Screen recording

In this guide, we'll show you how to create a screencast in Descript.

Making a screen recording in Descript

Set up your screen recording

1. At the top of the editor, click and open the Record panel.
2. Select Screen.
3. Click  Settings and make adjustments to your recording settings as needed. Learn more about recording settings.
4. Choose the audio and video inputs you want to record. You can record  computer audio, your microphone, and your Camera. If you're using macOS version 12.3 or earlier, camera preview will not show up while you're recording both your screen and camera at the same time. Don't worry—once you finish recording, you'll see the camera recording in the editor.
5. Click   Settings and decide if you want to add Studio Sound, transcribe, or record separate audio tracks.
6. If you'd like, add speaker labels by typing them in the text box next to your audio inputs. 

Capture your screen recording

1. Choose one of the three recording options from the dropdown in the bottom right corner of the recording panel:
   • Record into script — this will add your recording to your script track. 
   • Replace selection — this option is available when you highlight a section of your script before opening the record panel and will replace the script selection. Learn more about Replace selection
   • Record new layer — add your recording as a video layer. If you haven't recorded anything yet, you'll want to record into script first.
2. Click Record at the bottom of the Record panel.
3. Click and drag over the part of the screen you want to record, then click . Or, press Space to start recording your full screen.
4. Press the  Stop to end the recording.

Tips and best practices

• Before making your full screen recording, consider doing a 5 to 10 second test recording to make sure you have set everything up correctly.
• If you need to transcribe the recording afterwards, right click the recording in your script and choose transcribe file; or, you can transcribe the file from the media library. If you recorded multiple tracks, you'll need to transcribe the individual files from the media library.
• If you want to apply Studio Sound after recording, check out how to add Studio Sound to a single file, or how to add Studio Sound to tracks in a sequence