Descript's AI handles transcription, filler words, and noise removal, and you edit by working in the transcript like a document. The constant updates keep it fresh but can break your workflow, and it's built for talking-head videos, not cinematic work.
Descript is the gold standard in video and podcast editing. Here are the top three pros and cons of using descript. Pro number one is all of the AI features. Descript has artificial intelligence built into nearly every feature. From the moment you upload a file, it automatically transcribes it. You can then use filler word removal to find all of your filler words like ums and uhs and remove them all with the click of a button. You can then apply studio sound to get rid of all background noise and make it sound like you're recording. In a professional studio, you can use the eye contact feature to make it look like you're always looking at the camera. You can automatically apply captions to your video, and in short, nearly everything that was a tedious, time consuming task in legacy editors you can do with the click of a button in descript. Pro number two. Transcript Based Editing Transcript based editing makes it perfect for spoken word videos. Descript's goal is to make it more like editing a PowerPoint or a word doc, which probably everyone watching this has experience with. Pro number three is that the software is always updating. It's always getting better. I've never seen a software that gets updated more frequently than descript. I am not exaggerating when I say that I've seen two updates on the same day and major versions are released about every two weeks. They really listen to user feedback and make the UI better. They add new useful features and are always improving the existing features. But that leads me to con number one. Con number one is also that it's always updating. I teach people how to use descript and the top complaint I hear is that descript is always updating. People get used to a certain hotkey or a certain button and suddenly it changes on them or a new feature gets added and it doesn't quite work properly. So the flip side of the product always updating and changing is that things break and it makes it so that you always need to be learning where things are and staying up to date with the software. Con number two is that the UI is a bit tricky. If you're used to timeline based editing, you're going to have to rewire your thinking towards the transcript based editing. And con number three is that if you are not making spoken word videos or podcasts, descript is pretty limited. You won't find all of the transitions and color grading and advanced professional level features of say, Premiere Pro or Final Cut Studio on descript. So if you're planning to edit cinematic videos Descript is probably not the right software for you. You're not going to be able to add motion graphics and fancy animations and things like that. Descript is just simple. But if you want to try Descript for yourself, you can do so for free. There is a free tier available where you can use about 80% of the features for free forever. It's not a trial. I'll leave an affiliate link in the description. Happy editing.
