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Voice over is a piece of narrative in the back of a broadcast or a movie. Voice over is often used for corporate promotions, television commercials, audiobooks, films and documentaries, translations, etc. In terms of multimedia translations, a high-quality multimedia translation is a must, whether for educational purpose, or for entertainment or marketing.

Voice over translation is an audiovisual translation technique that translates the audio of a movie, documentary, TV commercial, etc. The voice-over usually contains only a hint of emotion, as many of the interpreters try to sound "transparent" to the audience.

As with other types of voice over, there is a great deal of precision and work needed in order to create a professional and high-quality final product. There are two types of work that are the most popular in the overall industry of voice over for translation:

Dubbing

Dubbing is widely used in markets where subtitling does not fully accomplish the objectives of the producers. This method involves recording the audio in a way that matched the lip movement of the person on the screen so lip sync is important. It is popular for translation in the movies or Tv industry. Many companies prefer dubbing as it more closely reflects the experience of the original production. Indeed, the process of dubbing and lip synchronization is still one of the preferred methods to watch video content in another language.

In order for the video content to be dubbed in a proper way, the dialogue must be translated by a team of experts in this area to ensure that the translated text, once spoken, will match the lips of the original actor. The insertion of audio will always attempt to match the lip movements.

Voice over

Voice over translation is a technique in which the actors’ voices are recorder over the original audio track. This means that the original audio can still be heard slightly delayed in the background. This translation method is widely popular in news reports and documentaries, in which the words of a foreign language are translated, when are interviewees speak a different language or to explain information. This kind of services do not require as much precision as in dubbing or subtitling. Nonetheless, the services still need to follow a time sequence.

In the past, when voice over translations on time where much more popular, the translations in voice over where often riddled with errors in translation, due to the imprecise nature of simultaneous interpretation, as well as the difficulties faced by non-native speakers in understanding foreign-language vernacular, idioms, and culture references.

This changed when studios started focusing on post production and decided to deliver the highest quality instead of rushing or presenting the translation at the same time. Instead of just one person doing the interpretation, translation in head and saying the words out loud, a whole team was needed, including writers, translators, voice artists and more.

The process for voice over requires the proper equipment and expertise. This means a talented team of production specialists. This team includes producers, writers, voice talents, mixers and audio engineers, in order to assure the highest quality output.

After finishing with the scripts, these have to be localized (the language is adapted to the specific target market). Once this processed is finished, the material is taken into an audio studio, where the voice artist reads or acts what is in the script. A typical voice over translation is often done by a single person, whether it is a female or male voice artist. After this, the new audio is edited into the original video or film.

The process of the audio post-production is mostly simple. Nonetheless, it is important to count with expertise since it will make the end result appear seamless and perfect instead of having a poorly voiced-over audio that can distract viewers.

In order to have the best output of the project’s translated audio, it is important to consider all the elements that are involved.

First, a high quality post production team that has extensive expertise in voice over in a variety of languages: Chinese, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, etc. The bigger the experience, the better results. Remember that the final result is a sum of all the activities involved in the process, from translation to script writing, voice recording and post production that will leave the output at its best. An experienced team knows how to handle the steps and how to do it in the most effective way.

Another thing to keep in mind is the voices itself. It is important to choose a voice artist that matchers with the specific targeted needs. Voices can be young, old, female, male, strong, soft, etc. This supposes a whole wide range of options. Nonetheless, it should not be forgotten that the voice actors need to be an ideal fit for the production and for the future listeners.

And finally, having a local linguist who can review the final product is a must. This would be the very last step of quality revision and assurance, which is important in any kind of service and especially in voice over, since the customers are often not the same as the final user.

A company should know their users profoundly, in order to understand not only their needs but also what they want and how they want it. A triple check to assure that all the translations were correct is a good policy, but it is not the only essential part. Having a voice that matches the needs, having a top quality production team and having the materials and scripts completely checked are often a guarantee of a service that delivers the best to users.