Descript reviews

I have been using Descript for a while now, and have noticed a new series of features being added to the platform.

However, even though those additions have been more than welcome, what I consider the platform's top feature is something that has been at its core for quite some time: Descript's transcription tool.

In particular, I was really impressed by the accuracy of the transcription tool's AI. If I had to estimate, I would say that the accuracy of the transcriptions Descript has done for my video content has been around 90%, which is really good.

While the transcription tool has been very good and accurate, I feel that its user interface could be improved.

In fact, it has happened to me a few times to accidentally delete parts of a video (since Descript can be used for video editing too), while I was trying to edit some of the captions/subtitles that were created by the tool's automated transcription feature.

Luckily, I have also noticed this in time but this could have very well have led to a video having missing parts because of this "accident".

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.

Really love how easy it is to edit audio and video with text. Searching for specific phrases or moments via text instead of scrolling and trying to find it saves so much time!

The audio mixing features are still a bit lacking in my mind, especially if you get into a more complicated composition. But I work around by mixing and exporting audio in Pro Tools and dragging it in for the edit and music!

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.

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.

Descript takes all the filler sounds out of your recording - um, uh, etc. You can shorten long pauses - dead air. I love editing from the transcript. I have a mild tremor so fiddling with the usual sound editing software is difficult. It takes forever to get it at just the right spot. With Descript, I make the change in the transcript and Descript makes the change in the audio. I can delete words or whole sentences. I can even move things around. I believe you can train it to your voice so you can add words to the transcript and the audio file will sound like it was there from the start. It's magical!

If I want to use the transcription for other purposes, like a blog, it requires a lot of editing. Sometimes sentences aren't structured right and sometimes words are wrong. It's not all that time consuming, just annoying.

A must use tool for any podcast company. Editing has never been more streamlined.

Video editing the s close but I use three cameras and two to three audio sources. Multicam needs to be more streamlined

I love how it makes editing podcasts easy with my clients and collaborators. Editing the text to edit the sound is a really handy feature. Filler word removal has been great

Its great for recording scripted ads too as I can quickly punch in/out to get the right cadence and ultimately the best take

There are some glitches when it comes to collaboration i.e. not being able to make comments (and notifying your collaborator) until the audio is transcribed, which as a collaborator on someone else's drive I cannot do

Room tone generation seems to be selected as default

When using filler word removal, the cuts can sound quite harsh and require spaces before and after to sound natural

The transcription and editing capabilities is are what I use most. I can edit a podcast and have it blog ready in a very short amount of time. I like that I can edit out filler words painlessly with the touch of a button. Also, the tutorials have been a huge help AND the couple of times I've needed to reach out for help, I've found the Customer Support to be responsive and friendly. No downtime necessary to get my questions answered in a fast and timely manner.

I'd like to see the voice recognition and transcription continue to be improved. Descript does a great job, but the better it becomes, the faster I get due to having less corrections. Still, my editing is a simpler process now than it was before.

This really helps me get my job done,. It's fun to use, too. Great video editing tool and to make content from interviews.

I'd say my only criticism is the support is slow. But you will be able to figure it all out for yourself. And there YT videos are the perfect way to learn

There is absolutely nothing in this world that is easier to use than Descript. It has saved me HOURS of work compared to Camtasia (which is really complicated and hard to learn). You can cut parts out of the video by deleting words from a transcript that Descript automatically generates, and remove filler words (um, ah) with a single click. The final video is better than when I use Camtasia to cut things down to the millisecond. It's a genius piece of software and everyone should try it.

There are a lot of features I know I'm not utilizing enough.

I use this software everyday and with every update it becomes more powerful. My favorite feature has to be how easy editing is.

The only con I have is that aligning tracks in the multitrack view can be difficult. I wish there was a snapping feature to line up video and audio clips easier.

Having visual access to an audio edit is a game changer! Gone are the days of time-coded confusing and long winded client feedback, Descript allows me and my edit team access to quickly create and amend transcribed podcasts.

I would like to see improved audio mixing capabilities, via Waves and Izotope plug in integrations.