Episode 402

Podcast Editing with Descript, Question from the Community

Let’s give a listener shout out to Amy Connell, a friend of the show!

Today’s listener-submitted question comes from a long-time friend of The Proffitt Podcast. Here’s her question…

Hi, Krystal. This is Amy Connell with the Grace Health podcast. I am a soloprenuer and do pretty much everything with my podcast episodes. As you know, sometimes editing them can be a little tricky. I was wondering if you had any experience with Descript in taking care of the filler words.

 

 

So that is where they will take out the “umms, uhms, uhms”, and all of those other kinds of things. I do record on separate tracks and I am wondering how this works. So I was wondering if you have any experience with it, comment what your thoughts are on it and particularly how this works on dual track recordings.

Thanks so much for your wisdom. You’re always doing great things. I appreciate you Krystal. Bye bye.

– Amy Connell, Graced Health Podcast

Great question, Amy! And I know it’s one that many other listeners of the show have too. Let’s break down how I use Descript and a few key things to consider if you’re editing your audio or video content with this app.

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Two ways to approach Descript: audio only or with video.

Editing audio only is a lot easier than editing video because when you take out filler words with audio, it deletes that audio pretty simply.

But when you try to accomplish the same thing with video, you can run into situations where you audio and video are out of sync and you have to fix those sequences individually and that can be nightmarish to fix!

Filler words can be distracting…

But I also believe that you shouldn’t edit so much that you sound like a robot. Here’s my process for podcast editing in Descript (how I edit audio):

Upload an audio file I’ve already edited for sound quality in Hindenburg: Meaning I’ve uploaded my music, podcast main theme, etc and it could be ready for uploading to Buzzsprout

Do a control find [CTRL + F] for the filler words I often say like, “um,” “like”, or “so.” You may have other terms that you use that are distracting, but you can absolutely cut those out if you believe it would enhance the final product.

Two Notes About Too Much Editing

1. Don’t worry about filler words when it’s an interview. My personal approach is that a podcast interview is meant to be a conversation between two people. We have talk to someone at a coffee shop, we often say “um” or “like” or “so” during a coffee chat — at least I do, all the time!

2. If you’re new to podcasting — I want to encourage you to embrace that you’ll get better over time. If I uploaded this podcast episode today or any of the last 100 episodes of the show I’m sure I’d find TONS of filler words or places where I wish I would’ve said something in a more articulate manner. But I’m okay with putting content out there that sounds like how I would talk if you met me in real life at a conference or coffee date.

Want to submit your question(s)?

If you want to submit your question to be answered on the show, go to podinbox.com/theproffittpodcast. You can submit a clip between 30-90 seconds and ask any question related to podcast, digital marketing, or content creation and it could be featured here on The Proffitt Podcast.

Try Descript for FREE and apply the tips you learned in today’s episode!