Thinking About my Production Toolkit — is it Time to Ditch Descript?
In an upcoming article, I’m going to pose the question, “what’s missing from your process?”
It’s something I think about all the time — am I leveraging my time, and the tools I have, properly?
I started thinking about my production toolkit when I did my year-end review for RSS.com. I was trying to add something in Descript and was struggling, so I decided to go to my old standby, Screenflow.
I left Screenflow several years ago for 2 reasons:
- It wasn’t handling 4K video very well unless I recorded in Screenflow
- I was advocating Descript for my clients and students, and wanted to be familiar with the tool
But, if I’m being honest, I find myself fighting Descript on a lot of things that are very easy in Screenflow.
I thought it was lack of experience with Descript, but at this point, I’m 2+ years (and one huge interface change) into it, and I’m still fighting it to do simple things, like add bed music.
It’s clear that their focus is on integrating more AI tools into the software, and my goal was always making editing easier.
Now, back to using Screenflow for the RSS.com video. Not only did it handle 4K video recorded fromeCamm Live incredibly well, but when I had to go back and make big edits, I’m SO grateful I used Screenflow because it saved me hours.
I would have had no other choice but to reshoot if I used Descript. SO now, I’m at a point where I feel I don’t need to pay for Descript anymore.
Because I have a couple of other uses for Descript (Squadcast and Transcripts), so what am I to do?
Here’s what I’m considering:
Go back to Riverside for recording. My main reason for leaving Riverside was it didn’t make sense for me to pay for it when I had Squadcast for free. But if I’m going to downgrade Descript, Riverside is back in the mix.
Not to mention, I think after using both, Riverside is a better tool, and also does Transcripts for interviews.
MacWhisper for Transcripts. This is a fantastic Mac app that leverages OpenAI for transcription. At the time of this writing, it’s also a one time payment, vs. a subscription with Descript. If I’m going to use automated transcripts, this is the way to go (though I still have my episodes transcribed by a human being).
This leaves me with audio editing. To be honest, I plan on offloading as much of this as possible, but for the times I need to, something like GarageBand…or maybe Screenflow!?…is suitable. I also purchased some tools from Izotope, like VSP and RX 10 Standard, to make clean up easier.
While those tools work with Screenflow and GarageBand (and any app that uses Audio Units), they do not work with Descript.
I should make it clear that if you’re happy with Descript, you should keep using it. In fact, for basic clean up and content editing, it’s still the best tool. But when I try to do anything more, I find myself fighting with it…and that’s a problem.