Few recordings of human speech are recorded “perfectly” — that is to say, inside an acoustically treated studio, with a high-quality microphone, and without external noise or interference. Most are recorded imperfectly, with varying degrees of background noise and unwanted sound. Maybe there’s an air conditioner in the background or line-level fuzz. This is known as room tone, and when it comes to editing audio, dealing with room tone can be challenging and costly, requiring the use of dedicated plugins and software.

We’ve just released an update to Descript with some big new features. We’ve been talking about it internally, and we actually think this might be the best version of Descript ever, but — see what you think. There are ten new things. Check them out:

2020 was the year many of us became impromptu video editors. Some of us had already been producing marketing videos, product videos, or how-to videos for our business or organization. Others created vlogs and social media videos for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. But for many of us, 2020 was the year we dived headfirst into remote work and video meetings — and they’re here to stay.

Since Descript was founded, we’ve treated the security, confidentiality, and privacy of our users’ data with the utmost care. We know that the data our users share with us ranges from the personal to the proprietary, and we take our responsibility to protect that data very seriously.

We’re pleased to announce that Descript has raised a $30MM Series B, led by Nabeel Hyatt at Spark Capital, with participation from our existing investors: Andreessen Horowitz and Redpoint Ventures.

The latest version of Descript is here, and it includes support for Big Sur, performance improvements, and some great new features that will make editing projects and correcting transcripts even easier than before.