Descript Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What I like the most about using Descript, is that it allows me to use 1 tool for many of my needs. Previously I would have to use 3-4 different sites/tools to get the job done. It also allows me to make media (podcasts) more on my own time, instead of relying on freelancers and others.

It does seem to take a lot for my computer to process using Descript. I haven't run into any issues yet and have an upgraded computer, but could see an issue if I'm traveling or had less capacity.

Editing text instead of audio has revolutionized my company's workflow. We make podcasts and it has saved us tons of time to use Descript for highly produced shows. It doesn't really help with weekly shows that require minimal editing and fast turnarounds. But for months-long narrative projects, it is so incredibly easy to edit text linked to audio and then script around that. We then export to Audition or Protools to mix and score. But having this step along the way saves many hours of time and improved collaboration with internal and external people.

It's really buggy! Things stop working frequently. Then Descript fixes it. Then there's another bug. I have faith that they'll get to a point where I'm not running into bugs every week or every few days, but it is frustrating for now.

The killer feature of this product is the ability to edit text and audio or video simultaneously. You can edit each and the other immediately updates, so it's possible to "read" your entire show as well as edit in depth by words or by frames or samples when necessary.
It's wonderful to have the whole project in the cloud with comments shared like a Google Doc for collaboration.
The automatic transcription works pretty well with clear speakers.
Exporting to audio files or DAW projects works well.

The automatic edits at word boundaries can be a little rough and need hand touching up.
Sometimes the software needs to be restarted to take into account a new update.
Occasional slipping of time or data due to software updates or collaboration.
Could still use a "stem" export function in addition to flattened audio and DAW projects.
It would be great to improve automated transcription further, but this is a hard problem.

The speed with which I can turn recorded audio into something I can meaningfully edit from without having to listen and re-listen and try to keep audio sections in mind.

I would like additional audio processing options (AU plug-in support?), and there are still times where a new update will significantly slow down the application.
The ability to watch / listen to published pages on mobile still seems somewhat lacking.

Using the transcription to edit audio and video completely changes the game - so much time is saved by being able to use the text to guide exactly when to clip.

Responsiveness is still a bit laggy, and compared to other multi-track editors, this still feels at times unwieldy. Transcriptions could also be more accurate, as going through and changing them can take quite a lot of time.

I love the fact that it is sooooo easy to create small snippets and make them ready for social in such a small amount of time.

some of the features I want are not high on the priority list, I wish that wasn't the case but I guess all users feel the same.