Descript
About Descript
Descript is a transcription management and video editing software that is designed for businesses in multiple industries, such as marketing, sales, user research, online learning, and customer support. It helps team members collaborate on projects, send feedback, create shared folders, add comments, and track document versions.
Descript enables staff members to upload audio files to automatically generate and edit text transcriptions on a centralized platform. Employees can use the video editing tool to update transcriptions and automatically edit or crop video and audio files accordingly. It lets users add introductions, title cards, captions, transitions, animations, and shapes across videos, images, and GIFs. Supervisors can create shareable links, search transcripts, and embed videos across multiple platforms, such as blog posts, help documents, and other content management systems.
Descript provides an API, which lets businesses integrate the platform with several third party solutions, including Evernote, Slack, Google Drive, DropBox, and Box. The overdub functionality lets staff members utilize text-to-speech technology to automatically generate voiceovers.
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- Industry: Online Media
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10
A must-have for every video content creator
Reviewed on 2021/05/14
Pros
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.
Cons
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".
- Industry: Online Media
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10
The future of podcasting is still just over the horizon
Reviewed on 2021/05/20
Overall, using Descript is a super positive experience.
We're able to preview episode scripts...
Overall, using Descript is a super positive experience.
We're able to preview episode scripts with clients which makes the approval process a better experience for them. Our scriptwriters are able to work directly with the audio and transcript at the same time and when they're done, we can export the raw project for cleanup and sound design in an external DAW which is awesome forethought from Descript. With other projects, editing and sound design and exporting can be done entirely in Descript and I'm really happy with the results.
Despite its limitations and bugs, I still struggle not to recommend Descript to anyone making a podcast.
Whatever you're doing, there is a good chance you will find a place for it in your process, just maybe not as much or as reliably as you would like.
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Alternatives Considered
SoundtrapReasons for Switching to Descript
Soundtrap as an editing-with-transcript tool was way too limited when I looked into it. Although it would fill a lot of gaps missing among the Descript audio tools, it wasn't anywhere close to a worthy comparison.- Industry: Media Production
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 1.0 /10
Not yet stable enough for professional use
Reviewed on 2021/05/19
Pros
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....
Cons
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.
- Industry: Media Production
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Made scaling my podcast agency so easy!
Reviewed on 2021/05/19
We've been able to scale from one podcast client to 20+ in less than a year, and have onboarded 2...
We've been able to scale from one podcast client to 20+ in less than a year, and have onboarded 2 editors. It's making it possible for my business to scale rapidly, and revenue to skyrocket!
Pros
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.
Cons
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.
Alternatives Considered
Adobe AuditionReasons for Choosing Descript
Easier to edit with the transcriptSwitched From
Adobe AuditionReasons for Switching to Descript
Just ease of editing & ease of collaboration. Adobe is a significantly higher cost to collab with, and definitely doesn't have the same level of collaboration capability.- Industry: Media Production
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
An Amazing Podcast Editing Tool!
Reviewed on 2023/09/04
Descript has definitely helped me grow my workflow. I'm exporting and transferring files way less....
Descript has definitely helped me grow my workflow. I'm exporting and transferring files way less. And it has also allowed me to dive into simple video editing for video podcasts and social clips.
Pros
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!
Cons
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!
Reasons for Switching to Descript
Ease of use, and a more simple learning curve. Since it was originally developed as an audio tool, it was easier for myself as an audio editor to shift to this program rather than a video editor.Descript FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions for Descript.Q. What type of pricing plans does Descript offer?
Descript offers the following pricing plans:
- Starting from: US$15.00/month
- Pricing model: Free Version, Subscription
- Free Trial: Available
Descript offers a free basic account with screen recording, collaboration features, and 3 hours of transcription. Only editors pay. The three types of paid accounts include: • Creator: $12/editor/month (annual) or $15/editor/month (monthly) • Pro: $24/editor/month (annual) or $30/editor/month (monthly) • Enterprise: Get in touch with us for custom pricing.
Q. Who are the typical users of Descript?
Descript has the following typical customers:
Self Employed, 2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000
Q. What languages does Descript support?
Descript supports the following languages:
English
Q. Does Descript support mobile devices?
Descript supports the following devices:
Q. What other apps does Descript integrate with?
Descript integrates with the following applications:
Asana, Box, Dropbox Business, Evernote Teams, Gmail, Google Drive, OneDrive, Slack, Zapier
Q. What level of support does Descript offer?
Descript offers the following support options:
Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, Chat
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