For Instructional Designers ·
What you'll accomplish
Record your own narration, and Descript's AI cleans it up in under 20 minutes: filler words, background noise, and mouth sounds removed automatically. Delete a word from the transcript, and Descript removes it from the audio. Editing audio is now as easy as editing a document.
What you'll need
Go to descript.com → click Start for free → sign up with Google or email → download the Descript desktop app (works best as the desktop version, though the web version also works).
What you should see: The Descript app dashboard with an option to start a new project.
Click New Project → name it after your course module (e.g., "HIPAA Module 2 Narration") → click Create.
What you should see: An empty project workspace with a timeline at the bottom and a blank transcription area in the center.
Click the Record button (microphone icon in the toolbar) → select your microphone from the dropdown → click Start Recording.
Read your script at a natural, slightly-slower-than-normal pace. Don't stop to re-record mistakes. Just pause, take a breath, and continue from the last complete sentence. Descript makes editing mistakes trivial.
Click Stop Recording when done.
What you should see: Your recording appears in the project timeline, and Descript automatically transcribes the audio (takes 1-2 minutes). Troubleshooting: If your microphone isn't detected, check System Preferences/Settings → Sound → Input on your computer.
After transcription completes → click Edit tab at the top → find the Remove filler words option (usually in the Action bar or under Edit menu) → select all filler words to remove: "um", "uh", "like", "you know" → click Remove.
What you should see: The transcript updates, highlighting where fillers were removed. The audio is automatically edited to remove those moments. Play it back and you'll hear the recording without them.
Click on your audio clip in the timeline → in the right panel, find Studio Sound → toggle it on → Descript analyzes your recording and applies AI noise reduction, removing room echo, background hum, and mouth clicks.
What you should see: A processing indicator for a few seconds, then the clean audio version replaces the original. Play it back. It should sound noticeably cleaner.
If you stumbled over a sentence or said something incorrectly → find that section in the text transcript → select the words you want to remove → press Delete.
What you should see: The corresponding audio is removed automatically, and the surrounding audio closes the gap without a click or pause.
This is the key Descript superpower: editing text = editing audio. You never need to use the timeline for basic edits.
When your narration sounds good → click Export → select Audio only → choose MP3 format → set quality to 192kbps or higher → click Export.
What you should see: An MP3 file downloads to your chosen location.
Open Storyline → navigate to the target slide → Insert → Audio → Audio from File → select your exported MP3 → the audio is now attached to the slide timeline.
What you should see: An audio waveform appears at the bottom of your Storyline slide timeline, starting at the slide's beginning.
For checking timing per slide: After recording, Descript shows timestamps in the transcript. Use this to verify each slide's narration stays within your target (usually 45-90 seconds per slide for eLearning).
For re-recording a single word: Click the word in the transcript → click Record → Descript records just that word and drops it into the audio without an audible splice. No re-recording the whole slide.
For adding a pause: Click between two words in the transcript → press Option+P (Mac) or Alt+P (PC) → insert a silence of your specified duration. Useful for letting a visual animation complete before narration continues.