Reviewing Descript Rooms: Can It Replace Riverside?

Mar 20

Is it too much to ask that we have a one-stop production suite for podcasters?

All I want is a way to record episodes remotely, edit them to my exact specifications and then upload them to podcast platforms and/or YouTube for one monthly subscription fee.

I don’t want to use a heap of different tools and sharing files across multiple platforms.

I just want one place to handle it all.

This used to be something I thought to myself as I worked away on podcasts, and it felt completely out of reach.

Surely no one-stop shop would exist. It’s too much for one software to handle.

Well, Descript is trying its hardest to give me exactly what I asked for.

But it’s not succeeding yet.

As someone who's deeply entrenched in the podcasting world—constantly juggling my own podcast and collaborating with clients globally—I'm always on the hunt for tools that make our audio lives a bit easier.

There are a lot of folks are looking to tighten the purse strings and save on multiple subscriptions, so when it was announced that Descript could do remote recording - I had DIY podcasters asking whether they could jump ship from Riverside.fm to do it all in Descript.

Having taken it for a spin, I’m here to share my experiences with you.

The Allure of a One-Stop Editing Platform

When Descript announced its new feature, Descript Rooms, which integrates virtual meetings within its editing platform, the prospect was certainly exciting. Imagine handling all your recording and editing tasks under one roof without needing multiple subscriptions! A dream scenario, especially for those of us who love all things streamlined and efficient.

I’ve always recommended Riverside.fm due to its simplicity and reliability, especially for those aiming to keep things straightforward. So when the chance arose to try Descript Rooms—a service expected to unify both recording and editing—I was eager to see if it could rival Riverside.fm's ease and efficiency.

Setup & Initial Impressions: A Mixed Bag

Setting up Descript Rooms wasn't without its hiccups. Inviting a guest into a room was straightforward enough, but I encountered a significant early obstacle: the inability to schedule sessions in advance. If you’re like me, you value the ability to send a calendar invite with a ready-to-go link. In Descript Rooms, you have to manually go into the room each time, which feels cumbersome and inefficient. I am assuming Descript will be announcing the ability to schedule recording sessions in the not too distant future, but right now this is something that I need.

Once inside the room, the quality seemed promising. Alex, my recording partner for this trial, and I could see and hear each other clearly—we even managed our session pretty seamlessly. The functionality was akin to Riverside, inclusive of screen sharing, which was a plus for those of you looking to run consultations inside Descript Rooms.

However, it wasn't all smooth sailing. During the review and editing phase, I discovered that Alex's feed inexplicably disappeared only a few minutes into the recording. Despite a stable internet connection, his audio and video drop-out was completely irreversible, leaving us with an incomplete session and no warning of the mishap. This kind of unexpected loss is a deal breaker, particularly when every word counts in a crucial meeting or podcast episode.

Why Stick with Riverside.fm for Now?

Because of these issues, I can't currently endorse Descript Rooms for your go-to recording solution. If you’re banking on consistent and reliable output, particularly for important recordings, my advice is to stick with Riverside.fm for remote recording. It’s not perfect, but it offers a reliable success rate, which gives it a significant edge over my recent experiences with Descript Rooms.

On the flip side however, I do recommend that for ease of editing and better functionality, the post-production phase is better handled in Descript.

So my recommendation is still: Riverside.fm for remote conversations and Descript for post-production editing.

A Handy Backup Plan

For those of you who are tech-savvy or want to ensure absolute security, recording with Riverside.fm, while also capturing your audio locally on software like GarageBand or Audacity, is a failsafe method. You keep high-quality audio on hand, even if an issue arises online. Thanks to locally stored files, you gain peace of mind knowing that nothing vital will be lost to the digital ether. You’ll also record a higher quality audio track on the local software.

In closing, while Descript's integration of recording and editing remains a tempting vision, it's not yet the reality I hoped it would be. But rest assured, I’ll keep testing the waters, and I promise to provide an update if and when things improve. Until then, keep your projects safe with reliable tools that won't let you down. Happy recording!

Transcript:

Brianna [00:00:00] Today I'm taking a look at Descript's new ish rooms where you can record video and audio within it. So I decided to give them a look because I have had more clients recently asking whether they can just do things in Descript. I'm going to have a little look at whether I would trust it. Normally at the moment what I recommend people do is go into a reliable tool.
I say reliable in quotation marks because Riverside is still an issue sometimes, but it's much more reliable than other places. At the moment, I say to clients, go to Riverside, record your guest content, your solo content in Riverside, and then we will grab it from there. We'll take it into our DAWs, and we will edit it from there.
I also suggest that for other people that are editing themselves, I don't suggest that you edit in Riverside and I have a review of that so that you can check that out. At the moment, that's the setup and it's kind of like too many [00:01:00] things, right? You have to go into Riverside, you have to record in Riverside, and then we have to get everything from Riverside and we have to put it into Descript because Descript has better editing features.
It would be so good If we could just use one tool, but in saying that, sometimes I'm like, we don't need necessarily a one stop shop. What we need is really good tools that work all the time and are good at the thing they're good at. That's why, like, DaVinci Resolve doesn't suggest and doesn't have an option for you to hit record and do things in DaVinci Resolve.
It's like, DaVinci Resolve is really good at the things it's good at. And it's not trying to be everything to everybody. It's just niching into the thing that makes sense for them. This is the struggle that I sometimes have with the script, where I'm like, Stop giving me all these extra features, like, just make the ones that you have.
Solid, like really solid, that work every time, that there's no bugs. Don't try and bring a bunch of things to the market and add all this extra [00:02:00] stuff. Just nail what you're really good at and then expand out maybe later. Or partner with other products. So, we're going to get into these tests. We're going to do Alex and I together.
I'm going to be sharing my screen with you and then I'll talk you through exactly what I'm doing as I'm clicking on things so you can see what the use case is and whether it's working or not working to invite someone to your session in Descript. Okay, so I've got a project up here, pump up your pod and then I'm going to go new project and I'm going to go record with others.
It's going to. Take me to a new screen. And it's going to look very similar to things that you've probably seen elsewhere. Hello, there's me. Now I'm going to adjust my camera. Okay, now it's sitting where I kind of want it. You can see I'm in the good [00:03:00] area there. So I'm using my camera, I'm using my audio, and I'm using sound coming out of that.
Yeah, that's fine. Okay. Let's check your Are you wearing headphones? Yes, I am. Join. Now, I'm in a space where I can add somebody. I can copy the link from here. And then I'm going to send it to one of our team members, Alex. And then he's going to jump in here as well. Okay, Alex is here. So you can see he's popped up.
I got a little sound that went bee boop. Uh, and then now I'm going to allow him in. So I can see at the top there's a recording. It's telling me how long it's lasting. It says videos in the room may appear lower quality in the recordings which are captured at full quality. Uh, Alex, tell me what you had for breakfast today.
The old breakfast question, well this morning it was, uh, Wheat Bix with some [00:04:00] chia pudding that I made and a whole bunch of peanut butter and bananas and hemp seeds. Okay. And, uh, what else should we try in here? We share our screen? Oh yeah, I can share, like, my entire screen and do stuff. Let's see what that looks like.
Whoa! Okay. So here I am. Can you see my descript now? Yep I can see a descript window and I've got a little picture of you on the right hand side with me underneath The only problem that I found so far is that I can't seem to schedule a room like to invite them for later Got me in the room already and then I get a link.
I didn't get a link before I did anything else Anyway, I'll test that. Okay, so let's Is that probably enough? I feel like, I feel like there should be a little bit more back and forth. Like we'll just use something that isn't us chatting about this in our YouTube video. Okay, so I'm going to put the loom back on and I'm going to show them how to stop recording.[00:05:00]
Alright, loom is now back on and now all you need to do is hit this stop recording button. Uh, so bye Alex, thanks for coming to my fake podcast. Yeah. Okay. It was a pleasure to be on the show. Woo. Okay. Stop recording. So now it's stopping and I've got a thing coming up here at the bottom. Keep this browser tab open.
That uploaded very quickly though. Wow. But I guess it wasn't a long session either. No. And, and do we have any idea of what quality it's uploaded as? Yeah. So now I'm going to leave the session. no selections beforehand. No. Gave me nothing.
Okay, you're wiggin out. Alright, you were like stuck on a frame that was like, you had one eye open, you're like, ehhh. You looked real weird. Okay, bye! But I just had resting glitch face. Ha ha ha ha ha! Yes! Oh, he's gone. Okay, so now I'm in here by myself, [00:06:00] and leave.
Now it's coming into Descript. I like that. I don't know why it's cut. This happening, but also while we're here, let's go to scenes and we'll choose a layout. And it's just one of the standard, Descript ones.
Bam. Okay, now let's have a look back. Okay, so I'm now in the session. And I'm recording. Uh, I can see, actually maybe I should be recording the loom so you've got that as well. Alex is a little bit framey. Like frame [00:07:00] ready, but glitchy. Let's see what's going on here. The old breakfast question. Well this morning it was Wheatbix with some shea pudding that I made and a whole bunch of peanut butter and bananas and hemp seeds.
Dropped frames. All right now looks like Alex dropped out at the three minute mark three minute 35. Look if I go back to here look he's gone And then he just doesn't come back. He's gone! So he just kind of dropped out. Okay, so let's um Here we go, he's gonna go. He's gonna leave. He's leaving! Oh, he's gone.
Oh dear. Poor Alex. Not very reliable. We didn't do anything wrong. I believe. It just dropped on out. Do not recommend. Based on that. Okay, the only other issue I have is that now, even though I said, like, new project, room, whatever, like, [00:08:00] make a room, it's now not in this area where I was expecting that it would be.
So, here it is. It's in my private workspace. It's a little annoying that it's not just in the place where I was, so that could be something as well, where you're like, where did it go that I just recorded? You definitely want to make sure you name it when you're in here. Definitely name it, so that you're not, like, confused.
Name it! Beverly Hills Housewives. You know if you know. When you know, you know. Whatever it is. Okay, cool. That's it. That's all the things from this right now. Okay, upon looking at that video of Alex and I together in the room and then looking at the bitrate, we've got a bitrate for Alex and I together of 19 megabits per second and a variable frame rate that averages 23.
8 frames per second. It's [00:09:00] still dropping frames severely, and it's noticeable, like it's very noticeable. You probably saw that as well. There's a caveat to that, I guess, that we're both using high quality video. But I mean, isn't that the point? Like, we want it to look as good as possible. We want to use the equipment that we have.
So I thought that that would be probably the best test to do. At this time, with the Rooms feature, That's a tricky one for me to say, go and use, especially because as you saw in the video, Alex's video just like randomly dropped out. So yeah, negative points there for that one. Wouldn't be recommending that you use rooms over something else.
It's too unpredictable. We would be leaving that as is. Now let's go into the solo option. I don't have to go out of the descript. desktop to record. I can do it in the desktop as you'll see. And I was hoping for a better experience in there as well. So let's just see what happens there. [00:10:00] Only kind of issue I have there is I can't see myself very much.
I can just see that little tiny thing there, which I guess isn't a deal breaker, but it is. Harder to frame like where I should actually be based on that. So now I'm in Descript in the actual desktop Mac app, and I'm just recording by myself. And I'm gonna test what it's like here because this didn't tell me to go anywhere else.
With record with others, it took me on to the web browser and then I had to do it within here. Whereas all I did here is in that Same session I was in before. I just actually went to compositions and added a new one. I didn't give it a title yet and I'm just recording into this now, but anyway, let's stop this recording now.
So I've got here the, if we look at the info, it's a data rate of 16. 6 megabits per second, which is respectable for HD, but not for 4k. So that's still not quite good enough there. And then if we look at. how it's looking. Harder to frame like where I should actually be based on that. So now I'm [00:11:00] in Descript in the actual desktop Mac app.
That's not bad, like it doesn't look too bad. And it is 4K but with a HD bitrate. So, not terrible. I wouldn't use it for myself. But maybe for someone who's a creator that it's just starting out and doesn't have all this fancy stuff, then they would probably be okay with it being like this, maybe. You got to fix up the delay though.
But again, if I was using equipment that wasn't as good, then the delay would potentially be different because it's trying to handle 4k. Maybe it would be, you know, just 1080p. The delay may be different again, based on that too. Alright, what did you think of that? So as the solo, I found that not too bad.
The experience of like having me up there, it was pretty seamless being able to just go into Descript, hit record, it gave me a little countdown, it was easy for me to just start recording. The delay was a, was an issue. You're going to get that delay in most places. I needed [00:12:00] to spend just a fraction extra time there and just move my, Audio just a little bit further to get that really nailed.
I looked good. You know, it was responding well when I was sort of doing these kind of movements, which can be tricky. These movements kind of can be a little bit difficult for the software to keep up with. So I didn't mind that. I think I looked really quite good. And as I mentioned in that video as well, it's not where it would need to be for 4k.
Does that matter for most people? Probably not. Like if you're into script, you're probably not like, I'm not, I don't use the script for my recordings. I use OBS or go straight to the camera and I actually use a memory card in the camera. Cause that's like the best possible thing that you can do if you're using like your Logitech webcam or, you know, you don't have a setup that's as fancy.
You probably would be okay to do just your solo content in Descript. I still get a little bit like, uh, is it going to like fail? I don't like the [00:13:00] idea of things failing and then me losing stuff as well, but we'll see whether it drops out. And again, that little test that I did for you there, it wasn't a very long video.
So if it was a longer video, if it was like 10, 15, 20 minutes of you talking to yourself here, what is that going to do longer term as well with that? I don't know. I mean, I don't think that it's a bad option for solo people that don't have any guests ever using Descript. But definitely if you're having guests, I would not use Descript at this point to be inviting people.
There's just too many
I'm sure they'll fix it, I'm sure they'll upgrade it, I'm sure they'll do all the things, but I cannot recommend Descript for this purpose for right now. I'll always be completely honest with you on that stuff as well. What I would recommend instead is probably what I suggested before. Use Riverside.
Because at least I know [00:14:00] that that's reliable at time of recording, it is reliable for your solo and video content. If you want to make it frictionless for yourself, that's like an easy way to do it. And if you're not using such a high quality setup like ours, then again, like, it's easy to do in Riverside.
Then you've got to download things, bring them into Descript to edit. You can try editing in Riverside, but I don't want to recommend that. I don't do it. I would not do it. The tools are nowhere near where they need to be to make it professional enough for me to actually use. So I wouldn't recommend them for that, but I do recommend them for their remote recording software options there.
Alternate option there, use the camera and SD card or use OBS to record. OBS is a completely free software. There's a learning curve for this stuff though. Easiest option is Riverside. You don't have to learn too much there. OBS, you need to learn some [00:15:00] things, and the camera, it's like the most friction, because you've got to get the SD card, you've got to set up all your settings on your camera, you've got to do all the things, put it in, you know, so there's more steps, and most people won't be interested in more steps, they want less steps to get to the end result.
Hopefully this was helpful, I mean, I think it was, it's really good to get people just reviewing things, their first take. I love that kind of stuff. So hopefully it was enjoyable for you and interesting. If you need help with any of your edits, we do have a couple of options there as far as consults go.
We also have custom reviews of your edits too, where we don't have a consult, we don't have a meeting, but I shoot or my staff will shoot. A video based on the edits that you send us. We'll give you more information if you decide to click on that and book one of those in. They're very helpful to get you started without messing around.
You're like, ah, there's too many things. It's helpful to do those consults as well. Have a great day and that's [00:16:00] it. Bye.