full transparency time: I may get some commission if you click on these links but it won’t cost you anything. Also, these tools have not paid me to write this review. I use it every day and I support some of these projects regardless.

 

What is Descript?

Descript thumbnail

 

Descript is a *magical* software that helps you edit your podcast and videos without managing multiple files. It quickly transcribes your files to text and then further edit the “words” instead of the audio and video files. 

You can remove filler words, add overdub audio, edit out mistakes before going live.

It can also be used for captioning and transcription as well.

You can use its pro editings features, such as non-destructive multi-track editing, live collaboration, auto-captioning, exports, and much more.

It basically moves from a beginner to a pro within minutes. 

 

Who is behind Descript?

Andrew Mason

Descript is a company headquartered in San Francisco, CA, and was founded in 2017 by Andrew Mason. Andrew is a serial entrepreneur, having started his journey as an executive first at Groupon as a CEO and founder, then sold his second venture Detour in the AR field to Bose, and now as the CEO and founder of Descript. Descript currently has 40 people and is actively growing the team.

Descript raised $30mn recently to become the editing tool for video and audio (and rightly so they have done that well).

Andrew is the founder of Descript who also personally responds to customer questions and responses sometimes (not many founders do that).

Descript’s Mission

Descript’s mission is to democratize creativity by simplifying editing workflows and making the editing process accessible to all content creators—both on a beginner and professional level. 

 

Why should you try Descript?

So, I can go on and on but here is a short bullet list to help you out.

  • You’ll save at least 3-5 hours per episode or video with their “word-based” magic editor.
  • You can easily comment and refer to the episode.
  • With the transcript, you can easily find out the main “gist” of the content and edit it much faster.
  • You get to do the “normalize” and “studio-quality noise canceling” very easily (I love this feature.
  • You are able to adjust volume, add tracks, and cut the audios & videos with much more *precision*.
  • You don’t need to learn the tool, it is pretty intuitive.
  • Your data is on the cloud and won’t ever be a problem locally.
  • You can turn the transcripts into a blog post easily.
  • You can find key show notes points and easily highlight them in your podcasts or videos.
  • I also Descript to make minutes of the meeting but Notiv is better for that.

Some of the easiest things I could do with Descript that was not possible with Audacity at all.

  • It is much easier to remove silence
  • It is way easier to remove background noise
  • Too easy to remove filler words –ums and aahs at scale all together

 

How does Descript work and what makes it so useful?

Podcast& video editing and recording are time-consuming. You do not want to spend time editing, rather making it professional and next level. But You DO want to spend time in storytelling and interviewing though, so leave the tenuous editing tasks to Descript.

Let us go through the product demo & walkthrough with features & benefits so you can understand a little bit better.

 

Getting Started: 

You can easily upload a file (voice or video) and it starts transcribing. 

Descript Reviews 1

 

Descript reviews 2

Descript review 3

You need to upload a voice or video file.

Descript review 4

Once the podcast is transcribed.

Descript review 5

You can identify the speakers right after it is done transcribing.

Descript review 6

Once speakers are identified, the system will automatically assign the voice to the speaker.

You can use a  “word-based” editor to start editing.

The Editing

 

I first try to remove “umms and aahs” aka filler words (amazing feature). It took me around 60-90minutes to just do that in Audacity.

Descript filler words removal ums and aas

You can read more about filler words here.

Descript filler words removal ums and aas

Once that is done, I am trying to listen to the podcast with text and edit as I go.

I add my notes, mark as I go, and mix the audio like a pro.

The other tools that give me super-powers

Overview Descript

 

I mostly use it to add my own recording. Then, insert music tracks and voice files.

Let us quickly go through these features.

Descript review tools

 

Markers

Markers are like bookmarks or headers for your transcript. They’re also handy for navigation because you can instantly jump between them.

 

Notes  

Notes are a way you can insert non-speech annotations (like a cough, laugh, or stage direction) inline in your Composition without messing up the text/audio sync or taking up space in the Timeline.

 

Comments

I use comments for myself but it is usually to remind myself that this sound blurb is good. But ideally, it should be used for collaboration of specific sound and video bite analysis & discussion.

Collaboration

Highlight Text

Highlights allow you to mark sections of your text in various colors for later reference. I usually use this tool to high important audio and bring it in my intro to mix and match.

timeline

Timeline

I use it for fine-tuning details with boundary trimming, adjusting, and fades. 

timeline

The Wordbar

The Wordbar helps me adjust the audio in a creative way. Sometimes there are gaps and you don’t want so big gaps when a speaker is speaking.

 

The Overdub (my favorite tool)

Overdub_menu2.png

Imagine you said something, and you don’t want to re-record it. You give descript your voice and train its AI your voice. 

And, then it makes an artificially intelligent voice of yours and you can use it when you “misspeak” stuff.

With the release of Overdub, you can now correct your voice recordings by typing. It’s the first of many AI-powered features we plan to ship together to reduce the friction of creative expression – Andrew Mason

You can also train it for different emotions as well. 

You can read more about Overdub here.

 

The studio sound (my ultimate hack to improve my voice)

Look, I am a Pakistani with an Indian accent. My voice is super shrill and I don’t love it. I speak in a high tone with energy. Descript normalizes this.

I can’t stress enough but this completely changes the “shrill” part of my voice and gives some normal sound balance THAT I really needed.

You can listen to this episode without the sound studio feature.

 

And this episode with the sound studio feature to see the difference.

 

You can read more about studio sound here.

studio sound

 

The publishing

Descript has made publishing super easy for me.

I don’t need to download it. I am easily able to publish to my podcasting medium and Youtube as well.

It saves SO MUCH OF TIME.

Does that help?

Try Descript for free now.

 

Pros & Cons of Descript

In my Descript Review, obviously, you can see there are too many Pros for it. I am a happy user paying each month for Descript.

 

Pro:

So, here are some Pros of Descript:

  • Descript simplifies and provides all the recording, editing, and publishing in one place.
  • It helps me manage my podcast like a Pro. I don’t need to pay at least 500$ per month to do 4 podcast edits for me.
  • Descript is for both, creators and professionals, to use.
  • It is easier to use and very intuitive to get started. You don’t need prior editing knowledge.
  • Descript pricing is reasonable. Actually, I think it is too cheap for what it provides and that is how Software should feel.
  • Basically, it is the best software I have ever tried.

Cons:

So, here are some things you need to be aware of. Descript is also not perfect.

  • The transcription is not accurate. I don’t use it for my podcast. But I do use it for making key points.
  • Descript is very slow for video editing. It takes ages, I don’t do videos with it.
  • Exporting the video also takes time.
  • Descript does not have multi-languages transcription. I was editing a German podcast and had to redo a lot.
  • Descript’s voice also does not take your “accent” into consideration. So, if you use it for transcripts, you do need to edit all yourself and that is time-consuming.

Other than that, everything looks good here.

Descript Pricing Structure

I find Descript’s pricing quite reasonable for a hobbyist podcaster.

I have not monetized my podcast yet.

It starts free so you get the Aha! moment very easily.

Creator pays $15/month monthly and $12/month annually.

For the Pro feature, I never needed to upgrade it but if you want it to “automatically” remove a lot of mistakes and save time. Go for it.

For Pro features, you pay either $30/month monthly or $24/month annually.

They used to have the Overdub feature in Pro but now Creator plan has it too.

Descript pricing

Descript Customer Support & Success

I find Descript support very useful. They have great help documentation and videos to help me answer questions myself.

Descript Help Docs

They offer webinars as well and they are useful but you can find them on Youtube already too.

Descript videos and webinars

Whenever there is a product launch, they explain the new product features in the best possible way.

 

What other folks talk about Descript? (Legit Descript Reviews)

Sure, you should not depend on my opinion only. I want you to see what other folks are talking about Descript too. I am collecting it here so you don’t have to find it yourself.

Nico Jansen on Product Hunt Says:

Descript is an incredible tool. Within minutes of finishing a podcast recording I’ve got the episode transcribed and ready for editing.

The transcription’s good enough that I can find unimportant sections of the recording and delete those (non-destructively) without even listening. I can smoothly switch between casual, broad-strokes editing, nuanced sweetening of individual sentences, and audio enhancements like pan and volume adjustment.

The Descript team has been incredibly responsive to user feedback while also pursuing a clear product goal, keeping the interface easy to use and organized.

Thinking back to how long it used to take me to edit a new episode, Descript’s simply a joy to use.

It’s a time-saver:

Descript is a timer saver

On G2, this seemed like a fair review.

G2 Review

What people don’t love? Let me share some honest Descript reviews too.

Descript bad review

Yes, this is true. Transcription is weak as I said.

Hope this was helpful.

 

Verdict – My Review & Recommendations

 

Well, if you have read this far, then you might be able to guess my verdict already.

Yes, it is positive. I LOVE Descript! I’d highly recommend it.

It made me a Pro Podcast Editor. I can’t be more thankful enough.

But do not use it for transcripts.

And, yes, it is better than Audacity and Garageband.

Descript CTA

 

 

 

Disclaimer: Please note, I may receive affiliate compensation for some of the links below at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. However, these are the best tools I have tested for launching and running a website & a podcast. You can read my affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy & affiliate disclosure.

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