Add emotional punch, heighten your narrative, and enhance your story’s pacing with background music, voiceover, sound effects, or other audio files.
Audio mixing is about balance. The goal isn’t to bring all of your audio tracks to the exact same level; it’s to edit the audio tracks so they sound balanced relative to one another. The right balance depends on the nature of your audio.
For a synchronized voiceover, record directly into your editing timeline while playing your video — or use Overdub to add voice over just by typing. This way your audio clips end up more or less where they’re intended, and there’s no need to import and align audio files. Be sure to think about timing so that the right sounds come in at the right moment. Try to synchronize image and sound. If you add audio effects, for example, make sure they line up with the actions on screen.
In a new Descript project, drop your video file in to upload and transcribe it. You'll be able to edit this transcript to cut, rearrange, and add media layers to your video.
Highlight the text where you want to add audio in your video. Then paste in your audio file, or use CMD/CTRL+K to add your audio as a layer. You can use your own music or sound effects, record a voice over, generate an AI voice, or find royalty-free music or sounds from our built-in stock library.
Continue adding audio or editing your video using the transcript, timeline, or canvas. When you're done, select Publish to share your video. You can export it, upload to YouTube, or share it online using a link.
Audio mixing is about balance. The goal isn’t to bring all of your audio tracks to the exact same level; it’s to edit the audio tracks so they sound balanced relative to one another. The right balance depends on the nature of your audio.
For a synchronized voiceover, record directly into your editing timeline while playing your video — or use Overdub to add voice over just by typing. This way your audio clips end up more or less where they’re intended, and there’s no need to import and align audio files. Be sure to think about timing so that the right sounds come in at the right moment. Try to synchronize image and sound. If you add audio effects, for example, make sure they line up with the actions on screen.
Consider each audio clip independently to fine-tune different aspects of your soundtrack, like making dialogue stand out from background music, using Descript’s auto-ducking to ensure the music drops down when someone’s speaking and comes back up when they’re finished. Adjusting your levels can also help reduce background noise. Or use Descript’s Studio Sound feature to cut out noise and enhance speakers' voices with a couple of clicks.
Yes. Simply drag audio into your script where you want it to play, and then fine-tune with the Timeline Editor.
Or, to make a musical intro, simply drag in your music file and drop it at the start of your transcript. You’ll see it below, in your Pinned Track, i.e. the dark gray timeline above the Script Track. It’s meant for music, sound effects, or any additional audio. You can then adjust how long your music plays, add fades, or ducking when you want to transition to speakers.
Open a new composition or place the cursor in the script where you would like the new recording to go. Next, click the Microphone button at the top of the application window.
To select your input device, click on the gear icon and then choose from the list of available options in the selection dropdown.
If you would not like Descript to automatically transcribe your audio, uncheck the “Automatically transcribe recording” box. But you really shouldn’t do this in most cases, as editing in the script is one of the most useful and powerful reasons to use Descript.
Next, add your speaker label and, if applicable, the input channel of your microphone/input device.
Once you’re ready, click the Record button and your recording should immediately begin.
Or, just create your Overdub voice, and then type your voiceover in Descript. You’ll get a synthesized but ultra-realistic version of your voice providing the narration.
Descript supports most video files, with the following exceptions:
Descript supports most audio files, with the exception of .wav files with more than 2 channels (e.g. files recorded with Sound Devices hardware). Mix these down to stereo/mono before importing, or split the channels and use our multitrack import feature OGG.
There are several ways to adjust levels in Descript: You can simply apply auto-leveling to create consistent levels across your project. You can select the clip from the Timeline Editor, and then adjust the volume from the Clip or Track Inspector. You can change the volume of tracks in the script. Or you can add volume automation. Finally, you can boost the levels of an entire file using volume normalization.
Add emotional punch, heighten your narrative, and enhance your story’s pacing with background music, voiceover, sound effects, or other audio files.
In a new Descript project, drop your video file in to upload and transcribe it. You'll be able to edit this transcript to cut, rearrange, and add media layers to your video.
Highlight the text where you want to add audio in your video. Then paste in your audio file, or use CMD/CTRL+K to add your audio as a layer. You can use your own music or sound effects, record a voice over, generate an AI voice, or find royalty-free music or sounds from our built-in stock library.
Continue adding audio or editing your video using the transcript, timeline, or canvas. When you're done, select Publish to share your video. You can export it, upload to YouTube, or share it online using a link.
Attach sounds and music to specific moments by highlighting them in your transcript. Or use the properties panel to adjust EQ, eliminate background noise, and make other advanced audio edits.
Add professional narration to your video by generating AI speech from your script. You can even clone your voice to add AI voiceovers that sound just like you.
Descript includes a vast media library of background music, sound effects, and b-roll footage you can use to enhance your videos.
With Descript, adding audio to your video is easy. Just highlight a section of your transcript and paste your audio file in, or use the Actions menu to add it as a layer. You can upload your own audio or choose from our extensive library.
Absolutely. One of the great features of Descript is the ability to layer audio elements through its multi-track timeline. You can easily drag and drop additional audio tracks like intros, outros, background music, sound effects, ambient noise, and anything else you want to overlay into your existing audio files. Descript makes mixing audio tracks intuitive.
You can add background music to your video for free using Descript. Just upload your video, choose one of many royalty-free music tracks, and add it your timeline. You get export one watermark-free video per month on the free plan, and unlimited watermark-free exports starting at just $12/mo.
