Episode 114
Podcast Editing Software Battle: Descript vs Riverside
You’re about to start a podcast and you’ve decided you want to edit it yourself.
At first, this seems like it should be fairly straightforward.
Get the audio/video, make a few adjustments, cut a bit of the nonsense out and you should have something that’s good enough to release.
But then you start researching online what software you should use to edit your show and everybody and their dog has an opinion on what software to choose.
And for some reason, the editors of the world are quite adamant that their tool is the best one to use. There can be no other winners.
Unfortunately, a lot of the information you find online may lead you down the path of complex editing tools that make you want to throw your computer out a window.
And as a long-time editor myself with almost two decades of experience working with audio and video, I can sometimes be a bit of a snob too.
I do have clear favourites and if I’m amongst other seasoned editors, no doubt we would have a healthy debate about why what we use is supreme.
But that’s not the purpose of today dear reader.
Today, I want to help distil the endless possibilities that you’re presented with as a DIY podcast editor, into a comparison of two tools that there has been quite a lot of discussion about online. Descript vs. Riverside.fm.
You’ve probably heard of Riverside.fm with its super convenient virtual meeting capabilities. It’s been a trusty sidekick for recording interviews remotely. It wasn't long ago that Riverside started offering editing capabilities too. Smart, right? If you're already using Riverside, you might think, "Hey, why not just edit here too?"
But is it as good as it sounds?
On the flip side, there's Descript – an editing tool that, truth be told, had a rough start years ago as it was a pretty bad user experience. But time has been kind to Descript, and now it’s a pretty solid choice in the podcasting world.
So, let’s see how these two stack up against each other based on a few key factors: ease of editing, customisation, speed, AI tools, and learning curve.
Transcript
I'm talking to the DIY podcasters
Speaker:today, the ones that are wanting
Speaker:to edit the show themselves
Speaker:that are looking to produce it.
Speaker:Uh, maybe they don't have a lot
Speaker:of cash and they're wanting to see
Speaker:whether they can do things themselves.
Speaker:This is a really good podcast for you
Speaker:because we're going to discuss two
Speaker:tools that there seems to be a lot
Speaker:of sort of conversation about online.
Speaker:Descript versus.
Speaker:Riverside.
Speaker:So you probably know Riverside
Speaker:from like virtual meeting
Speaker:capabilities, like recording your
Speaker:interviews remotely is super easy.
Speaker:It's so easy using Riverside
Speaker:and it has been around for a
Speaker:while, that actual software.
Speaker:But what hasn't been around
Speaker:for as long is their ability to
Speaker:actually edit within Riverside.
Speaker:And so that is something that
Speaker:a lot of people have been
Speaker:saying that they are using.
Speaker:Especially DIYers to just get something
Speaker:out quickly because they already
Speaker:have a subscription for Riverside.
Speaker:They think, okay, cool.
Speaker:Well, I may as well just edit
Speaker:within Riverside as well.
Speaker:That's why Riverside did it.
Speaker:Surely if they can be that one
Speaker:stop shop for you, then why not?
Speaker:You know, so they have
Speaker:been at that for a while.
Speaker:And Descript is a editing
Speaker:tool that is quite robust.
Speaker:So it.
Speaker:It is something that was launched
Speaker:quite a few years ago now, and
Speaker:it really was terrible when
Speaker:it first came to the market.
Speaker:But over the years it has
Speaker:improved in a lot of ways.
Speaker:And so I wanted to put these two
Speaker:up against each other because
Speaker:they kind of are like the,
Speaker:the starting range for people.
Speaker:If you don't know what you're
Speaker:doing, it's like the entry
Speaker:level, I suppose, for DIYers.
Speaker:Okay, so for this, I
Speaker:compared them against each
Speaker:other with a few key targets.
Speaker:So I wanted to look at
Speaker:firstly, the ease of editing.
Speaker:Secondly, customization.
Speaker:Thirdly, speed.
Speaker:Four, AI tools.
Speaker:And five, learning curve.
Speaker:so I'm going to go through and
Speaker:discuss with you what I thought
Speaker:of each of these tools so that
Speaker:you can make a decision as to what
Speaker:would potentially be right for you.
Speaker:The price for both of these
Speaker:services is about the same.
Speaker:So I feel like that's a comparable
Speaker:playing field and let's get
Speaker:stuck into what my thoughts are.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:If we look at ease of editing first.
Speaker:So Riverside, when you go into
Speaker:that, oh, also I'll let you know,
Speaker:just before I get too far into
Speaker:this, there is a YouTube video that
Speaker:walks you through the entire thing.
Speaker:so I have like Riverside up and
Speaker:Descript up, and I show you how to
Speaker:edit in each of these mediums so that
Speaker:you can see hands on how it works.
Speaker:But if you feel like you don't need that,
Speaker:then yeah, just, just have a bit of a
Speaker:listen to my feedback on these tools.
Speaker:So ease of editing.
Speaker:If we look at Riverside first, Riverside
Speaker:is really quite a simple platform to use.
Speaker:Simple isn't always best.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:We'll get into that in further into
Speaker:this, but as far as the ease of
Speaker:editing, there's not a lot you can do.
Speaker:So you can edit using text,
Speaker:like the text based editing.
Speaker:So you can cut out big sections
Speaker:and you can cut out Things that
Speaker:are sort of simple to cut out.
Speaker:But if you want to go further into it,
Speaker:if you want to get down into editing
Speaker:the waveform and cutting out like coughs
Speaker:and little saliva noises and things
Speaker:like that, which a lot of people have,
Speaker:you can't do any of that in Riverside
Speaker:because you can't solo a track and
Speaker:just work on one person's track.
Speaker:It's all in the one timeline.
Speaker:Even if you expand it, you
Speaker:can't go into the nitty gritty.
Speaker:So as far as.
Speaker:Ease of editing though, it, it
Speaker:has to get a high mark because
Speaker:it's, it is easy to edit.
Speaker:You can't do a lot.
Speaker:The result might not be as good,
Speaker:but you can technically edit it
Speaker:pretty simply using Riverside.
Speaker:So Riverside got an A
Speaker:for ease of editing.
Speaker:Descript.
Speaker:Although there is, uh, more functions
Speaker:in Descript, it looks, looks a little
Speaker:bit different when you started up.
Speaker:It's also quite easy to edit.
Speaker:It is the same as Riverside as far
Speaker:as you've got a transcript that you
Speaker:can look at and you can work within
Speaker:the editing of the transcript.
Speaker:But the thing that I also like
Speaker:about Descript is that you can
Speaker:also edit the timeline and you can
Speaker:edit individual tracks if you have
Speaker:individual tracks to play with.
Speaker:So there's a few shortcuts
Speaker:that you learn as far as what.
Speaker:Buttons to press to make a
Speaker:cut easier, quicker to do.
Speaker:Uh, and then ease of editing
Speaker:there is still very quick to do.
Speaker:When I say quick, I'm talking
Speaker:about myself, my team doing
Speaker:an edit in the script.
Speaker:And because we have been doing this
Speaker:in my case, a decade, it's quick for
Speaker:me, but it is still going to be slow.
Speaker:For you, if you've never edited anything
Speaker:before, and I have had feedback from
Speaker:people that are saying they start off
Speaker:editing it themselves because they want
Speaker:to save money, but minute episode takes
Speaker:them maybe six, five hours to edit.
Speaker:And for us here, it takes
Speaker:nowhere near that long.
Speaker:descript.
Speaker:I also gave an A because
Speaker:again, really simple and easy.
Speaker:To edit.
Speaker:If we move into customization,
Speaker:this is where Riverside falls down.
Speaker:It falls over, uh, it's, you know,
Speaker:it's got a few things that you can do.
Speaker:It certainly allows you to add your
Speaker:own colors into, if you're doing video
Speaker:and you've got captions that you can
Speaker:add, you can change the captions to a
Speaker:degree, but you can't put your own fonts
Speaker:in and they kind of all look like any
Speaker:Software that you see like it's just
Speaker:there's no real point of difference.
Speaker:And when I see videos that have
Speaker:been produced by Riverside, I can
Speaker:tell they've been done by Riverside
Speaker:because of the way they look.
Speaker:Like there's a certain degree
Speaker:of templating that is still
Speaker:involved with Riverside.
Speaker:The customization isn't there for me yet.
Speaker:Yeah, you can add in images,
Speaker:you can add in your own stuff,
Speaker:you can add in some music and
Speaker:things, but it's not that great.
Speaker:And, uh, I wouldn't be happy with it
Speaker:if I was producing something that it
Speaker:was a video, I would definitely not
Speaker:use that tool for the customization.
Speaker:so I gave Riverside a C
Speaker:for customization Descript
Speaker:on the other hand, the customization
Speaker:is actually pretty insane.
Speaker:Uh, what you can do there, you can
Speaker:add firstly, yeah, the normal stuff.
Speaker:Like if you're doing a video,
Speaker:You can add in your own captions.
Speaker:you can add in your own
Speaker:fonts, your own colors.
Speaker:Like that's pretty standard.
Speaker:You can also add in other elements like,
Speaker:you different kinds of shapes and you
Speaker:can add in wave forms and you can add
Speaker:in just all these different things.
Speaker:And you can also add in GIFs and stickers
Speaker:and stock images and stock photos.
Speaker:And you can also generate using
Speaker:their AI features as well.
Speaker:Things that don't currently exist.
Speaker:So the customization from that
Speaker:standpoint, if you were doing
Speaker:video, it's, it's really good.
Speaker:Again, there's a learning curve,
Speaker:which we'll get into, but the
Speaker:customization, I have to mark an A
Speaker:because it's, it is, it's very well done.
Speaker:The other thing I'll mention there
Speaker:as well is that a descript allows
Speaker:you to customize your audio.
Speaker:Much better than Riverside does.
Speaker:Descript allows you to go in
Speaker:and customize your EQ and your
Speaker:compression settings and change your
Speaker:loudness and all sorts of stuff.
Speaker:The normal things that you would
Speaker:see in a more detailed audio editor,
Speaker:you can do in Descript, whereas
Speaker:Riverside , you can't do that.
Speaker:That's, there's just like a AI fix
Speaker:tool and it just makes it sound
Speaker:the way it thinks it should sound
Speaker:and it doesn't sound very good.
Speaker:So yeah, that is my feedback on that.
Speaker:Speed.
Speaker:So speed for Riverside is, well,
Speaker:it marks pretty well because when
Speaker:you think about it, if you've just
Speaker:recorded in Riverside, you've got
Speaker:the video and audio there already.
Speaker:You don't have to download anything.
Speaker:You don't have to
Speaker:upload it anywhere else.
Speaker:You don't have to take
Speaker:it and do any software.
Speaker:You physically just click the, you know.
Speaker:Edit button, and then it takes
Speaker:you into the editing screen and
Speaker:then you can begin your edit.
Speaker:So that's pretty good.
Speaker:You can't get much quicker than that.
Speaker:The export phase is
Speaker:also really quite quick.
Speaker:Uh, it's a speedy process there.
Speaker:I had a 30 minute video that
Speaker:was quite a large resolution
Speaker:and it took about four minutes.
Speaker:Again, the speed is going to depend
Speaker:on how good your computer is.
Speaker:So that's something you
Speaker:kind of weigh in there.
Speaker:But as far as like.
Speaker:Getting going, getting the process
Speaker:started and having it done.
Speaker:You can do it quickly, uh, in Riverside.
Speaker:So I did give it a B.
Speaker:I couldn't give it an A
Speaker:because it was still a bit
Speaker:buggy and slow on the browser.
Speaker:It doesn't have a, like its own app.
Speaker:And so it's relying on your browser.
Speaker:And that does bring the speed down a
Speaker:little bit just because of it having
Speaker:to work within the browser and things
Speaker:can sometimes not load properly.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:That's why it's a B.
Speaker:Now, if we go to Descript for
Speaker:speed, it's didn't get a good mark.
Speaker:Uh, Descript, it's speed is something
Speaker:that for us is a huge problem.
Speaker:They have a lot of bugs.
Speaker:They're constantly updating their
Speaker:software, which is really great as far as
Speaker:constantly making it better, constantly
Speaker:innovating, constantly adding new things.
Speaker:This is all fabulous.
Speaker:But when they're doing that, it seems
Speaker:like every time they're looking to
Speaker:launch something new, it gets really
Speaker:buggy and things won't load properly.
Speaker:You're, you're sort of closing
Speaker:the app multiple times.
Speaker:You're trying to get it to load.
Speaker:This is even on a very fast computer.
Speaker:And so something that should take a
Speaker:lot less time can take Uh, quite a
Speaker:long time in Descript when you are
Speaker:editing in that platform as well.
Speaker:So I gave them a D and it's a hard
Speaker:thing for me to give a D like that just
Speaker:showcases how slow that software can be.
Speaker:It's not every day, but
Speaker:certainly on occasion.
Speaker:Now that's not going to be as big of
Speaker:a problem for you because for us, we
Speaker:use Descript not for every edit we
Speaker:do, but there are quite a few clients
Speaker:that we will use that platform to edit
Speaker:because it doesn't need to go into.
Speaker:DaVinci Resolve or Premiere or, you know,
Speaker:needs the motion graphics that we get
Speaker:from other software or we don't need to
Speaker:take it into Pro Tools or anywhere else.
Speaker:We can do it in Descript and the
Speaker:collaboration in Descript is really good.
Speaker:So we keep it in there because
Speaker:it's easy to do, but that means
Speaker:because we're in it every day,
Speaker:then we notice the speed issues a
Speaker:lot more than someone else would.
Speaker:If you're just editing one podcast, you
Speaker:probably won't have as many issues there.
Speaker:Let's move into AI tools.
Speaker:So AI tools for Riverside, they have
Speaker:a couple of AI tools, uh, nothing
Speaker:that really made me super excited.
Speaker:They have like the, as I mentioned
Speaker:before, the, the, um, AI, like make
Speaker:me sound better They also can remove
Speaker:some filler words and things like that.
Speaker:But the problem with it is
Speaker:that it removes everything that
Speaker:it thinks is a filler word.
Speaker:And I found that to be
Speaker:really, really helpful.
Speaker:Time consuming to fix because it
Speaker:would cut out when you'd say, Oh,
Speaker:when you're saying like, Oh my God,
Speaker:or, uh, and it's part of a laugh or
Speaker:something, the transcript has picked
Speaker:that up as an a like a H or an O W,
Speaker:but it didn't need to be removed.
Speaker:And so you're fixing
Speaker:up all these like AI.
Speaker:fixes, it takes a long time.
Speaker:So I actually don't think that
Speaker:AI tools are all that great.
Speaker:They have some, they're not terrible.
Speaker:So I gave them a C because I felt like,
Speaker:yeah, it's, you know, there's some
Speaker:there it's better than nothing, but
Speaker:it's not something that I would write
Speaker:home about and be excited about because
Speaker:I just don't think they're very good.
Speaker:Now, if you go to descript for the AI
Speaker:tools, they kick butt , the AI tools
Speaker:over there, they have this underlord
Speaker:feature, which is really cool.
Speaker:There's all these things
Speaker:that you can do in there.
Speaker:You can, it can help you craft even
Speaker:the scripting that you want to do.
Speaker:Because Descript is backed by
Speaker:open AI, you would expect the
Speaker:AI tools to be really good.
Speaker:They have this thing called Studio Sound,
Speaker:which will help assess the sound and
Speaker:then the AI will look at fixing that.
Speaker:It used to be terrible.
Speaker:That used to be pretty bad,
Speaker:but it has gotten a lot better.
Speaker:Again, it's not always valid.
Speaker:We don't always use it, but there
Speaker:are some situations where let's say
Speaker:we've been given audio that's like
Speaker:telephone quality, where the AI
Speaker:studio sound tool has done quite a
Speaker:remarkable job at getting it to a
Speaker:point where we think, okay, let's
Speaker:put some extra Extra compression
Speaker:and a few other adjustments here.
Speaker:And they say, this is actually something
Speaker:that is now possible when before in the
Speaker:past, before these tools, we would have
Speaker:contacted the client and said, you're
Speaker:going to have to record that conversation
Speaker:again because the audio was trash.
Speaker:So that's a pretty cool tool.
Speaker:being able to generate your
Speaker:own images now is really cool.
Speaker:You can replace backgrounds and
Speaker:put other things in with green
Speaker:screens and all that stuff.
Speaker:Like there are so many AI tools
Speaker:in Descript that make me happy.
Speaker:And so I have to give that an A
Speaker:because I feel like they've just,
Speaker:there's nothing to compare to there.
Speaker:They don't win in every category,
Speaker:but that, category is pretty good.
Speaker:So they get an A there.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Learning curve Riverside.
Speaker:Not too much to really
Speaker:learn there at Riverside.
Speaker:It's pretty simple.
Speaker:You just click on the edit button
Speaker:takes you to an editing screen and
Speaker:then you can go ahead and edit.
Speaker:There's not much.
Speaker:That you can do.
Speaker:There's not much customization.
Speaker:There's not too many things that
Speaker:you can sort of change too much.
Speaker:So what you need to learn is minimal
Speaker:because you know, there's not
Speaker:actually that much to play with.
Speaker:So I did give them an
Speaker:A for learning curve.
Speaker:They also have a lot of, uh, tutorials
Speaker:and like walkthroughs and the team there
Speaker:at Riverside are really lovely as well.
Speaker:So they're easy to talk to.
Speaker:They have like a discord channel as well.
Speaker:If you have issues, the
Speaker:customer support is really good.
Speaker:So learning curve for them is a descript.
Speaker:When we go through the learning curve
Speaker:on that one is definitely more involved.
Speaker:Again, it's simple.
Speaker:Like when you first open it and
Speaker:you can understand, okay, cool.
Speaker:This is my edit, like this is my
Speaker:transcript and this is my waveform
Speaker:and I can figure that much out.
Speaker:But all the other stuff still requires a
Speaker:fair bit of learning curve to get right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But again, they have really
Speaker:good, uh, office hours.
Speaker:They have a good team
Speaker:behind them as well.
Speaker:They have a discord channel.
Speaker:The discord channel is actually
Speaker:quite active with people answering
Speaker:other people's questions.
Speaker:And, uh, so I think that the
Speaker:learning curve there, although it
Speaker:is absolutely more than Riverside,
Speaker:I'm going to give that one a B
Speaker:because the learning curve is still
Speaker:pretty good, but does require more.
Speaker:Then Riverside does now, who
Speaker:am I going to crown the winner?
Speaker:If we just go back through and we
Speaker:look at these and we assess them.
Speaker:So we've got Riverside as an A
Speaker:for editing C for customization,
Speaker:B for speed, C AI tools, and
Speaker:A for learning curve descript.
Speaker:We've got an A for editing, A
Speaker:for customization, D for speed.
Speaker:A for AI tools and a
Speaker:B for learning curve.
Speaker:It's actually closer than you
Speaker:would think, I guess, that battle,
Speaker:but to me, Descript has to be the
Speaker:overall winner because of those
Speaker:things like the ease of editing,
Speaker:the way that you can customize it.
Speaker:If you're a DIY person, being able to
Speaker:customize is, Clearly a better thing to
Speaker:make you look and sound more like you.
Speaker:Uh, that is, is quite remarkable.
Speaker:Their AI tools are really good.
Speaker:You can even regenerate, like it can
Speaker:learn your voice and let's say you
Speaker:stuff up something, you stuff up a
Speaker:word or you stuff up a sentence, it
Speaker:can regenerate it to sound like you.
Speaker:Like it's supposed to, which when
Speaker:that first launched, I was like,
Speaker:what the, how does this even work?
Speaker:Like, that's amazing.
Speaker:And the other thing I didn't even mention
Speaker:on that is like, if you're someone
Speaker:who, when you're recording in video,
Speaker:you're looking at a script too much.
Speaker:They have this tool where they
Speaker:can make it look like you're not
Speaker:reading from a script, which.
Speaker:Freaks me out because it's like,
Speaker:what it moves your eyeballs, but we
Speaker:haven't used that feature too much,
Speaker:but I have seen other people use it
Speaker:and, uh, yeah, it's, it's pretty cool.
Speaker:So with those things in mind, I
Speaker:just feel like Descript has to win.
Speaker:function of it, why it
Speaker:exists is editing first.
Speaker:Whereas Riverside is recording first,
Speaker:you know, getting good quality recording.
Speaker:Riverside serves that purpose very well.
Speaker:You get high quality video, depending
Speaker:on the camera that you're using,
Speaker:depending on the microphone that you're
Speaker:using, you can get a very good result
Speaker:for a video session on Riverside.
Speaker:But would I then take that into
Speaker:Riverside and continue to edit in there.
Speaker:No, I definitely would not.
Speaker:There is not enough there for me to do
Speaker:anything particularly good in Riverside.
Speaker:And I find it quite clunky to
Speaker:use being browser only as well.
Speaker:That is my wrap up of that.
Speaker:I hope it was really helpful.
Speaker:If you're a client, I hope that
Speaker:that just made you go, Oh, okay.
Speaker:That's how they do it.
Speaker:And again, as I said, we don't use
Speaker:Descript every time we don't use
Speaker:Descript for every client, but there are
Speaker:definitely clients where it makes the
Speaker:most sense for them to be in Descript.
Speaker:And we do a lot of finessing.
Speaker:So even though the software seems
Speaker:simple and it can be simple, if you
Speaker:want high production value, then it's
Speaker:something that, takes significant time
Speaker:to actually learn and get good at.
Speaker:And that's why we're a company that
Speaker:does Handles that, you know, that
Speaker:produces shows for people because
Speaker:that's not their area of expertise.
Speaker:They want to spend a bunch of
Speaker:time learning a new software.
Speaker:So it's just for you guys, your DIYers
Speaker:that feel like you want to learn.
Speaker:You want to do things yourself.
Speaker:This is my wrap up of that.
Speaker:Please go and try Descript.
Speaker:It is a really good platform to use.
Speaker:If you're already using
Speaker:Riverside, you could play with
Speaker:that first and see how you go.
Speaker:We are affiliates for both of these
Speaker:software, so you can click on the
Speaker:link if you've been interested to
Speaker:try something and you end up using
Speaker:it for a long enough period of time.
Speaker:We get a tiny kickback from that,
Speaker:not the purpose of this video.
Speaker:I didn't do this battle because of that.
Speaker:I just did this battle because it
Speaker:was something I was noticing online
Speaker:that a lot of people were weighing
Speaker:in on and asking, how do I edit?
Speaker:Like, what do I use?
Speaker:What's this tool?
Speaker:Adobe seems really difficult and it is.
Speaker:The learning curves on some of these
Speaker:other bigger platforms are huge.
Speaker:So I felt like I wanted to supply
Speaker:something for you that made it easier
Speaker:for you to make a decision, stop looking
Speaker:online and getting all this information
Speaker:from every single different person and
Speaker:confusing the hell out of yourself.
Speaker:Just try Descript.
Speaker:That's my wrap up.
Speaker:Try Descript, see what you think.
Speaker:And I would love to
Speaker:know how you go as well.
Speaker:if you are editing yourself and you
Speaker:want a bit of feedback or you want
Speaker:a bit of help, you want a bit of
Speaker:tutoring, you can book in consultations.
Speaker:I'll put a link in there, which is
Speaker:just, I go through your edit with you.
Speaker:And then we look at the things that
Speaker:you can upgrade, update, improve
Speaker:on, and then help you get better.
Speaker:They're really quite popular.
Speaker:So I have a lot of fun
Speaker:doing them as well.
Speaker:And you can feel free to book in
Speaker:for one of those whenever you like.
