Hello, let me show you a little example of a workflow when working with multi-track recordings
where every speaker, for example if it was an interview, was recorded on their own track
or their own file.
So in this project, I have four files.
One is my video, one is my guest video, one is my audio and my guest audio.
So I'm going to focus on these two, the videos, because I don't care for these audio right
now.
The videos themselves have their own audio.
In order to have full control over the editing in Descript, you want to combine these two
videos into a sequence first.
You cannot put two files into a composition and have them play at the same time.
I've already transcribed these, so the text is already in there with the file.
So in Descript, the first tip, the transcription is stored with the file.
If I take that file and I create a composition from that file right here, you can see all
of the text in here.
If I create another composition, there's another one here, they have the same title, so it
doesn't matter, the text is here.
Likewise, if I use these files inside of a sequence, they also will have that text coming
in with them.
So as you can see in the file down here, you can see the text is associated with the file.
That's tip number one.
Now I selected these two files and I can right-click and say, Create multi-track sequence.
The same way, I can build my sequence from scratch.
So this is tip number two.
You don't really have to use Descript's wizards and interface aids or whatever they're doing.
You can just right-click and say, Create sequence.
And you can see I've created a blank sequence.
It only has one track on it, and that's empty.
So now I can bring my file here, Cristi video.
I can just put that onto the first track and you can see the video right there.
And I can also bring another file down here onto track two.
So I'll bring Chris's video track down there.
So you can see both tracks here with the video and audio on them, and also the text.
Before I continue, you need to create a composition to make the edits you want.
So right-click on the sequence itself, and I'm going to actually rename this to call
it, Two speakers, because I want to know what's in there, both speakers, right?
So these are the two tracks.
So I can right-click on this and say, Create composition from file, which is a misleading
name because it's not really a file, it's a sequence.
So in Descript, tip number three, you can create compositions from files and also from
sequences, which may have one or more files in them.
One after the other or on different tracks.
So I'm going to create a composition from this, and now watch this.
I've got two speakers in here and our speech is alternating depending on how we talk.
And if I scrub the play, you can only see my video.
The reason for that is, if I go back to my sequence, Two speakers, my video is on the
top, and my guest video is on the bottom.
And my video stays on the top always.
If I want the other video to be on the top, I can just pull these tracks, and now his
video is on top.
And if I go back to my composition with the two speakers, I can only see his video, although
both audio is there, I can hear, Hey, I am wonderful, thank you for having me.
So there we go.
Let's suppose that now I have identified a portion on my audio where there is noise,
or maybe there is speech crosstalk.
We speak over each other, so it's not intelligible right here.
Step episode.
Hey, I am wonderful.
Thank you for having me.
So I'm saying, how are you today?
But he's also already talking, so I want to leave my guest audio and remove my audio.
So to do that, you can see down here, the overlap.
So very easy, I can, of course, I can go to my sequence on the left and identify that
portion right there.
And now this one is easy because it's at the start of the file, at the start of the speech.
But look, this is a very long or relatively long audio show, whatever this is, video.
I want to have the precision to go to the points where I want to make changes.
So while I am in my Two speakers composition, and I arrive at a point here where I say,
okay, I need to resolve this problem here of the crosstalk.
All I have to do is either right-click in here in this portion and say, Edit sequence
or Control Shift O. That will take me to the underlying sequence, which by the way, if
you pull the Properties panel and you click on this clip, you see here, file, Two speakers,
right?
That's what it is.
I can click here to go there, but if I want to get to the exact point in time where I
am here editing right now, Control Shift O, will take me right there.
And I can see, oh yeah, I see this problem here, look, I am talking over him.
So I can say, oh, I may want to remove some of my audio, which is down here.
I can rename this track by the way.
Okay, so I know which track it is if I don't have video.
And this is my guest, okay.
So let's see.
Episode.
Hey, I am wonderful, thank you for having me.
Okay.
So after episode right here, I want to remove my audio so that I don't speak over my guest.
The easiest thing is to just get this Range tool or press R and select from here to here,
and delete.
And you notice deletion actually leaves the gap in here.
So now, if I play, podcast episode, Hey, I am wonderful, thank you for having me.
So you don't hear me talking because that region is gone.
Tip number, I don't know how much four.
If you make a mistake by removing a portion you don't want, don't worry, it's not all
lost.
You use the selector tool and the portion that was missing from here that I just deleted
is not in fact, deleted from the file.
If I create a new sequence from that file, that portion will be restored.
It's actually clipped.
So look, if I pull the edge of the clip, it comes back, right?
So that's another thing in Descript, editing is largely non-destructive.
And now if you want to decide to maybe apply Studio Sound, you can click on the file and
you can go to the file itself, you can see it right here, Cristi video MP4.
If I click on this, this is my video file.
You can see the portion that I deleted, how are you today, is actually part of the file
still.
And I cannot delete this.
If I delete here, I can't delete anything.
It doesn't actually edit media.
As you can see down here, media can't be edited directly.
Okay, so the file that you brought in is always left untouched, except if you apply audio
effects and then you tell Descript to merge and remove and create the file with the effects
in it, render it.
If I apply Studio Sound, it takes a while, and I can go to the other file here and apply
Studio Sound to that, and now it's going to do that, and everywhere I have that file,
whether it's in the sequence here or whether it's in my composition, I will hear the Studio
Sound because it's applied at file level.
And underneath, or, you know, behind this composition, there's the sequence, and then
the sequence has the files in it.
Another tip, if you have an interview like this, where the speaker changes according
to, you know, you want to see the video of the person talking and you don't want to do
it manually.
Descript has a beta feature, you can access it here at the top and it's called Automatically
assign multicam.
If I activate this, every time I speak, I will be shown on the screen.
Every time my guest is speaking, he's going to show on the screen.
So it creates a bunch of cuts and it switches the offset of the videos behind and the opacity
or whatever it's doing, and then that becomes, you can see that I'm talking.
Swipe balance or something, but I, but I'm like, I don't even move.
And it does.
That would.
So I think the decision is based on who's talking louder, I'm not sure.
So if there's crosstalk, then you can see down here when the speaker changes.
How are files, sequences and compositions organized?
So that's basically what editing with sequences and composition means in Descript.
If you understand the way these are organized, it's going to make life easier for you because
then you know exactly what you can do to achieve a certain effect.
So files get imported into Descript files can go into compositions directly, and they
also can go into sequences and then sequences go into compositions.
The final product of your editing is always the composition.
That is the only thing you can export.
If I edit a sequence, there is no export button up there.
So I cannot actually arrange my files on the sequence and then export that.
It has to, at some point, make its way into a composition, which is down up here.
And then that's my composition with the whole show.
And then I can go to Share and Export.
So I do hope this makes sense, let me know if you have any questions.