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Descript to Final Cut Pro X - My Workflow As A YouTuber (2024) + My Frustrations

David Liu

• 3 min read

Firstly, Descript is amazing.
Secondly, Descript sucks.

If you've ever tried to use their software recently, you'll notice it's buggy as heck, and that Final Cut Pro X timeline exports do not work out of the box. They either create gap clips and black screens randomly, or sometimes the clips don't show up in Final Cut Pro X at all!

But I figured it out. I've spent hours and hours of my time trying to figure out how and why this was happening, and after literal months of not getting Descript to work with Final Cut Pro X, I've finally diagnosed AND come up with a workaround.

Because as much as I hate Descript, I love their UI.

If you just want to know how to use Descript for Final Cut Pro X, skip to that section. Otherwise, read on.

Problems

The Final Cut Pro X XML file is just exported wrong

The short version of what was hours of research is: basically, XML files tell you what clips should go and what time they should be played. Descript does this absolutely insane thing where some miscalculation means that instead of putting a clip in the right place, it will place it roughly 7 hours into the past.

Of course, you're never going to find this clip.

Mismatched framerates are not recognized nor corrected for in Descript

Mysteriously, black gaps appear in your project when you've finally exported it. The videos seem to mismatch just by a few frames.

Why? It's because if you have one video file that's 30 frames per second and one that's 25 frames per second, Descript makes no effort to identify and fix this for you.

Descript Workflow for Final Cut Pro X

Pre-requisites

  1. $20 USD. You'll need it to buy 7toX, because later on we're going to export to a Premiere .xml file since the export for .fcpxml is too buggy.
  2. All of your video files MUST be the same frame rate. A mistake I continuously got tripped over was having a screen recording be 30 frames per second, and then my camera recording be 25 frames per second. This results in black screens and mismatched video files, as mentioned above.
  3. I typically use three files, the reason being that I like to have a separate microphone recording. However, you can use two files if you really want to.
    1. A-roll (e.g. talking head) (.mp4)
    2. Screen recording (.mp4)
    3. Nicely recorded audio file (.wav or .mp3)

Workflow

  1. Add audio file first (or, if you only have two video files, the one with the transcription you want)
  2. Three dots to the file with the best audio → Create sequence
  3. Right click Edit sequence
  4. Drag/drop directly onto sequence
  5. Sync within the sequence (if you try on the timeline, it’s hella slow)
  6. New composition from file FOR THE SEQUENCE
    • ☠️ DO NOT EVER EDIT THE ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT. IT MUST BE THE SEQUENCE.
    • Otherwise, none of the video files will cut.
  7. Then edit Descript in the text editor as per usual.
  8. DO NOT EXPORT TO .fcpxml. I CAN GUARANTEE YOU IT WILL NOT WORK. Instead, export to .xml (Adobe Premiere) first. Then...
  9. Use 7toX to convert this Premiere .xml file back to a .fcpxml file. Yes, it's paid and costs $19.99.
  10. Put the videos and audio files in the same directory as the exported .xml file. This is important because Descript hardcodes the location of every video depending on where you initially export your .xml file. Note: If you try to move your .xml file into a different folder than the one where you first exported it, it will not work. It's hardcoded upon export.
  11. Finally, in FCPX, import the new .fcpxml file

Conclusion + Alternatives

I've never been so mad at a piece of software before. But, like a hostage, there were really no better alternatives than to spend $20 USD on a piece of software to compensate for Descript.

But, maybe you're someone that has the thought "if Descript sucks so much, why did you make so much effort to use it?"

Let me run you through the alternatives.

  1. Builder NLE: Esoteric piece of software that's actually decently cool but a few hundred dollars. Very expensive and the UI is a bit finicky. Also awful if you want to try to cut B-roll at the same time and sync that up. But quite good otherwise.
  2. Adobe Premiere Pro: Has a text editing thingy. I tried it. It's honestly pretty bad in terms of where it cuts in my opinion, so I gave up on it very quickly.
  3. Da Vinci Resolve Studio: very expensive AI text editing tool. The regular version is free and great for video editing, but the AI will cost you a pretty penny, also in the few hundred dollars range.
  4. SimonSays: apparently Redditors say it's very slow.

I've sent some very passionate messages to the Descript team, and I do hope they fix all of the problems above. I hope this helps you, and if it does, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or wherever.

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