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alexx53843615
alexx53843615
Participant
January 1, 2017
Answered

What is a better way to do voice over translations?

  • January 1, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 905 views

Hi! I'm trying to find something similar to my request on the Web but no luck. I don't even know how to compose a request for what I want.

Here is a thing I wanted to do - I'm want to do voice over translation from one language to over, say from English to Swedish, for example.

I've got a video, loaded it into the Audition and now what? I'm used to lowering volume on a certain selection from original audio and put my translation over there.

Am I doing it right? Are there any better ways to do it? Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Bob Howes

There's no single correct answer to this because it depends on the languages involved, your access to natural sound stems before the voice over, etc.

The reason I say it depends on the languages is that some take longer than other to express the same thing.  it's obviously easier to translate to a slightly shorter duration.

Assuming the destination language is slightly quicker than the source, you can just space out each section of translation to be centred on the original and either just duck the original each time the translation comes up--or you can experiment with side chain compression which makes the ducking automatic.  Tutorial here:  Sidechain Compression Audio Ducking - Adobe Audition (TUTORIAL) - YouTube

Barring getting natural sound stems, letting the audience hear the beginning and end of the original sound the ducking to the translation can seem more natural.

If it's possible to ask for stems of the audio mix without the original commentary, you can just work from scratch.

So basically, you can go with whatever sounds best to you.

1 reply

Bob Howes
Bob HowesCorrect answer
Inspiring
January 1, 2017

There's no single correct answer to this because it depends on the languages involved, your access to natural sound stems before the voice over, etc.

The reason I say it depends on the languages is that some take longer than other to express the same thing.  it's obviously easier to translate to a slightly shorter duration.

Assuming the destination language is slightly quicker than the source, you can just space out each section of translation to be centred on the original and either just duck the original each time the translation comes up--or you can experiment with side chain compression which makes the ducking automatic.  Tutorial here:  Sidechain Compression Audio Ducking - Adobe Audition (TUTORIAL) - YouTube

Barring getting natural sound stems, letting the audience hear the beginning and end of the original sound the ducking to the translation can seem more natural.

If it's possible to ask for stems of the audio mix without the original commentary, you can just work from scratch.

So basically, you can go with whatever sounds best to you.

alexx53843615
alexx53843615Author
Participant
January 2, 2017

Thanks for an explanation! Yeah, speed is a main point of consideration then doing a translation. I'm just creating a mark between sentences and try to put my translation into that time frame. Make them longer, if necessary.

Unfortunately, I don't have an original audio mix, so I will have to work my way up from this point.

I will look closer at Side Chain Compression - thanks for directions!

Bob Howes
Bob Howes
Inspiring
January 2, 2017

Of course the other tried and true method is to persuade the director to use subtitles--then it becomes the problem of the graphics department!

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