Voice Over Services

Voice over and dubbing services are part of translation services used widely in films and television. Multimedia and audio/visual content no doubt has global appeal, but in many cases it cannot be understood by a multilingual global audience. It is in this circumstances, translation services are required and play a vital role in bringing the global audience closer.


What is Dubbing?
Dubbing is used to describe the replacement of one sound track whether music, dialog, sound effects, natural sound, etc. by another. The technique is used in the production of both audiovisual and audio media. Dubbing is usually the post-production activity which allows flexibility in "editing" the audio component of the video. Dubbing includes various activities like

• The Addition Of Music
• The Addition Of Sound Effects
• The Addition Of Dialog
• The Omission Of Poorly Recorded Audio
• The Re-recording Of The Entire Dialog, Narration And Music.

In other words dubbing recreates the product.

Dubbing as a Part of Translation Services
Another major form of dubbing is "language transfer," that is translation of audiovisual works. Dubbing here means the replacement of the dialog of the movie and narration of the foreign or source language into the target language or the language of the viewing audience. Dubbing is extensively used for translating other-language television programs or movies. Dubbing of films is linked with replacing the language of the 'original' film with the dubbed language. This is closely related to translation. First, the language of the original film is removed. The soundtrack of another language is superimposed on the film, depending on lip synchronization.

What is Voice Over Services?
Voice over service is the art of providing voices for audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, animated characters, doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials and puppet shows. Dubbing is different from voice-over by its strict adherence to lip-synchronization.

Requirement of Dubbing and Voice Over Services
In order to seem "natural" , the translation must match as closely as possible with the movements of the lips of the speaker on the screen. Moreover, there should be a strict equivalence of not only of voice but also of gender and age. Another requirement of successful dubbing or voice over is the compatibility of the dubber's voice with the facial and body expressions that is seen on the screen. Lip synchronization is very essential in dubbing in whichever language you want. Given the several differences between even closely related languages like English and German, it is difficult to find target language words that match the source language lip movements. This becomes more evident when speakers are shown in close-up. Rather than locating meaning in each sentence, if translation aims at conveying the general tone of each scene there will be more freedom to find appropriate words for lip synchronization.

Services that Fall in the Category of Dubbing and Voice Over Services
The translation service providers , in the category of dubbing and voice over services, provide the following services:

• Audio/Visual soundtracks
• Corporate presentations
• Voice prompts for computer based systems
• Audio and data CD-ROMs
• Talking books
• Transcribing the original master
• Lip-synching
• Dubbing for movies, soap operas, news etc.