New in Descript: Um detection, search, and more

November 7, 2019

Descript 3.1 is now available. Here's what's new:


We now transcribe "ums" and "uhs"

And you can blast them with a single click.


Search all of your Projects/transcriptions

Now you can search in the Project Browser for keywords in your transcripts. Finally! Search will match transcripts, Composition names, marker names, speaker labels, Project names, inline notes, and filenames.


Snappier performance

We overhauled our audio playback engine — you'll notice that playback is much snappier on Compositions with lots of edits.


Boost audio volume with normalization

From the media library, right click on a file to apply normalization (peak or loudness) and boost the volume levels.


Waveforms colored by speaker label

This is especially cool in Sequence Clips because it helps you see when several people are speaking at the same time.


Words appear inside the Sequencer

Transcribed words now appear in the Sequencer. Makes it so much easier to edit inside a Sequence. Once you've used a WordBar, it's hard to go back to just a waveform. Now you don't have to.


WordBar readability

Similarly, in this update, we've improved the way that words get grouped in the WordBar so it's less confusing when you're zoomed out.


Tag silence and non-speech sound

Highlight a range in the Timeline, then add a tag. The tag will appear in the script and in the WordBar. Go wild tagging laughs, coughs, rooster calls, and silence.



Bug fixes

• Crossfades now work properly on Sequence Clips

• Descript now installs/updates properly on Mac user accounts that don't have admin privileges

• Notification of when network/firewall issues might be causing Descript to act erratically

• Fixed Patient Playback bugs