Descript's Studio Sound removes background noise from audio and video files. Toggle it in the Audio Effects panel, then adjust Intensity (try 85% instead of the default 100% to avoid clipping or robotic sound). It works best on traffic, AC, and wind, not on severely damaged recordings.
Questions this video answers
Anywhere from 30 seconds up to several minutes (longer for long videos/podcasts).
100% intensity by default.
About 85% intensity (narrator’s recommendation for his microphone/room).
It applies file-wide — the effect is a file-level setting and affects the entire file even if the layer is in different scenes.
Today you're going to learn how to go from this.
To this. The feature you're going to learn today is called Studio Sound. It doesn't require any knowledge of audio engineering whatsoever. It only requires that you be able to click a button. Here's how to do it. Inside of your project, find the layer you want to fix. Here's the one of me walking outside with the noisy traffic.
Today you're going to learn how to go from this, this to this.
Now, to apply Studio Sound, I'll come back into my project. I'll click on the layer that I want to cancel out the background sound for. I'll come over to the property menu over here on the right. And here under Audio Effects, where it says Studio Sound, I'll simply click on this toggle. And now it's applied. And if you're applying it for the first time, you're going to see a notification right here that'll tell you that it's processing. And it'll take anywhere from 30 seconds up to several minutes if it's a long video or a long podcast. But in this case, I'd already applied it, so it happened instantly. And it does apply to the entire file. So if this layer is chopped up, if it's in different scenes, it'll still apply the Studio sound to the entire thing because it's a file wide setting. Okay, and let's listen to how it sounds now. Pretty weird, pretty messed up. It took that siren sound and it made it sound very, very robotic. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to use the Range Tool. This is the Range Tool right here, and it allows you to select a specific portion of your video, of your layer. And so I'm going to click and drag all those gray sound waves. Those are the sirens. The dark gray is where I'm actually talking. And I can tell that because first of all, the dark gray, but also the words that have been transcribed. So with this part, that is just the siren, I'm going to mute that out by coming up here under audio, and then hit this little speaker here. And that is now muted. And now I'll just back up a few seconds and play it again.
Today you're going to learn how to go from this.
And once again, on these gray ones, we have the siren sounds a little bit messed up. I'm gonna mute that out selected with the Range Tool, and then hit the mute button.
Today you're gonna learn how to go from this.
To this. It's still not perfect, but it's much better because the sirens and the traffic and the wind and all that stuff is, is muted out. So what I can do is select my layer once again. And with Studio Sound, it's a very simple setting. You can turn it on and then there's only one parameter you can manipulate. And if we come right here to this little dial, it's your effect settings. If I click on it, the only thing we can change is the intensity. And by default, when you turn Studio Sound on, it's dialed up to 100% intensity. And when you have it at 100% intensity, depending on your environment, it might clip your voice, it might cut off S's. That's something that happens to me a lot. It might make it sound robotic. It takes the tone out of your voice. And so what you need to do is experiment with this number. Let's knock it down to 90. Close that and I'm going to play it again.
You're going to learn how to go from this.
It still cuts my S a little bit. So let's try like 80 and play it again.
Hey, you're gonna learn how to go from this.
To this. Okay? And let's say I like that, let's say I'm gonna stick with that setting. Then that's all I do. I'm done with Studio Sound for this one. But based on your particular microphone and recording environment, you will need to experiment with the intensity to find the perfect setting. So, for example, here in my office, with this microphone standing right where I am and the non treated room around me, I found that 85% or so intensity is perfect for this setup. So that's where I always put it. Now I will say Studio Sound won't allow you to salvage completely terrible audio. And the siren situation was completely terrible audio. It's not perfect. So this isn't an excuse to not care about your recording environment, but it's an incredible tool for getting rid of things like traffic, air conditioners, and dogs barking. It.
