Descript Reviews

I love how easy it is to edit audio using the auto transcription. It allows for other great features like filler word and word gap detection/removal. The integration with Zapier allows us to import new media, and the publishing integrations allow us to export to hosts and other apps we use in our clients workflows.

For more advanced editing, I wish there were integrations with Adobe Audition that would make it easy to locate spots that have been commented on and then reimport or sync the changes. For our workflow, I would also love if we could utilize an API to directly integrate Descript with our workflow rather than needing to utilize Zapier.

1. That it does such a good, incredibly fast job of transcribing and assigning speaker roles
2. That it combines separate audio tracks into a sequence so you can make edits to an entire production, but *also* gives you the ability to drill down into individual tracks for really fine-tuned edits.
3. That it combines audio editing and text editing into a single interface, so you can literally edit your audio track as if you were editing a Word or Google doc. I never imagined that this could be an interface or should be an interface, but after seeing it for the first time, the concept clicked into place for me and I immediately took to it.
4. That it auto removes filler words and phrases, BUT even more important, kind of magically smooths over (most of) the cuts so that you can't tell a cut was made. It doesn't always work perfect, but more than half the time it does, and it feels like I'm working with software from a sci-fi future.
5. I want to say I love their Overdub feature, where you can deepfake your own voice (or someone else's on your team if they give you permission, I think--there are some privacy rules in place that I haven't fully explored). It also feels like a sci-fi technology. However, in my day to day usage of this tool, I never use Overdub because I'm almost always editing other people who aren't Descript customers. I'm eager to test it one day with my own voice recordings, but for now I can't really give any feedback on its effectiveness.

1. At the end of 2020 I had some bad experiences with server-side delays and edits not being saved properly, which reminded me that some of the core functionality for this service is beyond my control because it's not happening locally. On the other hand, I haven't had any problems since (it's been about six months).
2. They update the software very frequently, and often make changes to the interface at the same time. I now just prepare myself to deal with a relocated UI element whenever there's an update, but I don't enjoy the fresh challenge each time it happens. Rapidly making incremental improvements to functionality makes sense to me, but I'm not sure it should be the approach for UI improvements since that can be so destabilizing to a user's workflow.

This is could be a game changing piece of software. it combines transcription and audio editing into one. The option to collaborate in the cloud like a google doc opens up many possibilities. But there is one big downside....

It is not yet reliable enough. There have been two occasions in last few months where Descript just stopped working. I lost days' worth of work on broadcast critical projects.

The first time an entire project wouldn't open and just hung. That meant all of the work for an entire podcast episode was inaccessible. I contacted tech support and tweeted them. I heard nothing back. After a friday and weekend of panic and frustration, the project did open.

Perhaps stupidly, i carried on using Descript. A month or so later a Composition (their name for a document within a project) I was working on just stopped working. The error message just said press reload. But that did nothing. Because it is cloud based I had nothing on my hard drive to try and salvage. it just stopped working. i lost at least 8 hours of work. i contacted tech support and their discord server. Still haven't had a response. I had to do the work all over again.

If you work in professional audio, sadly my advice is to stay away from Descript till it gets more reliable.

Text-to-speech feature. The feature could learn my voice and turn it into an AI voice. Now, I don't have to record my own voice for the audio of my next video project

In the span that I have been using the software, there has been major updates and changes made. More and more features have been added like the video editing for example, and some changes to the UI. I am mainly using it for audio purposes only, so the new features are not relevant to me. But I still have to be updated with the UI changes as it affects my work flow. I am still in the learning curve to master the software

1) I like the realistic-sounding voices
2) I like the large selection of voices
3) I like the ability to change the pitch and speed of each voice
4) I like the male and female options
5) I like the fact that you can copy and paste large amounts of text at one time to edit
6)

1) The learning curve can be a bit much
2) Not enough tutorials that get right to the point

1. Descript's key feature is how it transcribes your audio and converts it into an editable word document. I was astounded to discover how simple it was to effectively cut and paste words while simultaneously moving the audio waveforms.
2. It makes use of the Google speech to text engine, which has been demonstrated to be the market leader in numerous studies.
3. Transcripts are attractive and are designated by individuals. With just one click, you can securely send transcripts with video or audio.

1. It becomes slow with time, and you must pay to utilize it on a regular basis.
2. Although the automatic, entry-level version of Descript has a transcribing accuracy of roughly 95%, there are still grammatical problems.
3. It takes longer than I expected to look over transcriptions and revise them later, so I have to spend more time correcting the transcripts even during my working hours.

What I love the most is that when you delete audio from the timeline, it never actually disappears. You can easily go back in and re-add something you took out earlier. It doesn't rely on undo only, if you took out a sentence early on and decided after half an hour of editing you want that sentence back in, its right there. Incredible.

I don't like the organization on the home page, I don't quite understand the folders. I like organization and not being able to archive my finished edits versus the edits I still need to do is a bit frustrating but easy to overlook!

It is user friendly and doesn't require much experience in video and audio editing. Filler words and word gap detection and removal are great features. The export and publish features allow for sharing and publishing the content to other applications. It transcribes very fast and it's great in identifying and assigning speakers. It is easy to cut and paste words while moving the audio waveforms. It also does a great job of matching separate audio files.

Stability of the software is a great concern. Sometimes it just freezes and you can't access the project you are working on. There is also more that can be done on the sound effects.

We do a smaller podcast, and it’s cut the editing time in half. The ability to automatically delete filler words and audio gaps has been a major timesaver and the software keeps evolving. The company listens to users and makes changes accordingly. Looking forward to see where it goes from here.

I have no real complaints. The editing tool can sometimes be a bit wonky, but I think it’s note user error than a problem with the tool.

How I can automatically transcribe my videos then translate them in an easy editor before uploading to youtube. Also I like how it has a generous free to use model.

Well, not supporting the Arabic language mainly :((

Descript has many amazing features - even ones that I would have never thought of to wish for. Here are some of the features that most impressed me.

I love being able to edit video or audio recordings simply by editing the transcript. You can edit within the same file, or you can open another file in a separate window and copy/paste the sections you want from the original file - which remains intact.
Descript's filler word and "dead air" removal are pretty amazing as well.
The option to export a format that is editable in Adobe Premiere Pro comes in very handy. Currently, my workflow is to get the main video edit done in Descript, and then fine tune and add additional elements in Premiere. In fact, I had used Descript's Marker feature to indicate section headers that I was going to add in Premiere. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Descript's Markers translate directly to annotated markers in Premiere, making it really easy for me to find the spots to insert section graphics and which header cards to put where.
Descript's built-in screen recorder has been very helpful for grabbing b-roll from websites. I even used it to show the Descript team some minor challenges I was having with their app.

The accuracy of the automatic transcription can be a bit hit or miss. British accents are notoriously problematic. Not only does the app misinterpret words, but the rhythm of the person's speech can cause the app to put the wrong punctuations in all the wrong places.

If the transcript needs a lot of editing, I'll put the whole transcript in Edit Mode. But I often need to play back a section of audio to know how to correct it. Playback doesn't seem to work in Edit Mode, and it's very cumbersome to switch back and forth.

I often need to add captions to the exact same clip in two different formats for social media - e.g. square and vertical. Simply uploading the caption file I had exported from Descript for the first clip to the second clip didn't work as I would have expected.

The Descript developers are continually updating their app - which is both good and bad. It seems like every time you open it, some feature is new or modified when you haven't even had a chance to get comfortable with the way things were.

Descript is a strong collection of audio tools that just weren't available when I started making podcasts. The ability to organise, collaborate and publish an audio project in the cloud with a friendly interface is great and used to be a huge pain to figure out. Editing audio with the transcript and the waveform at the same time allows you to skip a bunch of technicalities and focus on your creativity. Video capabilities expand the possibilities, and the overall suite of tools make me rethink entirely what podcast editing can or should be in a good way.

Stability is the biggest problem I have with this. After working on about a lot of different projects with different collaborators, I'm still coming up against things that make it freeze, make it crash, or break a project (usually salvageable at least), and end up needing to work around issues to keep things rolling.

Also, while Descript has a lot of features, in comparison to any long-standing audio software it leaves so much to be desired. There are many missing tools that would add a lot of room for creativity and technical cleanup. Things like audio meters, noise gate, spectrum analysis, filters to automate creatively, ducking, but also the more unexpected effects like reverb, stereo delay, pitch shifting, layered FX, these are all things podcasters of any kind might want to use for effect at some point and many folks I know can't, or don't want to tell their stories without them.

This is especially true for video which misses on some basic transformations like rotation for text and images.

I love that I'm able to collaborate with my editing team so that we can implement quick changes from clients no matter who is available. It was super easy to bring in new team members and train them on the workflow as well. I also love how the transcripts make it so much faster than other apps to edit - the combo of seeing words + waveforms (and the search/delete option) cut editing time in half.

Clicking and dragging still needs some work, not sure yet about the new toolbar. I also really would like to be able to use VSTs to denoise easier, right now the workflow starts in Audition or Pro Tools for any processing (our clients honestly don't understand that they need to record in quiet spaces) and then we bring it into Descript to do the edit.

The ability to edit an interview or podcast just by editing the text is incredible.
The workflow is fairly straight forward – import audio file, choose how to transcribe, wait…, edit the transcript & audio in various ways, export or publish as needed.

The automated transcription is good, but not great. There are always little errors that seem obvious to a human – capitalize the first letter in a sentence, don't capitalize a word in the middle of a sentence, abbreviate doctor as Dr. when a name follows, etc. – and they seem to always show up, even when they've been corrected previously, so it's unclear whether the 'machine' is actually 'learning'.
The app appears to not be built as a native app for macOS which means it lacks certain core features. The most annoying to me is that the window always opens in the default size (i.e. small) and never remembers the sizing or positioning that I choose every time I open it.
The developers are rapidly adding features, but almost too quickly. Once I get used to a feature or function, it doesn't take long for the menu item to be changed or moved (Share, Export, Publish all do similar–though different–things, and have each had their turn as a unique menu item or being grouped together in various ways). I got very efficient at correcting the transcription (which, unfortunately, must be done frequently) until they changed the entire process of editing the transcript.

Many startups with new products use the terms disruptive, game changer, etc. But, in the end few actually are. Based on my experience, Descript is one of those products that really is a game changer. They've taken a fundamentally different approach to video and audio editing by applying a universally familiar document editing UX to video and audio editing. This removes much of the complexity of traditional editing software and puts it into a format that's accessible by virtually anyone. The integrated transcription function is really useful and the Overdub feature is very cool for being able to make edits without re-recording and splicing in audio. And the way it's all integrated with the cloud with one click publishing makes the usability very smooth and frictionless.

As with any type of new software and when there's a new UX concept, there is a learning curve and things don't always work the way you would expect. Some people experienced with traditional editing software may find the UX a little limiting, but I don't think that's the type of user Descript is targeting with this solution. I've found the learning curve to be very fast at the beginning , so you can be up and running with it and creating content quickly. Once you need to access more advanced features it takes a little bit of time to figure out where the feature is and how to use it, but nothing out of the ordinary. I think it's just that the initial experience of being able to edit video/audio in a word processor is so good that you are then surprised when some of the more advanced features are not quite as intuitive.

Being able to edit text and have that automatically edit the audio is an amazing time saver. I was skeptical of the quality of edits this would provide, but 95% of the time the cross fades etc. it adds are spot on. For that 5% of the time where it's not quite right, you can easily adjust things using the waveform editor.

The transcription service seems to have been primarily trained on white/European-descent speakers. I've edited several episodes with African guests and the transcription is awful. You can still use it to edit the audio OK, with some laughs at the mistakes it made. But, if you want to publish a transcript then you're basically rewriting the whole thing.

This is a whole new way to edit audio and video content. I love the fact that there are frequent updates and new features. Simply amazing to edit content.

Not much in terms of audio processing. No noise reduction, etc.

Descript is so easy to use. It's cut down the editing time for our podcast interviews and the overall show while increasing our quality. With the ongoing new features too, like Overdub and the ability to generate Audiograms, the service continues to get better. The transcripts have also allowed us to increase the accessibility for our podcast and the generated videos while helping to keep costs down (and as the AI continues to improve, our time to correct transcripts as also gone down)

The feature that needs attention is how the software deals with silence. Long silences are treated as "speakers" with the AI is deciding who it detects speaking. That causes issues with transcript correction. In addition, things that are actual silence can be removed, such as laughter or crosstalking or words the AI might not know. That adds extra editing time so those things are part of the final product. I'm hoping this aspect gets updated soon.

My favorite aspect of this software is the ability to delete filler words, shorten pauses between phrases and make my guests sound so much better than they do in the rough interview track. I love being able to edit the audio file by deleting things from the transcribed text and being able to go back and forth between editing in the text and editing in the audio file. The last episode I edited on descript cut 20 minutes off the interview. Then I bring that edited track into garage band to add intro/outro music, etc. ( i know I’m supposed to be able to do all this inside descript but I haven’t taken the time to learn how to do that.

Poor transcription of non native speakers. Not knowing how to add in existing transcript and match it with the raw interview track before editing.

I love that to edit the audio or video, you just make the edits in the transcription instead of trying to find the exact place in the audio file. Makes it so much easier! My favorite is that it can take out all the "filler words" like "um" in about 2 clicks and make the audio sound great! So much faster than how I was doing it before with having to listen and take them out one at a time.

There are constant updates to the software, about 1 a week. This can be annoying since there is always a pop-up that says you need to update and restart almost everytime I open the app. Also, if you have multiple accounts (I have multiple clients I work with), it is hard to sign out of one account and then sign into another. Not sure why this isn't straightforward, but often when I sign out of one account and then try to sign into another, it just puts me back into the same account.

love that the transcripts are very accurate
the product has so many features and i am learning new features everyday
love that i can eliminate 4-5 pieces of software
love that i can create audio grams
very easy for editing text and video

there are so many features, it does have a long learning curve with some of its functions
the demo videos are a little confusing and I had to watch them a few times to figure out how exactly to do certain things.

What I love most about Descript is that it makes the process of creating audio and video clips (as well as editing for podcast episodes) super simple. I also love how often the team updates the software and releases new features. I feel like my trust in Descript is well-placed.

I wish there was more flexibility in the export options. For example, we can do 90% of our audiogram/videogram workflow in Descript, but we still have to move into something like Adobe Premiere for that last 10%. If there were just a few more customization options, we could do 100% in Descript. That said, many of the features I love didn't exist in the beginning, so I'm confident it will eventually get there, and am not worried in the slightest about building our processes and systems around Descript.

I like that I can edit a video based on the visual transcription, The AI and that while I'm recording I get a transcription simultaneously.

The features I desire most are a dark mode feature, a chroma key feature so I can add light overlay and animation. I would also like a pause feature added to screen recording and voice recording because I use this to help me think in between recording without stopping the session. And please fix bugs such a lagging.

And the integrations I would recommend are Audacity, Davinci Resolve, and Anchor FM because that is what I use.

Sometimes there are glitches if I am working in multiple windows and Ill get error codes. Sometimes it's hard to place tracks on the timeline, You click where you want it to go and it goes somewhere else in the project. I want some filler words to stay included and it's hard for me to figure out how to keep them. When I record audio and mess up, the overdub function doesn't pop up when I right-click. I wish the zoom and pan were smoother looking.

It's very easy to use as a novice. There are lots of functionality buried within that I know I'm not utilizing, but I don't need it to get my job done. I love the ability to edit the audio by editing text and adding music onto my podcast voice files is straightforward. This is by far the easiest editing tool I've tried.

There are lots of features that I know exist but that I don't see or that I don't know how or when I should use them. This is on me to learn, but I do wish tools would provide access to mini-tutorials from within the main workspace so that when you are working you could better identify whether that functionality you've never used might help to solve your problem.

This software utilizes the experience of using a word processor, and harnesses it to help make an editing process that is intuitive, easy, and efficient. This makes it a time saver for me, and I have been able to teach non-design and non-tech colleagues how to use it in order to share the production work across various projects with ease.

Initially, the transcript and audio functions worked excellently, while the video was still a but rough. Now, though, Descript has spent several months upgrading and updating their platform so that the video editing is much more seamless and more can be done through the platform to produce great videos. The overdub is clever and helpful, but requires quite a bit of honing to get high-quality results.