The dubbing and voice-over industry is growing at exponential rates. Nowadays, many organizations want to access a wider audience, thanks to the growing consumption of videos on low-cost platforms, like YouTube and Facebook. This has further increased the demand for dubbing and voice-over artists, depending on the type of audiovisual content.
Both dubbing and voice-over artists are confused and intermixed terms. But, they are not the same, nor are they used for the same purpose. So, what is the difference between them?
Let us find out.
Voice-over and dubbing artist defined
Voice-over and dubbing both are narrative techniques where a voice actor lends his/her voice to movies, TV shows, or commercials. But, they are slightly different from one another.
Dubbing, also known as language replacement, is a post-production technique that involves replacing the dialog of any movie or TV show from one language to another, such as from Tamil to Hindi and vice versa. Here, the original actor’s audio track is entirely replaced by the voice of the dubbing artist.
Voice-over, on the other hand, is an audiovisual process of narrating the incidents happening on the screen, or voicing out the actor’s thoughts while the actor on the screen is quiet. In some cases, it is also used to translate a dialog spoken in the foreign language to the audience listening to it. Voice-over is also known as “UN-style” and is specifically designed to inform and educate.
Hence, a dubbing artist is responsible for mimicking the expressions and lip-sync of actors on screen, in the target language. Whereas, a voice-over artist is the one who reads the scripts for movie trailers, narrate explainer videos, documentaries, audio-books, etc. He usually does not appear on the screen and records the original video.
When should you choose a dubbing or a voice-over artist?
Voice-over and dubbing are two sides of the same coin and are crucial elements for the success of a video. Therefore, it is essential to know when to choose a dubbing or voice-over artist.
Have you ever watched an interview where the interviewee speaks in a foreign language, and the voice in the background interprets what he/she is saying? Or, a nature documentary on the Discovery channel? Well, that is the job of a voice artist. Voice-over artists are usually required for short audiovisual content where the translation is the main objective, and there is little emphasis on tone and emotions; like documentary clips, conferences, news clips, e-learning courses, live-footage from fields, etc.
Dubbing artists are mainly required by the entertainment industry to localize movies, TV shows, cartoons, commercials, etc. Here, the main objective is to make the content sound very native to the target audience and convey information in large amounts. Some of the famous works done by dubbing artists are – Star Wars, The Simpsons, Bahubali, Jurassic Park, etc.
Wrap-up
No matter the difference, both voice-over and dubbing artists are highly appreciated and are a vital part of the video production process. Moreover, both are responsible for making the content more accessible to the audience worldwide.
Through a mix of our own and extensive partner network of 200 recording studios and with our pool of more than 3,200 native dubbing/voice-over artists we offer high-quality dubbing/voice-over services at competitive costs in more than 70 languages. We are DUBnSUB – a post-production company based in Gurgaon, India with branch offices in Germany, France, USA, and Myanmar.