When marketing a video to a foreign market, companies have to think about making their material accessible by dubbing the audio and/or adding multilingual subtitles so that it is understood in the foreign language. The process of dubbing involves having a voice-over artist record the lines or narration and synchronizing it to the video. Voice-overs can be heard in feature films, television broadcasts, documentaries, training videos, advertising spots, and corporate videos and presentations.
Check out our blog post on how to handle multilingual subtitles in YouTube >>
At LingoStar we’ve done many voice-over projects as of late, and would like to share our process for researching voice demos with you. First, it is important to get as many details as possible from the client about the voice they are looking for, such as:
-the language required and if the voice must have a particular dialect or accent (for example European or Canadian French);
-the type of voice they are looking for in terms of gender, age and tone. If the client requires more than one voice, we ask for descriptions of each role/voice;
-the purpose of the voice-over: commercials, audiobooks, documentaries, promotional material, training material, websites, TV shows or podcasts;
-the length of the video or script;
-whether an in-person audition and on-site voice recording is required, or if they require the voice file to be recorded remotely and delivered by email or file transfer service. If demos are required, which format they should be;
-whether the client can provide some reference regarding their brand, as well as information on their marketing goals and any previous video material we can look at to get an idea of what they are trying to achieve.
Once the information is gathered the voice-over artist hunting can start! We have to be very careful in choosing what we think the most suitable voice will be: we have to listen to many demos and pay particular attention to the language dialect and tone. For example, if a client wants a very smooth and mature tone, we will avoid ones that sound too youthful and energetic, and vice versa. We also make sure to get the best quality, professionally-recorded demos: the voice must be heard clearly without any sound quality issues or too much echo or reverb.
Once we have received several demos we choose the most suitable ones and deliver them to the client for their review, along with our quote. We offer a wide range of language combinations for voice-over projects and for many different purposes. Check out our website https://lingo-star.com/voice-over for more information and contact us for a free quote! We will find the perfect voice to match your project, whatever it may be!
