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Complete Podcast Editing Tutorial for Beginners

Podcasting with Hiwi G

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📌 About This Video
🎙️ Descript Tutorial: How to Edit a Podcast for Beginners

Overwhelmed by the idea of editing your podcast? You’re not alone.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Descript to clean up your audio without any technical jargon. Whether you want to trim awkward pauses, cut filler words, or polish your episode like a pro, this guide will walk you through it step-by-step.

✨ What we cover:

What Descript actually is (and why it’s easier than other software)
How to import and transcribe your audio
How to identify what to cut (and what to keep)
How to remove “ums,” silences, and mistakes
How to normalize audio, add music, and export like a pro

✨✨✨
Videos referenced:
How to Record a High-Quality Podcast at Ho...

🙋🏾‍♀️ Who Am I?
Hi, I’m Hiwote (you can call me Hiwi!) 👋🏾
I’m a podcast producer and the creator of the Emerging Voices podcasting accelerator. I’ve worked on shows like:

🎧 Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel
🎧 This is Dating (TIME’s Best Podcasts of 2022)
🎧 Collaborations with The New York Times, TED, and The Gates Foundation

I help bold beginners create shows that are meaningful, magnetic, and deeply personal.

✅ Ready to Start?
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📸 Instagram: @emergingvoicesstudio

00:00 – What if editing was easy?
01:00 – Why I recommend editing with Descript
01:59 – Importing and transcribing your audio
03:01 – Understanding Descript's layout
03:36 – Labeling and organizing your project
04:27 – Creating your edit version (v1)
05:01 – Adding markers and comments
06:28 – How to cut and ignore audio
07:01 – Using comments to plan your edits
07:33 – What to cut vs. what to keep
07:60 – Removing filler words
09:30 – Shortening word gaps (and why it matters)
11:05 – Duplicating for version 2 (finalizing)
11:30 – Auto-leveling your audio
12:01 – Cleaning audio with Studio Sound
13:40 – Adding music to your episode
17:06 – Exporting your podcast episode
17:28 – Descript = Your new secret weapon

20 Comments

@EmergingVoicesStudio Creator 1 year ago Pinned

📌 Ready to finally start your podcast?

If this video gave you clarity or a next step to try—comment below and let me know what resonated!

✨ Want personalized support on your podcast growth strategy?
👉🏾 Book a free 20-minute discovery call with me here: https://calendly.com/hiwote/discoverycall
I’d love to hear about your show and help you move forward.

@jcrit743 5 months ago (edited)

I started a podcast 4 years ago during COVID, like many podcasters. I completed 13 episodes. It was more me interviewing friends regarding their fandom of a certain music artist; it was fun, but I took a break and never went back. This video made me want to start again. I already have Descript, but it was new to me at the time. I used Audacity to do everything. Over time, it became easy to edit there, but it still took more time than I had. I'm going to start the podcast back up and use Descript as a one-stop shop to record and put the podcast out with minimal effort on the backend. I also switched from Buzzsprout to Transistor because of your review. Buzzsprout was nice, but I think Transistor gives me more room to expand. I'm glad I came across your channel.

@Sou_Red 1 year ago

I love “where should we begin” wow such an amazing work!

@Mercyl2-r8r 7 months ago

Awesome tutorials. I have watched a couple now!

@SmartHomeOwnership 1 year ago

Hiwi..... really enjoying our energy and style! Learning a ton. Thanks, Patty

@ashleystewart6491 8 months ago

This is amazing! Thank you for sharing with us ❤. I really want to have video as well, however my stop gap is that I desire my quality video to look like yours and over the years I haven’t figured it out yet.

@enitansawyerr4242 1 year ago

So practical and helpful!! I just did a test recording to get my head around the editing on Descript. This video will help me so much. Thank you!

@henrypowell177 1 year ago

Thank you so much for this. This really helps a lot!

@michaelpwright 7 months ago

Thank you so much for this video🙌🏾 I wanted to see how well description help me edit video podcast episodes cause I'm working with a podcast host to streamline repurposing their video episodes for shortform.

@MichaelWilliams-lo3ix 1 year ago

Thanks for this. You're awesome 😊

@Mrs.J80 1 year ago

17:55 as always...Great content. Less intimidating for this beginner.

@mallorywilde 7 months ago

Which plan should I be choosing from descript?

There's a free version, hobbyist, creator, and business. I assume it would be somewhere between the hobbyist and creator?

@na-eemat 1 year ago

Please can I use descript on Android

@glshhslymnva001 11 months ago

Hi Hiwi, thanks for the video. Your videos are really my guide to starting as a podcast enthusiast. I have a question to ask about the background noise. Would you recommend getting acoustic panels to reduce background noise? Or how can a remove it modt before editing?

@maevapeek246 1 year ago

Amazing step by step!! I'd love to know if you have any tricks for resilience and emotional regulation if there's a major setback (lost recording, repeated uploads, negative feedback, or even absolutely inappropriate/discouraging negative comments) and how you manage to come back from that to try to keep consistent, keep learning, but also keep loving what you do!

@chumplum25 4 months ago

Hi Hiwi, I'm from the Philippines. Really love this tutorial—super clear and very helpful, thank you for sharing! 🙌 I was wondering if it would be possible to also provide some raw audio clips that beginners can use for practice? It would really help us apply what we’ve learned. Either way, I appreciate the content a lot!