Overdub is a Descript feature that allows you to synthesize audio in your own voice simply by typing. After training the software with your own voice, Overdub is capable of generating standalone audio, for production-ready voiceovers from scratch, and is also capable of generating contextual audio that blends seamlessly into your existing audio, ideal for making editorial corrections.
Overdub is free to try
Using Overdub
To use Overdub, you first need to set up your Overdub Voice. 10 minutes is the necessary recording length to create your Overdub Voice, but for production-ready voice quality, we strongly recommend recording 30 minutes or more of training data.
Once you’ve completed recording your training data, you'll need to wait 24 hours for your voice to be trained. Once it's ready, you’ll be able to attach your Overdub Voice to a speaker label inside any Descript composition.
Now, any time you type text associated with that speaker label, Overdub will automatically generate the corresponding audio.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does some of my Overdub sound like gibberish?
While you can create a custom voice and generate Overdub with any subscription, the Free and Creator plans are limited to a list of the 1,000 most common vocabulary words. Any words that are not on that list will be underlined in blue and replaced with "jibber" or "jabber" - to avoid this gibberish and allow Overdub generate any word imaginable, you can upgrade to the Pro subscription.
Is there a shortcut for using Overdub?
Yes! Just highlight the text you would like to adjust and press the D key. You can also press Enter to create a new line and just start typing.
What are some ways that I can be using Overdub?
These videos feature several different ways to use your Overdub Voice. We encourage you to get creative and experiment!
Does Overdub work with longer passages of audio, for example, a video voice over?
Yes! The Overdub feature is designed for both editorial corrections within existing audio, and also from-scratch audio creation for long-form narration. When generating sentences from scratch, Overdub tends to work best with shorter sentences. If you’re creating an Overdub sentence with multiple clauses separated by commas and you notice the quality suffering, try experimenting with punctuation — replacing commas with periods, for example.
Can I edit Overdub audio the same way I edit normal audio?
Yes, you can! To do this, you need to convert Overdub audio to normal audio. Do this by selecting the Overdub Audio in the transcript, right-clicking, selecting Overdub, and selecting Convert Overdub to normal audio. You can also hover your mouse over each clip at a time in the timeline and select the Convert to audio button.